1872.09.17 English From General Georg Christensen to Rasmus Malling-Hansen
- General Georg Christensen, 1819-1883, Danish military specialist, councillor of war, president of the Danish Industrial Association. Photo: Det Kongelige Bibliotek.
[1]To Reverend R. Malling Hansen
Septbr 17, 1872
In reply to your honoured letter of September 7 it is incumbent upon me to inform you that very few lottery tickets have been sold and that the entire purchase of prizes does not exceed 3000 Rix-dollar; hence, the Committee has decided to buy only objects of common use such as furniture and household utensils. Consequently, for the time being we will not be in the position of acquiring a writing ball, however much I would wish to accommodate your ........(illegible).
(Our copy of this letter has no signature, but everything indicates that it was written by Georg Christensen[2])
SA: And obviously the letter is an answer to a request set forward by Malling-Hansen in letter 1872.09.07.
[1] JMC: This handwritten letter is from General Georg Christensen, 1819-1883, head and organizer of the Industry- and Art Exhibition in Copenhagen in 1872, at which Malling-Hansen exhibited four different models of the writing ball as well as type specimens. Georg Christensen responded to Malling-Hansen´s letter of September 7, 1872 (see our collection of letters). Christensen´s handwriting is exceedingly hard to decipher; he is using a type of ancient alphabet.
[2] JMC: Georg Christensen was a Danish military specialist, councillor of war, president of the Danish Industrial Association. Han learned the trade of gunmaking, while also attending informal further education. By means of a scholarship from the “Reiersen Fund” he travelled around Europe on foot and eventually spent 2 years in Paris. Returning to Denmark he turned politically active and became a member of the Danish parliament establishing the first constitution of the country. In 1849 he took out a trade license for fabricating guns. In 1861 he was appointed state councillor of military matters (Danish: “Rustmester”). Christensen became member of the board of the Danish Industrial Association in 1865, and he was the key person in planning the Industry- and Art Exhibition in Copenhagen in 1872. In 1876 he was appointed president of the Danish Industrial Association. In 1879 he was appointed chairman of the recently established “Joint Committee of Danish Industry and trade”, a union of all Danish unions representing industry, trade and crafts. For further details we refer to the Danish Wikipedia and “Dansk Biografisk Leksikon”.
