Between 1900 and 1920 the Telemark watercourse from Lake Møsvatn to Skien was the most highly developed and important in Norway. This stretch of water contains rivers and waterfalls that provided an excellent basis for hydroelectric power development. The Tinn section, which includes Møsvatn, Kalhovd, Mår, and the lakes at Tinnsjø and Heddalsvannet, forms the eastern part of the watercourse.   A century later, power production here comprises almost 5 per cent of all hydroelectric power production in Norway. In the period from 1999 to 2016 the annual production of the Skien watercourse averaged 5595.45 GWh.

From the beginning of the twentieth century onwards, a series of hydroelectric projects were realised between Møsvatn and Notodden. Svelgfoss was the biggest in Europe when it was completed in 1907. Thereafter the way was paved for the development of Rjukanfossen, a much more extensive project. This development was carried out in a “crevice in the Hardanger plateau”.

The waterfall acquisitions completed by Sam Eyde, in conjunction with Norwegian and foreign interests, were controversial. On April 7, 1906 the Storting passed what were known as the “Panic Acts”, legislation with the intention of regulating or preventing the purchase of Norwegian waterfalls by foreign interests. In 1906 foreigners owned more than 3/4 of all the waterfalls developed by that time. New legislation was passed in 1909 and 1917 that regulated the acquisition of water systems in Norway.

Norway was not a wealthy country as the 20^th century dawned. It was therefore natural to look abroad in order to secure funding for major projects, whether hydroelectric or industrial. Between 1905 and 1920 Hydro’s investments in what is now our world heritage – Notodden and Rjukan – were equivalent to one and a half times the Norwegian state’s national budget at the time.

The eastern section of the Telemark watercourse – from Møsvatn to Skien – was important not only because it generated electricity, but also because of the power-intensive industry it enabled to be built.

When Såheim power station commenced operating in 1915, Hydro had an aggregate installed generator capacity of 310,000 kW. When the company a decade earlier had launched its hydroelectric power projects in Telemark, the total capacity of the entire country was only around 100,000 kW.

The first regulation of Tinnsjøen had already been carried out prior to the turn of the century, and the regulation of Møsvatn commenced in 1903. By around 1910 intensified regulation had secured a minimum inflow of water to the power stations of as much as 90 cubic metres per second.

At Notodden Tinfos operated a smaller power station from 1901 onwards. A minor expansion in 1905 also made it possible to supply power to a trial plant at Heddalsvannet lake. This was the precursor to Hydro’s first regular factory.

Before the forces of Rjukanfossen were finally tamed, no fewer than four more power projects were completed further down the watercourse. The biggest of these was Hydro’s Svelgfoss I development (1905-07).

Around the turn of the year 1905/06 work commenced on a new dam at Tinnos. The new dam was built on clay soil. It proved impossible to locate firm rock, but the dam was nevertheless sufficiently robust to remain standing for more than 90 years. The current dam at Tinnoset was built a few metres closer to the mouth.

The 1907 contract relating to the Tinnos dam also had implications for the continued regulation of Møsvatn, thus enabling a new project to be launched here from mid-July of the same year. When the factories at Notodden were completed in autumn 1907, they were able to utilise the 30,000 horsepower generated at Svelgfoss. Masts and transmission lines were erected between the power station and the factories – a stretch of 4.5 kilometres.

Subsequently a further 10,000 horsepower was supplied from the same power station, while 15,000 horsepower was provided by the development of Lienfoss, a kilometre further down the watercourse. Lienfoss, where the dam traversed the river, was an elegant construction. The Notodden factories were also able periodically to purchase power from Tinfos II (often called Borgen), which was completed in 1911.

However, the projects in the lower part of the river Tinn were gradually overshadowed by the major developments in the Møsvatn and Vestfjord valley area. They were on a scale that set a new standard for industrial and hydroelectric power development in Norway.

“It was a masterpiece in the annals of technological and labour history that they were about to create. And they certainly were apprehensive to begin with, the workers and the engineers, as they approached this gigantic task in the wild setting of the mountains. Their achievement is an outstanding chapter in the saga of waterfall development”, is how Hydro’s 50^th anniversary book published in 1955 describes it.

It was initially Swedish and French capital that provided the basis for developing a new type of industry at Notodden. But when the major developments at Rjukan got underway in 1907, German participants were also involved.

