1906-1919

Hydro's first industrial and hydroelectric projects may have turned Notodden into the Klondike of the north, but this first development was soon to be overshadowed by the investments and developments that Rjukan could boast of.

The new power station at the Svelgfoss waterfall, near Notodden, would produce 30,000 horsepower equivalent to the total hydroelectric power production in Norway in the three previous years. It would be the largest in Europe at the time and the second largest in the world.

The community in which Hydro started its life was tiny at the start of the 20th century. Industrialization and the development of hydroelectric power would soon bring about major changes in Notodden.

At Hydro's shareholders meeting in 1905, Kristian Birkeland was appointed as technical consultant for life with an annual salary of NOK 5,000 - the same amount he earned as professor at the university.

A cloudless sky seen from a global political perspective, Prime Minister Gunnar Knudsen said in May 1914 at the centennial celebration of Norway's constitution. It's not strange then that the outbreak of World War I in July/August 1914 took Norwegians and Hydro by surprise.

World War I pushed up food prices in Norway to staggering heights, and working people on ordinary wages went short. In Notodden, the situation became so serious that many people wouldn't have survived the war years without the bread coupons Hydro distributed.

In the years following Hydro's first developments in Telemark, the company gradually built up its own research environment, which worked on developing new industrial processes and improving the company's fertilizer technology.