diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/angular/helpers/svg-helper.js b/app/assets/javascripts/angular/helpers/svg-helper.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d399f2475f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/angular/helpers/svg-helper.js
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+//-- copyright
+// OpenProject is a project management system.
+// Copyright (C) 2012-2013 the OpenProject Foundation (OPF)
+//
+// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+// modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.
+//
+// OpenProject is a fork of ChiliProject, which is a fork of Redmine. The copyright follows:
+// Copyright (C) 2006-2013 Jean-Philippe Lang
+// Copyright (C) 2010-2013 the ChiliProject Team
+//
+// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+// modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+// as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+// of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+// Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
+//
+// See doc/COPYRIGHT.rdoc for more details.
+//++
+
+// ╭───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
+// │  _____ _                _ _                                   │
+// │ |_   _(_)_ __ ___   ___| (_)_ __   ___  ___                   │
+// │   | | | | '_ ` _ \ / _ \ | | '_ \ / _ \/ __|                  │
+// │   | | | | | | | | |  __/ | | | | |  __/\__ \                  │
+// │   |_| |_|_| |_| |_|\___|_|_|_| |_|\___||___/                  │
+// ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
+// │ Javascript library that fetches and plots timelines for the   │
+// │ OpenProject timelines module.                                 │
+// ╰───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
+
+openprojectApp.factory('SvgHelper', [function() {
+
+  SvgHelper = (function() {
+
+    var SvgHelper = function(node) {
+
+      this.root = jQuery('<svg width="640" height="480"/>');
+      jQuery(node).append(this.root);
+
+    }
+
+    return SvgHelper;
+  })();
+
+  return SvgHelper;
+}]);
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/timelines.js b/app/assets/javascripts/timelines.js
index cbdd857ff7..c577eca949 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/timelines.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/timelines.js
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@
 
 // environment and other global vars
 /*jshint browser:true, devel:true*/
-/*global jQuery:false, Raphael:false, Timeline:true, modalHelperInstance: true, I18n: true*/
+/*global jQuery:false, Timeline:true, modalHelperInstance: true, I18n: true*/
 
 if (typeof Timeline === "undefined") {
   Timeline = {};
@@ -336,8 +336,6 @@ jQuery.extend(Timeline, {
       throw new Error('jQuery UI seems to be missing (jQuery().slider is undefined)');
     } else if ((1).month === undefined) {
       throw new Error('date.js seems to be missing ((1).month is undefined)');
-    } else if (Raphael === undefined) {
-      throw new Error('Raphael seems to be missing (Raphael is undefined)');
     }
     return true;
   },
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/timelines/ui.js b/app/assets/javascripts/timelines/ui.js
index e6c465335d..660ada9120 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/timelines/ui.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/timelines/ui.js
@@ -50,8 +50,8 @@
 /*jshint eqnull:true */
 
 // environment and other global vars
-/*jshint browser:true, devel:true*/
-/*global jQuery:false, Raphael:false, Timeline:true*/
+/*jshint browser:true, devel:true */
+/*global jQuery:false, Timeline:true */
 
 if (typeof Timeline === "undefined") {
   Timeline = {};
@@ -651,7 +651,7 @@ jQuery.extend(Timeline, {
 
     // lift the curtain, paper otherwise doesn't show w/ VML.
     jQuery('.timeline').removeClass('tl-under-construction');
-    this.paper = new Raphael(this.paperElement, 640, 480);
+    this.paper = new SvgHelper(this.paperElement);
 
     // perform some zooming. if there is a zoom level stored with the
     // report, zoom to it. otherwise, zoom out. this also constructs