A history of Nokia's from paper mills to Gorbachev  Started in
1865 as a paper manufacturer, Nokia began making radio phones
for the military in the 1960s and launched its first handheld in
1987 The launch of Nokia Lumia 920 and 820 Windows smartphones
in 2012. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images  In 1865,
Fredrik Idestam established a pulp mill in south-west Finland
and started manufacturing paper. He opened a second mill three
years later near the town of Nokia and by 1902, the firm had
moved into electricity generating. Shortly after the first world
war, Nokia was close to bankruptcy and the nearby Finnish Rubber
Works, maker of galoshes, hoses and tyres, bought the firm in
order to ensure a power supply. A few years later, the group
acquired Finnish Cable Works, exporter of telephone and
electricity cables to the Soviet Union, and the crucible of
Nokia's electronics business. The three companies merged in 1922
to form a conglomerate.  By the 1960s, Nokia had begun making
radio phones for the Finnish mi