Nordic Innovations

Nordic Innovations

By Svea No. 253, VOA

DISTRICT LODGE LAKE MICHIGAN No. 8 101st Annual District Convention 29, 30, and 31 May 2009

PROGRAM Friday, 29 May 2009 Happy 96th Birthday, Svea No. 253 Established 29 May 1913 9:00 am 3:00 pm 3:00 pm – 10:00 pm 3:00 pm – 10:00 pm 3:00 pm – 10:00 pm 3:00 pm – 10:00 pm 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm 7:00 pm 9:00 pm – 10:30 pm

Golf Tournament Executive Board meeting Swedish Emporium open Silent Auction open Bucket Raffle open Cultural Displays open Registration Hospitality Suite open Program – Sveaskolan #210 and Dans Norden Hospitality Suite open

Brookshire Country Club O’Connor Board Room Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Foyer Arnold-Dugan Suite Heritage Ballroom Arnold-Dugan Suite

PROGRAM Saturday, 30 May 2009 7:00 am 7:00 am – 8:30 am 7:00 am – 4:30 pm 7:00 am – 4:30 pm 7:00 am – 4:30 pm 9:00 am 9:30 am 12:00 Noon 12:30 pm 4:00 pm 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm 6:30 pm 7:30 pm 9:00 pm – 10:00 pm

New Delegates’ Breakfast Registration Swedish Emporium open Silent Auction open Bucket Raffle open Opening Ceremonies District Meeting Lunch Committee Meetings Adjourn – Choir Practice Social Hour – cash bar Banquet Dinner Greetings and Awards Maennerchor Concert

Poolside A Heritage Ballroom Foyer Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Poolside A Various locations Heritage Ballroom Poolside Dining room Poolside Dining room Poolside Dining room Poolside Dining room

Sunday, 31 May 2009 7:00 am 7:00 am – 12:30 pm 7:00 am – 12:30 pm 8:15 am 9:00 am 12:00 Noon 12:00 Noon 1:30 pm

PDM Breakfast Swedish Emporium open Loppmarknad open Memorial Service District Meeting Adjournment Hospitality Suite open Board meeting

Poolside A Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Heritage Ballroom Arnold-Dugan Suite O’Connor Board Room

District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8 Executive Board Extends Fraternal Greetings to SVEA No. 253 for hosting the 101st District Convention Welcome to all delegates and guests!

Local Lodges Siljan-Mora-Tuna No. 134 Thor No. 147 Linné No. 153 Kronan No. 179 Bessemer No. 203 Brahe No. 245 Svea No. 253 Nobel No. 288 Viljan No. 349 Austin No. 466

Linde No. 492 Satellite No. 661 Joe-Harbor No. 534 Bishop Hill No. 683 Hagar No. 721 Nordik Folk No. 761 Lindgren No. 754 Jubileum No. 755 Viking No. 730

Children’s Groups Vårblomman No. 54 Förgät Mig Ej No. 64 Skansen No. 113

Nordikids No. 208 Pride Of The Family No. 209 Sveaskolan No. 210

DISTRICT LODGE LAKE MICHIGAN No. 8 VASA ORDER OF AMERICA 101st ANNUAL CONVENTION May 29, 30, and 31, 2009 Indianapolis, Indiana Hosted by Svea Lodge No. 253 Enjoy our theme: Nordic Innovations  The Nordic countries have been responsible for an incredible number of discoveries in the natural sciences;  they have developed products that improve our health, extend our lives, and make our lives more enjoyable; and  they are leaders in setting norms for how modern nations should be governed and how they should conduct foreign affairs.

We will celebrate these attributes of the Nordic nations in our displays and in our programs.

We hope everyone will enjoy reviewing the history of the progress of these nations and also gain new understanding of the great future that these nations should enjoy.

st

101

Anniversary

Best Wishes to Svea Lodge No. 253 on a successful and prosperous District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8 Convention 2009 LYCKA TILL! From Linde Lodge No 492 Milwaukee, Wisconsin

And from SKANSEN Children’s Club No 113 Milwaukee Wisconsin

The Nordic Nations The Nordic Council provides the following information about the Nordic Countries.

The information is located on their website: www.norden.org.

“The Nordic region has a population of 25 million. The Nordic countries consist of Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Finland, Åland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The Faroe Islands and Greenland are both part of the kingdom of Denmark, and Åland is part of the republic of Finland.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are all monarchies. Iceland and Finland are republics.

Regardless of the form of government, the heads of state in the Nordic countries have relatively little power. All the countries have a democratic constitution dating from the 19th century, and, with the exception of the Norwegian constitution, they have all been revised several times.”

Swedish Logging Innovations

by Allen Hedeen Sweden, with its vast forests and rich logging history, has been a major global source of logging innovation. Various makes of Swedish chainsaws were designed, built, and sold on the world market since 1949. Sweden has also been instrumental in the development of the Nordic cut-to-length logging method and its associated high-tech, environmentally-friendly forest machines.

The Jonsereds Fabrikers AB factory was originally located in the town of Jonsered near Göteborg. Their company started in 1833 in the textile industry and later expanded into the chainsaw industry. In 1950, Jonsered was asked to make parts for the rare Comet diesel powered chainsaw. Shortly after, Jonsered purchased the Norwegian Comet company and produced its own Raket line of saws (Swedish for rocket). In 1966, Jonsered introduced the model 60, the first of the classic red saws that have made Jonsered famous. Jonsered continues to sell its famous line of red chainsaws across the world today.

The Husqvarna Company got its start on the Husqvarna River flowing out of Lake Vättern where a water mill was established on the estate of the Rumblaborg castle. The word Husqvarna takes its name from the word hus (Swedish for house) and kvarn (Swedish for mill). The original “house” water mill was an excellent source of power, so much that King Charles XI established a weapons factory here in 1689. As tensions eased in the Baltic region, the arms factory was sold to private interests. Husqvarna AB started production of sewing machines in the late 1800’s and is still famous for its sewing machines today. It was not until 1959 that Husqvarna got into the chainsaw market with its first Model A90 saw.

Husqvarna and the German company Stihl remain as the world’s largest chainsaw manufacturers today.

Sweden along with Finland played a major role in the development of the Nordic cut-to-length logging method. The Nordic cut-to-length method consists of a harvester and a forwarder team and is responsible for about 16% of the global wood harvest today. The harvester machine fells, delimbs, and cuts the tree trunks to a specified length right out in the woods (often times in less than one half minute per

tree). The forwarder machine loads the logs using an onboard crane onto a self-contained bunk and transports the logs to the roadside where they are loaded onto a truck. Both machines resemble a hightech robot in many ways and utilize some very sophisticated computer hardware and software.

The Nordic method is used primarily to thin a forest thus leaving the best trees standing. The Nordic method is known for its significantly reduced fuel consumption per harvested volume, reduction in required manpower, and precise wood utilization (as opposed to other logging methods). The machines are relatively light leaving less of a footprint.

Leaves, needles, limbs, and tops remain on the forest floor where they can supply nutrients to seedlings and remaining trees. The remaining debris also provides support for the forwarder to drive upon reducing rutting. Less space is needed for the roadside loading area and fewer overall machines are needed in the woods. Valmet AB of Umeå and Rottne Industri AB are two Swedish companies that are leaders in the innovation of Nordic cut-to-length logging machines. It is not unusual to find Nordic cut-to-length machines in many parts of the United States, particularly in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It is a technology that is certainly catching on, despite the production advantages of other methods and total cost of machinery.

