Hienomekaaninen keksintötehdas kriisiaikana

Erkki Laurila tutkimusjohtajana Valtion lentokonetehtaalla

Authors

• Petri Paju

Abstract

Using a biographical approach, this article explores the inventive development work on the department of fine (or precision) mechanics at the State Aiplane Factory, in Tampere, Finland. It was Erkki Laurila who started, built and then managed the fine mechanics department of the factory from 1942 until 1946. The department was created to increase technological independence in aviation instruments vis-à-vis Germany and ended up producing various inventions as well as control engineering instruments for war reparations to the Soviet Union. In 1946, Laurila left the department to become the first Finnish professor of engineering (or technical) physics at the Helsinki University of Technology, a professorship he had helped to establish in 1944 as an industry representative. The article uncovers a practically unknown invention by Laurila, a remote gyro compass system from 1943, that the Finns tried to sell to Sweden and Switzerland. Laurila’s department later developed into an independent instrument factory under the state-owned Valmet Corporation.