Building 'Ilmarinen's Finland'

Computer construction as a national project in the 1950s

Authors

• Petri Paju

Abstract

Building 'Ilmarinen's Finland': Computer construction as a national project in the 1950s

The article is based on Paju's Doctoral dissertation Building 'Ilmarinen's Finland'. It examines the history of information technology and nationalism in the 1950s Finland. The study focuses on the Committee for Mathematical Machines (1954–1960), which was designated to acquire the country's first computer, and its associates and asks how the Committee was justified, especially from the perspective of the national good, and what kind of motives the actions of the Committee manifested. The motives studied are the Committee's goals in the field of computing, in developing science and technology in society, and in imagining Finland anew. The materials for the study consist of a multifaceted collection of sources from Finland, Sweden and Germany.
The Committee chose to duplicate a G1a computer from Göttingen, Western Germany. In Finland the computer was named ESKO. However, the copying was delayed several times and eventually produced an old-fashioned computer. In addition to building the ESKO, the Committee early on intended to create a national computing centre in Helsinki. This master plan can be regarded as a scientific and technological policy prior to state involvement in such matters in Finland. The projects of the Committee greatly benefitted the field, particularly the companies of IBM Finland and the Finnish Cable Works, which started a computing centre similar to that planned by the Committee. This business unit later evolved into a part of the Nokia Corporation. The term ‘Ilmarinen’s Finland’ is used to argue that technology did not just become a ‘national project’ in the post-war Finland, but was explicitly made so.