Helge Palmcrantz

Helge Palmcrantz (1842-1880), Swedish inventor and industrialist. He was born in Hammerdal, in the province of Jämtland, as the son of a captain at Jämtlands fältjägarregemente. He was recruited as a cadet to his father's regiment, where he worked with land survey. After a couple of years he left the regiment to study at the Technological Institute of Stockholm (later known as KTH).

With his companion and brother-in-law, Theodor Winborg, Palmcrantz founded a small but growing factory on Kungsholmen, Stockholm, where they manufactured reaping machines, mowers and other agricultural equipment of their own design.

In 1873 Palmcrantz patented the multi-barrel, lever-actuated, machine gun that later would be known as the "Nordenfelt machine-gun".

In 1875 Palmcrantz met with Thorsten Nordenfelt and Nordenfelt's company became Palmcrantz' British agent. They both agreed on marketing the machine-gun under the, then well known, Nordenfelt brand.

It was Nordenfelt who convinced Palmcrantz to increase the calibre of his gun to one inch, making it a suitable weapon for use against the growing threat of torpedo boats.

After Palmcrantz had met an early death from a bleeding ulcer, Winborg and Nordenfelt continued to develop and manufacture his guns in Sweden, England and Spain.

Helge Palmcrantz has a school named after him; Palmcrantzskolan in Östersund