Technikatörténeti szemle 23. (1997-98)

TANULMÁNYOK - Efmertová, Marcela: Major Anniversaries of Prague’s Czech Technical University and its Support from the Secondary School System in the Past

geometry, the second one included mechanics, statics, hydrostatics and hydraulics, and the third part specialized in civil and military engineering together with the related subjects of draughtsmanship and engineering drawing. Herget had two assistants who also taught at the school: engineer Josef Havle (1763-1840), and adjunct and later Director (1837) of the Prague Observatory Adam Bittner (1777-1844). Besides teaching at the engineering school Herget also found time to educate artisans; from 1775 onwards he gave Sunday classes in mechanics and also keept soldiers, whose regiments were stationed in Prague, up to date with novelties in military technology. In 1784, the Department of Applied Mathematics was set up at Prague University's Faculty of Philosophy. Its three-year engineering course offered lectures in mathematics, geometry and surveying, military and civil engineering, the art of artillery and hydraulics. It was then quite common elsewhere in the world to provide, besides university education in the humanities, also technical training, which was given in Prague by Herget himself. In addition to his teaching, Herget was also active in different scientific institutions

6 such as the Learned Society and the Royal Society of Sciences. Under the decree, issued by Emperor Franz I (1768-1835) on October 15, 1797, the Estates' Engineering School was even attached to the University's Faculty of Philosophy. That year also marked the end of the first stage of the school's history, dominated by its three distinguished professors, and ushered in another, more important, era. In the following year, the Emperor approved the propo-. sal to establish an institute of higher technical learning. The proposal to reorganize technical education was introduced and enforced by the tireless reformer Franz Joseph Gerstner at the Prague Estates' Schools as late as in 1806. But the path leading to this momentous change was very long indeed. When shaping his reform proposals, F. J. Gerstner came closest to Herget's thinking. Both men were mostly concerned with extending the teaching of modern technical branches that came to the Czech lands during the first industrial revolution from England via. France and Germany, and with the goal utilizing scientific learning also in technical branches. Unlike Herget, Gerstner did not emphasize the goal of merely integrating theoretical and practical technical knowledge but also the need for its immediate application in practice. Gerstner's underlying idea was to rebuild the existing engineering institute in Prague into a technical university catering for the needs of the country's developing industries. Young technicians and manufacturers were to be trained at the institute in the rudiments of natural and technical sciences to apply their knowledge to the correct solution of technical problems in manufacturing. Gerstner formulated his views on the reform of technical education for the Study Court Commission, set up in 1759 by Empress Maria Theresa as the main school off-