national technical museum
annual report 2007 national technical museum
annual report on activities 2007
prague june 2008
č j ntm-537 2007-gø
person in charge mgr horymír kubíèek director general
kostelní 42 170 78 praha 7 http www ntm cz
národní technické muzeum výroèní zpráva 2007 redakce phdr jitka zamrzlová
úprava obrázkù helena èešpivová
1per aspera ad astra dear readers the assessment of the national technical museum activities over the past year is quite difficult for me i was appointed managing director only on 1 june 2007 by the minister of culture mgr václav jehlička the museum’s new management formulated a number of priorities for the organization’s activity these included completing the second phase of the building’s reconstruction and the preparation of new exhibitions a fundamental rethink and change of approach to the railway muse-
um’s construction in the masarykovo railway station complex and also involved developing the preservation of movable as well as immovable technical monuments in close cooperation with the national heritage institute the reconstruction of the ntm building a cultural monument originally designed by the architect milan babuška in the letná quarter of prague is a complex and multiform affair which entails a number of complications but also the pleasure that is gained from renovating an architectural jewel the railway museum whose construction was decided on by resolution of the czech government of 15 november 2000 and which was al-
located for its future exhibits the historic section of the prague locomotive depot at the masarykovo railway station site unfortunately ran out of steam the policy of compromise pursued by the previous management caused the entire project to be downgraded and even raised the possibility of the prague location being abandoned with the support of the czech ministry of culture we are striving to reactivate the original plan and create a modern railway museum in the authentic environment of the original metropolitan railway station in prague in the field of monument preservation we are preparing to open up the unique depository of historic building materials and to present historic technologies as part of the civil engineering heritage centre in plasy you can find more information on this project of european significance in a separate part of this report following extensive discussions ntm’s strategic goals were updated in autumn 2007 and the medium-term plan was confirmed in principle for the museum’s development from 2006 to 2010 a system for delegating tasks and responsibilities for specific work tasks soon proved to be of motivational value for the team of erudite and experienced ntm staff mgr horymír kubíèek director general
2 reconstruction of the national technology museum main building the national technical museum building at letná is one of the most successful examples of modern museum architecture in the czech republic its origins date back to the mid-1930s when a public architectural contest was announced and its winner was professor dr arch milan babuška construction began in autumn 1938 and was completed in 1942 although it should be noted that the construction process did not succeed in rendering everything as milan babuška had imagined some of his vision and ideas particularly concerning the layout of the building’s interiors were finally implemented sixty years later during the reconstruction work which commenced five years ago in may 2003 the actual construction work was divided into three phases the first phase started at the beginning of 2003 when a building permit was granted and the company průmstav a s which had been selected through a public tender began construction work at the end of may in april 2004 construction was interrupted and was only resumed at the beginning of 2006 this was preceded by a new project covering not only the completion of the unfinished parts of the building from the first phase but also the reconstruc-
tion of other areas this was now in the second phase intended to incorporate roughly three-quarters of the entire building the ac-
tual construction work recommenced at the beginning of 2006 and was performed by a different contractor ohl žs a s the year 2006 saw the completion of the unfinished areas in the north-west wing the first floor with air-conditioned archive depository and the offices on the second and third floors these spaces were issued an occupancy permit in the second quarter of 2006 construction continued with the second phase in the remaining areas of the building a total of six floors in september 2006 construction reached the entry vestibule on the ground floor requiring the building to be closed to visitors for an extended period the second phase of reconstruction in 2007 completed the restora-
tion of babuška’s design for the vestibule on the ground floor bal-
last and provisional additions from past years were removed from the entrance space to the museum and the main interior staircase was restored and given a new balustrade most of the interiors were repaired and new heating distribution systems and heavy and light-current mains connections were installed in most of the exhibition halls the majority of utilities are laid in double floors this means that when it comes to changing the exhibits on display all that is required now is to raise any of the floor modules and connect the feed for lighting propulsion or any other facilities all doors and wood glass walls and most of the windows were replaced a new service entrance was built for museum staff lifts and hygiene facilities were reconstructed and the cloakroom shop and conference hall for 100 people were modernised wheelchair access via an entrance ramp on the south side of the building will serve disabled visitors 3 preparation of the new exhibitions