Paul Bunyan would be proud.

GREETINGS FROM

NOBEL LODGE #288 MOLINE, ILLINOIS

Economic Rankings of the Nordic Countries Invest in Sweden Agency, ISA, has collected economic rankings of the Nordic countries. The rankings are based, unless otherwise noted, on 2007 statistics. The rankings reflect the Nordic countries’ placements versus all other countries. They are as follows.

Rankings of the most competitive countries, as determined by the World Economic Forum:

7.

Iceland Rankings based on university-industry collaboration:

3.

4.

6.

3.

4.

Denmark Sweden Finland

Sweden Finland

Rankings based on networking readiness: Rankings by a composed competitiveness index, tallied by ISA based on a number of contributory rankings: 2.

4.

5.

8.

Sweden Finland Denmark Norway

Rankings by investment attraction, based on foreign direct investment: 16.

Sweden

1.

2.

6.

8.

10.

Denmark Sweden Finland Iceland Norway

Rankings based on skills in English (at least conversational knowledge): 2.

3.

4.

Sweden Denmark Finland

Rankings based on the Global Innovation Scoreboard:

Rankings based on productivity growth in manufacturing (2000-2006):

1.

2.

9.

2.

4.

10.

Finland Sweden Denmark

Sweden Norway Denmark

Rankings based on R&D expenditures as a percentage of GDP (2005):

Rankings based on engineering salaries, bonuses, and incentives (2006):

2.

3.

3.

8.

Sweden Finland

Denmark Sweden

ISA, in their publication “Sweden in Fact 2008/09” describes their agency as follows: “ISA is the government agency responsible for promoting investment and business opportunities in Sweden to foreign investors. Professional guidance is guaranteed since most ISA staff have corporate backgrounds and extensive expertise in the investment process. We offer an effective link between your company and the Swedish business sector. The services provided are free of charge.”

In the same publication, ISA describes their publicity mission: “ISA assembles and makes available valuable information on its website to give foreign investors an overall picture of what Sweden has to offer and to facilitate business entries. Publications, fact sheets and PowerPoint presentations in several languages are published. Find out more at www.isa.se .”

Best Wishes to SVEA Lodge #253 from Austin Lodge #466 V.O.A. Meets 2:00 PM, the 2nd Saturday of each month unless noted otherwise at Svithiod Hall 5516 W. Lawrence Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60630 New Members Always Welcome Call: Chairman, Robert Oberg 773 - 477 - 0875

Nordikids No. 208 and Nordik Folk Lodge No. 761 [site of the 2010 District No. 8 Convention]

Congratulate Svea Lodge No. 253 On a Successful Convention!

Innovation in Norway A Norwegian agency, Innovasjon Norge, has the following mission, as stated on its website, www.innovasjonnorge.no: “Innovation Norway promotes nationwide industrial development profitable to both the business economy and Norway’s national economy, and helps release the potential of different districts and regions by contributing towards innovation, internationalisation and promotion.

Innovation Norway offers products and services intended to help boost innovation in business and industry nationwide, foster regional development and promote Norwegian industry and Norway as a tourist destination.

With offices in all counties and in more than thirty countries worldwide, we are easy to get in touch with. Our staff’s knowledge of local and international conditions will help turn customers’ ideas into business successes.

According to its objects clause, Innovation Norway is to be backer and promoter of entrepreneurs, newly-founded and small and medium-sized enterprises that seek to grow, as a rule in an international market. The organisation’s role is to provide or arrange financing, link customer enterprises to know-how and help them build networks for their innovation projects.”

Good Luck and Success on your 2009 District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8 Convention for May 29, 30, 31, 2009

From your friends at Viking Lodge No. 730, Flint, Michigan.

Gotland, the Viking Island: Paviken Viking Village

SWEDISH INNOVATIONS Swedes, including those who lived in the area of Sweden before the country was founded, have a 1500 Year tradition of innovation.

By the year 500, long before the Viking era, Swedes used longboats to cross the Baltic Sea and to navigate the rivers that flow into it.

These travelers were traders and settlers. Their boats were skillfully constructed and were wider and deeper than warships, so that they could carry greater amounts of cargo.

In 791, a king established the first trading town in Sweden, and named it Birka. It was on an island in Lake Mälaren, west of present-day Stockholm. It had 1000 inhabitants and a fortress where a garrison was based.

Merchants from Northern Europe and even the Middle East met here to trade.

By 860, according to chronicles, Swedish military men, called Varangians or Rus, were invited to establish rule in Novgorod, setting the foundation for rule in areas that became Russia. Swedish traders and settlers traveled through Russian rivers to the Black Sea and beyond.

In the year 1288, the oldest corporation in the world was first mentioned in a document signed by King Magnus Ladulås. The corporation began as the copper mine in Falun, Sweden; it was known as Stora Kopparberget— the great copper mine. Its successor corporation is Stora Enso, and it has expanded into many other businesses. The copper mine is no longer in use.

Allemansrätten is an unwritten law that everyone has the right to access another’s land, as long as it is done without damage. Everyone is entitled to cross--at least on foot--anyone's land and remain there temporarily. For example, in the Middle Ages, anyone traveling through a forest was entitled to gather a hatful of nuts for nourishment along the way. It is not known

when this custom began, but it probably is 500 years old.

It is also not known when the term smörgåsbord was first used, but it is also an old custom, of having a large buffet meal with many types of food, especially for holidays and feasts.

In 1523 the Royal Svea Life Guards (the Infantry part of the Royal Life Guards) were formed as part of the army of Gustav Eriksson Vasa during the war of liberation against the Danish troops of King Christian II of Denmark and Sweden. They are the oldest designated military unit in the world. They took part in nearly all Swedish battles from King Gustav Vasa onwards.

In 1523 Gustav Vasa’s campaign against the Danes succeeded, and he was crowned as the first king of an independent Sweden. Sweden still maintains a monarchy, although the form of government is a parliamentary democracy.

Known as the “Lion of the North,” King Gustavus Adolphus II began his reign in 1611.

He modernized military tactics with the use of mobile artillery and by stressing offensive tactics. He was one of the greatest generals and statesmen of all time. He introduced policies that brought Sweden to prominence in the 17th Century.

In 1638, Swedish settlers established the first colony in Delaware. Swedes continued to settle in the Delaware River Valley and brought the log cabin to America. The oldest surviving log cabin in the United States was built by Swedes in the 1600’s. Olof Rudbeck the Elder was a “universal genius.” In 1652 he published his discovery of the human lymphatic system.

He built bridges, planned water systems and taught many scientific subjects. He made pioneering contributions in many of these fields.

In 1645 Queen Christina and Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna established the Post och Inrikes Tidningar. It is the official publication for bankruptcies and corporate and government announcements.

It is the world’s oldest newspaper. It is the vehicle for the government to voice its official view.

In 1668 the Riksdag founded the Riksbank, and it is the world’s oldest central bank. It succeeded the Stockholms Banco (1656), the world's oldest note-issuing bank. It is responsible for the monetary policy of the country; it maintains the stability of the national currency and the money supply.