The participation of the German stakeholders was secured by signing contracts for the setting up of three new companies: Norsk Kraftaktieselskab, A/S De Norske Salpeterværker and Norsk Transportaktieselskab. Sam Eyde was head of all three companies, though the Germans would supervise the running of De Norske Salpeterværkene, and a German management team was established in Kristiania. Hydro’s share capital was increased from NOK 7 to 29.6 million. Most of this capital was raised on the Paris bourse: there was scant interest in Norway. Management teams were also established here, both in Norway and in France. Work on the power plants was proceeding well, whilst there were frequent disagreements of major and minor importance when it came to the factory projects at Rjukan. One of the difficult tissues concerned the choice of technology: German Schönherr or Norwegian Birkeland-Eyde furnaces at Rjukan?

But, in the summer of 1908, cooperation with the Germans almost collapsed. Later, in the summer of 1910, a storm erupted. At extraordinary general meetings Eyde decided to stand down from his management roles at the Rjukan companies. Trials on the Schönherr furnaces had been stopped in June 1910. Yet pressure was brought to bear that resulted in Schönherr furnaces comprising 80 per cent of those installed at Rjukan I. On the other hand, all the parties were in favour of a Norwegian absorption system, based on 10-sided granite towers.

Problems continued in the autumn of 1911. Eyde then initiated fresh negotiations with both German and French stakeholders. The outcome of these was that the German contingent would be bought out, but that they would retain their NOK 5 million shareholding in Hydro. The French stakeholders had to once more raise more capital.

Many elements had to fall into place – financial, organisational, factual and formal. No less than NOK 35 million need to be raised. On October 2 1911, a board meeting could at last be held in Paris. Resolutions relating to the new structure, and that Eyde should again take overall managerial responsibility at Rjukan, were adopted at this meeting også at. Hydro was reorganised, and the acquisition of the Rjukan companies greatly transformed the company’s balance sheet, which from NOK 7.5 million in 1906 had increased to NOK 112.7 million on June 30 1913.

In the new contract Eyde promised that a fifth of Rjukan’s plants would be completed in early November 1911. Eyde travelled immediately to Rjukan and took sole command. The labour force was augmented and the men worked around the clock every day. Eyde was able to keep his promise. On November 7 smoke rose from the chimneys. There were tears of joy and celebrations at Rjukan. And just a few months later, in April 1912, the brand-new fertilizer plant was in full operation.

Architect Olaf Nordhagen was only 24 when he designed Vemork, a 110-metre-long and 21.75-metre-wide concrete building clad in natural stone.

The use of hewn stone in the facade can probably be ascribed to Nordhagen’s insight into early Norwegian architecture, particularly church architecture. This is evident in the architectural style he employs, which features decorative mediaeval embellishments.

It has been said that Sam Eyde was unwilling to approve the original architectural plans, as they were when building was due to commence, because the power station had not been given the monumental design commensurate with its location. He therefore hastily summoned the young architect Olaf Nordhagen. Having seen the drawings and agreed to have a solution ready by the following afternoon, Nordhagen designed the power station. It is clear that he re-uses themes from his winning design for Bergen Library, which he produced a couple of years previously.

At Vemork two 45-tonne travelling cranes were installed, as well as 10 horizontal-axled Pelton turbines each designed for an efficiency of 76% for a maximum output of 14,500 hp. Five of the turbines were delivered by I. M. Voith, Heidenheim, and five by Escher Wyss of Zürich.

Today Old Vemork is a power station museum, but its architecture and installations provide excellent additional reasons for visiting this monumental building.

Navvies (construction workers, often itinerant) formed the labour force responsible for the construction of Vemork and Såheim, and not least the railways. Without them these projects would not have progressed at such speed, and their efforts are commemorated by monuments at both Rjukan and Notodden.

It is no coincidence that there are statues of navvies at both Rjukan and Notodden. This itinerant construction worker was one of the special features at a time when society was engaged in major transformative projects within communications, hydroelectric power and industrial development. It was the navvies who did the spadework, in both Telemark and a number of other places in Norway.