the uncertainty surrounding the planning of new exhibitions especially the financing and completion dates for construction work and the subsequent opening of the museum meant that the preparatory work for staging exhibitions in the first half of 2007 was to a large degree unstructured work on the exhibitions stagnated as did the creation of scenarios for other planned exhibitions the untenability of the situa-
tion was apparent even to the former managing director ing tomáš kupec who therefore decided to create the post of project coordinator production manager for exhibitions the arrival of the new managing director in the middle of the year caused the staging of new exhibitions to become a priority a final decision was taken on where to place the individual exhibitions and specific changes were made to the organisation of locations the relevant collections departments or collection curators were then called to intensify the preparatory work in view of the fact that the building’s occupancy permit date was brought forward the aim was to expedite the preparation of exhibition spaces and so the construction alterations of some of these spaces were started the most significant change was in the east-wing ground floor where a museum store was designed to stand immediately next to the museum entrance and the vestibule hall printing
after some confusion over its final location the printing exhibition was implemented in the exhibition hall on the first floor of the museum’s south-east wing preparatory work got underway for the demanding construction work required by the nature of the future exhibition and the specific demands that would be placed on the floor’s statics the exhibition will be conceived as an old factory hall providing visitors with an attractive background in which to learn about printing technologies the industrial design department will contribute several items from its collections to the exhibition after the building has gained an occupancy permit a general contractor for the exhibition will immediately be selected communications
600 m2 of exhibition space on the first floor of the south-west wing in the ntm main building were allocated for this exhibition visitors will be able to follow the development of communications technologies both through numerous attractive exhibits and last but not least presentation and interactive aids the industrial design department will contribute several items from its collections to the exhibition at the end of 2007 the exhibition scenario was still at the development stage with its completion targeted for the first third of 2008 and its next step i e the selection of an architect technology in daily life
the exhibition will be held in the exhibition hall on the second floor of the ntm main building’s south-west wing technology in daily life will chart the development of electrical appliances apparatus and instruments used by all of us the industrial design department will contribute several items from its collections to the exhibition at the end of 2007 the creator of the exhibition had formulated its conceptual aspects and was working on the exhibition scenario astronomy
250 m2 of exhibition space on the second floor of the ntm building’s south-east wing were allocated for this exhibition it will be based on attractive exhibits which together with archive material and visual aids will introduce visitors to this interesting subject at the end of 2007 the exhibition scenario was nearing its finalisation architecture and civil engineering
the exhibition will map the development of architecture and civil engineering from the 18th century to the middle of the 20th century staff from the museum of architecture and civil engineering and the industrial design department are working jointly on rendering the exhibition 4the exhibition scenario was completed by the end of 2007 the architect vávra was involved in finishing the project design documentation although at the year’s end this still needed further work transport
the uncertainty about the planned extent of reconstruction to the transport hall and its overall concept meant that work on the hall’s reconstruction did not get under way until the second half of the year in the first phase display cases were cleared and dismantled and this was followed by the taking down of aeroplane parts september saw the largest logistical action undertaken in the last fifty years of the ntm’s existence the moving of the steam locomotives the first transport moved the gartenau steam tram locomotive and the brotan boiler from the 33 046 locomotive the second transport removed the 322 302 steam locomotive formerly the illa 18 don-
nersberg” which was made in 1870 both transports headed to the ntm railway depository in chomutov employees from the transport department also began work on putting together scenarios which would give a definite idea of the new transport exhibition concept at the end of the year a contract with the creator responsible for the architectural solution was nearing signature measuring time
the changes initiated by the new management in the second half of 2007 caused this exhibition to be cancelled the exhibition space will be used instead for the film and photographic technology collec-
tions film and photographic technology
it was the former management’s intention that the original interkamera exhibition located on the ground floor of the east and south-east wing of the main building should not even be included in the planned reconstruction in autumn 2007 much of the original exhibition space was taken away from the exhibition and allocated instead to be used for the museum’s business and commercial requirements as compensa-