Christopher Polhem began work at copper mountain in 1700. He was one of the leading engineering specialists of the world.

His ideas impacted many technological developments of his era. During his 90-year life, he turned out numerous inventions and ingenious designs.

In 1735, Carl Linnaeus developed and published his system that is still in use for classifying and naming plants, animals, and minerals. He was a natural historian, and he collected specimens from all over the world.

Many of his specimens are still being studied.

In 1742, Anders Celsius first used his experimental thermometer, which is now known as the Celsius thermometer, with 0 degrees as the freezing point of water and 100 degrees as the boiling point of water.

He was an astronomer, and made many valuable observations of eclipses, planet and comet orbits, and types of stars.

In 1771, King Gustav III began his rule.

He was a great patron of the arts, and a style of furniture and decoration began in his reign that has become known as Gustavian style. Several furniture companies manufacture reproductions in his style.

In 1772 Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered oxygen. He discovered eight other elements and isolated additional ones. He made

more significant discoveries than anyone else before him. His discoveries included chlorine, manganese, casein, aldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, glycerol and tartaric, oxalic, lactic, mucic, uric, prussic, citric, malic, and gallic acids. It is said that Scheele brought to his science knowledge of a greater number of new substances of fundamental importance than any other chemist.

In 1809, Sweden developed the role of the ombudsman, who was a government person designated to look out for the interests of citizens who had grievances against the government.

Sweden last fought a major war in 1814.

Since then, the nation has been able to maintain international neutrality and often serves diplomatic roles in world events.

In 1818, Jöns Berzelius developed the first table of atomic weights, after measuring the weights of nearly all the 49 elements known then. He also developed the symbols for the elements’ names. He was perhaps the last chemist for whom it was possible to carry all chemical knowledge in his head. He greatly improved laboratory equipment and procedures.

In 1844, Gustaf Erik Pasch developed the first safety match, which used red phosphorus on the matchbox. In 1855, J. E. Lundstrom developed a phosphorus-free match.

In 1862, John Ericsson built the Union Navy’s armored ship Monitor, which fought the Confederacy’s Merrimac. He also developed the first practical propeller drive system for ships.

The Monitor was so-christened because it was to monitor the Confederacy’s ports.

In 1866, Alfred Nobel began manufacturing dynamite, after years of research with nitroglycerine. He later developed other explosives and also synthetic products based on nitrocellulose such as rubber, leather, thread, varnish, and silk.

In 1866, Anders Jonas Ångström laid a foundation for the field of spectroanalysis. In this year he published a listing of the spectra of almost 100 elements. He used the number one ten-millionth of a millimeter in measuring wavelengths, and this number became designated as the angstrom unit. (1 Å = .1 nm.)

In 1878, Gustaf de Laval developed the centrifugal cream separator used for separating cream from milk. His company became AlfaLaval, and the cream separator became Sweden’s first major manufactured export. He also developed a high-speed steam turbine technology that was the most-used type for steam power.

In 1870 Aurora Ljungstedt’s story, known in English as “The Hastfordian Escutcheon,” was published. It was a mystery story that antedated the first Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle by 17 years.

In 1885, Lars Magnus Ericsson invented the telephone handset. The Ericsson Company also developed switches and network equipment and dominated the Swedish market. In 1885, Stockholm had more phones per capita than any other city in the world. Ericsson is now known worldwide for wireless phones.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Carl Larsson was a well-known painter who popularized a style of interior appearance.

In 1891, Artur Hazelius established the first open air living history museum, Skansen, in Stockholm. Over 150 historical buildings have been moved there from throughout Sweden. Hosts and hostesses in period costume demonstrate domestic and manufacturing occupations.

In 1892, Johan Petter Johansson patented the first adjustable nut wrench. Overall, he developed 118 inventions.

In 1900, Gideon Sundbäck developed the first workable zipper, after other zipping fasteners had been in use before.

In 1901, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded, based on funding provided by Alfred Nobel. They are awarded “to those who… have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”

In 1907, Sven Wingquist founded the company SKF. He is considered the inventor of the modern spherical roller bearing.

In 1909, Vattenfall developed as a company to use water power to generate electricity. It is now a major supplier of power in several European countries.

In 1912, the first production household vacuum cleaners were manufactured by a company which later merged to form Electrolux.

In 1927, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larsson founded Volvo Cars to build cars based on car safety, quality, and strength.

In 1941, Viktor Hasselblad developed precision cameras for aerospace applications and for personal use. A Hasselblad was used to take the pictures of the first moon landing in 1969.

In 1942, Astrid Lindgren began publishing the stories of Pippi Longstocking, a girl who encourages girls to have fun and to believe in themselves.

In 1943, Ingvar Kamprad established the first IKEA store. There are more than 500 million IKEA shoppers each year.

In 1948, the company Astra developed xylocain, based on a local anesthetic developed

by Nils Löfgren and Bengt Lundquist in 1943.

Xylocain has been a standard local anesthetic since then.

In 1951, Erik Wallenberg and Ruben Rausing developed plastic-coated paper containers for packaging milk and juice. Their company Tetra Pak produces more than 100 billion containers each year.

In 1965, Lennart Nilsson took the first in-vitro baby photographs, which were published in Life Magazine. They appeared in the book A Child Is Born; some are aboard the Voyager Spacecraft.

In 1953, Helmuth Hertz and physician Inge Edler developed the first cardiac ultrasound machine, which performs echocardiography.

In 1965, a number of researchers at three Swedish pharmaceuticals developed betablockers. They are used for heart disease, asthma, and other illnesses.

In 1953, Sven Kamph developed a hovering lawnmower, the Flymo, which floats above the ground. More than 500,000 have been made.

In 1965, Nils Alwall and Lennart Östergren invented the kidney dialysis machine that performs the functions of the kidneys for people with kidney disease or failure.

In 1955, Lars-Einar Fryklöf, Erik Sandell and Ivan Östholm developed time-release tablets, which release the medicine in a pill gradually after it is ingested. We can take medication less often, and medicate ourselves evenly.

In 1968, Lars Leksell invented the gamma knife, which is not a knife, but a method for using gamma radiation to destroy brain tumors.

In 1958, Rune Elmqvist developed the first implantable heart pacemaker, in association with Åke Senning.

Pacemakers enable abnormal hearts to beat in a regular rhythm.

In 1959, Nils Bohlin of Volvo developed the three-point safety belt, which used a strap across the upper body as well as one across the hips.

In 1961, Hans Karlsson developed the retractable seat belt, which is the type most widely used now.

In 1628, the warship Gustav Vasa sank on its first voyage. It was raised in 1961 and is now on display in Stockholm in its own museum.

In 1984, Perstorp AB, founded 120 years ago, introduced laminated flooring to the world, first in Europe. It is now the world’s largest supplier.

In 1990, Sweden began developing Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm. It will be a state-of-the-art community of 20,000 residents and 10,000 jobs. It will have state-of-the-art environmental programs, including renewable energy, recycling, ecologically-friendly building materials and designs, and public transportation, and pedestrian and bike paths.

Located in a formerly unsightly industrial and warehouse area, the community is built around an inner harbor. The buildings will be all new or renovated and will be very attractive.

