Johan Wilhelm Bergström , born 1812 and died 1881 , was a Swedish photographer and industrialist. Bergström's father was a carpenter and employed at Samuel Owens foundry and machine shop. Johan Wilhelm was the eldest of nine siblings, and at the age of twelve had to interrupt his schooling to try to support himself as an ice cream grinder apprentice. He passed both companion and master exams as an ice cream grinder and in 1833 received a bursary in Stockholm and opened an ice cream grindery on Drottninggatan. In 1839 he also started a mechanical workshop, where he manufactured metal molds for pressing glass. Buyer of the molds of Reijmyre , later also Kosta glassworks . [ 1 ] After the tariff was changed in 1844, his ice cream grinding became no longer profitable, and Bergström established himself instead as a photographer, an occupation he would hold for about ten years. [ 1 ] As a daguerreotypist , he was frequently hired, and took pictures of a number of contemporary greats. He also made a series of topographical images, which today are of inestimable value. During a visit to Uppsala in 1845, he performed what is today the oldest known photographic image of the city, also as a stereoscope image . [ 2 ] After 1846, he focused on fine mechanics, rifle sighting, artillery targets and scientific instruments, something that gave him a role in the history of computers. The Englishman Charles Babbage used to be mentioned as the first designer of a mechanical computer, the differential machine . But Babbage never managed to get his machine working, despite extensive financial support from his country. The first functioning difference machine was built instead by three Swedes, Georg Scheutz and Edvard Scheutz and just JW Bergström. However, after his mechanical workshop started to pay off better, he gave up photography. After undertaking a supply of 10,000 fire hydrants to the Kingdom of Sardinia, he came in royal favor, and Oscar I sent him on a paid study trip to Germany, Belgium, France, and England to study mechanical workshops and industries. After his return, he was commissioned to carry out improvements to Stockholm Castle. [ 1 ] Bergström also had the task of organizing the Swedish participation in the London exhibition in 1851 , and was in connection with the Stockholm exhibition in 1866 as a jury member in the Central Committee. Bergström was also active as a local politician in Stockholm City Council. [ 1 ] When Stockholm was to be equipped with gas lighting in 1853, Bergström designed his own lighting apparatus. He considered that there was no need to import products and labor from England, as had been done in Gothenburg a few years earlier. In January 1854, Bergström was accepted as Stockholm's (and Sweden's) first Swedish gas pipeline contractor. He continued his active life as a pipeline contractor.