Swedish inventions

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Swedish inventions are novel ideas and machines that have been pioneered in Sweden.

In the 18th century Sweden's scientific revolution took off. Previously, technical progress had mainly come from professionals who had immigrated from mainland Europe. In 1739, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was founded, with people such as Carolus Linnaeus and Anders Celsius as early members. From the 1870s, engineering companies were created at an unmatched rate and engineers became heroes of the age. Many of the companies founded by early pioneers are still internationally familiar. Gustaf Dalén founded AGA, and received the Nobel Prize for his sun valve. Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and instituted the Nobel Prizes. Lars Magnus Ericsson started the company bearing his name, Ericsson, still one of the largest telecom companies in the world. Jonas Wenström was an early pioneer in alternating current and is along with Tesla credited as one of the inventors of the three-phase electrical system.^[1] Baltzar von Platen and Carl Munters in 1922, invented the absorption Refrigerator while they were still students at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. It became a worldwide success and was commercialized by Electrolux. Johan Petter Johansson (1853–1943) built and patented the adjustable spanner in 1892. Gustaf de Laval’s (1845–1913) most famous invention was the milk-cream separator. In 1883 he and others founded AB Separator (later Alfa Laval). Anders Celsius (1701–44) was an astronomer and mathematician most famous for inventing the 100-point thermometer scale, widely used across the world. Gustaf Erik Pasch (1788–1862) invented the safety match. Sven Wingquist (1876–1953) invented the spherical bearing in 1907. He founded a global company, SKF (AB Svenska Kullagerfabriken), still the world’s leading producer of industrial bearings. One of John Ericsson's (1803–89) most important inventions was ship propellers. Ericsson became widely famous when he built the “Monitor”, an armoured battleship that in 1862 triumphed over the Confederate States’ “Merrimac” in an American Civil War sea battle. Tetra Pak (1951) is an invention for storing, packaging and distributing liquid foodstuffs, for example, milk and juice. Erik Wallenberg (1915–99) was the main inventor, while businessman Ruben Rausing (1895–1983) developed and produced it. (See box). Several new package types have been added. The most ubiquitous is the Tetra Brik (1969). Håkan Lans is recognised as one of Sweden’s most outstanding inventors. Among his inventions is the digitizer, the predecessor of the computer mouse. He is also credited with the further development of the satellite-guided Global Positioning System (GPS) into the Automatic Identification System (AIS). Lans’s system has become world standard for shipping and civil aviation. In the 1990s, an ABB team under Mats Leijon developed a new generator, the Power Former, producing high-tension current directly to the network without transformer links. Arne Tiselius (1902–71) used electrophoresis in the 1940s to analyse various proteins. Tiselius’s work has been followed by other similar methods. All are important for medical and biological research. Tiselius received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1948. In 1958, Rune Elmqvist developed a small battery-powered pacemaker that can be inserted under the skin of a heart patient. It produces electrical impulses that help the heart muscle work normally. In the same year, Åke Senning at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm carried out the world’s first pacemaker operation. In 1968, Lars Leksell (1907-86) invented a laser knife for brain surgery. The ‘knife’ uses concentrated gamma radiation on the tumour or malformation. The method is bloodless and patients can often leave hospital on the day of the operation. The transmission of high voltage direct current, HVDC, is a method developed at ASEA (now ABB) under Uno Lamm(1904–89). ABB remains one of the leading makers of HVDC technology, now also used for terrain cable.[1]

The traditional engineering industry is still a major source of Swedish inventions, but pharmaceuticals, electronics and other high-tech industries are gaining ground. Tetra Pak is an invention for storing liquid foods, invented by Erik Wallenberg. Håkan Lans invented the Automatic Identification System, a worldwide standard for shipping and civil aviation navigation. Losec, an ulcer medicine, was the world's best-selling drug in the 1990s and was developed by AstraZeneca. A large portion of the Swedish economy is to this day based on the export of technical inventions, and many large multinational corporations from Sweden have their origins in the ingenuity of Swedish inventors.^[1]