GREETINGS AND BEST WISHES FOR A SUCCESSFUL CONVENTION FROM BISHOP HILL LODGE #683 HOME OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

SWEDISH CHEMISTS AND THE ELEMENTS

By Dan Anderson Most of you have probably enjoyed (or suffered through) at least one course in chemistry in either high school or college. You probably remember that there were 92 recognized elements, of which everything on Earth is composed. Two elements, 85 and 87, are not found in nature, and have been produced only in a nuclear reactor. It is estimated that less than one ounce of each exists on earth. Since the beginning of the Atomic Age, 10-20 artificial elements have been made, mostly in microscopic quantities, by bombarding heavy elements with subatomic particles to make a larger atom.

The atomic number of an element refers to the number of positive particles (protons) in the nucleus, balanced by an equal number of negative particles (electrons), in orbit around the nucleus. The Russian chemist Mendeleev arranged the known elements in numerical order, and constructed a table in which elements of similar properties fell in the same vertical column as the atomic weights increased. With this tool, he was able to predict the properties of several elements which had not yet been discovered. When found, their properties came very close to what he had predicted.

Many elements, such as iron, tin, gold, silver, mercury and copper, had been known since ancient times, and their Latin names are still used in chemical symbols. Until after the year 1000, chemistry made little progress - the closest related activity was alchemy, whose goals were to produce gold out of almost anything, and to produce a potion which, when drunk, would result in eternal life on Earth. Rational science began to appear in the 16th century, and strong efforts were made to discover the laws governing the

motion of the earth, sun and stars, and the composition of matter.

The use of electricity greatly increased the pace of discovery of new elements, as solutions and molten salts could be broken down by passing a current between two electrodes to separate the portions of the mix which were positively charged from those which are negatively charged.

Although we often think of English and German scientists in the field of inorganic chemistry, Sweden was also prominent in chemical research, centered at the University of Uppsala. In fact, Swedes have been credited with the discovery of more natural elements than any other nation!

Andres Gustav Ekeberg had been a student at Uppsala and studied abroad for several years, absorbing many of the new ideas and practices of the Frenchman Antoine Lavoisier, one of the founders of modern chemistry. He eventually returned to Uppsala as a lecturer in chemistry.

Although he was partially deaf from a childhood illness and blind in one eye from an exploding flask in his laboratory, he pursued many projects, including the analysis of ores from Ytterby Quarry, near Stockholm.

(More about that later.) He believed he had found a new element, but found it extremely difficult to separate from another with very similar properties, so he called it tantalum, after the mythological Greek Tantalus. It was not until almost sixty years later that tantalum and its close relative niobium were completely separated and Ekeberg given credit for the discovery. While teaching, he encountered a young student, Jons Jakob Berzelius , who had entered university with the thought of becoming a medical doctor.

Although he limped through his medical studies and eventually earned

an M.D., Berzelius became interested in chemistry, which became the major portion of his life's work.

Berzelius learned of the work of the Italian Volta and was quick to test Volta’s work in his laboratory.

He invented suitable electrodes and developed processes for electrolyzing solutions, which gave him the ability to isolate several elements. He also determined the atomic weights of almost all the elements known at that time, and found that there was a definite amount of element A combining with element B to form a chemical compound of fixed composition.

He experimented with electric treatments on some of his medical patients, but the results were disappointing.

His elemental discoveries included silicon, selenium, cobalt, zirconium and thorium, the latter bearing the name of the thunderbolt-wielding Norse god.

During his long life, he was permanent secretary of the Royal Academy of Science and was made a baron by the king.

But Berzelius' contribution to chemistry most familiar to us is his introduction of one- or two-letter symbols for the elements and numbers representing the number of atoms of each element in the molecule.

For example, aluminum oxide is Al 2O3, meaning that in each molecule, there are two atoms of aluminum and three of oxygen. The only change in his system has been to write the numbers below the line, instead of higher than the letters in his original proposal.

Carl Gustav Mosander was also a medical doctor and pupil of Berzelius. His chemical contributions lay mainly in the further analysis of the minerals from the famous quarry at Ytterby. Gadolin, a Finn, and Klaproth, a German, had separated two types of metal oxide from the ore, one of which was called ytterbia and the other ceria.

Most chemists of

the day suspected that neither one was a compound of a pure element, so Mosander devoted much time to fractional crystallization, putting the oxides into acid solution and taking advantage of the slight difference in solubilities of the salts by repeatedly recrystallizing the salts from solution until what appeared to be a pure product was obtained.

Among his discoveries were erbium, terbium and lanthanum (Ytterby again) and an oxide which he called didymium, which was later separated into two elements, neodymium and praseodymium. Mosander taught chemistry at the Carolinska Institute in Stockholm and headed the mineralogy department at the Royal Academy of Science.

Per Theodore Cleve continued working with the Ytterby ores and monazite sand, another rich source of what are called the rare earth elements. He isolated the oxides of two additional elements, holmium (named after Stockholm) and thulium, from Ultima Thule, the land at the end of the world, a term often applied to parts of Scandinavia.

Karl Wilhelm Scheele was born in Pomerania, Germany, which at that time was controlled by Sweden. His career was that of a pharmacist, but he experimented widely in the chemical area. He spent much time in determining the role of oxygen in combustion, helping to destroy the old theory that when a substance was burnt, it absorbed something called "phlogiston".

He is credited with discovering or isolating the elements manganese, molybdenum, and chlorine.

Other Swedish scientists and the elements they discovered were Lars Fredrikson - scandium (named after Scandinavia), Axel Fredrik Cronstedt - nickel, Johan August Arfwedson - lithium, and Georg Brandt - cobalt. Two more elements were named after that quarry near Stockholm - yttrium and ytterbium. I

believe it's something of a record when four elements are named for the same location!

who helped "make this a better world through chemistry."

As was mentioned earlier, when the periodic table was developed by Mendeleev, there were a large number of elements (about 16) which had similar properties, but whose atomic numbers were almost consecutive.

These, known as "rare earths", because of the difficulty of separation, were assigned two spaces, in the same vertical column, forming loops in the old periodic table, but are now listed in a separate category.

Dan Anderson was born in New York State in 1931 and majored in chemical engineering in college, obtaining a degree in 1951.

After three years in the Army, he worked for two chemical companies in northeast Ohio before moving to Indianapolis in 1959, where he began work with an electrical component manufacturer, rising to the position of Section Head and leading a group of engineers and technicians in the field of electrochemistry of aluminum-based products.

Dan and his wife Sophia have been married for 48 years and have had three children. They have been members of Svea 253 for about 30 years and also belong to a German choral group. Since Dan retired in 1987, he and Sophia have been deeply involved in gardening, and taking part in community beautification as well as giving talks on wildflowers and their uses in the home garden.

They also like to travel and have been to Sweden and other Scandinavian countries several times.

Apparently some of the artificial elements of atomic numbers higher than that of uranium follow a similar pattern, but are unlikely to be encountered outside of a nuclear reactor. The rare earths are really not that rare, and do have some industrial applications. Separation is much easier these days with the use of chromatography and ionexchange resins.

So, when we use a chemical product or plastic to help us with some of the tasks of daily living, please give a thought to the diligent Swedes of two or three centuries ago

Welcome District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8, VOA Wishing you a most successful and pleasant convention.

