František Josef Gerstner
Encyclopedia
Chomutov
Chomutov is a city in the Czech Republic, in the Ústí nad Labem Region.Chomutov has been a statutory town since 1 July 2006. It occupies an area of 29,26 km² and has 50 782 inhabitants , thereby making it the 20th largest town in the Czech Republic, the 4th largest in the Ústí nad Labem...
– July 25, 1832, Mladějov
Mladějov
Mladějov is a village and municipality in Jičín District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. -References:...
) was a Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n physicist and engineer.
Gerstner studied at the Jesuits gymnasium in Chomutov, after which he studied mathematics and astronomy at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague between 1772 and 1777. In 1781, he started to study medicine in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, but quickly decided to work in the astronomical observatory instead. In 1789, he became professor of mathematics there.
In 1795, Gerstner became a member of the government commission which tried to improve higher technical education in the Austrian empire
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
. Following his suggestion, the old Prague engineering school Česká stavovská inženýrská škola was converted to a polytechnic school in 1803. Gerstner became director of the polytechnic in 1806 and also professor of mechanics and hydraulics. He taught there until 1823, when he was forced to stop due to an illness. The polytechnic still exists today as the Czech Technical University in Prague
Czech Technical University in Prague
Czech Technical University in Prague is one of the largest universities in the Czech Republic, and the oldest institute of technology in Central Europe....
(ČVUT), and the institute for artificial intelligence and cybernetics research at ČVUT bears the name Gerstner Laboratory.
Work
From his published works, the most important ones were Theory of waves (1804) and Handbuch der Mechanik (1831; Handbook of mechanics). This last book appeared in three volumes, with 1400 subscribers.His work focused on applied mechanics, hydrodynamics and river transportation. He helped to build the first iron works and first steam engine in Czech lands. In 1807, he suggested the construction of a horse-drawn railway
Horsecar
A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...
between České Budějovice
Ceské Budejovice
České Budějovice is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the largest city in the South Bohemian Region and is the political and commercial capital of the region and centre of the Roman Catholic Diocese of České Budějovice and of the University of South Bohemia and the Academy of Sciences...
and Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
. This railway was later actually built between 1827 and 1829 by his son František Antonín Gerstner ).