Monday, November 02, 2009

The Oslo Lysverker Van - a real workhorse?

Oslo Lysverker had a lot to do with developing the infrastructure in Oslo. Part of the development was putting new power cables in the ground. These cables were heavy and the work of putting them in the ground was not a easy task. They could be up to over 500 meters long, and the trick seemed to be not to stop when you got the cable sliding. A known method from ancient times of making people work in the same paste, is song and rythm. At Oslo Lysverker they had their own singer, whos only job was to keep the cable sliding. His singing was supposed to keep the men pull at the rythm of his song. The movie clip is from a norwegian TV program in the seventhies. I wonder if my BD panel van was the vehicle the singer used to carry himself and his speaker kit around? The cargo area of my van is surprisingly straight for being a work horse for over 10 years. As you can hear from the clip, I recon this man in the turtle neck was not the most popular man among the dirty workers in the ditch. Singing his awful song day out and day in with his hands in his pockets. The "Oppsanger" as he was titled, got replaced by a machine who pulled the cables shortly after this interview took place. Wonder why?

If I got the "Oppsanger" van, it must have been the most hated vehicle in Oslo for many years... Now I just have to mount a speaker on the roof and fill the streets with song once again =)

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