The complete history of the development of The - The Linde Group

AGA – a strong partner for Linde
Gustav Dalén, an inventor/engineer like Carl von
Linde, was president of AGA from 1909 to 1937.
As a formerly diversified technology
company with an exceptionally gifted
entrepreneur-engineer at its head, the
“Aktiebolag Gasaccumulator” company,
or AGA for short, made an ideal partner
for Linde AG.
AGA originated in 1904 as “Gasaccumulator
AB” from the “Svenska Carbid &
Acetylen AB” company, founded in 1901
by Swedish businessman Axel Nordvall.
The young company developed and marketed
possible applications for acetylene
gas. The rise to become a leading Swedish
company of international significance
was successful even before World War I
thanks to the numerous inventions of
Gustaf Daléns (1869 to 1937), who had
a decisive impact on the company beginning
in 1909.
In 1905 Dalén developed a flash device
for lighthouses and buoys that reduced
gas consumption to one tenth of the
original amount. In 1906 there followed
a storage body for acetylene in gas tanks,
which minimized the risk of explosion.
Dalén’s “sun valve,” introduced in 1907,
regulated the intensity of light from
lighthouses and buoys depending on the
level of daylight. The “Dalén Mixer” of
1909 finally made it possible to produce
the mixture of acetylene and air (in a
ratio of 1:10), which was necessary for
navigation lights, safely and automatically.
This “AGA System” for lighthouses and
buoys formed the basis of the company’s
economic success. In 1912, Gustaf Dalén
received the Nobel Prize in physics for
the invention of his system. Some of his
gas-run lighthouses light the way for
ships even today. Although he was blinded
in an accident in 1912, Dalén successfully
led the company until his death in 1937.
In the period between the two world
wars, AGA expanded its product line
with signal systems, welding equipment,
heating elements, radios, large film
projectors and automobiles, which were
manufactured in Berlin. From the late
1930s until the 1960s, AGA also sold
gyro compasses, gyro-horizons and bomb
target sights for the Swedish Air Force.
In 1947 AGA took over the battery
manufacturer Tudor. In 1954, AGA introduced
the world’s first heart-lung machine;
other innovative products included the
distance meter with a geodimeter in
2000
N o 5375 Improved
paper-making process. (AGA European Patent).
At the turn of the millennium, there are more than six billion
people living on earth.
1953 and in 1965 contact-free temperature
measurement with the AGA Thermovision.
But the most important field of this
diversified technology company was
technical gases. AGA went from acetylene
to oxygen and soon produced a number
of other gases. As early as the 1930s,
AGA became involved in the area of
medical gases. For example, the company
supplied oxygen, mainly as a mixed gas
together with laughing gas and “Carbogen”
(oxygen with five percent carbon
dioxide) to hospitals for the treatment of
respiratory diseases, for anesthesia and
for treatment of pain. AGA also built corresponding
technical medical equipment.
With its highly diversified product line,
AGA was unable to withstand international
competition over time. For that reason,
the company concentrated exclusively
on its gas business starting in the 1980s.
In 1981, AGA already held the position
of the world’s fifth largest gas producer.
Political changes made it possible for
AGA to return to the markets in Hungary,
East Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia
and Romania after 1989, where the company
had been represented before 1945.
In 1999, AGA was an innovative gas
company with a strong market position
in Europe and North and South America
with a sales volume of 1.6 billion euro
and 9,500 employees. As far as regional
positioning and product and service lines,
AGA made the ideal complement to
Linde – the main requirements for the
takeover were there.
After the integration of AGA, Linde
Gas and Linde Engineering were merged
in 2001 to form the Linde Gas and
Engineering Division.
In the 1980s, AGA concentrated exclusively on
the gas business.
81