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AN ENGINEER'S VISIT TO AMERICA: CARL EDVARD NORSTRÖM'S JOURNEY IN 1848 LARS VON CELSING Carl Edvard Norström is remembered as one of the pioneers of railway construction in Sweden. Born in Trollhättan in 1815, he early became involved in practical engineering work on the Trollhätte Canal—where his father was in charge of construction and maintenance—under Major John Ericson of the Naval Mechani• cal Corps. At the age of 21 Norström was appointed a lieutenant in the same corps. He was promoted to captain in 1841 and stationed in Karlstad to develop harbor facilities. He married there in 1842. During Norström's younger years canal building had been seen as the key to developing internal communications, in Sweden as elsewhere, but by the 1840s increasing interest was beginning to focus upon railways, which for more than a decade were rapidly developing abroad, particularly in Great Britain and the United States. In 1847 a group of interested ironmasters in Värmland persuaded the Swedish government to send Captain Norström to the United States to study first-hand this new means of transporta• tion. Norström departed Karlstad on 5 May 1848 and traveled, via Gothenburg, Copenhagen, and Hamburg, to London, where, among other things, he had his first train ride to the West India Docks. From London he embarked for America on 31 May. His journey lasted altogether seven months, during which he kept a diary of 146 manuscript pages, illustrated with his own sketches, presently in the possession of Agnete Forslund (née Norström) of Gävle. This was published in abridged form in Kungliga Väg-och Vattenbyggnadskåren 1851-1937, edited by R. Smed• berg (Stockholm, 1937), pp. 181-290, without illustrations, but it seems to have escaped the notice of historical research. In 1986, Lars von Celsing, Norström's great-grandson, privately published an account of the latter's life and career, Carl Edvard Norström. Den glömte järnvägsbyggaren (Stockholm, 1986, 32 pages), which in describing Norström's American journey in 1848 drew upon the travel diary. It is that section—comprising pages 8-17 of von Celsing's account—that is given in translation here. 69 In America, the young engineer was taken in hand by his older mentor Nils Ericson's celebrated brother, the inventor John Erics• son in New York, who deeply impressed Norström and whose recommendations opened doors for him throughout his American travels. Norström's diary shows great enthusiasm for American mechanical ingenuity, but it also reveals a fresh and attractive personality, observant and open to the experiences of a strange and exciting new world. It should be added that Norström's travel diary, as summarized by von Celsing, gives much interesting information about the European parts of the journey, including much incredulous commentary on London high society and a description of Schles¬ wig-Holstein during the war of 1848-49 there. Soon after his return to Karlstad in late November 1848, Norström designed Sweden's first railway, an eight-kilometer stretch connect• ing Lake Fryken with the Klara River, opened in 1849. Horses provided the propulsion for the first five years, until the first locomotive was constructed in Eskilstuna. In 1851, Norström was appointed to a new State Railway Commission, together with Nils Ericson, whose right-hand man he was in the construction of the Western Trunk Line from Stockholm to Gothenburg, between 1856 and 1862. He thereafter continued to play a leading role in Sweden's railway-building and is considered to have been the best theoretician among his peers in that monumental task. He died in 1871, aged 56 years. [ED.] After twelve days' sojourn in London Carl Edvard boarded the full-rigger American Eagle for the journey across the Atlantic. There were no less than 347 passengers on board, of which 57 in cabin-class. And of all these passengers only two or three had return tickets! The English Channel, despite the season, was in a bad mood and could only be forced by constant hard tacking. Not even our Swedish Viking could stand up against the ravages of seasickness. Still, this did not prevent him—with the help of a good, stiff shot—from celebrating his sacrifices to Neptune in verse. Off Cornwall he passed Eddystone's celebrated lighthouse, built in 1757-59, which he sketched and described in suitably technical style. 