Frederik Louis Wilhelm Hellesen (2 February 1836 – 22 December 1892) was a Danish

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

. In 1887 he designed what is thought to be the first

dry cell An electric battery is a source of electric power consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections for powering electrical devices. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode and its nega ...

battery Battery or batterie most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Battery indicator, a device whic ...

based on the

Leclanché cell The Leclanché cell is a battery invented and patented by the French scientist Georges Leclanché in 1866. The battery contained a conducting solution (electrolyte) of ammonium chloride, a cathode (positive terminal) of carbon, a depolarizer of ...

design.''Energi på dåse''
, Jytte Thorndahl; Last accessed on June 26, 2007

Career

The same year he founded the company ''W. Hellesen'' In 1889 he sold his first batteries to the Danish Telephone Company. The same year a young chemist Valdemar Ludvigsen (1861–1939) came to the factory helping by the further development of the batteries. When Frederik Hellesen died in 1892 his widow took over the company with the help of Ludvigsen. In 1906 V. Ludvigsen became the sole owner of the factory with the name A/S Hellesens Enke & V. Ludvigsen. (later known as A/S Tudor-Hellesens, A/S Hellesens, and GN Hellesens), now defunct.

Legacy

Today the Hellesens brand name is owned by

Duracell Duracell Inc. is an American manufacturer of alkaline batteries, specialty cells, and rechargeables; it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway since 2016. The company has its origins in the 1920s, through the work of Samuel Ruben a ...

. In 1992 the Danish company was sold to GP Batteries International in Singapore belonging to Gold Peak Industries Ltd. Hong Kong. In 2005 the last factory in Thisted was closed and all machinery were shipped to a new factory in Malaysia.

External links

The Technical Museum, Denmark (in Danish)

Notes and references

19th-century Danish inventors 1836 births 1892 deaths People from Kalundborg {{Electronics-stub