Navvies constituted a mixed group and were called many names, which they nevertheless bore with considerable pride. Some were blunt and direct, some were indeed rowdy, while others called themselves clean and honest, countering the widespread assumption that they were dirty and untrustworthy by stressing their integrity and trustworthiness. They came from near and far, their backgrounds varied considerably, but they had a lot in common. The work they did was demanding and at times dangerous; their working day was a long one, and they were often subjected to considerable pressure in order to complete the job in time. But they were intensely proud of their skills with hammer and drill, pick, spade, wheel barrow and dynamite. Their work ethics might vary somewhat, but as a rule there was a high degree of internal discipline among them. They were team players and they obeyed the instructions of their captain, the foreman, who was in turn more than a right-hand man for the engineer in charge of the project.

The writer Kristofer Uppdal was one of many navvies working on construction sites in Telemark, both at Notodden and Rjukan. He was engaged on the Svelgfoss project and also on the Tinnos railway. He drew on his experiences here in his literary production. Uppdal is mostly celebrated for his 10-volume work “Dance through the land of shadows”.

From 1909 onwards we find him in Rjukan. Uppdal was also struck by the monumental aspect of the industrial developments he took part in. It was amazing how it was possible to carry out such huge projects in a small place that lay off the beaten track, without proper roads, and in some extremely demanding natural surroundings.

Describing the new town that emerged in the Vestfjord valley, Uppdal wrote in 1911: “At its core stand the new and mighty factory buildings, which rest there like trolls, having grown out of the soil; first they raise their heads, then they stand halfway up and crouch there, before finally they reach their full height and totally dominate  the ordinary houses around them, so that these appear like tiny dolls beside a giant.”

“He is a political reformer, who believes in the gradual social transformation of society and is supportive of the parliamentary system through thick and thin. He maintains that the labour movement can gain power that way and one day secure a majority through the ballot box. And he says this in 1918, when the countries of Europe are busy killing each other in a bloodbath that is completely without precedent….”.

Arild Bye (ed.) in “Kamp, Sakprosa i utval” H. Aschehoug & Co, (2012)

The experimental plant at Notodden was destroyed by a fire in 1908, but the first electric arc furnace has been preserved. Electric arc furnaces were in operation at Notodden until 1934, and at Rjukan until 1940.

The Birkeland-Eyde process involves conducting air into a spherical furnace where an electric arc was formed between two electrodes in a powerful magnetic field. A disc-shaped flame developed in the furnace where the plasma temperature was approximately 3000 °C and the air was converted into nitrogen oxide gas: N2 + O2 → 2 NO.

Nitrogen oxide (NO) is a colourless gas, which cannot be absorbed whether it is hot or cold, and it will decompose if cooled too slowly.  Rapid cooling was therefore required in order to maintain the stability of the compound. In the Birkeland-Eyde furnace the gas particles are ejected, with the aid of the flame, into the furnace’s outer air layer where they are rapidly cooled down to approximately 1000 °C. At such a temperature the molecule can remain stable.

The gas is extracted by means of fans from the flues in the upper and lower sections of the furnace and then conducted through firebrick-clad ducts to be cooled down to approx. 50 °C. In the next phase the gas is introduced into a chamber where it is oxidised, using oxygen from the air in the furnace, into NO2, a brown, highly caustic gas. 2 NO + O2 → 2 NO2.

In order to produce nitric acid, the gas is absorbed by means of a   reaction with water in an absorption tower. 3 NO2 + H2O → 2 HNO3 + NO. The electrodes in the electric arc furnace were made of U-shaped copper tubing, through which cooling water was conducted. The electrodes were thus enabled to burn for weeks without having to stop operations.

Foreign scientists and companies proposed that the nitric acid be mixed with water and limestone in stone or glass-built towers. This was an extremely expensive proposal; a better, and cheaper, solution was developed at Notodden – granite towers. The end-product was called Norway saltpetre and would compete on world markets with  Chile saltpetre.

Two urban communities developed in step with Hydro’s development of industry in Notodden and Rjukan. Between 1907 and 1914 Hydro built 340 dwellings in both locations.

Notodden’ s first sick bay was situated in one of the first houses Hydro built in Grønnbyen. The company also built homes in Lienfoss, Villamoen, Grønnbyen, Våla and in Tinnebyen while also supporting efforts to increase the capacity of the town’s hotels and boarding houses.

