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The Most Famous

INVENTORS from Sweden

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This page contains a list of the greatest Swedish Inventors. The pantheon dataset contains 354 Inventors, 6 of which were born in Sweden. This makes Sweden the birth place of the 10th most number of Inventors behind Hungary and Belgium.

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Swedish Inventors of all time. This list of famous Swedish Inventors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Gideon Sundback

1. Gideon Sundback (1880 - 1954)

With an HPI of 58.95, Gideon Sundback is the most famous Swedish Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 43 different languages on wikipedia.

Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck (April 24, 1880 – June 21, 1954) was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who is most commonly associated with his work in the development of the zipper.

Photo of John Ericsson

2. John Ericsson (1803 - 1889)

With an HPI of 57.64, John Ericsson is the 2nd most famous Swedish Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive Novelty, which competed in the Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which were won by inventor George Stephenson's (1781–1848), Rocket. In North America, he designed the United States Navy's first screw-propelled steam-frigate USS Princeton, in partnership with Captain (later Commodore) Robert F. Stockton (1795–1866), who unjustly blamed him for the fatal accident of that new vessel. A new partnership with Cornelius H. DeLamater (1821–1889), of the DeLamater Iron Works in New York City resulted in the first armoured ironclad warship equipped with a rotating gun turret, USS Monitor, which dramatically saved the U.S. (Union Navy) naval blockading squadron from destruction by an ironclad Confederate States naval vessel, CSS Virginia, at the famous Battle of Hampton Roads at the southern mouth of Chesapeake Bay (with the James River) in March 1862, during the American Civil War.

Photo of Lars Magnus Ericsson

3. Lars Magnus Ericsson (1846 - 1926)

With an HPI of 54.69, Lars Magnus Ericsson is the 3rd most famous Swedish Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Lars Magnus Ericsson (Swedish pronunciation: [lɑːʂ ˈmǎŋːnɵs ˈêːrɪkˌsɔn] ; 5 May 1846 – 17 December 1926) was a Swedish inventor, entrepreneur and founder of telephone equipment manufacturer Ericsson (incorporated as Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson).

Photo of Ernst Alexanderson

4. Ernst Alexanderson (1878 - 1975)

With an HPI of 51.43, Ernst Alexanderson is the 4th most famous Swedish Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Ernst Frederick Werner Alexanderson (January 25, 1878 – May 14, 1975) was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who was a pioneer in radio and television development. He invented the Alexanderson alternator, an early radio transmitter used between 1906 and the 1930s for longwave long distance radio transmission. Alexanderson also created the amplidyne, a direct current amplifier used during the Second World War for controlling anti-aircraft guns.

Photo of Victor Hasselblad

5. Victor Hasselblad (1906 - 1978)

With an HPI of 46.67, Victor Hasselblad is the 5th most famous Swedish Inventor.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Victor Hasselblad (8 March 1906 – 5 August 1978) was a Swedish inventor and photographer, known for inventing the Hasselblad 6x6 cm medium format camera.

Photo of Simone Giertz

6. Simone Giertz (1990 - )

With an HPI of 25.68, Simone Giertz is the 6th most famous Swedish Inventor.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Simone Luna Louise Söderlund Giertz ( YETSH; Swedish: [ˈjæʈːʂ]; born 1 November 1990) is a Swedish inventor, maker, robotics enthusiast, TV host, and professional YouTuber. She has also previously worked in mixed martial arts sports journalism and was an editor for Sweden's official website Sweden.se.

Pantheon has 6 people classified as inventors born between 1803 and 1990. Of these 6, 1 (16.67%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living inventors include Simone Giertz. The most famous deceased inventors include Gideon Sundback, John Ericsson, and Lars Magnus Ericsson.

Living Inventors

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Deceased Inventors

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Which Inventors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Inventors since 1700.