The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Nordenfelt, Torsten Vilhelm

NORDENFELT, nôr'dĕn-fĕlt, Torsten Vilhelm, Swedish inventor: b. 1842. After a thorough technical training, from 1862 to 1866 he was engaged in promoting the sale of Swedish iron in London; and early in the eighties established in Sweden, England and France factories for the production of ammunition, machine guns, torpedoes and submarine torpedo boats. Soon afterward with Hiram S. Maxim (q.v.) he formed the Maxim-Nordenfelt Company. Oscar II of Sweden named him royal chamberlain in 1885. Nordenfelt's best-known invention is a machine gun, intended as a defense against torpedo boats, made with from 2 to 12 barrels, from any one of which the supply of ammunition can be shut off without interfering with the other barrels. See Machine Gun.