At Rjukan Hydro was involved in a vast array of urban development projects: water and drainage, roads, parks, even a church and hospital. In Tinn Hydro built houses at Våer and Vemork, in Rjukan and at Mæl. Schools were built, as were a hospital and a welfare building, and buildings for provisions and administration – everything needed by the whole town.

At Notodden both Hydro and the Tinfos companies played a central role in housing development. The buildings erected by both companies are characteristic of contemporary architectural styles.

Town planning along the lines of the garden city concept pioneered in the UK and Germany can be seen in both Notodden and Rjukan. Experience gained in Notodden proved to be useful when planning Rjukan, where a more robust planning organisation devoted its attention to the water and drainage system at an early stage. Some of the same architects were involved in both towns.

When the plants at Notodden were completed in 1907, the local population had already surpassed 2,000. The 6,000 mark was reached just a few years later, and in 1913 the place was awarded town status. Many people sought to come here – whether to work on the construction sites, or in the factories, or in the service industries that followed in the wake of industrialisation.

But for a long time, a lack of housing was an urgent problem. It is reported that workers had to sleep out in the open and that others chose to leave again, even though there were jobs available. Many managed to rent a bed or a room, while having to eat their meals in the town’s cafés.

“Notodden is the Nordic Klondike. Mushroom-like, it has grown very rapidly and is therefore still too unsettled to be considered a proper town”, wrote the newspaper Socialdemokraten on December 5 1908.

Rjukan can be said to have been built as a company town. People there would say: “Tell me what sort of job you have, and I’ll tell you where you live”.

In its early phase, the embryonic Rjukan society was dominated by the construction workers consisting of large numbers of young men. As at Notodden, there were at times some wild outbreaks of fighting and drunkenness. But these turbulent early times passed over into a more peaceful and predictable period as the urban society in the Vestfjord valley matured. Families were started, or moved in; father went to work, the children went to school, and mother ran the household. Mothers in the working-class families sewed clothes, patched trousers and darned socks. The better-off could buy clothes and avail themselves of the services of the town’s seamstresses.

Many achieved a standard of living that was previously unheard of, with running water and electricity, garbage disposal and postal deliveries. In the afternoons there were often queues at the newsagents, as people were not content simply to read a local paper, they also wanted to keep up-to-date with what was happening elsewhere in Norway as well as abroad. In many ways an advanced urban society had come into being, one which was forward-looking and representative of the new industrial society of the 20^th century. Despite sharp class differences, inner tensions and considerable differences in living standards, the people of Rjukan developed a pride in what they had helped to create and what they were now taking care of collectively. 

The efforts of the workers at Notodden and Rjukan achieved the 8-hour day into in 1918 and just one year later it became the standard working day for the whole country.

The plight of workers during the First World War was difficult. Food prices increased rapidly and wages were falling behind. The workers were exhausted and voices were frequently raised declaring the necessity of using muscle to back the claim for an 8-hour day.

In 1918 the time had come. At Notodden 2000 marched in the May 1 procession under the slogan:” We demand an 8-hour day!” A meeting was held that resulted in a resolution for a law to be passed with immediate effect establishing the 8-hour day. Afterwards ten trade union leaders convened and decided all would work eight hours from the following day. On May 2 the factory whistle at Hydro sounded two hours after everyone had gone home. The same happened soon afterwards at the Rjukan plants.

An industrial tribunal imposed an injunction that the wage agreement be followed, but this was not complied with. At the same time the employer’s federation began to negotiate with a delegation from Notodden and Rjukan. They reached agreement on a 51-hour working week pending a government proposal on the matter.

Two of the union leaders also approached Prime Minister Gunnar Knudsen seeking a pledge for an early amendment to the law. This was enacted in the summer of 1919. The ten union leaders from Notodden were sentenced by an industrial tribunal to pay a fine of NOK 10 each for inciting the masses. This was a mild reaction, and the fines were apparently never paid.

Fertilizers are all about food and producing enough of it. It has always been a question of food, of having enough food to live and to survive; the struggle for one’s daily bread. Much has changed over ten thousand years, over a thousand years, and over a hundred years – but the struggle continues.

The development of agriculture has brought the biggest change to mankind’s way of life. And it is scarcely controversial to maintain that agriculture will also be of decisive significance in the foreseeable future. The history of mankind tells us that agricultural development, which provided a certain degree of food supply security, was a precondition for the emergence of more advanced civilisations. But history also tells us of an uncertain and faltering balance between food requirements and the production of food.

