Current projects

Inventory of historic production equipment (90069/24)

The project aims to conduct a national inventory of Sweden's steel industry's technological heritage, including open-hearth furnaces, helve hammers, Lancashire hearths, blast furnaces, roasting furnaces, drying ovens, German hearths, smelting furnaces, blowing engines, and more. The project is divided into three stages:

1. A desk-based inventory involving literature reviews and oral consultations.
2. Field surveys of selected sites (approximately 40 facilities).
3. Compilation into a clear and accessible final report.

Key roles in the project: Industrial Heritage Specialist Ida Dicksson (Chairperson of the Research Committee) and Mining and metallurgy Historian Björn Björck

The Historical Mining and Metallurgy Collection at the National Museum of Science and Technology (90068/23)

The Historical Mining and Metallurgy Collection at the National Museum of Science and Technology comprises 1,000–3,000 items acquired in 1963. The collection was donated by KTH’s Department of Metallurgy, prompted by the relocation of KTH's mining education program to Luleå.

The artifacts date from 1840 to 1930 (with some items from the 18th century) and originate from various parts of the Falun School of Mining’s collections, including the Department of Ironworking and Processing, the institutional collection, and the Amilon collection from Filipstad. The collection contains raw material samples, such as minerals from Sweden and other countries, as well as products and results from material testing and analyses. These items were used for educational purposes.

The National Museum of Science and Technology considers the collection strongly connected to Swedish higher education in mining science, making it highly valuable for educational purposes and future research.

Chairperson: Magdalena Tafvelin Heldner, National Museum of Science and Technology

Other participants: National Museum of Science and Technology: Curator Anders Lindeberg-Lindvet, Collections Manager Therese Wijkander and Head of Collections Christian Stadius. Experts from Jernkontoret’s Historical Metallurgy Group: Olle Wijk, Gert Magnusson, Orvar Nyqvist, Claes Eriksson, Catarina Karlsson and Arne Sundström.

Further information in un article from 2023-12-08 (in Swedish): Jernkontoret bistår Tekniska museet i kartläggning av den Bergshistoriska samlingen (jernkontoret.se)

Digitization (90066/21)

In 2022, Jernkontoret and Umeå University Library launched a collaboration to digitize Jernkontorets Annaler (Annals of Jernkontoret). The project was successfully completed as planned, and from April 2024, over 100 volumes of the journal are available online and searchable through platforms like Google. The material is now easily accessible at all hours from anywhere in the world, see Jern-kontorets annaler 1817–1920 (digital.ub.umu.se)

The project has been crucial in dramatically increasing accessibility and meeting the needs of modern research. Just eight months after publication, Jernkontorets Annaler became one of the library’s most sought-after collections, with over 2,000 unique visitors reading and downloading the material. The positive impact has been significant, but the true strength of digital collections lies in their ability to grow in value as more material is added. Digital technology enhances speed and research efficiency, enabling scholars to uncover new connections and materials.

A continuation of the digitization project is now being initiated to further enhance access to Swedish mining and metallurgy history. The goal of this project is to create a Digital Historical Mining and Metallurgy Collection. The overarching objective is to digitize, preserve, and increase access to Sweden's historical mining and metallurgical heritage for future research and education.

The Baltic region as a marketplace for iron – the Osmund Ship, a merchant vessel from the 16th century (90065/20)

The research committee The Baltic region as a marketplace for iron – The Osmund Ship, a merchant vessel from the 16th century is a collaboration between Swedish National Maritime and Transport Museums (SMTM), Jernkontoret’s Historical Metallurgy Group, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University. The project aims to investigate iron, overseas trading and shipping from several perspectives. The research is based on the Osmund ship, a unique shipwreck found in the Stockholm archipelago, dated to the 16th century and with large amounts of iron in the cargo.

Chairperson: Catarina Karlsson

See also: The Baltic region as a marketplace for iron – the Osmund Ship

The New Archives Committee (90064/20)

Within Jernkontoret's Historical Metallurgy group, there is an archive group, the New Archives Committee, which works to preserve the steel industry's archives for the future and use them for research and other purposes. The committee aims to build network for archivists in the industry and other interested persons. The committee also arranges seminars and other activities.

Chairperson: Anders Nordebring

See also: The New Archives Committee

Sustainability and environmental impact in a historical perspective – metal production, mineral extraction and the steel industry (90063/20)

Within Jernkontoret’s Historical Metallurgy Group, a research committee was established in 2020 to foster collaboration on issues related to sustainability and environmental impact from a historical perspective. The committee includes representatives from Jernkontoret, Luleå University of Technology, Karlstad University, Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and the National Historical Museums of Sweden.