Best Wishes and Congratulations to Svea Lodge No. 253 hosting the 101st Convention Marty and Chuck Lindgren Svea Lodge No. 253 Indianapolis, Indiana

Best wishes Svea Lodge 253 Indianapolis, Indiana For a Successful 101st Convention from

Jubileum 755 Madison, Wisconsin

Swedish Art and Innovation

By Professor Michelle Facos, Indiana University Sweden became more than a provincial backwater of the art world in 1735, when French artist Guillaume Taraval established an art academy in Stockholm, based on the model of the one established in Paris by Louis XIV in 1648. Swedish artist Alexander Roslin (1718-1793), who trained at the Stockholm academy, departed for more glamorous Paris in 1750, where his precisely rendered silks and laces and masterful renditions of elaborate coiffures made him one of Paris’s most sought after society portraitists; he was a particular favorite of the Russian nobility. Considering Sweden’s vast tracts of wilderness, it is no surprise that early Swedish painters excelled at landscape painting. Elias Martin (1739-1818) spent twelve years in London, returning in 1780 and bringing with him the British picturesque tradition that prized idyllic depictions of a countryside graced by fields and cottages. His student, Carl Johan Fahlcrantz (1774-1861) was the very first professor of landscape painting at the Stockholm academy and the first Swedish artist to spend his entire career in Sweden. His style, a Romantic one characterized by leafy vegetation and broad vistas punctuated by the steeples of distant churches, set the standard for Swedish landscape painting in the nineteenth century.

Teaching at the Stockholm academy changed little since its inception in 1735 and by the late nineteenth century, young artists became frustrated by a curriculum that seemed hopelessly outdated. They were tired of spending their student years indoors, making drawings after casts of ancient sculptures and, once they had mastered that, of men posed like those ancient sculptures. They did not want to represent subjects from history or literature or paint landscapes according to tired, outdated formulas. These young art students saw what was happening abroad, especially in Paris, and wanted to join the trend to represent contemporary subjects in a more modern style – to chronicle the times in which they were living.

So, in 1874, a migration of adventurous Swedish artists to Paris began with the arrival of Ernst Josephson, who was soon joined by Georg Pauli, Carl Larsson, Nils Kreuger, Karl Nordström, and Richard Bergh. They studied at the small

private art schools of Paris and attracted international attention when they won medals at the Paris Salon, the prestigious annual art exhibition.

This was much more impressive than the accomplishments of their teachers in the academy at home. The exhilarating atmosphere of Paris, where anything seemed possible, contrasted with Stockholm, where the academy had a virtual stranglehold on the art market. The fact that Sweden was so poor that few people were interested in collecting art made thoughts of returning home seemingly impossible. In 1885, however, these young artists became impatient and established a rival organization in Stockholm, the Artists’ Association (Konstnärsförbundet). The Association organized Sweden’s first regularly held exhibitions, and cultivated wealthy bankers like Ernst Thiel in Stockholm and Pontus Fürstenburg in Göteborg, who spent a fortune on this radically new, modern art. They opened up the art market and made it possible for the first time for artists to support themselves without the endorsement of the Stockholm academy.

Association artists working in Paris painted what they saw – farmers plowing fields, their friends, gatherings in cafes. They didn’t follow any rules and tried to develop unique styles that expressed their individuality. They continued this practice when they returned to Sweden in the late 1880s. Nordström concentrated on the rugged contours of his native Tjörn, Kreuger turned to the lush fields of his native Öland, Zorn depicted the folklife of his native Mora, Larsson painted the domestic life of his growing family in Sundborn, and Gustaf Fjaestad pictured the snowy silent forests of his Värmland. Despite the vast differences in style and subject matter, these artists were united in their desire to establish a uniquely Swedish school of painting, one that reflected the biomystical connectedness of Swedes to nature.

This movement became known as National Romanticism because it sought to evoke in its Swedish audience an emotional attachment to their homeland, a spirit of fosterlandkärlek (love of native land) that could unite all Swedes.

As National Romantic artists aged, they too became a kind of establishment, one against which

younger artists rebelled. Younger artists ignored the plea of National Romantic to stay home and celebrate Sweden, to remain untainted by foreign influences and to further develop a uniquely Swedish school of art. They, like their predecessors, wanted to be modern and independent, and Paris was still the place to go. There, art had changed a lot since the residence of the National Romantics there in the 1870s and 1880s. Instead of Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism were the new trends. Ambitious Swedish painters like Issac Grünewald and Sigrid Hjerten studied with the renowned Fauve (“wild beast”) painter Henri Matisse in Paris and became

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interested in using colors to express emotions rather than to describe objects. Instead of quiet paintings that fostered meditations on Swedish nature, painters such as Nils Dardel made exuberant evocations of Paris streets and French harbors.

Although developments in twentieth century Swedish art kept pace with progressive developments in the international art scene, it is the art of National Romanticism that continues to be most closely linked to Swedishness. Recent scholars have recognized how adventurous National Romantics were in creating a wholly new kind of art – neither Realist, nor Impressionist, nor Symbolist, but with elements of each.

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Nordic Co-operation The Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers, Halldór Ásgrímsson, said the following to the Nordic prime ministers in June 2008: "The Nordic countries come out best in a whole range of international comparisons. However, we must continue to innovate, work on areas where we share joint interests and play to our strengths in the international world in which we live.

Globalisation and internationalisation are not going away. We have to face up to that fact. We have to be pragmatic, positive but determined.”

Our Swedish National Anthem We thank Sweden.se, the official gateway to Sweden, and the Embassy of Sweden, Washington, D. C., for providing us a CD of the Swedish National Anthem. The performers are the Band of the Royal Guards Regiment.

The anthem will be played in the opening of our convention.

ERIK BERTIL HOLMBERG (1908-2000) SWEDISH ASTRONOMER AND THE HOLMBERG GALAXIES

By Janet Holmberg Jegen, Svea No. 253 Erik Bertil Holmberg is an internationally renowned astronomer known for his pioneering work on galaxies, particularly multiple galaxies.

During the 1940’s, when he was a professor at the Lund Observatory in Sweden, and long before the dawn of the computer era, he performed a remarkable experiment to explore the gravitational dynamics of interacting galaxies.

His experiment consisted of using light bulbs, photocells, statistics, and skillful observation.

One of his conclusions was that galaxies often merge into one single larger galaxy, and it was not until about 30 years later, when appropriate computers became available, that his results could be confirmed.

Holmberg professor at

was Uppsala

also a University

and director of the Uppsala Observatory from 1959 to 1975.

There, he inspired his students to start work on minor planets, which at the time was almost an unknown topic for research in Uppsala.

There are a number of galaxies named after Holmberg, designated from Holmberg I to Holmberg IX, and there is an asteroid named Holmberg 3573 , discovered in 1982 by C.I. Lagerkvist, and later named in honor of the Swedish astronomer on the occasion of his eightieth birthday.

When today’s astronomers refer to the “Holmberg radius”, the “Holmberg effect”, “Holmberg galaxies”, and “Holmberg (3573)”, they are honoring Erik Holmberg for his many contributions to extragalactic astronomy.

