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

for the Promotion of Industry in Bohemia, by individuals (members of aristocratic families) and the state as a result of its educational reforms (primarily between 1849 and 1869), reforms in which leading educationalists in the Austro-Hungarian empire took part. The major landmark in the history of technical education in the Czech lands came after the establishment of the Paris Ecole polytechnique in 1794. Taking a leaf out of the French school's book, F. J. Gerstner shaped a new model of technical schooling for the whole empire as well as the Chech lands. Besides his unceasing elan, manual skills, technical feeling and organizational abilities, properties possessed by all his predecessors in the post of Director of the Prague Engineering School, Gerstner was noted for his profound and wide-ranging interests and vast scientific knowledge, particularly in mathematics, astronomy and mechanics. Despite the scientific nature of his educational reform, Gerstner's proposals gave preference to the practical aspects of education in keeping with the economic need of the country. Although sharing a very similar concept, the Prague and Paris institutes can hardly be compared. Still, we can point out their overall character and specifications. The Ecole polytechnique in Paris was established soon after the French revolution, in the midst of the war. The country's erstwhile network of military technical schools was no longer functional, and a modern educational model had to be devised to help France and its army defend itself against Austrian, . Prussian, English, Dutch, Spanish and Italian troops and also to keep its key government authorities and institutions going. That was why the three-year Ecole polytechnique had a predominance of technical and natural science subjects, expounded by lecturers with profound theoretical knowledge (Lamblardie, Perronet, Monge, Carnot etc.). Seen in this light, the school served not only military but also civilian and research purposes, and graduates from Ecole polytechnique were in a position to expand and enrich their technical knowledge in more specialized branches by attending one of the schools known as Ecoles d'applications. All this until 1829 when Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures was founded in 1829 for the benefit of the country's emerging industrial factories. Originally, Gerstner was inspired by the same ideas as the architects of Ecole polytechnique. But in his concept he gradually applied and indeed emphasized the practical aspect. First and foremost-compared with France - the Czech lands were not so advanced (in terms of economic development and the system of supplementary and especially secondary schools). Furthermore, Gerstner was greatly interested in learning how would new machinery transform the industries and affect the country's economic prosperity. Yet he saw the backbone of the three-year studies at the Prague Polytechnic (simil-