Translating popular science in the late 19th century Finland: Samuli Suomalainen and “great inventions”

Authors

• Outi Paloposki Turun yliopisto

Abstract

In this article, I will look at the practice of translating popular scientific works in Finland in the 1880’s through the example of Suuret keksinnöt [Great inventions], a translation by K. G. S. Suomalainen. The book, which was an adaptation of the German Louis Thomas’ Die denkwürdigsten Erfindungen im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, not only included a great number of added details in the text itself, there was also a wholly new section on four more inventions that Suomalainen considered important (steel pencil, sewing machine, needle and, interestingly, the metric system). The emerging technologies combined the quest for a better life with a sense of ’nation-ness’: through weaving technology into culture and history, a holistic and cultural image of the nation was created.