Hagar Lodge #721 VOA Would like to congratulate the Delegates To the 101st VOA Convention

VOA members and friends are welcome to join us on the 2nd Friday of the month September-June at 7pm Hagarlodge721@gmail.com

DANISH INNOVATIONS In 1820 Hans Christian Ørsted was the first to observe the phenomenon of electromagnetism.

He saw that an electric current caused a compass needle to deflect, indicating that an electric current has magnetic properties.

After he published his work, electromagnetism became a main subject of study in physics. In 1825 he advanced research in aluminum by producing a still-impure form of it.

Throughout his life he continued to publish many works that helped to spread the advance and knowledge of science.

In 1835 Hans Christian Andersen published the first of his Fairy Tales, Told for Children. These were innovative, full of enjoyable characters and moral teaching.

They were based on folk tales. In Danish, they are known as Eventyr.

He visited Sweden in 1837 and in 1839 wrote a poem Jeg er Skandinav (I am a Scandinavian). He wrote a poem about Jenny Lind, The Nightingale, which led to her being called the Swedish Nightingale.

Among his best-known works are Thumbellina, The Little match Girl, The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and The Princess and the Pea. In 1865 Rasmus Malling-Hansen invented a form of typewriting machine known as the Hansen Writing Ball.

It was patented and produced for sale in 1870 and is considered the first commercial typewriter.

He also studied the growth of children and flora and determined that growth rates are not constant but that the rays of the sun influence growth rates in all nature.

In 1887 Frederik Hellesen designed what is believed to be the first dry-cell battery. This is the most widely used type of battery

today, and the flashlight battery is this kind.

In 1913, physicist Niels Bohr published his model of atomic structure. He posited that electrons travel in orbits around the nuclei of atoms and that the chemical interactions of atoms are a function of the number of electrons in the outer orbits of an atom.

He also said that electrons could move from a higher-energy orbit to a lower one and emit a quantum of energy, a photon.

This introduced quantum theory. In 1922, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics.

He conceived the theory of complementarity, which, for example, leads to explaining light as a wave or as particles. In 1943 he escaped from Denmark to Sweden and then made his way eventually to the US. He worked on the Manhattan Project and later campaigned for the peaceful use of nuclear energy. He was one of the greatest scientists and visionaries in history.

In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys that he named Legos, after the Danish phrase leg godt—which means play well. Lego is now the sixth largest toy company in the world, and the building components are now made of plastic.

There are four Legolands in the world—open air theme parks containing scale models made with millions of Lego blocks each.

In 1933, Danish-born Niels Christensen invented the O-ring.

This is a rubber ring—in the shape of a donut—that fits in a groove around a piston that slides back and forth in a cylinder.

The ring makes a tight seal between the piston and the cylinder. Christiansen received a US patent for his invention in 1937.

Aurora Ljungstedt, Sweden's First Mystery Writer

by Jean Tygum, Svea No. 253 In 2009, the mystery genre is bursting with good health. Whodunit stories and novels are flourishing worldwide and Swedish authors such as Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall, creators of Detective Martin Beck, and writer Henning Mankell, creator of Detective Kurt Wallander, are universally known and loved. But when did mystery fiction take root in Sweden?

Some say it began on a foggy morning in Stockholm in 1870, when a distinguished gentleman made his way through the chilly streets to ask a favor of a friend who published the widely circulated newspaper, Nya Dagligt Allehanda. Would the friend be willing to publish, in serial fashion, some new work by the writer Claude Gérard? Specifically, two short novels, Hastfordska vapnet (The Hastfordian Escutcheon) and Det obturna brevet (The Sealed Letter). (Escutcheon = family crest).

The publisher, having previously printed short pieces by Claude Gérard, readily agreed, and the two friends shook hands warmly. Thus the books regarded by some literary historians as the first Swedish mystery novels saw the light of day, serialized in the newspaper in 1871.

These two novels perhaps fit better into the genre of Gothic romance (skräckromantiska, “horror novel”) than mystery as we think of it today, but they do feature a detective who investigates and solves a mystery. Moreover, though confronted with strange happenings in a large spooky house, with a cast of characters behaving suspiciously in a shadowy moonlit atmosphere, the narrator-detective finds a solution that is rational and realistic, which explains away the seemingly eerie or supernatural.

Hastfordian Escutcheon, in fact, features not one but two amateur detectives working in tandem: an elderly retired judge named Uncle Benjamin and a chambermaid called Lisslena.

Now, who was this “French” author, Claude Gérard? Not a Frenchman at all, but the very Swedish wife of the aforementioned distinguished gentleman. His name was Samuel Viktor Ljungstedt, he was a prison board official in Stockholm, and he

dutifully promoted his wife's writing throughout their marriage.

Her name was Aurora Lovisa Hjort Ljungstedt, she was 50 years old in 1871, and these two novels were far from her first literary output. She had been a scribbler since nursery days, when she shared her original poems and stories with her family, her captive audience. Supposedly her family discouraged her literary ambitions (“Unladylike!”), but she persisted. At age 25 she married S.V. Ljungstedt and settled into a pleasant life of domesticity and writing.

Over the course of her 87 years, she wrote three novels and many fanciful and murky short stories which appeared, under more than one pen name, in the Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Nya Dagligt Allehanda between 1857 and 1878, and likely through self-publishing. Her first novel, Hin ondes hus (The Devil's House or The House of Old Nick) appeared in 1853 under the French pseudonym “Richard.”

Aurora Ljungstedt, née Hjort, was born September 2, 1821, into an aristocratic family in Blekinge Province in southern Sweden. During her childhood, the family moved to Kolmården, south of Stockholm. Young Aurora grew up in a beautiful home in a woodsy area that no doubt lent credence to the ghost stories and funereal legends that her maternal great-grandmother related in hushed tones by flickering firelight.

Tales involving devils, graveyard intrigues, and mysterious forest creatures.

Powerful fuel for a child's imagination.

In fact, Gothic tales of mystery and terror were all the rage among the European reading public during Ljungstedt's lifetime. Gothic fiction from England, France and Germany reached Sweden in translation in the late eighteenth century, works such as Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1765), Ann Radcliffe's Mystery of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1797), and Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk (1796).

Later, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) took Swedish readers by storm, as did the opus of Ljungstedt's contemporary, Edgar Allan Poe (18091949).

The French were wild for Poe and Swedes were wild for everything French. Both of Ljungstedt's pseudonyms come from French stories. Claude Gérard was a character in a story by Ljungstedt's favorite French writer, Eugène Sue, whose popular mysteries featured such unusual characters as a female pirate. Ljungstedt also devoured everything Poe wrote and like Poe, gravitated toward the bizarre.

Indeed, the title Det Obturna Brevet (The Sealed

Letter) seems a tip of the hat to Poe's “Purloined Letter.” Not surprisingly, some literary historians call Ljungstedt “the Swedish Edgar Allan Poe.” Some say Hastfordian Escutcheon and Det Obturna Brevet were “best sellers,” but this seems unlikely. The newspaper presented Ljungstedt's novels along with weather reports, news of the day, obituaries and advertising. The novels were printed, but were they read? Would her writing have been published at all if her husband had not actively promoted her? We cannot know. What is known is that by 1872, the year after Nya Dagligt Allehanda serialized the two mysteries, she faded into obscurity.

