Peter Bang (engineer)

Peter Boas Bang was son of Camillo Cavour Bang (1861-1949) and Augusta Pouline Boas (1868-1919). His brother Poul Bang was filmdirector and direktor of Saga Studio.

Peter Bang grew up in a wealthy house in Kopenhagen, that was well equipped: Electricity, phone and Phonograph. The family owned a car. At the age of nine he went to Nærum Kostskole. Because of his mother's frailty he was busy with everything to do with mechanics. He spent his pocket money on batteries, rings and switches.

Peter was early interested in technics and radios, and he remembered having heard a record of Enrico Caruso at the age of five.

At 14 he left the boarding school and entered the middle school. He was assisted by his cousin Isse Wulff, who was an assistant at Teknologisk Institut.

1917 he finished school, where his practical abilities were pointed out. This led his father Camillo Cavour Bang to let him work in the Siemens & Halske forge, where he did experiments in the night; including a windmill, to supply the sommerhouse of the family.

Peter Bang learned four years und after a short break his father agreed to a study of electrical engineering at the Aarhus High School in Aarhus (Aarhus Electrotechnikum). Here he built several radio sets, for the family in Kopenhagen and the family of the mother, too. During his studies he also experimented with radio technology, and he kept asking his father for money for batteries. So he built in the third year of his study a receiver that did not need any batteries.

Peter Bang 1924

When the broadcasting industry, especially in the United States, rapidly developed, Peter Bang went back after his graduation in the US. He and his brother Poul travelled in autumn of 1924 in the US, where Peter studied the production of radios and worked for six months in a radio-factory. Before leaving he talked to his father about the idea of starting a production in Denmark zu beginnen. He could not start immediately, but after his return to Copenhagen he was contacted by his fellow student Svend Andreas Grøn Olufsen, who built a small receiver in Kvuistrup. He needed a sparring partner. Peter went to Svend, and with money Svend's mother earned by selling eggs, the engineers got started. It was the begin of a collaboration for years.

Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen 1930

„Beolit 39“, constructed by Peter Bang (1939)

Factory in Struer 1938

It did not take long both young engineers realised, they cooperated in a good way, and there was work enough. Camillo Cavour Bang sked them to come to Copenhagen for this. On 17 November 1925 the A / S Bang & Olufsen founding meeting took place. The initial capital was 10.000 Nkr. Each founder had a share of 4.000 Nkr, their fathers each 1.000 Nkr. Camillo Cavour Bang was elected for president of the board.

After a slow start and small success with a "Lichtstromempfänger" both found out, it was a more profitable market for a product, that supplies batterypowered receivers with energy from the mains. This product, came closest to a generator, was called Eliminator. 1926 it was the first commercial product and was the livelihood of the company for the first years. Then Bang & Olufsen appeared radio installation by Peter Bang as technical innovator. Bang was a man, who tackled and solved – often brillantly –, without ever realising, how brilliant it was. He often got up at night, to perform experiments.

As Svend Olufsen died in 1949, Peter Bang ran the company alone until his death 1957. These years B&O-televisions were launched (1952 first television TV 508 S "Trillebøren").[2]

Peter Bang got married 1933 with Else Windfeldt Jensen (1907–37), and in 1935 his son Jens Bang was born. In 1939, he married Kirsten Retlev-Abrahamsen (1914–90), with whom he had three children: Lotte Bang Thorsen, Lars Peter Bang and Dorte Krogh.

Both sons followed in of their father's footsteps: they became engineers and worked in the factory in Struer.

Peter Bang is buried in Gimsing Kirke near of Struer.

• Bang, Jens: "Fra vision til legende", Vidsyn, 2000, ISBN 8798786504 (Dansk).
• Ravn, Thomas Block: "Den nye store radiogud – B&O, Struer og den vide verden", 1992, ISBN 8798339125 (Dansk).

• Biografi i Dansk Biografisk Leksikon, 3. udgave
• "Peter Boas Bang" (in Danish). Short biography and picture of Bang's gravestone

Category:Danish businesspeople Category:Danish engineers Category:Danish company founders Category:1900 births Category:1957 deaths Category:People from Struer Municipality Category:20th-century businesspeople Category:20th-century engineers