Power from water is absolutely the biggest source of energy in Norway. Cheap and safe electricity have made it possible to built powerdemanding industry many places. Running water is a very powerful source of energy. For hundreds of years it has been used to drive machinery.

The big waterwheel is a copy of one used in a Norwegian saw-mill from the middle of the 18th century. Waterwheels were used all over Norway whereever waterfall and rapids were located. They were used to do heavy and boring exercises that before were done by muscle power. Some of the first water wheels were once used to power machines for grinding wheat. Water from the river turned the giant waterwheel, which was connected to cogs. The cogs turned the machinery inside the building. Large stones ground the wheat into flour.

The Energy exhibition in the basement gives you a general view of the different sources of energy with models and original objects. You can find the first steam-engine and water-turbine and some of the oldest generators and electric engines.

Around the year 1900 Norway was still a poor country. Agriculture and fishery were the most common ways of living. But at the end of the 19th century wealthy tourists from England and the continent started to visit our country. They went to remote places to watch great fjords and waterfalls and to climb our mountains. Some of them also saw the opportunities offered by hydraulic power and had knowledge about the new technology that could utilise the power. Many waterfalls were actually bought by foreigners.

At the same time the world´s population increased. The world was gripped by a fear greater even than that of the looming conflict in Central Europe - that of world famine. Chilean nitrate deposits, on which the world depended as a fertiliser, were on the brink of running out, and chemists were scurrying to find an economical way of fixing atmospheric nitrogen.

Engineer Sam Eyde tried to solve the problem trying to obtain nitrogen from the air to make commercial fertiliser. To generate funds for his expensive research, Kristian Birkeland became co-founder of a commercial venture to produce artificial fertiliser and his technique for nitrogen fixation brought him into contention for a Nobel Prize.

At the beginning of the exhibition "Electricity in everyday life" you will find a copy of the Birkeland-Eyde arc furnace. It was producing the first Norgesalpeter - Norwegian salpeter, i.e. calcium nitrate. The process is economic only if cheap hydroelectricity is available.

Birkeland's discovery had started something irreversible: the large scale development of hydro-electric power in Norway by the company he and Eyde had founded in 1905: Norsk Hydro. (Norsk Hydro is today Norway's largest company. In addition to the production of artificial fertiliser, the company produces metals and plastics and technology designed for the oil industry).

In the following years powerdemanding industry was built in many valleys all over Norway. The basis was always the same, hydraulic power!

The roars from the trolls died away, the waterfalls dried out and the water was led into pipes!

In 1945 1/5 of the Norwegians still had no electricity. The exhibition shows you a typical Norwegian kitchen from 1920, 1960 and 1998.

"Is there anything of all the living things we have among us that we have loved more than the tree? I don't think so, and so it shall be. We couldn't have lived on earth without the tree and everything it has given us as long we have existed. Lumber for houses and boats and sleighs and wagons, firewood that have kept us warm and cooked our food, roots that have kept our cultivated lands together and the waste that has decomposed to soil…"

Norway, Finland and Sweden are the only industrialised countries building most of the private houses from wood. Wood is a excellent building material, which is easy to use. Norway has long traditions in using wood. Wood is abundant in the greater part of the country. In the middle ages, all the towns in Norway were wooden built. Wood is a good insulator against the cold weather in Norway. Proportionate to it´s weight, wood is actually stronger than steel!

Every year the Norwegian forests produce 10 million cubic metres of timber. The saw-mills will use half of this quantity, half of which they return to the paper and pulp industry. The bark is used as fuel. The paper and pulp industry is the greatest consumer of wood in Norway.

The amount of timber in Norwegian forests will not be reduced. Today the forest has about twice as many cubic metres of timber as in 1925. This is the result of good planning and the fact that for every tree that is cut down, 3 are planted.

The exhibition "The wood processing industry" shows how the forest have been utilised

from the 13^th century and down to our time. Long ago, when splitting the logs with an axe was the only way of making planks, 70-90% of the log was converted into waste. Today this is different. 100% of the log is used. Only the branches are not used, but in a few years these will also be used, as fuel.

The first logging frames came to Norway at the end of the 15^th century. A model of this kind of sawmill is placed in the beginning of the exhibition.

A waterwheel was placed in the river. The hydraulic power was transmitted to a sawblade that moved up and down. At the same time the timber was pulled forward. Some logging frames even had many blades. Then the log was not only cut in two, but in many boards at the same time.

The export and use of planks from the saw-mills could start. Before this, only split planks could be made. The log was split with axes and wedges. One log gave only two planks. This was naturally an enormous waste. These boards were among other things used in Norwegian stave churches. Up till the middle of the 18^th century only water driven saw-mills with only one blade were used. The frame saws can be divided into two different types, the frame with only one blade, and the frame with many blades, in Norwegian called "silkesag" =silk saw.

The Norwegian oil-adventure
(Jakten på oljen)

"The possibility that there should exist any oil, gas or sulphur on the Norwegian continental shelf can be ruled out."

