Peter Bang
Peter Boas Bang (born March 14, 1900 in Frederiksberg , died May 26, 1957 in Struer ) was a Danish engineer and manufacturer . In 1925 he founded the now international company Bang & Olufsen in Struer with Svend Olufsen .
childhood
Peter Boas Bang was the son of attorney Camillo Cavour Bang ( 1861 - 1949 ) and Augusta Pouline Boas ( 1868 - 1919 ). His brother Poul Bang became a film director and director of Saga Studio.
Peter Bang grew up in an affluent town house in Copenhagen that was well equipped: electricity , telephone and phonograph . The family had their own car. He went to Nærum Kostskole at the age of nine. Because of his mother's frailty, he was busy with everything to do with mechanics. He spent his pocket money on batteries, bells and switches.
Peter took an early interest in technology and radios , and he remembered listening to a recording of Enrico Caruso when he was five .
At 14 he left boarding school and started middle school. He was supported by his cousin Isse Wulff, who was an assistant at the Teknologisk Institut.
He graduated in 1917, where his practical skills were pointed out. This brought his father, Camillo Cavour Bang, to work in the Siemens & Halske forge , where he did experiments at night; this also included a windmill to feed the family's summer home.
Studied at the Aarhus Elektroteknikum
Peter Bang studied for four years and after a short break he received his father's permission to study electrical engineering at Aarhus High School in Aarhus (Aarhus Electrotechnikum). Here he built several radio sets, also for the family in Copenhagen and the mother's family. During his studies he also experimented with radio technology, and he kept asking his father for money for batteries . Therefore, in his third year of study, he built a receiver that does not require batteries.
Stay in USA
As the broadcast industry was developing rapidly , particularly in the United States , Peter Bang returned to the United States upon graduation. He and his brother Poul traveled to the United States in the fall of 1924, where Peter studied radio production and worked in a radio factory for six months. Before leaving, he talked to his father about the idea of starting production in Denmark.
But he couldn't start yet. Immediately after returning to Copenhagen he was contacted by fellow student Svend Andreas Grøn Olufsen , who was building a lightweight receiver in Kvuistrup. He needed a sparring partner. Peter went to Svend, and the two engineers started their project with money that Svend's mother earned from egg sales. It should be the beginning of a long-term collaboration.
Foundation of Bang & Olufsen
It wasn't long before the two young engineers found that they could work well together and that there was enough to do. Camillo Cavour Bang asked her to come to Copenhagen for this. On 17th November 1925 , the A / S was Bang & Olufsen takes inaugural meeting. The starting capital was 10,000 Nkr. Each of the founding fathers had a share of Nkr 4,000, while their respective fathers had Nkr 1,000 each. Camillo Cavour Bang was elected President of the Board of Directors.
After a sluggish start with little success with the light current receiver, the two founders found that there was a more profitable market for a product that could supply the previously battery-operated radio devices with power from the grid. The closest product to a generator today was called the Eliminator . It became the first commercial product in 1926 and formed the company's livelihood for the first few years.
Then Bang & Olufsen showed itself to be a technical innovator with a radio system from Peter Bang. Bang was a man who would tackle the problems and solve them - often brilliantly - without ever realizing how brilliant it was. He often got up at night to experiment.
When Svend Olufsen died in 1949, Peter Bang continued to run the company alone until his death in 1957. During this time, B&O televisions came onto the market (first television set TV 508 S "Trillebøren" in 1952).
Private life
Peter Bang married Else Windfeldt Jensen (1907–37) in 1933; his son Jens Bang was born from this marriage in 1935. In 1939 he married Kirsten Retlev-Abrahamsen (1914–90), with whom he had three children: Lotte Bang Thorsen, Lars Peter Bang and Dorte Krogh.
Both sons followed in their father's footsteps, became engineers and worked in the factory in Struer.
Peter Bang is buried in Gimsing Kirke near Struer.
literature
- Bang, Jens: "Fra vision til legende", Vidsyn, 2000.
- Ravn, Thomas Block: "Den nye store radiogud - B&O, Struer og den vide verden", 1992.
Web links
- Biografi i Dansk Biografisk Leksikon , 3rd udgave
- Peter Boas Bang. (Danish, short biography and picture of Bang's tombstone).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Boas slettet ved kgl. Bevilling af March 6, 1939 .
- ↑ bocopenhagen.dk, FØRSTE B&O FJERNSYN (Danish), accessed on May 17, 2020.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bang, Peter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bang, Peter Boas (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Danish engineer and manufacturer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 14, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Frederiksberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 26, 1957 |
| Place of death | Struer |