The Nobel Stamps of 1980

Day of issue: November 18, 1980 Values: 1,40 kr & 2,00 kr Design: Lennart Forsberg Engraver: Arne Wallhorn Printing process: Recess Printed at: The Post Office Stamp Printing Works.

 

The stamps portray the Nobel Laureates of 1920:

KNUT HAMSUN (1859–1952) was awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature for a specific book--his monumental work "Growth of the Soil", published in 1917. Hamsun was then at the peak of his literary career. In his powerful novel about the successful struggle of a Norwegian pioneer tilling his soil, earthiness and primitive life were glorified.

AUGUST KROGH (1874–1949) worked at the University of Copenhagen from 1916, as professor of physiology. His research was mainly concentrated to the gas exchange in the lungs. He found that the number of open capillaries in a muscle at rest was very small and that the oxygen pressure was low. But after only a few seconds' work the number of open capillaries increased significantly. Krogh was awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

CHARLES EDOUARD GUILLAUME (1861–1938) studied in Neuchatel and Zürich. In 1883 he joined the international bureau of weights and measures in Paris and in 1915 he became the director. Guillaume's research led to the discovery of a material that hardly changes volume at all when heated. The material that he himself called invar is a nickel-steel alloy. Guillaume was awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Physics.

WALTHER NERNST (1864–1941 ) studied in Graz and Leipzig and in 1894 he was appointed professor in Göttingen, where he founded a new physicochemical institute. The most important result of his research was the discovery of the third law of thermodynamics, the so called Nernst heat theorem. The law predicts that absolute zero cannot be attained. Nernst was awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

 

© 1980 SWEDEN POST STAMPS