Åsa, Ringerike

Coordinates: 60°7′56.65″N 10°20′44.17″E / 60.1324028°N 10.3456028°E / 60.1324028; 10.3456028

Conveyor in Asa

Åsa is a village in Ringerike municipality, Norway.

The village stretches from Åsaporten, the first road tunnel towards Åsa from Norderhov, and around the north end and east side of the fjord area, south to the border with Hole. It is located in inner Steinsfjorden. Åsa has one elementary school called Vegård with around 50-60 kids. Åsa was named after two farms around the mouth of the Åsaelva river.

The conveyor in Asa (Kjerraten i Åsa), dating from the period 1807-1850, was a system to transport timber up a hillside. The conveyor consisted of 12 water wheel with a chain between. It had a vertical drop of 389 meters over a total length of 3900 meters. It took 3 hours to carry a timber through the conveyor, which had a capacity of approximately a log every sixth minute. The conveyor was originally filed by Norwegian businessman and politician.Peder Anker from Bogstad, who owned large areas of forest in the area. He needed a solution to transport timber from Steinsfjorden in Åsa up to lake Damtjern and Storflåtan before floating it down to Sørkedalsvassdraget. The system was designed by Swedish engineer Samuel Bagge (1774-1814).^[1][2]

References

1. ^ Peder Anker – utdypning (Store norske leksikon. Author: Carsten Hopstock)
2. ^ Kjerraten i Åsa (Foreningen Kjerratmuseet)