Fredrik Ljungström (16 June 1875 – 18 February 1964) was a Swedish engineer, technical designer, and industrialist.
Considered one of the foremost inventors of Sweden, Fredrik Ljungström accounted for hundreds of technical patents alone and in collaboration with his brother Birger Ljungström (1872–1948): from early bicycling free wheeling hubs techniques and mechanical automatic transmissions for vehicles, to steam turbines, air preheaters, and circular arc hulls for sailing boats. He co-founded companies such as The New Cycle Company, Ljungström Steam Turbine Co. and Ljungström Swedish Turbine Manufacturing Co. (STAL), and associated with other industrialists such as Alfred Nobel, Helge Palmcrantz, Gustaf de Laval, Curt Nicolin and Gustaf Dalén. As innovative as his ideas were in function, they also often turned out in terms of unconventional external design, such as his steam turbine locomotives and sailboats.
During the resource scarcity of World War II, Fredrik Ljungström's innovative technology for oil shale underground gasification by electrical energy, called the Ljungström method, provided a strategical impact for the Swedish Armed Forces. In addition, Ljungström's technology contributed to the first Swedish jet engine, torpedoes, and more.
With Fredrik Ljungström's air preheater implemented in a large number of modern power stations around the world until this day with total attributed worldwide fuel savings estimated to 4,960,000,000 tons of oil, "few inventions have been as successful in saving fuel as the Ljungström Air Preheater". In 1995, the Ljungström air preheater was distinguished as the 44th International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. His works are represented by the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology, the Nordic Museum, and the Swedish Railway Museum, as well as internationally such as by the Science Museum, London, England and by Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, Italy.
Early life and background Fredrik Ljungström was born in 1875 in Stockholm to cartographer Jonas Patrik Ljungström and Amalia (née Falck). His second great uncle was Johan Börjesson, and his third great uncle Bishop Johan Wingård. Among his siblings were Georg Ljungström, Oscar Ljungström, Birger Ljungström, and among his brothers-in-law, George Spaak. Fredrik Ljungström was married twice, first to Elizabeth (née Waesterberg), daughter of Amanda Sandborg Waesterberg, from whom he was widowed, and secondly to Signe (née Söderberg), daughter of Wilhelm Theodor Söderberg. Among his issue was Gunnar Ljungström, and among his sons-in-law, Arthur Lundblom and Torsten Cassel.
Educated at Östra Real, he attended the Royal Institute of Technology from where he was subsequently conferred an Honorary Doctorate in 1944. Technical innovativity was notably initiated in the ateliers of his father in Östermalm in Stockholm, that cooperated among others with the early manufactory of L. M. Ericsson. Of importance to his significant autodidact studies was also the tutorship in physics by Salomon August Andrée, as was the early mentorship of Alfred Nobel. Later, Fredrik Ljungström would in turn offer mentorship to junior industrialists such as Curt Nicolin.
Alfred Nobel was aged 61 when he met Fredrik and Birger Ljungström, who were 19 and 22 years old respectively. Nobel, who didn't have any children of his own, would enthusiastically collaborate in the brothers' early endeavours. Nobel and the brothers soon became good friends, discussing the world's problems and existential questions of the time, as a certain "father-and-son-like relation" emerged. 60 years later, when recalling their talks and time spent together, Fredrik Ljungström commended Nobel's capacity to "discuss the most complex questions with the unexperienced youngsters yet on equal terms", and that "his critical eye to the contemporary issues was extraordinarily bright"; concluding that "the blood runs warm in my old veins when I think of him."Nobel: den gåtfulle Alfred, hans värld och hans pris (2019), Norstedts, by Ingrid Carlberg,
Fredrik Ljungström died in 1964 on Lidingö, and was buried at Norra begravningsplatsen, Stockholm.
Svea Velocipede
The Svea Velocipede was an early invention by Fredrik Ljungström in collaboration with his brothers Birger, Axel and Oscar Ljungström. Helge Palmcrantz was also part of the project. An early example in the history of the bicycle, the pedals mechanism of the Svea Velocipede was straight vertical, driven by free wheeling hubs, which was patented by the brothers in 1892, with the shift patented in 1895.
Attended and supported by Alfred Nobel, the project was further developed stretching also to London, where the Ljungström brothers relocated in 1895 upon recommendation by Nobel. Under the company name The New Cycle Company, to which also George Spaak was connected, the product sold about 2,000 units in Sweden, and 150 units in Great Britain. Production remained until 1898. Although the general preference for circular pedal mechanisms became clear with time, later bicycle models on the market would adopt its foot-operated bicycle brakes while also employing its free wheeling hubs.
The Svea Velocipede is exhibited inter alia at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology and the Nordic Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
Steam generator
By 1895, Fredrik Ljungström had developed and patented a steam generator, an invention in which Alfred Nobel put particular interest, especially its surface condenser invention. Applied to a sloop, with speed reaching 12 knot, it became the fastest steamboat around Stockholm archipelago.
