Every morning except Sunday the factory whistle was blown at 6am. Most of the staff lived within ear-shot & this marked the time for them to leave for work. The working day was from 6.30am until 4pm weekdays & to 12.30 on Saturdays. The office staff worked a shorter day. An hour was given for lunch. but as many workers lived in the nearby workers hostel or houses they would go home for lunch.
Optimus provided separate canteens for the factory & office workers. If you worked in an office you had table service & white linen, but if you were from the factory floor your table was covered in tarpaulin with a communal pot from which you served yourself!

Inside the factory

This excellent snapshot of life in the factory around 1930 gives an insight into the environment in which the stoves were made & gives the names of some of the workers that made them.
I wonder if any of them had any idea that the products they were making would one day become the collectibles that they are. Some of these people may have had a hand in making your stove!

In the Press Shop it was incredibly dirty & noisy. The machines here were used to press the detail into stove tanks & padlocks. There was a lot of serious accidents in this department. Fingers were often lost in these presses!
The picture shows "Pressar-Olle" (Rickard Olsson-Kock) with an automatic press called "Flädermasen". "Pressar-Olle" was typical of the nicknames given to many people who worked at Optimus.
Photo: Upplands Väsby Arkivet, Upplands Väsby kommun. Unknown photographer.

“Old man Lindby” (Axel Lindby) is seen here pressing tanks for stoves. He worked for Optimus back in Kungsholmen, Stockholm & moved with them to Uplands Väsby in 1908.
He was an old hand on this press. As he held the brass sheets the press would come down missing his head by millimetres. He would often have an audience as fellow workers queued for the adjacent toilet!
Photo: Tekniska muséet. Unknown photographer

Large automatic lathes were used to manufacture screws & other round items such as tubes for burners. The company had 10 lathes at this time.
The noise created by these lathes was deafening & normal conversation was impossible. The only way you could be heard by your colleagues was by shouting directly in their ear. Due to the conditions in this department the salaries were higher.
From left to right in this picture are foreman Albin Ljung, Gunnar Lindkvist, unknown, Filip Jakobsson & Olle Hansen.
Photo: Tekniska muséet. Unknown photographer

This is an earlier (1910) photo of the tooling department. Here they made tooling as required for machinery around the factory. They also made new machines & carried out repairs.
The staff in this department were among the best skilled in the factory.
In 1938 Optimus started an apprenticeship scheme which involved 4 years of training with 3 years practical.
Machinery shown in this picture from left to right, a column-drill machine, a lathe & a milling machine.
The name of the people in the photo isn't known.
Photo: Axel Malmström 1910. Upplands Väsby Arkivet, Upplands Väsby kommun

The plating department where the nickle-plating was added to stove tanks on certain models.
The people in the picture are Georg Ålberg, Göta Zander & an unknown worker. A lot of women worked at the Optimus factory. Most women were employed as quality inspectors or in the polishing & packaging departments.
Photo: Upplands Väsby Arkivet, Upplands Väsby kommun. Unknown photographer.

Stoves can be seen here being brought to a mirror finish on the polishing machines. Like most other departments the workers were on piece work - those who worked the fastest earned the most.
Notice the belt-driven machines . A large motor drove a long drive-shaft on the ceiling, from which a belt went to every machine. Drive belts were used in all parts of Optimus up until the 1930's. These were then phased out in favour of direct drive for each machine.
Photo: Upplands Väsby Arkivet, Upplands Väsby kommun. Unknown photographer, 1929.

In the packing department goods were prepared for shipping. Many would be shipped long distances so good packing was important. At the time of the photo nearly 90% of production went to export to all corners of the globe. After packing in individual cardboard cartons the items can be seen here being placed into wooden crates. Workers in the photo are from L to R Oskar Matsson, Arthur Alfredsson, unknown & foreman Nils Ahl at the desk.
Photo: I Ingrid Kilanders collection. Unknown photographer.

Here crates destined for India & Egypt are being loaded for dispatch. Goods were taken by train & lorry to Frihamnen in Stockholm.
Photo: Jubilee Book "Världserövrare från Vikingabygd". Unknown photographer

When Optimus moved to Upplands Väsby in 1908 there was a shortage of housing for it's workers. To provide accommodation Optimus was allowed to build houses by the local council. The houses were simple with two apartments to accommodate two families. A hostel was built for the single workers. Rent for the accommodation was taken directly from a workers salary.
The houses were small & in large families the kitchen was often also used as a bedroom. In the kitchen would be a wood-burning stove or an Optimus stove. Many families grew their own vegetables & kept chickens. Other food could be bought at a small co-operative shop. Optimus also owned a farm at Lilla Vilunda which supplied milk.
Photo : 1910, NK. Upplands Väsby Arkivet, Upplands Väsby kommun.

Acknowledgements