tion the photo-cinema department received the space set aside for the former measuring time exhibition the department made plans to use the space for the glass studio exhibition this will form the introductory section of a new exhibition which is intended to offer a comprehensive separate tour work on the exhibition scenario got underway at the beginning of the year mining
the exhibition on ore and coal mining located in the second and third basement of the main building was not originally included in the re-
construction plans nevertheless the new management decided to create an entirely new concept of gathering and exhibition spaces in front of the ore and coal mine mga ing arch petr janda was selected as the architect for these spaces and at the end of the year a contract was close to being signed with him collections
after many years when the care of collections was limited to remedying flood damage and moving collections on a large scale to various makeshift locations due to the reconstruction of the museum building things gradually got back to normal even if these factors still lingered on the salvage of three-dimensional collections damaged by flooding is slowly reaching its conclusion and numerous sets of valuable artefacts are now in an excellent state and ready to be displayed at the end of the year preparations began to review the existing practice for building collections by updating the collection concepts and making new acquisition plans thereby leading to the gradual renewal of program activities in building and administering the museum exhibit holdings the museum management will devote special attention to acquisition activity the new large-capacity depository in čelákovice from june 2006 fully meets the needs for storing collections according to modern stand-
ards and anticipates the future rationalisation of care for collections by splitting the administration and creation of collections into separate departments the project includes the creation of a new computer registration database for collections with network access linked graphic documentation and bar codes in 2007 the čelákovice depository was awarded first prize in the gloria musaelis competition in the category of museum achievements the depository’s total storage space is 4 000 m2 as of 31 december 2007 the individual sections were filled as follows depository with mobile shelves 62 225 free palette spaces out of a total of 480 the depository with crane hall was full apart from the first floor of the built-in extension the depository for large items was 35 full temporary storage for 2 air-frames from the main building reconstruction individual booths were 30 full new acquisitions
purchase of the jawa 500 motorcycle see picture type 891 riding gear and the winner’s cup from the ice-track world championship this is an authentic set of items from the world champion milan špinka 5
the automobile collections were supplemented by the purchase of the estate of the famous racing driver jan kubíček inter alia the outright winner of the czechoslovak 1 000 miles race in 1935 an exchange with the military history institute led to the ntm collections obtaining the unique čz 350 road-racing motorcycle type 860 with a four-cylinder engine on 6 february 2007 the national technical museum collections received a gift from škoda auto a s of the škoda superb v6 2 8 30v passenger car see pic-
ture this was used from 2003 to 2006 at the prague castle by president václav klaus the collections of the railway museum part of the ntm were supplemented by the passenger couchette car bac 4948 the motor locomotive t 478 1010 the electric locomotive e 499 089 and the motor rail car m 262 075 last three see pictures the vehicles are stored in the depository in chomutov other additions to the railway collection comprised the following gifts from okd doprava a s ostrava the gift of the electric locomotive e 406 0501 from ažd s r o praha the four-axle carriage which was originally used as a mail car fa 5-2190 68524 for the symbolic price of one czech crown and from ohl žs a s brno the gift of the four-axle carriage which was originally used as a motor rail car m 273 006 the blue arrow in 2007 the aviation collections were expanded by two aeroplanes the agricultural aeroplane z 37 čmelák bumblebee ok-cjy and the glider l-33 solo ok-4406 both aeroplanes were purchased from aeroklub zbraslavice which also donated another aeroplane to the ntm collections the glider vt-116 orlík ii ok-9405 december 2007 also saw the purchase for the aviation collections of a balloon basket and its fittings making it possible to complete the balloon ab 2a ok-7002 in its original form the first se-
rially produced hot-air balloon in our country see picture it had been possible previously to purchase the actual balloon without the basket the astronomy geodesy and mathematics col-
lections were extended by a total of 13 three-dimensional items one of these was a mirror sextant heath & co london first half of the 20th century see picture geodesic instruments were augmented among other things by the theodolite wild t3 aarau 1941 and computing aids the map collection was supplemented by 70 maps and 18 atlases of which the rarest addition is the map of bohemia from the middle of the 16th century sebas-
tian münster around 1560 one of the oldest single maps of bohemia in 2007 the photographic and film technology collection obtained among other things a mitchell film projector from the middle of the 20th century which had been used for back projection in the former barrandov film studios it was donated by barrandov studios 6
the largest addition in 2007 was a three-body-part steam turbine with 200 mw power output 3000 r p m 16 18 mpa 5650c see pictures this became part of the engineering collections energy sector collection holdings the home technology collection holdings were expanded in 2007 for example by a flat-iron and křižík’s brand name electric washing ma-