70 Once out on the Atlantic the American Eagle ran into a strong southwesterly gale. "The ship was tossed haplessly among monstrous waves .... What most surprised me was that the masts were not swept overboard. The officers and crew nonetheless showed the greatest calm. Never have I heard more impressive music than the shrieking of the storm in the rigging, than great Aeolian harp. A storm at sea is indeed one of the great spectacles nature has to show," the writer exclaimed lyrically. The storm died down and Carl Edvard had time to describe in detail both the ship and his fellow passengers, a fittingly motley group. Among others his attention was drawn to an English lord, "the very epitome of a penurious aristocrat who, affected by that malady so peculiar to that nation—'spleen'—roams throughout the world, like the shoemaker of Jerusalem, to find peace. On his back he carried a bird-cage with a half dozen small birds, his only company and that with which he is almost solely concerned. Although badly plagued with seasickness—really frightfully—he nonetheless travels as much as possible by sea, where his birds thrive best." After 40 days' sail, the ship finally reached New York on 9 July. The first impressions of the city—of mud and refuse in pouring rain—were not encouraging. "New York is not London," the arriving passengers unanimously agreed. Indeed, the unbelievably suggestive picture of New York's skyline silhouetted against the blue still belonged to the future. If Carl Edvard was later impressed by many private and public buildings he still held to his judgment. "No entirely beautiful street is to be found here. Even the most fashionable are badly paved and extremely dirty. Everything looks imposing, but temporary and incomplete," he concluded. The density of traffic could likewise not be compared with London's. Nevertheless it was cheaper to travel by train and the American steamboats were much larger than any our travelers had ever seen. The day after his arrival Carl Edvard immediately sought out "Captain" John Ericsson and paid a few courtesy calls on, among others, the Swedish-Norwegian charge d'affaires, the Norwegian A. C. Löwenskiold. He now began his studies with Ericsson.1 Already after a few days Carl Edvard made an excursion to Boston, "a large and beautiful city, the second-largest commercial center in the States." He was here impressed by "many remarkably 71 beautiful buildings, great liveliness, a large and good harbor, and an unusually large number of beautiful women." Altogether he had to confess that he "never in his life saw so many truly lovely faces as now in America." His principal object of study was not however this distracting feminine beauty but rather the vast railroad depot in Boston, which thanks to his letters of introduction he was able to inspect under expert guidance. He did not tarry in the city, meanwhile, but departed by train at 6:00 o'clock the following morning. And in record time he arrived already by 6:00 o'clock the same evening in New York, even though the longest lap of the journey, 300 miles [sic], had been by sea. "The evening was spent with Captain Ericsson." Next day, a Sunday, Carl Edvard went to church. Grace Church on Broadway was then a newly built creation in shining white marble Gothic, with glowing stained-glass windows and silk and velvet textiles. Our young native of the North, accustomed to more laconic speech and to simple wooden pews, became quite ecstatic, calling it "the most beautiful church I have seen." He also took pleasure in the service, above all thanks to its musical qualities, manifested in magnificent choral singing and a "splendid organ." But the congregation had to keep quiet. It is one of the charms of a diary that its writer can freely jump between the most disparate subjects. A steady ingredient for Carl Edvard was, however, the mention of the work with "Captain Ericsson." "17 July. Wrote and drew all day. In the evening heard Christy's Minstrels, or a blackface show." This was "a band, as it is called here, of seven young musicians who, dressed and made-up as Negroes, performed music of a purity and ensemble such as I have never heard before." In short, Negro spirituals and a touch of Al Jolson, three-quarters of a century before his time. One day Carl Edvard gave a detailed description of the boarding house where he lodged for six dollars a week, "Very comfortable and highly elegant." Regarding dwellings, he noted further that New York was said to be growing at the rate of a mile a year toward the north. Manhattan Island was crowded, while across the river there was still unspoiled countryside. "That it will become the largest city on earth there can be no doubt." He described with approval the American custom of always serving drinking water with a piece of ice in it, as well as the 72 Americans' weakness for consuming ice cream "in altogether unbelievable quantities." "Women's Week" traditionally creates a commotion—"and often quite sharp competition"—among the Swedes in New York. They all have some Sara, Johanna, Margareta, or the like, to celebrate.2 Still, decorum is preserved, Carl Edvard hastened to add.

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