Mankind has all along suffered from an endless series of famines in the wake of breakdowns in the supply of food. The causes of these breakdowns have been numerous: crop failures, plant disease, wars and other man-made tragedies. History has taught us that predictability – or a certain surplus of food – can insure against serious incidents being exacerbated thorough food supply disruptions.

As people began to settle in the one place and became dependent on the growth of the soil, they soon learned that not only do plants need water, they also require nutrition in order to produce good yields. The nutrients that are extracted from the earth need to be replenished if yields are not to decrease. Neither the soil nor growing conditions are the same everywhere; nor are the climatic and topographical features. It is hardly surprising, then, that agriculture became a science many generations ago.

What is the actual composition of nutrients in the soil? What are the different functions of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, calcium, sulphur, magnesium, iron, boron, manganese, zinc, copper etc? von Liebig’s law of the minimum states that if one of the nutrients is lacking, a plant’s growth will be held back, even though all the other nutrients are present. If this deficiency is remedied, plant growth will increase until another nutrient becomes the limiting factor. The role of fertilization is to help achieve an optimal yield and secure a nutritional balance in the soil.

The creativity of man and his thirst for knowledge have been and is considerable. It was both handy and sensible to use decaying plant remains and dung from domestic animals. It was not quite so handy, but it also made sense to use bird droppings – guano – that had to be transported from South America. Sales of the latter were enormous, but it provided neither a lasting nor a secure answer to the problem.

Other types of industrially produced fertilizers have a long history too. At the beginning of the 20th century, the nitrogenous gases formed during the carbonisation of coal provided the most important basis for the production of ammonia (NH₃). Ammonium sulphate was produced in countries which had major coal industries. However, there was concern that a lack of nitrogen fertilizer would create serious problems for agriculture and food supply.

It is against this background that Birkeland and Eyde’s electric arc furnace (1905) emerges as a scientific breakthrough. The inventors knew it was possible to fix atmospheric nitrogen in an industrially produced fertilizer product. They also knew that the additional yields produced by their new product – Norway saltpetre – were formidable! A success history from Norway that also provided a considerable impetus to scientific researchers and industrial specialists in a number of other countries. Industrially produced fertilizer made it possible to increase food production worldwide and substantially boost food security.

The development of new and improved fertilizer products took place in conjunction with soil sample taking, mechanisation, larger units, improved plant properties, and increased efficiency at every stage.

The challenge is to be able feed a constantly growing global population. Both nationally and globally we need to produce food in such a way that utilises available resources in the best possible way. More specifically it is a question of animal husbandry, of what is grown on which fields, of water resources, plant protection products, fertilizers, of runoff and emissions.

Agriculture in many parts of the world has changed radically during the past 50-60 years. Food production has more or less tripled in this period, when the global population has more than doubled. The interplay between the so-called green revolution and the use of industrially manufactured plant nutrition explain much of the increased agricultural production.

In 2017 the world’s population was estimated to have reached 7.5 billion; it is expected to climb to 9 billion by 2050. Will this development cause problems? What opportunities do we have? Some facts are incontestable: access to new agricultural acreage is limited, while climate considerations, and the goal of a more sustainable agriculture, provide strong arguments for protecting our remaining areas of forest and wetlands.

The status in 2018 is that modern agriculture is crucial for our food supply. Without mineral fertilizer total agricultural production would be roughly 50 per cent less than what is actually is.

Forecasts suggest that the most important task is to utilise better, and produce more, on the acreages that are already in use or which can be made available for agriculture. For the fertilizer industry it is obvious that it must define its role within the framework of overarching national and global policies.

Yara, which has its roots back with Birkeland and Eyde, believes that the climate footprint of food production can be reduced by more than 50 per cent by continuously improving the way in which agriculture is conducted. Some of the challenges facing us can be solved through the mineral fertilizer production process and by the cooperation between the industry and the farming community in order to promote best practice.

Talented architects were deliberately sought to design the industrial complexes and powers stations and to plan the new urban communities. Although many of them were still young, they were confident of being able to meet demanding challenges in a convincing way.

