Arent Silfversparre
Arent Silfversparre (1856-1902)
1902 Obituary [1]
ARENT SILFVERSPARRE died in February 1902. On February 24 a serious catastrophe occurred at the Bofors Steel Works in Sweden during the testing of a 15-centimetre gun for the Swedish navy. Three persons were instantly killed and five others seriously injured, of whom two since died. Among these was Mr. Silfversparre, the technical manager of the works. His untimely death was a great loss to Swedish metallurgy, and its announcement came as a shock to his many friends in Great Britain, where his geniality and his perfect knowledge of the English language made him deservedly popular.
Born in 1856, he studied at the Stockholm School of Mines from 1875 to 1879, and with a scholarship awarded by the Association of ironmasters and the Board of Trade he then studied in foreign countries.
He was subsequently appointed engineer to the Nordenfeldt Gun and Ammunition Co., in London, and in 1885 finally went to Bofors, being appointed technical head of the works in 1894. He was the author of several technical papers, and in 1897 published an elaborate work on mechanical tests of Swedish iron and steel.
He was elected a member of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1898, and, as a member of the Reception Committee in that year, took an active part in organising the highly successful Stockholm meeting.