Adam Hiorth

Adam Severin Hiorth (16 December 1816 – 20 December 1871) was a Norwegian merchant and industrial pioneer.

Personal life

Hiorth was born in Drøbak as a son of shipmaster Fredrik Wilhelm Hiorth (1776–1844) and Louise Caroline Brodersen (1776–1860s). He died in Aker in 1871.[1]

He married Anne Sofie Sommerfelt (1824–1898) in March 1849 in Lillehammer. She was a daughter of priest and botanist Søren Christian Sommerfeldt (1794–1838),[1][2] and thus a sister of Christian Sommerfelt and Karl Linné Sommerfeldt.[3][4]

He was an uncle of engineer Fredrik Hiorth and the grandfather of painter Agnes Hiorth.[1] A son of Adam Hiorth married Giggi Sommerfelt, a daughter of dean Halfdan Einar Sommerfelt and granddaughter of Hiorth's business partner Ole Gjerdrum.[5]

Career

Hiorth finished school at 14, and then started working as a shop assistant. He was gradually given more responsibilities in the business, and also studied English and French language, and eventually passed the necessary examinations for getting a trading licence. In 1837 he started an agency in groceries and textiles, and in 1841 he co-founded the association Handelens Venner. He travelled to England to study new industrial technologies, in particular the cotton industry in Manchester.[1]

Hiorth co-founded the company Nydalens Compagnie in 1845,[6] along with wholesaler Hans Gulbranson, bailiff Ole Gjerdrum and engineer Oluf Nicolai Roll.[1] The group bought rights to waterfalls of the river Akerselva in the valley Nydalen, where they built a cotton mill and later a weaving mill.[1] Nydalens Compagnie developed into the largest textile company in Norway from the 1890s.[7] It has also been said that Nydalens Compagnie, together with Nedre Vøiens Bomuldsspinderie, signalled the beginning of Norway's industrialization.[8]

Hiorth also founded Christiania Mekaniske Væveri in 1847, together with Gulbranson, Roll, Peter J. K. Petersen and Iver Olsen.[9] In 1857 Hiorth was a co-founder of the association Akerselvens Brugseierforening, a coordinating body for factories exploiting the waterfalls of the river Akerselva. Hiorth chose to resign as manager for the spinning mill in 1860, but was still a member of the board of directors. He was also a joint owner of other textile factories and of the match factory Jølsens Tændstikfabrik, and ran a trading company that imported lamp oil and machinery equipment.[1]