He Did What??

Have you heard the one about Ole..?

                                    
When you hear that introduction, you know that Ole is going to be the brunt of the next Dumb Norwegian joke, but there are some “Oles” that are not funny, and these “Oles" are worth mentioning.

Have you heard of Ole Roemer? “Well, Ole was out looking at the stars when he noticed..” No joke here! In 1644, Ole was born in the town of Arhus, Denmark, becoming an university professor in astronomy. One of his interests was the observance of the moons of Jupiter. In time, he noted a peculiar time difference in the eclipses as they revolved. Measuring the distances related to the earth, he created the measurement that resulted in the calculation of the speed of light. Distance from earth to all planets are measured by Ole's discovery.

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Everyone has had an experience with a favorite construction toy created by another “Ole". Ole Kirk Christiansen, another Dane, born in Billund, Denmark became a master carpenter. In 1932, he was making some toys for his son who enjoyed playing with the left-over pieces of wood. His son began building  little creations, giving Ole the idea of making wooden blocks for the boy. Soon, these blocks became Ole’s most successful product. In 1934, Ole gave the new project the name formed from the Danish words “ Leg godt” meaning “play well”..The new product became known to us as “LEGOS”.  

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Another Ole wanted to get some ice cream for his lady-friend and rowed across the lake to the ice-cream parlor. The day was very warm and by the time he returned, the  ice-cream was melted. Again, no joke, it really happened.This Ole was born in Norway and immigrated to the US with his farmer parents. Not interested in farming, Ole became an expert in motors, working with a manufacturing company of farming equipment. After many attempts, we know the famous outboard Evinrude motor that is famous today.

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There are many Scandinavian inventors. Some are rarely mentioned, but very important to our society. It would be difficult to understand how we could possibly exist without the work of Rasmus Mailing Hansen. Every American child, youth, and adult  with their thumbs working a keyboard is using a variation of the “Hansen Writing -Ball Letter” machine. It would be very interesting to see users working this key layout!

  

Rasmus was born in Denmark in 1835. The Hansen Writing Ball was invented in 1868 by the Reverend and principal of the Royal Institute for the deaf-mutes in Copenhagen. The writing ball was first patented and entered production in 1870, and was the first commercially produced typewriter. (No QWERTY keyboard, yet!) Rasmus was a priest, inventor, and a scientist. 

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Four Finnish students were working on a “Master Project’ called “Erwise” at Helsinki University. Erwise was a pioneering data management system, and the first commonly available as a graphical user interface, language well-known to computer progammers today  . 

Programming language used for the WWWeb

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How could we exist without it?!The development of Erwise halted after the students graduated and went on to other projects. Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist  traveled to Finland to encourage the group to continue the project, becoming the creator of the World Wide Web released in April 1992. Although a Brit became the creator, the project began in Finland.

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 Even at the movies, we are asked to "turn off our phones". Today, everyone seems to have an electronic device in their hand or in their pocket. Eric Magnus Tigerstedt (August 4, 1887 – April 20, 1925) was one of the most significant inventors in Finland at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1917, he filed a patent for what he described as a "pocket-size, folding telephone with a very thin carbon microphone". Sound familiar?

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When a new revolutionary "fastening device" was introduced , the public was skeptical.

"Why ditch buttons, hooks, and clasps", they asked? "Do clothes really need newfangled technology?"

Gideon Sundback was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, born in April 24, 1880, Jönköping Municipality, and became known due to his work in the development of the zipper. Several primitive zippers existed before 1914, but they were awful. Early designs jammed and pulled apart easily. They involved sharp hooks looping together, instead of Sundback's method of tight and secure metal fasteners. Sundback gets credit for inventing the zipper, because he created the first practical and reliable design. When the "Hookless No. 2" debuted in 1914, people didn't care. It was a quick-fastening device. Most still work!

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There are many other Scandinavian inventions, too numerous to mention at this time!

Everyone recognizes the name Hans Christian Anderson,  Albert Nobel, and several others who have added some much to our  lives. The name of Borge Rosenbaum, the Clown Prince of Denmark has given everyone laughter and joy whenever he is seen or heard. Better known as Victor Borge, everyone enjoys his musical expertise and his well-known invention of “Phonetic Punctuation” as he reads using the commas, periods and grammatical marks with vocal emphasis.                                                           

Victor Borge

                                 We have been blessed with our Scandinavian heritage.

No joke!