The industrial spy who ended up in Newgate Prison
Peter Holm had already spent a couple of years in Germany when von Storm took over as director. and he was told to stay down there and continue to lure skilled workers to Nøstetangen by offering wages that were higher than what they received in their home country. In addition, Morten Wærn , a junior member of the trading house Ancher & Wærn, was sent to the British Isles to obtain as much information as possible about the famous English crystal glass cottages.
Basically, he was supposed to obtain information about everything that could be of interest, but it was especially the recipes for the various "mixtures" that he was interested in.
Each individual glass quality had its own special composition of quartz, silicon, molybdenum, saltpeter, arsenic, magnesium, soda, borax, etc.
These were well-guarded production secrets at the English glassworks, and only by acquiring this knowledge could Nøstetangen hope to produce truly quality glass.
Morten Wærn showed great zeal in the service. He traveled in shuttle traffic between the glassworks in Hull, Bristol, Liverpool, London, Yarmouth and Leith, where he put his eyes and ears to good use and also large sums of money in bribing the skilled workers to obtain prescriptions and batch samples.
Via a company in Kirkwall on Orkney, he smuggled out bulk samples for crown glass and crystal, as well as samples of the various raw materials used in production.
At the same time, he made drawings of the smelting furnaces, investigated labor wages, fuel costs and other costs, and he persuaded professionals to leave their hometown and move to Eiker.
For a little over the Company's emissary ran this large-scale spy business before he was exposed when he tried to recruit two workers from the crystal works in Liverpool. He fled to London, but was arrested there and imprisoned in the infamous Newgate prison.
The central administration in Copenhagen, headed by Count Moltke, was set in motion to get the young Norwegian out of prison, and he was released after a few days on bail of 80 guineas.
In order to drop the charges, the English authorities demanded a much larger sum, but while the negotiations were going on, Morten Wærn escaped to Calais, and he managed to get all the records he had made with him!
Thus he began to study the French glass industry, but he received strict orders from home not to attempt to enlist any skilled workers or undertake anything else that might get him into trouble with the authorities!
He did not return home until 1756, and he was later appointed director of the Company.