Erik Jørgensen was a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 master gunsmith

Gunsmith

A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds firearms. This occupation is different from an armorer. The armorer primarily maintains weapons and limited repairs involving parts replacement and possibly work involving accurization...

, well known for his cooperation with Ole Herman Johannes Krag

Ole Herman Johannes Krag

Ole Herman Johannes Krag was a Norwegian officer and firearms designer.-Biography:Ole H. J. Krag was born in Vågå, in Oppland county, Norway. Krag grew up in various locations where his father, Hans Peter Schnitler Krag , served as pastor, including Vågå, Fredrikshald and Christiania...

 in developing the successful Krag-Jørgensen

Krag-Jørgensen

The Krag-Jørgensen is a repeating bolt action rifle designed by the Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 19th century. It was adopted as a standard arm by Denmark, the United States of America and Norway...

 rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

.

Erik Jørgensen was born in Asker

Asker

Asker is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Viken traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Asker. The municipality is a suburb of Oslo, the national capital...

, Norway, and grew up on the farm Solstad. He educated himself to be a gunsmith and started working on Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk

Kongsberg Gruppen

Kongsberg Gruppen is Norway's major defence contractor and maritime automation supplier, located in Kongsberg, a former mining town....

(the most important Norwegian weapon factory) in 1870. It was here that he met Ole H J Krag and from 1871 Jørgensen worked with Krag on his rifles. As time went on, Jørgensen turned from just doing work for Krag to be an active participant in the development of the rifle which later became known as the Krag-Jørgensen.