Glaser died in 1545. The first Norwegian daler was minted on Gimsøy in 1546, but Gimsøy did not become the Norwegian mining town Glaser had planned and eventually all the Saxon miners left Norway.
…this was the start of the industrial revolution in Norway.
When the miners from Saxony left Gimsøy, one person remained. His name was Jürgen or Jørgen von Ansbach and he applied his knowledge of blasting rocks to blasting channels through the mountain ridge between Hjellevannet and Bryggevannet. This allowed the enormous forces in the water masses flowing down from Øvre Telemark to be harnessed and regulated to power a series of riser saws. Such a large sawmill facility was not found anywhere else and it is therefore correct to say that this was the start of the industrial revolution in Norway.
Ansbach himself became a sawmill owner and lumber merchant and in 1568 also mayor of Skien. He had a large family and most of the prominent inhabitants of Skien in the following generations, such as Henrik Ibsen's mother's family, descended from Jørgen Ansbach.
The sawmill industry and the export of planks and beams now made it important and profitable to own forests. While agricultural areas had previously been most important, it was now the forests that were most valuable. The blast furnaces in the ironworks that were now established in the area around Skien, such as Fossum, Bolvig and Ulefoss, were all based on charcoal. This further increased the value of the forests.