Also this invention was exported to England in 1896 along with Fredrik, first catching the interest of the early Dunford & Elliot in Newcastle upon Tyne. Although the project's initial supporter Alfred Nobel died in 1896, in 1900 The Ljungström Engine Syndicate Limited was founded for the purposes in Newcastle, to which the brothers relocated along with their families, with George Spaak designated as CEO. Despite production being halted again in 1902, several principles of the construction would prove important to the subsequent Ljungström steam engine.
After The Ljungström Engine Syndicate Limited, Fredrik and Birger went on to work out the first automatic milking device in Sweden, Beta (1901), which caught the interest of Alfred Nobel's nephew Ludvig Nobel (1868–1946) as well as Gustaf Laval at Laval AB Separator. Fredrik would remain leading engineer in this venture, Mjölkningsmaskin AB in Kungsholmen, Stockholm, until 1908. At the same time, the brothers also developed methods for paraffin of mineral oil, i.e. die casting of brass, zinc and aluminium that would become well received. The technology would however only prove successful for the market in 1922.
Soon enough, however, it was evident that steam turbines would be the main focus for the brothers' ventures.
Steam turbines
It has been said that Fredrik Ljungström's insights in the steam power came to him already as a child at home, observing how cuisine was prepared in the kitchen. While late Alfred Nobel had continuously paid interest in the development of the steam turbines, this invention were also endorsed figures such as Professor Aurel Stodola in 1907.
Ljungström Steam Turbine Co.
The new steam turbine technology became the base for the company Ljungström steam turbine Co. (AB Ljungströms Ångturbin, ALÅ), founded in 1908 in Sweden, that owned all the patents on this revolutionising turbine construction. A workshop was first established on Kungsholmen, in premises where a predecessor of Electrolux had recently been founded. Next year the workshop was relocated to Liljeholmen, Stockholm (future ), where the first turbine was finished in 1910. Already the first unit indicated world records performance. By 1911, a significantly larger unit was produced and successfully tested, with improvements attributed solely to Fredrik Ljungström's hand. With also a new generator construction added by Fredrik, the Ljungström turbine's defining features were now ready for the market. The first turbine was sold to North Metropolitan Electric Power Supply Company for energy supply of the London County Council Tramways. Despite being a prototype, the unit would remain in service for 50 years until it was relocated for exhibition in the Science Museum, London.
Ljungström Swedish Turbine Manufacturing Co.
In 1913, the brothers cofounded a new company, STAL (Svenska Turbinfabriks Aktiebolaget Ljungström; Swedish turbine manufacturing Co.) under the aegis of ALÅ. Just some two years after the last artillery pieces ceased production in Finspång, Östergötland – a former epicenter of the military industry of Sweden since Louis De Geer founded it in 1631 – STAL acquired Finspång complete with the Finspång Castle along with surroundings territories and real estate, erecting a new large scale factory complex at the site. The design studies and management facilities were installed inside the castle. Mechanical engineer Karl Gustaf Karlson, later Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, was connected to the development. This company handled the manufacturing and sales of complete steam turbine driven electric generators. The turbine provided a 10% higher thermodynamic efficiency than previous constructions, in addition to being more compact, requiring less space. STAL:s solutions proved successful, and with contracts such as with Siemens and General Electric, its activities expanded into Europe and beyond, both for stationary uses as well as for marine vessels.
"Fredrik Ljungström was", writes Anders Johnson in Turbines from Finspång – from STAL to Siemens 1913–2013, "not only a successful inventor but also skilled in management and leading the construction processes." His modern work methods were reflected in a checklist of 56 questions to the engineers at STAL, which also included aspects of safety and ergonomics. Most reputed of these questions was nr 14: "Is the construction unnecessarily hideous?".
STAL was acquired by ASEA in 1916 as they wished to market complete packages with turbine driven electric generators. The deal was carried out when significant owners and representatives where away on business trips in the turbulent Russian Empire, unable to remain in communication. The brothers then left the company but kept control over all the patents and manufacturing licenses for the Ljungström steam turbines within the company ALÅ. STAL merged with De Laval in the 1950s under the name Stal-Laval. In the 1960s, Fredrik Ljungström returned to operations to make significant renewed contributions to the technology the years before he died in 1964. After then having been managed by ABB, the factories would eventually be acquired by Siemens 2003 under the name Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB.
The technical solutions developed by the brothers at STAL remains employed all over the world with several world records throughout its history in terms of efficiency, fuel savings, size and power until present-day. In 2009, it was estimated some 328 units where equipped with Ljungström's technology, some of which has consisted of the largest vessels ever produced, from vehicles such as the London Underground or the word's largest supertanker Seawise Giant to a vast number of power plants. Only in Sweden, out of its 18 nuclear plants 16 were equipped with the turbines. Furthermore, increasingly since 2005, the technology has proved successful in solar power. In 2008, almost 100% of all sun power plants where equipped by the Ljungström turbines.
Steam turbine locomotives