Several of the architects who came to Notodden were also assigned commissions at Rjukan, some of them simultaneously, others subsequently. From June 1 1908 the Byanlegget at Rjukan, or town planning board, was in operation (also referred to in German as the “Architektführung”). An architect named Levin was its first manager. Besides the industrial buildings, the architects were responsible for the design of schools, welfare buildings, the post office, pharmacy and dwellings for the blue- and white-collar workers.

When BASF of Germany sold its stake in 1911, the architectural office was closed and Hydro established a town planning board (Rjukan Byanlegg). Erling Gjestland headed the office from 1911, followed by Hjalmar Waaden (1914-1916) and Jens Poulsson (1916-1934).

Other well-known personalities employed in the design planning and construction of Rjukan were: the engineers Lars Broch and Hjalmar Steffens, and architects Olaf Nordhagen, Thorvald Astrup, Magnus Poulsson, Ove Bang, B. Keyser Frölich, Christian Morgenstierne, Harald Aars, Joh. E. Nilsen, Bjarne Blom, Helge E. Blix.

The class divide was evident in Rjukan. The executive directors, senior staff and other local leaders lived in Villaveien, which caught the most sunshine. Further down in the town were Flekkebyen and Egne hjem, where the workers’ houses were situated.

Those who poured into the Vestfjord valley in search of work felt deprived of their rights and experienced a lack of amenities right from the start. They were subject to whatever inclinations suited the industrialists and they had to put up with the resultant conditions. As soon as a project was completed, they might find themselves out of work again. As Professor Helge Dahl describes it: “Even in this Klondike several hundred people went without food or a roof over their heads. Starving, half-naked, shivering and freezing they trudged from one hut to another, grateful for the smallest crumbs that fell from their better-off workmates’ tables.”

At Rjukan the navvy Kristofer Uppdal declared that emancipation and social change had to come first. Art would have to take second place, he believed – a construction worker who penned short stories and novels in the evenings and at night.

However, it would not be long before workers in Rjukan had time and energies for more than union activities and the struggle for material conditions. But they lacked places where they could meet. Meetings were held in tunnels, huts and cafés. Then one day, in November 1908, workers were asked to leave Arnesen’s refectory hut because guests were expected. That’s when a mason named Watz hammered his fist into the table and exclaimed: “Let’s build a place of our own!” And that’s exactly what the workers did – they built a place where they could meet. And not just one, but two.

The Krosso cable car was a gift from Hydro to the people of Rjukan. It enabled them to get up into the mountains and enjoy some sunshine in the winter months.

The Krosso cable car operates today and a trip on it offers you a spectacular view, a mountain-top restaurant, and an excellent starting-point for treks into the Hardanger plateau.

The idea of a mirror that would reflect the sun down into the valley during the winter months, was conceived by Sam Eyde og Oscar Kittelsen back in 1913. The mountains surrounding Rjukan are so steep that no sun penetrates the valley during the winter. But at that time, they did not possess the technology to implement their concept. It would take 100 years before the mirrors literally saw the light of day. The sun mirrors can today be enjoyed in all their glory in the town square.

Rjukan underwent some tremendous changes in the early years of the 20^th century. These pictures were taken just nine years apart, in 1907 and 1916.

The focus on those urban features that are contained within the World Heritage’s boundaries is on locations and buildings that particularly represent or typify Rjukan. The town of Rjukan is unique in a Norwegian context as it is the first totally planned town built under the auspices of a private company.

As a major construction development, it does have clear role models abroad; it is the Norwegian equivalent to the Swedish mining town of Kiruna, where under LKABs ‘s direction a prestigious housing programme was carried out by “a majority of Sweden’s foremost architects, artists, technicians etc…” with the backing of the Wallenbergs’ capital.

A planned town

Rjukan town planning board was also responsible for the first industrial buildings in the Vestfjord valley. This meant that the development of Rjukan was planned and implemented in a much more integrated way than was the case for Notodden, although to begin with this was a rural community of about 400 people. In the course of the decade leading up to 1915, there emerged a town of 10 000 inhabitants. This was hardly possible without some problems, and they did crop up in most areas. In the negotiations with BASF and the French stakeholders, insufficient emphasis was given to the fact that an urban society had to be developed practically from scratch if industrial plants were to be built in the same location as the large power stations in the Vestfjord valley.

