138 AKTIEBOLAGET BÅNGBRO RÖR VERK View of the Works. works at this spot was Leo Wallmo's, an ironmaster. By purchasing some small water works on the River Bångå, he would be able to command the whole of the water power of the lowest fall, at which spot, too, the terrace-like formation of the ground promised to be extremely well suitable for building purposes. In 1871 the Bångbro Company was formed, and the building of the Steel Works was begun in 1872. By the spring of 1874 two furnaces and a Bessemer works were ready and at work, but the Company had not means enough to go on with the open-hearth furnaces, hammer and rolling mills which had been included in the original plan, in addition to which, the flourishing state of the iron market that had prevailed at the beginning of the seventies, no longer existed. The very next year the works had to be sold to the Motala Mechanical Workshops Company, which had rolling mills and hammers itself and could, therefore, make advantageous use of the Bångbro productions which, in the half-finished state of the works, had to be restricted to the manufacture of pig iron and Bessemer ingots. In 1890, the Motala Workshops Co. turned the works thus acquired into a special joint stock company, Aktiebolaget Bångbro Jernverk (The Bångbro Steel Works Co., Ltd.), fresh capital being put into the concern at the same time. As, in consequence of the depression on the iron market, it proved difficult to find a market for the Company's production of ingots it was determined to extend the manufacturing at the works to fullfinished goods. For this purpose the management bought Dr. G. de Laval's patented process for the manufacture of seamless tubes. In consequence of this determination the Company was reconstructed, and was transferred to the Aktiebolaget Bångbro Rörverk (The Bångbro Tube Factory Co., Ltd.). A blooming mill and tube mill were at once built and were ready for starting in 1896, in addition to which, hydraulic forging presses and drawing plant for pipes and tubes were constructed. Then began a series of expensive experiments with de Laval's tube-process, but the results were unsatisfactory. A change was made to the ordinary rolling