DAMPA_75_years_of_quiet_design_ENG - Flipbook - Page 30
In November, Pedersen made a first brief visit to Arki’s factory, followed shortly after by a longer, week-long stay, during
which he took possession of the license and was shown
how the panels were produced in its premises. It soon
became clear to him that his own knowledge of acoustic
science was considerably more extensive than that of Arki’s
managers and that the factory’s processes were less than
optimal because the machines used to perforate the hardboard panels were insufficiently precise. This meant that a
worryingly high a percentage were damaged during drilling
and therefore were consigned to waste.
After Christmas, Pedersen reported back to Davidsen that
buying a license and machines from Arki had been a waste
of money. Somehow, the agreement was annulled and, with
Davidsen’s backing, Pedersen himself made design drawings for a more effective machine for perforating hardboard
panels of the kind needed for acoustic ceilings. He also quietly canvassed opinion among his former colleagues and
friends in the construction industry with regard to the potential for sales of such panels in Denmark. Their view was that
it would be a few years before enough projects for big public
buildings would arise and so it would be risky to begin production immediately. As there was no shortage of jobs for
college graduates such as Pedersen, he had no qualms
about candidly reporting this back to Davidsen who agreed
and so the design for the perforating machine was locked in
a drawer, pending further developments.
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Shortly, Pedersen was headhunted by a cement company
in Holbæk to become its factory manager, but as he had
enjoyed his time with Det Fyenske Trælastkompagni, he felt
obliged to find a successor who could eventually progress
its acoustic panel project. His immediate thought was that
Jean Arnold Fischer would be ideal. He too was a machine
tool designer whose company Fischer & Fasting had coincidentally recently been commissioned by Det Fyenske
Trælastkompagni’s Betonco subsidiary to design a machine
for casting hollow concrete blocks for cavity wall construction. Pedersen had been impressed by Fisher’s skills and,
sensing that he was exceptionally perceptive, believed that
he would also quite easily be capable of learning and comprehending acoustic theory. As Pedersen was moving away
from Odense to Holbæk, he offered Fischer his rented
apartment as an added inducement.
Earlier, Fischer had had a perilous life. In the Second World
War, he had joined the Danish Resistance to carry out sabotage operations and this had resulted in his arrest by the
Gestapo late in 1944, followed by imprisonment in Denmark
and then transfer to Neuengamme Concentration Camp,
from which he was released when Germany surrendered in
the following spring. He was then repatriated to Denmark,
very fortunate not to have been killed like so many others on
account of his having Jewish ancestry. As Hans Muus also
had been a Resistance volunteer, the two would probably
already have known and respected each other as former
wartime comrades.
