Morso

Anders Nielsen Christensen born on 27 June 1882 made the first mitring machine in the world in 1911 on the island of Mors – and the Morsø was born. The Danish letter ‘Ø’ means “island” therefore the name of MORSØ. His friend, the town barber, also ran a small bookstore and picture framing business next to his barbershop. One day – that was already in 1909 - the barber said to Anders, "It's terribly difficult to get the corners of a frame to fit properly. Since you're so good at making things, do you think you can come up with something that will make it easier to put frames together?" That simple question was the birth of the business we know today as Dan-list A/S in Randers, Denmark. Its product is so unique that the product name Morsø has become part of the English language. Today the English word for mitring machine is Morso. Anders gave the problem some thought and proceeded to construct a small, strange looking piece of machinery from angle irons and flat bars that was attached to a workbench. A rod connected the foot pedal to the machine, and when the pedal was pushed, the knives were pulled through the moulding. It was a very primitive machine, and can only be regarded as a crude prototype, but it proved one thing: it was possible to cut through mouldings instead of sawing. The idea was definitely worth exploring. Next step was that the machine was constructed in such a way that the knife block was attached to the workbench, and in order to cut the moulding you had to move the fences bit by bit towards the knives. The first proper Morsø Mitring Machine was built in 1911.