AB

Aktiebolag

Aktiebolag is the Swedish term for "limited company" or "corporation". When used in company names, it is abbreviated "AB" or "Ab"...

 Motala Verkstad is one of the oldest engineering companies in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. The company was founded in 1822 during the construction of Göta Canal

Göta Canal

The Göta Canal is a Swedish canal constructed in the early 19th century. It formed the backbone of a waterway stretching some 382 miles , linking a number of lakes and rivers to provide a route from Gothenburg on the west coast to Söderköping on the Baltic Sea via the river Göta älv and the...

. Motala Verkstad has also built about 400 ships, 800 bridges (e.g. Västerbron, Skeppsholmsbron, Bergsnäsbron and the Ashwas bridge in Iran), railway equipment, 1300 locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s. The 118-meter-tall towers of Uppsala Cathedral

Uppsala Cathedral

Uppsala Cathedral is a cathedral located centrally in the city of Uppsala, Sweden. It dates back to the late 13th century and at a height of 118.7 m is the tallest church building in Scandinavia. Originally built under Roman Catholicism and used for coronations of the Swedish monarch, since the...

 were also built by Motala Verkstad. During the 1970s the company was the world's largest exporter of kitchen sinks and during the 1980s they built landing gear for Swedish-built aircraft. Today the company employs about 180 people.

History

Motala Verkstad was started in 1822 on Baltzar von Platen's initiative. Von Platen realized the importance of having local technical knowledge during the construction of the channel. The first leader was Daniel Fraser

Daniel Fraser (engineer)

Daniel Fraser was a Scottish engineer who built a successful career in Sweden.In 1822, he founded the first engineering industry in Sweden, Motala Verkstad, to manufacture the lock gates for the new Göta Canal, which had been designed by fellow Scottish engineer Thomas Telford...

.

In literature

In the science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...

by Jules Verne

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...

, the spur of the submarine Nautilus

Nautilus (Verne)

The Nautilus is the fictional submarine featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island . Verne named the Nautilus after Robert Fulton's real-life submarine Nautilus...

is said to have been built at Motala Verkstad.