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Helge Palmcrantz (July 7, 1842 – November 22, 1880) was a Swedish inventor and industrialist.
In partnership with his brother-in-law, Theodor Winborg (1832–1918), Palmcrantz founded a small workshop on Vollmar Yxkullsgatan 25, Södermalm, Stockholm. As number of employees increased along with the production volume, he moved to a new factory on Kungsholmen, Stockholm, where they manufactured firearms, , and other agricultural equipment of their own design. The Palmcrantz factory, italic=no, would later be built on Lövholmen, Stockholm.
In 1868, the first version of his machine gun was finished and a demonstration of its capacity was held on Ladugårdsgärdet, Stockholm in front of the Swedish Defense Minister; G. R. Abel. After a couple of modifications and improvements, he patented the multi-barrel, lever-actuated, machine gun and it was bought into the Swedish army. The same year, the machine-gun was exhibited at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair.
To reach international success, Palmcrantz met industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt (1842–1920) in 1875 and the latter's company became his British agent. They agreed to market the machine gun under the then well known Nordenfelt brand and his second model would later be known as the Nordenfelt gun after his financial backer. It was Nordenfelt who convinced Palmcrantz to increase the caliber of his gun to one inch, making it a suitable weapon for use against the growing threat of .
Palmcrantz succumbed to an early death from a bleeding Peptic ulcer. He was buried at Norra Begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.
Helge Palmcrantz has a former school named after him, Palmcrantzskolan in Östersund. The block names "Kulsprutan" and "Lavetten" on Kungsholmen are named after his factories at Hantverkargatan.
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