The purpose and focus of the committee are to initiate a research project and develop a programme proposal. The aim is to build knowledge across various disciplines such as archaeology, history, history of technology, ecology, vegetation history, metallurgy, and others. Today, new technologies, methods, and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration are available.

In recent years, a significant part of Jernkontoret’s work has focused on environmental impact. From a historical perspective, sustainability and societal benefits have also been crucial, though they were discussed using different concepts and implemented through different methods compared to today.

Chairperson: Dag Avango, Professor of History at Luleå University of Technology.

Research Project: Metals in Action

The project Metals in Action – Entanglements of environment, society and industry (MiA) was launched in 2024. Within the framework of the project, Jernkontoret collaborates with several Swedish universities and museums to explore how sustainability and environmental impact have historically been addressed within the field of historical mining.

Learn more about the research project MiA

Restructuring of Sweden’s steel industry during the 21st century (90062/19)

The Swedish steel crisis of the 1970’s – its causes, course and results – has been well studied by research. However, the Swedish steel industry, subsequently as it had previously, has had to operate in the context of hard international competition and continues to be subject to continuous pressure for change. Every day there take place adjustments and improvements following signals from the market. This far-reaching and important transformation process that has taken place in recent decades has, until now, not been the subject of any comprehensive and synoptic study.

The purpose of this research committee is to document and analyse the continued structural conversion of the Swedish steel industry over the last 25 years. The consequences for the community and for society as a whole of this restructuring are indeed wide-ranging. Ownership responsibility has, in many cases, been reshaped from being locally focused, with an obligation towards the locality of the steel plant, its future and the inhabitants, to a more business-oriented responsibility towards owners – often foreign – with high demands being made on the return on capital.

One part of the planned project will utilise a database based on registration data compiled by SCB (Statistics Sweden) to describe and analyse how the sector’s employees have developed in terms of qualifications and educational level. Besides studies of annual reports and statistics, the project group intends to engage decision-makers within the respective companies in this project.

Chairperson: Clas Ericson

 

Swedish iron and the Thirty Years War (90057/15)

The subject for the three-year project is the iron industry and the Thirty Years’ War. Regional studies of smelting furnaces in Södermanland are related to the iron production of the period and the needs of an industry so vital for waging wars. The smelting furnaces at Öllösa Bruk that were shut down in 1649 and at Grishyttan have been selected for the fieldwork.

The development of the ironworks in Swedish Uppland and Finland is used as a comparison. How the international effects of the Thirty Years’ War on trade and iron production also affected the Swedish iron industry in Södermanland is given due weight in this study. The project has an international reference group that studies the effects of the Thirty Years’ War on later historical periods.

Chairperson: Georg Haggrén

Attempts to produce pig iron at Nya Lapphyttan (90051/02)

The project has supported ‘Föreningen Järnet’ (Iron Association) at Lapphyttan and the municipality of Norberg in the efforts to produce liquid pig iron in the recreated blast furnace at Nya Lapphyttan. This is a full-scale reconstruction based on the remains (discovered in the 1970’s) of a complete medieval iron production site at Lapphyttan outside Norberg and dated to the 12th century.

This group mainly consists of metallurgists. Thirteen experimental trials have been carried out since 1994. The trial 2–11 July 2010, the goal of producing liquid pig iron was achieved for the first time. In July 2015 both liquid iron and a well-produced slag were produced.

A report about the trials was published in 2014, serie H no. 80 Nya Lapphyttan – bergsmannakunskap rekonstruerad. Work is in progress to develop an extended research plan. Nya Lapphyttan is included in the Bergslagen medieval museum.

Chairperson: Gert Magnusson, Stockholm

See also: About "Nya Lapphyttan" (jarnetpalapphyttan.se)

Non-ferrous metals, ore mining and metallurgy (90048/95)

The project’s goal is to develop education and research activities at the interface of archaeology/history and metallurgy and also to support inventory and documentation activities. An important task is also to initiate research concerning non-ferrous metals. Committee members come mainly from universities and the National Heritage Board. Subsidiary projects are mainly linked to the theses of PhD students.

Course material and syllabus have been produced for an undergraduate course for 15 ECTS, arranged at Stockholm University: Människor och metaller. Utvinning, användning och betydelse under förhistorisk tid till och med medeltid (People and metals. Extraction, utilisation and significance from the prehistoric to the medieval period).

The committee’s research spans a very long period of time, from prehistory to the contemporary era. The scope of the research not only considers the production of non-ferrous metals but also the subsequent manufacture of the metals as well as the social and economic consequences of such manufacture. External funding has been provided for the project.

Chairperson: Dag Noréus, Stockholm University, Inorganic Chemistry.

See also: Non-Ferrous Metals Committee