This article connects to the discussion on skills and knowledge during the early industrialisation. It focuses on how two out of four technical secondary schools in Sweden (Malmö and Borås) lived up to their aims communicated by politicians and other stakeholders: to provide emerging industries and crafts in their regions with technicians and to prepare for studies at the Technological Institute. Initially, a majority of students came from the school regions, but the share of long-distance students increased over time. A majority served in industry and craft, and the study reflects chemistry’s and electricity’s breakthrough with increasing shares of graduates employed over time. Several graduates continued to further studies; not only at the Technological Institute but also elsewhere in Sweden and abroad. As for the purpose to provide the regions with technicians, the results are ambiguous. Many graduates, especially from Borås, moved to other parts of Sweden and abroad. Malmö graduates stayed more often in the school region because Malmö was a larger city, and the school region more industrially diversified. The brain-drain from the school regions was not necessarily problematic as in-migration of technicians from other schools compensated.

By the middle of the 19th century, Swedish industrialization began to accelerate. At the same time there was, in many countries, a strong belief in the potential of technology. As with the growing interest in a Swedish railway network – with the objective of promoting economic development throughout of the country – interest in developing a technical education system can be seen as part of this optimism. The director of the Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Lars Johan Wallmark, was, however, worried about the lack of middlelevel technical education. In 1850, he therefore suggested the establishment of technical secondary schools, modelled after the German Gewerbeschulen. These schools would both provide local and regional crafts and industries with technically skilled labour and prepare such students for higher technical studies.

Wallmark’s proposal led to the establishment of technical secondary schools in four cities during the 1850s: Malmö, Norrköping, Borås and Örebro. However, only the first two schools corresponded directly to Wallmark’s original proposal. In this study, we make use of Walter Christaller’s central place theory to investigate why the schools came to be established in these four cities. We ask the following questions: How did the decision-makers argue about population base and catchment area? What characterized the cities where technical secondary schools were established compared to cities that expressed interest but were not chosen as sites for schools? And who were the main stakeholders and agents in this selection process? Our study shows that Wallmark’s idea was to establish schools nation-wide rather than to apply a principle for locational selection. In reality, however, one of the most important factors behind the establishment of schools appears to have been an industrial principle. Based on this, cities that already had significant industrial activities, or functioned as the central point for an industrialized hinterland, were favoured. In contrast, arguments such as good access to certified teachers – found mainly in university and cathedral cities – seem to have been less significant. Another important factor was the placement of the schools in relation to potential students. A third factor was strong local industrialists and other prominent persons who were interested in technical progress and who also had well developed connections with representatives in Parliament.

In The Peregrine Profession Per-Olof Grönberg offers an account of thepre-1930 transnational mobility of engineers and architects educated inthe Nordic countries 1880-1919. Outlining a system where learningmobility was more important than labour market mobility, the authorshows that more than every second graduate went abroad.Transnational mobility was stronger from Finland and Norway thanfrom Denmark and Sweden, partly because of slower industrialisationand deficiencies in the domestic technical education. This mobilityincluded all parts of the world but concentrated on the leadingindustrial countries in German speaking Europe and North America.Significant majorities returned and became agents of technologytransfer and technical change. Thereby, these mobile graduates alsobecame important for Nordic industrialisation.

År 1851 formulerade rektor Lars Johan Wallmark vid Teknologiska Institutet (senare Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan) en plan för hur Sveriges tekniska utbildning skulle organiseras för att möta behovet av en utbildad arbetskraft vid lokala och regionala hantverk och industrier. Tanken var bland annat att på mellannivå etablera tyskinspirerade så kallade tekniska elementarskolor i olika delar av landet, men trots att Wallmark föreslog två norrländska städer som lokaliseringsorter kom den nordligaste av de fyra 1850-talsskolorna att förläggas till Örebro. Även om tankar på en femte teknisk elementarskola i landets norra delar framfördes i bland annat riksdagsdebatter på 1850- och 1860-talen, dröjde det till 1901 innan en skola öppnades i Härnösand.

Detta konferensbidrag behandlar diskussionerna, framförallt i riksdagen, kring behovet av en norrländsk teknisk elementarskola samt ”kampen” mellan, främst, Härnösand och Sundsvall om vilken stad som skulle bli etableringsort. Under 1850-talet var det tydligt att industri-och hantverksstäder prioriterades framför lärda städer och biskopsstäder. Således valdes det mer industrialiserade Malmö framför lärdomens Lund och några motioner om en skola i universitetsstaden Uppsala fick också kalla handen. Dessa ”principer” frångicks emellertid när den norrländska tekniska elementarskolan förlades i skolstaden Härnösand istället för i industristaden Sundsvall, vilket diskuteras i konferenspapperet.

Med utgångspunkt från studenterna som tog examen mellan 1904 och 1920 undersöks skolans studentrekrytering geografiskt. Varifrån kom studenterna? Var den tekniska elementarskolan i Härnösand en skola för tekniskt intresserade ungdomar från hela Norrland eller framförallt för ungdomar från närområdet? Hur många studenter rekryterades från Svealand och Götaland? Utifrån samma geografiska utgångspunkter undersöks vart studenterna tog vägen efter att de tagit examen. Hur stor andel av studenterna stannade i närområdet kring Härnösand, Ådalen och Sundsvallsdistriktet, hur stor andel verkade i övriga Norrland och hur många ”försvann” till Syd- och Mellansverige samt utomlands? Dessa frågeställningar leder fram till en diskussion om den tekniska elementarskolan i Härnösand blev en utbildningsanstalt för ett ”framgångsrikt tillgodogörande af Norrlands rika naturliga tillgångar” och industriell utveckling i norra Sverige. Konferensbidraget kan förväntas bidra med historiska perspektiv på dagsaktuella diskussioner om lokalisering av utbildning till nationella periferier.

Differences in adult mortality were studied between natives and domestic and international migrants in three Northwestern European cities during different stages of the epidemiological transition. Event history analysis was conducted for mortality risk at ages 30+ using life course data retrieved from three large historical demographic micro-level databases. Results provide ample evidence of healthy migrant effects in Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Stockholm, and the effect was particularly strong among domestic migrants in Rotterdam. The multivariate analyses show that the early life environment, as well as positive selection effects, contributed to the healthy migrant effect: As migration distance increased, mortality risks declined. Being born in the countryside and moving later in life to a city were also associated with lower mortality risks. Although migrants overall had lower mortality risks than natives, we discovered, four vulnerable sub-groups whose mortality risk not only increased, but eventually exceeded that of natives: (1) rural migrants in the period when major epidemics belonged to the past, (2) international migrants who lost their partner, (3) Italian and Italian-speaking Swiss men in Rotterdam, and (4) medium-distance domestic migrant men in Antwerp.