Jay Smith & Associates: Norway: Covers: WWII Rjukan Norsk Hydro Heavy Water Plant

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Norway: Covers: WWII Rjukan Norsk Hydro Heavy Water Plant

Norsk Hydro Electric owned the hugely important hydroelectric plant at Vemork, near the village of Rjukan. It is there that they produced heavy water, a material that was needed for making nuclear weapons. See www.wikipedia.ORG for excellent articles on heavy water, discussion of this hydro plant, and British and Norwegian sabotage attempts to destroy the plant.

This plant, completed in 1911, was the largest hydro plant in the world and was so costly that part of the financing had to be obtained outside of Norway. Originally it was built to power a factory producing synthetic fertilizer; a process that required enormous amounts of electricity, but a material that was in critical demand -- Norway and much of Europe was facing a food crisis due to poor soils, poor farming practices, and lack of fertilizer materials.

As described by a Wikipedia.org article, a primary energy-consuming use was the Birkeland-Eyde process which created "artificial lightning" that "fixed" nitrogen out of ordinary air, creating nitric acid which was used to treat limestone, creating calcium nitrate or "Norwegian saltpeter", a fertilizer. The scientist and inventor, Kristian Birkeland was the first to accurately describe the nature of the Aurora Borealis; the scale and cost of his research caused him to attempt to create an invention that could fund his research. To this end he invented the electromagnetic cannon (or coilgun); unfortunately, it did not function as well as expected, however, in the process, and partly as the result of the explosion of a cannon at a demonstration, he met engineer and business magnate Sam Eyde who had purchased the rights to several Norwegian waterfalls and was seeking a practical method to make nitric acid for the production of fertilizer. Their cooperation was a massive success with the result that Sam Eyde founded Elkem and Norsk Hydro in 1905. Postal history objects reflecting aspects of the early operations and saltpeter production are scarce, but do exist.

In the 1930s, the plant started to produce heavy water (for unspecified reasons!). In 1940, the French government purchased the entire stock of Norwegian heavy water, which was then sent to England.

When the Germans occupied Norway, taking over this hydro plant was one of their initial primary goals. The Germans put all possible resources into the production of heavy water. Meanwhile, the Allies were aware of the situation and were in contact with the local Norwegian Resistance. During 1942 and 1943 this hydro plant was the target of partially successful British Commando and Norwegian Resistance raids, but heavy water production continued. Even dropping more than 400 bombs on the plant did little to slow down operations at the massive facility. In 1944 the Germans attempted to ship heavy water back to Germany, but the Norwegian Resistance sank the ferry carrying the heavy water, the D/F HYDRO even though this meant the loss of Norwegian civilian lives. These events have been the subjects of a variety of books, documentary films, and popular movies. A recent documentary film recorded the attempted recovery of barrels from the sunken D/F HYDRO. Research on that recovery determined that the quantity and purity of the heavy water was not nearly enough to do more than experimental work, thus the Germans were not as far along as they had hoped. (Heavy water is extremely difficult to make.)

The Vemork hydro plant was serviced by a small railway line specifically built for the plant. See the www.wikipedia.ORG article on the Rjukan railway line for information, maps, pictures, etc., about the railway line which served the plant and also carried the RJUKANBANEN (Rjukan Railway) railway post office. This railway line was only 10 miles long with one terminus at Rjukan (the closest village to the hydro plant), with a spur running to the Vemork hydro plant. The other terminus was the ferry landing at the town of Mæl where the ferry then crossed Tinnsjø, a 19 mile ferry trip. There was only a 10 mile distance during which a cover carried on this railway would have received the railway postmark! This railway line transported the heavy water to the ferry that was sunk by the Resistance while crossing the Tinnsjø. Then line itself was heavily guarded (and passage on it was very restricted) as it was critically important and had been attacked a number of times.

The "holy grail" of Norwegian WWII postal history might be a cover actually mailed from the hydro plant itself during the war. If such covers exist, they would be great rarities. However, any cover associated with the hydro plant or the railway line during WWII is extremely unusual.

WWII Rjukan Norsk Hydro Heavy Water Plant

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Item #

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US$

233071

10 øre V-Overprints pair (Scott #212 or #225; cannot be identified without removing from cover, which is too dangerous because of the other postal and WWII history of this cover) on a 15 November 1941cover with RJUKANBANEN railway postmark and sent to Oslo. This cover has an important story to tell, even though it looks "normal". It is, in fact, a normal domestic rate usage from a local provincial government office in the countryside to a large company in Oslo. But... the first important clue is the addressee: Norsk Hydro Electric. NHE owned the hugely important hydroelectric plant at Vemork, near the village of Rjukan, where heavy water was produced. The sender was a government office in the area of the hydro plant, thus the cover was probably not actually mailed on the train, but it was postmarked in the postal compartment of the train on the critically important 10-mile railway line, and sent to the main office of the company that owned and operated the hydro plant. This cover was in the "hands" of people intimately involved in a hugely important chapter of WWII and of nuclear history in general, from the Nazi guards on the train to the Oslo managers of the hydro plant. Just one year after this cover was mailed, a British Commando mission to the plant (Operation Freshman) failed when their plane crashed; the survivors were captured and executed by the Germans.

ACTUAL item.

500.00

Reference
For reference only. NOT for sale.
This item was sold. Shown for information only.

234356

150, 119 [1930 10 øre St. Olaf; 1927 20 øre Lion] (VF, F-VF) on 1930 cover from RJUKAN to the U.S. Missing back flap. While otherwise an ordinary use, it is the envelope which is part of an extremely important story. The sender privately used (and crossed out) an envelope pre-printed for the company "A/S RJUKANFOS / RJUKAN SALPETERFABRIKER" or The Rjukan Waterfall Company / Rjukan Saltpeter Factory. Saltpeter, a fertilizer, was a primary reason that the Vemork power plant was built at this waterfall. The electricity created there produced "artificial lightning" which fixed nitrogen from plain air, which was then used to produce nitric acid which was reacted with limestone to produce calcium nitrate or Norwegian Saltpeter. This product was critical to the agriculture of Norway and Europe and had a dramatic affect on the economy of Norway. The operating company was Norsk Hydro; A/S Rjukanfos was probably owned by or related to Norsk Hydro. Starting in the 1930s, the Vemork power plant started producing heavy water which is used in nuclear weapons production and research. This cover is a pre-cursor to the heavy water era and tells part of a story which has worldwide importance. Postal history related to this story is very scarce.

ACTUAL item.

45.00

Reference
For reference only. NOT for sale.
Already sold. Shown for information only.

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