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."
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.