Hydropower from the 17 meters height difference between the lakes Bergsvannet and Eikern, has been exploited since the 13th century. At the end of the century, there were three mills along the short river.
As time passed, the mills grew into bigger and more commercial businesses. The ironworks probably built this one in the 18th century. In 1895, a small power plant was installed, in order to produce electricity for the two owners’ houses and the workshops. When the assembly hall (Eidsfoss Hall) was built in 1909, it too got electricity installed. A water tunnel and a modern power plant was built on the shores of Eikern, when the mill burned down in 1914.
Around the mid-16th century, the water powered vertical saw mills came to Norway. These kinds of sawmills were mostly owned by the city bourgeoisie, and a Dean in Tunsberg owned the two sawmills that were operating in Eidsfoss by 1545. A modern, circular sawmill was built by the rivers outlet in 1854. It was demolished in the 1960s.
On this Picture, taken during a workers day celebration on the early 20th Century, we see the last of the mills along the river Eid. On this time it worked as a dynamo house, providing electricity to the industry huts and the owners homes. it burned to the ground in 1914, and a new power station was erected.
Hand colored by Bjørn Vangen
This Picture is probably taken when the building was converted to an electric dynamo-house in the 1890s.
Unknown photographer. Hand colored by Bjørn Vangen.