Despite some problems underway, their remained enthusiastic and all pulled together to complete their task. And on May 1 1910 they were able to inaugurate the People’s House in Skriugata. In February 1912 a cinema was installed there, and in the same year the trade unions also purchased a neighbouring building. They had therefore secured suitable premises for their union and political activities. The People’s House also became a centre for cultural pursuits and entertainment; there was room for musical groups, dancing classes, theatre productions and, in time, a library as well.

In 1917 the position of full-time librarian was advertised and Henrik J. Hjartøy was appointed. He was to play a decisive role in developing the People’s Library at Rjukan to become a solid, popular and significant institution in the young town – a real cultural centre. Hjartøy travelled to Oslo and abroad to purchase literature that he considered important. The library, which had a comprehensive stock of books, had one particular speciality: the ideology, history and leading personalities of the labour movement. It became known as the “Red Library” and in 1924 relocated to suitable premises in a new building under municipal management.

«Jakten på tungtvannskjelleren» er et prosjekt der nettopp kjelleren som var målet for operasjon Gunnerside skal graves fram.

Hydrogenfabrikken på Vemork ble tatt ut av drift tidlig på 1970-tallet da Hydro bygde nytt kraftverk inne i fjellet bak Gamle Vemork kraftverk. I 1977 ble fabrikken revet, slik at det gamle kraftverket igjen ble synlig. Restene av hydrogenfabrikken ble pakket ned under et flere meter tykt lag med jord, stein og bygningsmasser.

Joachim Rønneberg, som ledet sabotasjen mot tungtvannsanlegget, har flere ganger gitt uttrykk for at stedet hvor aksjonen fant sted, bør gjøres tilgjengelig for formidling. Høsten 2017 igangsatte Telemark fylkeskommune omfattende utgraving for å avdekke kjellerlokalene hvor det ble produsert tungtvann. Det var ventet å finne rester etter kjelleren, men utgravingen viste at kjelleren er tilnærmet intakt. Det er mer enn hva de fleste våget å håpe på.

NRK-serien Kampen om Tungtvannet gikk sin seiersgang på TV vinteren 2015. Serien skapte stor interesse for krigshistorien knyttet til tungtvannsaksjonene. Siden er serien blitt vist i flere land, som i sin tur har gitt stor oppmerksomhet internasjonalt og økende pågang av besøkende turister.

 

Etter fullført utgraving og sikring skal det reises et museumsbygg over de fremgravde bygningselementene. Dette skal sikre og ta vare på kulturminnet, og skape et areal for utstilling og formidling.

After it had been decided to stop the production of heavy water, a final shipment was to be made from Vemork to Germany. This transport was sabotaged on orders from the Allies in London.

Major Knut Haukelid, one of the original saboteurs, was informed by London that there were plans to ship the remaining semi-finished product to Germany. Via radio transmission he was ordered to destroy this shipment.

The weakest link in the transportation was considered to be the railway-ferry crossing of Lake Tinnsjø. A team drawn from the Gunnerside raiders were given the task, and they deemed it to be most effective to sink the ferry while on the lake. It was Knut Haukelid and two others who were to carry out the action. On Sunday February 20 1944 DF Hydro carried passengers, some tank and goods wagons, and two wagons containing 14 tonnes electrolyte, the equivalent of 600 kg heavy water.

The sabotage team managed to sneak on board the ferry the night before and place explosives under the deck. An alarm clock was set to ignite the explosives, which went off in the middle of the lake. 18 lives were lost and 26 were saved. This was the final chapter in the struggle for heavy water in Norway. More people would have died had the explosion taken place on a weekday; on Sundays there were generally fewer passengers.

DF Hydro, which lies at a depth of 430 metres off Rudsgrend, is one of the significant objects of the Rjukan-Notodden World Heritage.

Building the administrative headquarters, or Admini, at Notodden in 1906 was a carefully deliberated move. It was here that Hydro would be able to receive all sorts of guests from far and near.

The Admini was also used for hospitality purposes, for accommodating important visitors and as Sam Eyde’s Notodden residence. For the first 55 years of Hydro’s history it went without saying that the company’s annual general meeting was held here. The Admini towers over Grønnbyen, overlooking the factory area.

Much of the building’s interior was created by the wood carver John Borgersen, who won a gold medal at the world exhibition in Paris in 1900, and also made furniture for Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The interrelationship between the factory, the workers’ houses and the administrative headquarters is typical for early phase of industrialisation, on terms of both the appearance of the buildings and their location.