For decades she was forgotten, until late twentieth century literary scholars began looking into the history of the Swedish mystery and found Aurora Ljungstedt. Her fame, if fame it ever was, did not last, but she is of interest to us because of what followed: A worldwide mania for detective fiction, for the adventures of The Great Detective: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey, Inspector Jules Maigret, Lew Archer, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Nero Wolfe, and a multitude of others. Including, of course, from Swedish pens, the stellar Martin Beck and Kurt Wallander.

Aurora Ljungstedt's novels have historic value because it appears she was a pioneer on the path of Swedish detective fiction, though it seems doubtful that any later mystery writers, in Sweden or elsewhere, ever heard of her. She was a reflector of light rather than its source, one inspired rather than inspiring. And yet, even a small star casts a glow.

Swedish detective fiction is alive and well in 2009 and Aurora Ljungstedt's star has a place in the cosmos.

The Hastfordian Escutcheon and Det Obturna Brevet (in Swedish, not English) may be purchased from Swedish bookstores and online websites. You may also check them out of the public library in Sweden.

An Icelandic Innovation Icelandic explorers under the direction of Leif Ericsson discovered the New World in the year 1000.

Their literary sagas tell the Viking stories, including the story of this great voyage.

Greetings to all VASA members Our best wishes for a successful convention and a big THANK YOU to Svea Lodge No. 253 for hosting the 101st annual District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8 Convention From all the members of Siljan-Mora-Tuna Lodge No. 134 and the home lodge of Sten Hult, Past District Master and the Grand Lodge Deputy, D. L. No. 8, 2006 – 2010 Lisa Cianci, D. L. Executive Board member The local lodge members are the backbone of Vasa, but the youth are the future of the Vasa Order.

Remember to support our children’s clubs.

We thank Professor Annette Johansson, Svea Lodge No. 253, for her generous sponsorship of the appearance of the pianist for the Sunday Memorial Service.

We thank Lillemor and Richard Horngren for their generous donations of Swedish dolls and pictures for Convention fundraisers.

We are sorry you could not attend, but will see you next Convention!

We thank Chuck and Marty Lindgren of Svea Lodge No. 253, who made generous donations of golf tournament prizes and gifts for fundraisers.

More than 90 members of Svea Lodge No. 253 purchased fundraiser items.

They also contributed fundraiser gifts, food and drinks for the hospitality room, and most valuable of all, their time and support for the Convention.

Tack skall du ha!

Thanks to our fellow members of District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8 for supporting our fundraisers, for contributing to our request for donations, and for sponsoring advertisements in the program book.

The Convention program book will remain as a newsletter on the Vasa District web site until 1 October 2009 at www.vasaorder.net/newsletters.cfm?lodge=D8.

If you wish to contribute to the program book, your input will be added to the on-line version.

We will accept pictures taken at the convention or additional articles about Nordic innovations.

Address contributions to: nodjehult@att.net.

There is a Grand Lodge restriction on the amount of space that can be used on-line for a document, but we will fit in as many contributions as space permits.

From 1 October 2009, the next Convention will use the web site location for their program book and/or news about their convention.

Please ‘watch that space’ often.

Enighet ger styrka.

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NORDIC MYSTERY WRITERS AND THEIR BOOKS Icelandic Authors Arnaldur Indridason Jar City Voices Silence of the Grave The Draining Lake Yrsa Sigurdardottir Last Rituals Norwegian Authors K.O Dahl The Fourth Man The Man in the Window Karin Fossum Don’t Look Back He Who Fears the Wolf When the Devil Holds the Candle The Indian Bride Black Seconds Anne Holt Punishment The Final Murder Jo Nesbo The Redbreast Nemesis Devil’s Star Swedish Authors Karin Alvtegen Missing Betrayal Shame Guilt Åke Edwardson Sun and Shadow Never End Frozen Tracks Kjell Eriksson The Princess of Burundi The Cruel Stars of the Night The Demon from Dakar Inger Frimansson Good Night, My Darling The Shadow in the Water Mari Jungstedt Unseen Unspoken The Inner Circle Camilla Läckberg The Ice Princess Åsa Larsson Sun Storm The Blood Spilt

The Black Path Stieg Larsson The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo The Girl Who Played With Fire Henning Mankell Faceless Killer The Dogs of Riga The White Lioness The Man Who Smiled Sidetracked The Fifth Woman One Step Behind Firewall The Pyramid Before the Frost Liza Marklund The Bomber Studio 69 Paradise Prime Time Håkan Nesser Borkmann’s Point The Return The Mind’s Eye Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö Roseanna The Man Who Went up in Smoke The Man on the Balcony The Laughing Policeman The Fire Engine That Disappeared Murder at the Savoy The Abominable Man The Locked Room Cop Killer The Terrorists Johan Theorin Echoes from the Dead Helene Tursten Detective Inspector Huss The Torso The Glass Devil Finnish Author Matti Joensuu The Stone Murders The Priest of Evil To Steal Her Love Danish Authors Peter Hoeg The Quiet Girl Christian Jungersen The Exception

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ALFRED NOBEL

by Sten Hult from Scandinavian Review Alfred Nobel is perhaps the Swede who is best-known throughout the world.

On November 27 1895, Nobel penned his will; he died one year later in his magnificent villa in San Remo on the Italian Riviera. In his will Nobel stipulated that the major part of his estate (31 million Swedish kronor, that have grown into more than two billion today) was to be invested. The income from the investments was to be “distributed annually in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind”.

The five prizes are for work in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. A prize in economics “in memory of Alfred Nobel” was added in 1969. There is also a “Right Livelihood” prize awarded simultaneously, which was founded by the Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull.

Alfred Nobel’s will created was contested by some of his relatives. Swedish King Oscar II claimed that Alfred Nobel’s donation was not “patriotic”.

Today it is estimated that one-third of the world press articles about Sweden can be attributed to the Nobel Prize.

Nobel’s assistant and testament executor Ragnar Sohlman insured that the will would be enforced. Sohlman rushed to Paris and St. Petersburg, with the Nobel family in hot pursuit, and withdrew all funds and deposited them in a bank in Stockholm. A three-year long dispute followed before the first prizes could finally be awarded in 1901.

Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. His father, an inventor, moved to St. Petersburg, when Alfred was five, to start anew after a bankruptcy in Sweden. The family followed four years later after Immanuel had established a successful industry, producing mines for the Russian army. Alfred was sent on a two-year trip in Europe and the USA when he was seventeen. He was fluent in Swedish, Russian, English, French and German.

Immanuel’s company went bankrupt in 1850 and everything changed. Immanuel returned to Sweden with his wife and sons, Alfred and Emil.

Sons Ludvig and Robert stayed on in Russia and it is through them that the Nobel family today lives on in Sweden.

Ludvig, an inventor, developed his own company, Ludvig Nobels Maskinfabrik, into one of Russia’s largest industrial concerns, as is still evident in the blocks of buildings at the Viborg quay in Saint

Petersburg. Robert established a petroleum company that became one of Russia’s largest industries and the third power on the international oil market together with the Rockefellers and the Rothchilds. When the Communists seized power in 1917, the Nobel industries were the very first to be seized by the Red Army and the family had to flee to Sweden.

Immanuel Nobel, after fleeing from Russia, set up a laboratory to manufacture explosives on a farm in the south of Stockholm with his sons Alfred and Emil. An explosion killed Emil and four others and led to a stroke for Immanuel.

