Carl-Erik Elg 1913 - 1993

Carl-Erik and mother Elsa, abt 1925

My grandfather Karl August Elg and grandmother Elsa Karlsson were both from Bergslagen, the old industrial heartland in central Sweden. They met, however, in Gothenburg, where their only son Carl-Erik was born in 1913. By 1916 the family moves to Ludvika. Here my grandfather came to work for more than 40 years as a toolmaker in a mechanical workshop owned by his older brother Axel.

As my father grew up, he developed an early interest in both photography and amateur radio.

Carl-Erik with homebuilt transmitter, 1939.

Another early interest in international affairs. As a young man he learned the synthetic "world language" Esperanto, and had pen pals around the world who shared his interest. Soon amateur radio came to fill the same need. Here he was one of the early pioneers: His license to operate a transmitter was formally approved by the government in session, and was signed by the King.

After mandatory basic army training, he studied industrial management at a Technical College. Photos from that time show serious young men in coat and tie, ready to take on the burden of developing Swedish industry. In a carnival procession from 1938, the students can still joke about Hitler, but reality would soon catch up with them.

Serious students

When the second world war broke out, all radio amateurs had to hand in their transmitters to the government, and Carl-Erik was soon called up for military service. When the Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939 his unit was sent to the far north of Sweden, where they prepared to defend the Swedish border if Soviet troops broke through the Finnish lines. In the spring of 1940 his unit was sent home to demobilize, but on April 9, 1940, Hitler attacked and soon occupied Norway. So instead of going back to civilian life, his unit was sent to the Norwegian border, as the first line of defense if the Germans decided to attack Sweden.

Across the border, they could see German occupation troops. All contact with the other side was of course strictly prohibited, but both sides were eager for news about the progress of the war. Eventually, a set of rituals developed where men from both sides laid down their arms and met in no-mans-land to exchange news and cigarettes.

Meeting in no mans land. Carl Erik far right.

Mobilization in Sweden created a large need for radio operators. Many radio amateurs were transferred to the signal corps, and after a winter on the Norwegian border, my father came to spend the rest of his active duty at his regiment's headquarter, manning the base station there. While still only a vice corporal he commanded a group of young and lively WACs. When they were not occupied with their own traffic, they tried to follow both allied and German transmissions, to get news of the war. When the allied troups landed in Normandy on D-Day, they listened to Eisenhower adressing the troops, hours before the news was announced by Swedish broadcasting. Carl-Erik's experiences led to a life-long interest in the history of WW II. His last trip abroad was to the invation beaches in Normandy.

Carl-Erik was also a pioneer in color photography. I have found color slides going back to 1941 (the first color slide film was sold in the US by Kodak in 1935). At that time color slides was the only medium for color photography. When color prints appeared on the market, he was not satisfied to pick up a set of prints at the camera store. He started experimenting with making his own enlargements - a complex chemistry process with many steps involved. As usual, he built his own equipment to control time and temperature, and exchanged long letters with the chemistry suppliers when he found ellors in their instructions.

Engaged, 1944

During 1944, a certain young lady begins to appears frequently in his photos, and in 1946, Carl-Erik marries Inga Britta Svangren. Next year Lennart is born, and when daughter Elisabet arrives in 1949, the family is complete. They have outgrown their first apartment, and buy a house where Lennart and Elisabet grow up. Here Carl-Erik can develop his love for gardening, and fill the rooftop with strange antennas..

After graduating in 1938, Carl-Erik spent his whole career with ASEA (now ABB) in Ludvika. Initially he worked as a production engineer, helping to introduce time/motion studies (MTM) at ASEA. Later he trained the next generation of production engineers. His lauguage proficiency meant that he was often asked to host foreign visitors to ASEA. Some of these became life-long friends.

Amateur radio was also instrumental in giving the family friends acroos the globe. Carl-Erik was more interested in radio as a way of making new contacts before the internet, than in the technical challenges. We hosted visiting amateurs, and made a number of holiday trips abroad to meet friends he had metcacross the radio, before the charter industry had made international travel commonplace.

His Interest i photography was life-long. Carl-Erik documented their many trip in both photo albums, and edited 8 mm movies and later video films. He passed away in 1993 of a massive coronary bleed, as he was stepping out of the camera store where he had picked up another roll of processed film.

-oOo-

Now that I am retired myself, I am struck by the similarities between our lives:

My father worked at ASEA in different capacities for most of his career, I came to work in basically the same government organization from 1980 until I retired in 2012. Carl-Erik became a pillar in his speciality, but had no interest in seeking a management position. I decided early on never to take a management job, but aspired to become a "guru" in my field instead (and judging from the speeches when I retired I might have succeeded in the end..).

My feeble attempt at rebellion involved majoring in psychology instead of engineering, but I came to work my whole live with the interaction between economics and technology, the same specialty my father had pursued in his engineering degree. We even discovered mutual contacts from our work.

Carl-Erik bought my first camera when I was ten, and taught me to take photos as well as making prints in the darkroom. He started the family history project which I have carried on for more than 30 years.

Carl-Erik made new friends abroad through amateur radio, I have made the same through the internet, pursuing my interests in both genealogy and railroad history. Carl-Erik passed away in 1993, the same year the World Wide Web was launched. He bought an early home computer/word processor which he used to keep up correspondence across the world, but he just missed out on the computer as a networked communications device. I am sure he would have loved to immerse himself in both the internet and digital photography.