There is a clearly discernible structure in the landscape and buildings appearing during Hydro’s initial phase at Notodden. The buildings at Villamoen, for example, were erected between 1908 and 1918 – a planned structure comprising 17 dwellings, situated behind the Admini.

Villamoen rests on a terrace overlooking Grønnbyen and was for that reason considered suitable for the houses of the salaried staff and engineers, who ranked higher than the factory workers. Their houses were therefore of a more individual character, in the design of which several architects were involved. The houses were originally painted white and reveal aspects of various contemporary styles: art nouveau, neo-baroque and classicism.

Theodor Kittelsen, inspired by the Rjukanfoss waterfall and the development of industry based on hydroelectric power at Notodden, painted five famous watercolours. Sam Eyde commissioned Kittelsen and also put forward several suggestions regarding the shape and form of the pictures. You can view the paintings themselves, and the sketches, at Telemarksgalleriet in Notodden.

Eyde wanted the workers and the forces of nature to be given their share of the credit for momentous developments taking place. In his memoirs (1939) he writes: “Kittelsen painted at that time some paintings that showed what he felt. A more beautiful and more humorous tribute to my work I have never received”. By November 1907 all the details were in place and the paintings were delivered in May 1908.

Kristian Birkeland is one of Norway’s leading scientists throughout history, and one of Hydro’s founders.

Birkeland (1867-1917) was born in Kristiania and was made professor of Physics in 1898. His main interest was in astrophysics – polar lights, solar radiation and the earth’s magnetic field.

Birkeland obtained nearly 60 patents in the course of a roughly 10-year period; many of them were sold, many were never realised. In 1901 he was granted a patent for an electromagnetic cannon. He applied the principles of the cannon in developing the electric arc furnace.

Professor Birkeland was made a lifelong technical consultant to Hydro at the company’s annual general meeting in 1905. This position enabled him to pursue his research interests more thoroughly.

Birkeland identified a connection between the northern lights and activity on the sun’s surface. He supported his theory by conducting practical trials in the laboratory at the University of Kristiania, and he undertook some very demanding and expeditions and study tours to northern regions.

Birkeland died in Tokyo on June 15 1917, as preparations were in underway in Norway for the celebration of his 50^th birthday. An initiative had also been taken – for the seventh time – to secure for him a Nobel prize in physics or Chemistry. Though he was never awarded a Nobel prize, Birkeland’s theories were confirmed and form the basis for our current scientific knowledge in the area.

Notodden’s inhabitants had to put up with the fact that the newspapers described the factories more positively than the town itself. The urban community suffered from growing pains that would take years and even decades to heal. The industrialists did get involved and provided some support, but they also left much for the municipality to take care of.

” Notodden is a Nordic Klondike. Mushroom-like, it has grown very rapidly and is therefore still too unsettled to be considered a proper town”, wrote the newspaper Socialdemokraten on December 5 1908.

Housewives are said to have washed their clothes in in the river Tinn and the Hvalå brook. Construction of a waterworks commenced in 1910, but progress here was slow. There was no plan for street regulation and this hindered the development of the water supply and drainage project. The streets were often in a deplorable state during the spring and winter, and dust whirled all around in summer.

The public services were doomed to struggle to keep pace with the all too rapid urban growth. In 1910 only 1 per cent of the inhabitants of the town was over 70 years of age; and even though many women did move into the area, in the same year they comprised no more than 40 per cent of the total population.

The population consisted of a diverse mixture of people. One thing was that they came from all types of places, from both urban and rural areas; another was that these new inhabitants assumed some very different roles in local society. As a rule, workers’ families found it a struggle to make ends meet. Things improved when several family members found work, while most of those who had their own house took in a lodger as well.

A rural community that was rich in tradition, in which also teachers had begun to be trained in 1896, provided a solid basis for cultural and other leisure time activities. Many of the incomers were keen to form associations and engage in the activities they had pursued prior to moving. There soon emerged a whole host of associations for song and music, scouting, sports, both summer and winter variants; as well as language groups promoting nynorsk, political parties, and evangelical associations and chapels. These associations helped bind the community together. And to some extent, but not always, they also helped bridge the gaps arising from the rigid class differences that separated people according to job or family background.