(The Geological Survey of Norway, 1958)

In our petroleum exhibition you will find an account of how the search for oil and gas is carried out, and of how oil and gas are extracted, transported and refined into useful products.

Norway’s position as the one of the world´s largest exporters of oil may seem remarkable when you consider how much of the world’s oil is found on the Norwegian continental shelf: Only one per cent of the world’s reserves are located in Norwegian territory. Why Norway ranks so high is because it exports a total of 90 per cent of its oil production.

The first oil related activity in the North Sea was carried out by the American oil company Philips Petroleum. They applied for a permit to perform oil searches along the Norwegian coast, but as the marine borders between Norway and Britain had not yet been determined, the application tarried in being processed. Only in 1965 a division was made midway between the two countries, along the floor of the sea. Luckily for Norway the border was drawn before any oil had been discovered.

At Christmas of 1969 Philips Petroleum made their first large discovery of oil with the "Ocean Viking" platform in the Ekofisk field. A model of this platform is on display in the exhibition. The Ekofisk discovery of 1969 immediately brought Norway into the position of a leading oil producing nation. There are years when oil and gas account for more than 40% of total state revenues.

Norway currently enjoys huge revenues from oil, but in order to meet economic challenges after its oil runs out, part of the state oil revenues are set aside in a so-called petroleum fund. In other words, Norway’s petroleum wealth is being converted into financial assets in order to safeguard the future of the Norwegian welfare state.

In the 1980's large reserves of gas were discovered on the Norwegian continental shelf. Together with Russia, Algeria and the Netherlands, Norway is today a main supplier of gas to the European continent. In the coming century Norway will produce more gas than oil. The pipes which carry gas from Norway to Europe have a capacity of 85 billion cubic metres of gas annually.

A fraction of a gas pipe is on display in the exhibition. Next to the exhibit is a cleaning instrument for new gas pipes. It was used in "Zeepipe" that connects the gas platform Sleipner with Zeebrügge in Belgium The pipe is filled with water before this instrument presses the water out together with any remnant welding tools, hammers or lunch boxes!

The exhibition also contains a practice labyrinth for petroleum workers. Here you have to find your way through absolute darkness. Would you like to try? Look at today's program!

In the exhibition "Norwegian plastic" an account is given of the basis of plastics in oil and

gas, of how the different plastics are made, of the Norwegian plastic industry, and of how plastics have influenced our daily lives. Norway is one of the world largest suppliers of raw materials for plastics. The global production increased from 3 million tons in 1950 to more than 70 million tons in the 1970's.

Plastic is used as a symbol of the non-genuine, and is seen as a cheap and short-lived mass product. However plastics have opened new possibilities in a number of areas, including those of art and design…

In Norwegian automobile production plastics have had a central role within the development of Think, -the first Norwegian produced electric car. This vehicle has become increasingly popular as people have discovered its low operational costs and its exemption from road and parking fees.

"La Ville d´Orléans"

Aeroplanes and aviation

2^nd floor

Many years before the polar explorers Fritjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen attained hero status, two Frenchmen get a foretaste of Norwegian hero worship. Norway’s first tourist were celebrated with lots of parties, speeches and the French national song, "La Mairseillaise".

The marvellous story started in Paris on the 24^th of November 1870. The French-German war is raging, and Paris is under siege by the Germans. The only way to escape the city is by air. Minister of war Leon Gambetta has escaped in a balloon some month before. During the siege 65 balloons ascend from Paris. The Germans don’t use balloons and Bismarck finds military aviation dishonest....

The challenge is to get a co-ordinated attack on the Germans. Lieutenant Lèon Bèsier and Paul Rolier get the perilous mission to get out information about time and place. They manage to fly across the German troops, but the rest of the 15 hour trip becomes very dramatic. They almost hit the ocean before ascending 3000 meters! In the exhibition "Aeroplanes and aviation " you can see the original gondola.

The wind is strong and it starts to snow. Everything is covered in ice and beards turn white. Suddenly the ashore comes into view. Under very dramatic circumstances they manage to throw themselves out.

They don’t know which country they just arrived in. Are they in Bavaria, Scotland or Scandinavia? It’s extremely cold and they almost die. Finally they found a cottage with two farmers and a matchbox with the inscription "Christiania" (old name for Oslo).

Gambetta says the unsuccessful balloon-voyage becomes of vital importance for the war. Others said the war already was lost. "Norway’s first tourists" were in any case applauded and the news of the sensational flight spread fast, and in every town their arrival was celebrated. They didn’t have many opportunities to sleep and most of the time they were drunk. 900 tickets to the last celebration were sold in one hour, and the income was send to wounded French soldiers...

As the first ever to travel between America and Norway by air, Thor Solberg piloted this aircraft- a Loening Air Yacht 1929 - from New York to Bergen in 1935. He spent one month in the effort, landing in Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The flying time however did not exceed 57 hours. The trip was a part reconstruction, in reverse, of the route laid out by Leiv Eiriksson in this viking’s exploration of America, hence the name of the aircraft.

Before you leave the museum we warmly recommend the Science Centre in the basement.