Alfred continued the experiments and found a safe compound for blasting called “dynamite.” After inventing dynamite in 1866, Nobel left Sweden and established factories in several countries in Europe and the U.S. Alfred Nobel had a wide range of interests in many fields of technology: imitation leather, artificial rubber and synthetic silk, the electrical battery, the electric bulb and the phonograph. Nobel had 93 factories around the world when he died. Many of the leading industries in the chemical field today like ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) emanate from companies established by Nobel.

He had homes in six countries complete with laboratories. He said that “my home is where I work and I work everywhere.” Towards the end of his life, he bought the Björkborn manor in Karlskoga. He lived there for only two years before he died. The manor and the laboratory are a museum now. In Stockholm, Nobelmuseet is dedicated to his prize.

Nobel sometimes wrote as many as 30 letters a day. A year before his death he published the sad novel Nemesis, which was performed as a play in Stockholm.

Nobel was full of paradoxes.

He was successful yet felt inadequate. He made fortunes out of war but fought for peace. He was a staunch patriot, yet spent relatively little time in Sweden. He was an accomplished scientist and inventor, yet had only one year of formal schooling and no university degree. He loved family life but had none of his own.

Alfred Nobel was an idealist and a realist both. He hoped that he could encourage future generations to improve the world’s condition by his awards. They would reward people who made achievements that were “the greatest benefit to mankind”.

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National Anthems United States O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Sweden Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga Nord, du tysta, du glädjerika sköna!

Jag hälsar dig, vänaste land uppå jord, din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna, din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna.

Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar, då ärat ditt namn flög över jorden.

Jag vet, att du är och du blir vad du var.

Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!

Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!

Canada O Canada!

Our home and native land!

True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise, The True North strong and free!

From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Election Results District Master__________________________________ Vice District Master______________________________ District Secretary________________________________ Assistant District Secretary________________________ District Treasurer________________________________ Hospital Fund Secretary___________________________ Executive Board__________________________________ Executive Board__________________________________ Supr. Child & Youth Clubs________________________ Cultural Leader__________________________________ Chaplain________________________________________ Master of Ceremonies_____________________________ Auditing Committee______________________________ Auditing Committee______________________________ Auditing Committee______________________________ Inner Guard_____________________________________ Outer Guard_____________________________________

Memorial Service District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8 Sunday 31 May 2009 Indianapolis, Indiana *indicates please stand as able Music for gathering: Fäbodpsalm från Dalarna Welcome

Marv Anderson, Svea No. 253

*Psalm 8

Responsively L=Leader, P=People

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Your glory is chanted above the heavens by the mouth of babes and infants.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, and mortals that you care for them?

You have made them little less than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

*Hymn

“Praise the Lord Each Tribe and Nation” Johann Franck, Tr. Augustus Nelson Swedish tune

Praise the Lord, each tribe and nation, Praise Him with a joyous heart; Ye who know His full salvation, Gather now from every part; Let your voices glorify, In His temple, God on high.

He’s our God, and our Creator, We, His flock and chosen seed.

He, our Lord and Liberator, Us from sin and peril freed.

And at last His flock shall rest In the mansions of the blest.

Give Him thanks within His portals; In the courts His deeds proclaim; Hither come, ye ransomed mortals, Glorify our Savior’s Name.

Ever kind and loving, He Keeps His faith eternally.

“Reprinted from The Hymnal, copyright 1925 Augustana Book Concern, Used by permission of Augsburg Fortress.”

*The Lord’s Prayer

Inez Törnblom, District Chaplain, Viljan No. 349

Fader vår, som är i himmelen!

Helgat varde ditt namn; tillkomme ditt rike; ske din vilja såsom i himmelen så ock på jorden; Vårt dagliga bröd giv oss i dag; och förlåt oss våra skulder, såsom ock vi förlåta dem oss skyldiga äro; och inled oss inte i frestelse, utan fräls oss ifrån ondo, ty riket är ditt och makten och härligheten i evighet.

Amen.

New Testament Reading:

Romans 8, selected

Anthem: “On Eagle’s Wings” Vasa Choir, Wesley Hanson, Director, Svea No. 253 Michael Joncas, arr. Mark Hayes and Wesley Hanson The Memorial Roll Siljan Mora Tuna # 134 Ester G. Carlson Anna Nelson Donald R. Johnson Kronan # 179 Stina Hirsch Nancy Johansen Margaret Carlson

Inez Törnblom Viljan #349 Svea Erd James Nystedt Austin #466 Linnea Uppstrom

Bessemer # 203 Ellen Jeffers William Kilstrom John Pelzman

Linde #492 Evangeline Nelson Marilyn Bittick Ralph Scheele George Childers Janice Touve Paul Nelson

Brahe # 245 Lola Johnson Patricia Gelasius Eugene Blair Lillie Kraemer

Bishop Hill #683 Sonja Anderson Loren Newman Shirley Peterson LeRoy Swanson

Svea # 253 Howard Jansen Ann Black Eva Månsson Jeanne Metz

Hagar #721 Mats Johanson Karl Schmidt, Jr.

Viking #730 Helen DeMar Allen Johnson Ken Nylander Lillian Lagerkvist Art Pierre Lindgren #754 Janice Touve (dual member) Jubileum #755 Miriam Ericson Frances Johnson James A. Johnson Bengt A. Johnson

Commendation *Hymn “God of the Ages�

Daniel C. Roberts and George W. Warren

Marv Anderson, Svea No. 253

National Hymn

God of the ages, whose almighty hand leads forth in beauty all the starry band of shining worlds in splendor through the skies, our grateful songs before thy throne arise.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past; in this free land with thee our lot is cast; be thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay, thy Word our law, thy paths our chosen way.

From war's alarms, from deadly pestilence, be thy strong arm our ever sure defense; thy true religion in our hearts increase; thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Refresh thy people on their toilsome way; lead us from night to never-ending day; fill all our lives with love and grace divine, and glory, laud, and praise be ever thine. *Closing prayer Music for fellowship and travel

Marv Anderson, Svea No. 253

Save the date!

14, 15, and 16 May 2010 Michigan City, Indiana 102nd ANNUAL CONVENTION DISTRICT LODGE LAKE MICHIGAN No. 8 VASA ORDER OF AMERICA

Hosted by Nordik Folk Lodge No. 761 Contacts: Steve Westlund, Chairman, plncrazy@sbcglobal.net Linnea Ogrentz, Convention Committee Chairman, ogrentz@gmail.com Lynda Smith, Convention Co-Chairman, lamsmith@hotmail.com

The Marten House Hotel and Lilly Conference Center 1801 West 86th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46260 (317) 872 - 4111 or (800) 736 - 5634 Vasa District Lodge Lake Michigan No. 8 Convention 29 May 2009 – 31 May 2009 Hospitality Rooms Friday evening and Sunday post-meeting: Dugan Arnold

Executive Board Meeting Friday 3 PM: O’Connor

Saturday Lunch and Saturday Banquet: Poolside A – B – C

Culture displays, bucket raffle, silent auction, emporium, and loppmarknad: Depaul/Seton all weekend Convention meetings: Marillac/Laboute/ Rendu Registration Friday PM and Saturday AM: Heritage Foyer