Karl Einar Laurentius Behr
Karl Einar Laurentius Behr (c1897-1942)
1942 Obituary [1]
KARL EINAR LAURENTIUS PETTERSON BEHR was resident mechanical and electrical engineer to the Messina (Transvaal) Development Company, Ltd., and had been in that firm's employment since 1922. During that period he was engaged on testing work in connection with copper production and was in charge of all the firm's engineering work on copper mining and smelting. Since 1933 he had been responsible to the general manager for the maintenance and operation of power stations and pumping and hoisting plants, as well as the supervision of constructional work and various workshops.
Mr. Behr was born in Sweden and served his apprenticeship from 1913 to 1915, with Aktiebolaget G. W. Lyth, instrument makers and general engineers, of Stockholm. He then commenced a three years' course of study at the Tekniska Skolan, Stockholm, where he was awarded the mechanical engineering diploma. From 1919 to 1921 he was employed as draughtsman in the Swedish Government's Artillery Staff Construction Department, being engaged on the design of tools and machinery for the mass-production of arms, and on specifications for factory equipment. In the following year he left Sweden for South Africa, to take up his post with the Messina (Transvaal) Development Company, and in 1925 he was awarded the Union of South Africa Mechanical Engineers' Certificate of Competency.
In 1936 he was elected an Associate Member of the Institution. His death occurred in Johannesburg on 13th December 1940, in his forty-fifth year.