Quicknation    Sweden Motala

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Motala (pop. 30,000) is the seat. Motala is situated where lake Vättern drains into the river system of Motala ström.

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When the Göta Canal was built in the early 19th century, Motala became an important city for the trade on the canal. i was the ship and steam engine industry, famous in large parts of the world. In the science fiction novel i. The builder of the Göta Canal, Baltzar von Platen has his grave by the canal, in Motala.

The town received a "minor" privilege when it became a i

Another important event in the history of Motala is 1925, when the Swedish national longwave radio broadcasting station was built here. The city marks the middle of a straight line between Sweden's two biggest cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg. Radio programs were transferred from studios in Stockholm to Motala by telephone wire. The call was "Stockholm-Motala". The transmitter operated on 191 kHz until 1962, then the transmission where moved to Orlunda. Since 1991 there are no longwave transmissions at all of the Swedish Broadcasting Company, but from the transmitter Motala, which is a museum, sometimes transmissions with low power occur, which may only receivable in the area of Motala.

As a consequece of the radio station the company Luxor was started. Luxor soon became one of the largest radio, and later television manufacturers in Sweden. In the 1980s they started producing their own line of computers, like the ABC80. In 1985 Luxor was acquired by Nokia, and eventually production moved elsewhere.

The population decreased with about 2% in almost all of the towns between the earlier census 1995 and the one in 2000.

The largest employer is the municipality with cirka 3,400 employees. There after follows the county council with 1,775.

Of the private employers, Electrolux och Dometic have a total of 1,400; Autoliv 425; Hycop 325; Saab-Bofors Dynamics cirka 300; and Motala Verkstad some 180.

(source [1])

Motala has four sister cities whereof three are in Nordic countries with origin in the 1950s.

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