chine we particularly value this addition as we have been trying to obtain křižík’s brand name items for many years a wooden ice-cooled refrigerator a svoboda’s brand name electric washing machine a cylindrical wringing machine and a cylindrical electric mangle of czech provenance vávra model the textile collections obtained among other things hrdina and fischer weaving looms and a set of machines for preparing jacquard loom cards as well as polygraphic collections e g diazo copy machine the architecture and civil engineering museum purchased from the j fragner gallery a set of models of important prague buildings from the first half of the 20th century josef chochol tenement house in prague 2 vyšehrad building no 98 neklanova 30 fritz lehman department store and tenement house prague 1 old town building no 1006 adolf foehr brandeis department store prague 1 old town building no 397 josef havlíček et al residential block of tenement houses molochov” in prague 7 bubeneč ernst mühlstein villa schück in prague 7 troja building no 222 the electrical engineering collections were expanded for example by the ar-88lf communications receiver receiver from the american firm rca from world war 2 for reception on five short-wave frequencies and one long-wave or communications receiver sx-28 also of american origin from the firm hallicrafters from world war 2 which covered all short and long-wave frequencies the industrial design collections were augmented in 2007 by a set of designer laminated models of various škoda fabia coupé cars and the conceptual design for the škoda ahoj car these items were a gift from the škoda auto design studio the largest item in terms of numbers is the addition to the metallurgy collection the artistic cast-iron collection holdings the market-town komárov near hořovice donated a collection of artistic cast-iron to the museum from the foundry museum in komárov in the total amount of 766 registration numbers digitalisation of collections during 2007 2 528 files were created of which 2 314 were archived archive materials collection items subject documentation in ad-
dition other models were digitalised for the annual catalogue and external orders were handled altogether around 2 800 archived files were created 7 scientific and research activity grants
institutional support for science and research
in 2007 the research project czech technology against the background of world development mk00002329901 originally scheduled for 2004-2008 was extended in 2007 until 2010 the research project’s implementation in 2007 focused on processing the development of technology and science in the as yet least researched developmental stage of the second half of the 20th century in the field of comparative research seeking in particular to capture the influence of international technical development in a czech environment a further two mono-
thematic volumes were prepared and published of works from the history of technology and the natural sciences” and one volume from the foreign-language series acta historiae rerum naturalium necnon technicarum” the history of technology department actively organised conferences and its staff actively participated in several other conferences and congresses both at home and abroad enter- interactive educative program at the beginning of 2006 the national technical museum received a jpd3 grant under meas-
ure 3 1 national technical museum interactive educative program project cz 04 3 07 3 1 01 2 2044 the more than two-year project was co-financed by the european social fund the czech republic state budget and the prague city budget the project’s aim was to create an interactive educational program by the museum which would focus on the subject of phys-
ics for the second grade of elementary school ten thematic workshops were created in the previous period balloon time home energy photog-
raphy gramophone toy wheel paper and rudolf ii preparation of the themes lasted from february 2006 to february 2007 from march 2007 the workshops were offered to all prague elementary and grammar schools from the very beginning they attracted much interest and within a month most deadlines had been filled till the end of the school year after the holidays the program continued with the same interest shown by schools and was judged to have been extremely successful from march to the end of 2007 the workshops were attended by a total of 3 760 pupils and students from 33 prague schools as part of the enter program the ntm also participated in the 2007 science and technology week organised by the academy of sci-
ences of the czech republic and was praised for an important initiative in popularising physics awarded by the czech physics society 8
preparing the project for the civil engineering heritage centre in plasy preparations were ongoing throughout the year for the civil engineering heritage centre project in plasy csd this included multilateral meetings with representatives of state authorities self-
governing bodies and with the expert public on the concept for the whole project which was substantially developed although the main building is closed we do out best to ensure that the public doesn’t forget about the museum in 2007 together with the industrial heritage research centre of the czech technical university čvut in prague and the prague city urban development department we organised the exhibition face of the industrial age which provided a unique pictorial testimony on one of the most important transforma-
tions in the czech country and society the result of the process of industrialisation of the czech lands at the turn of the 19th and 20th century the exhibition could be seen from 19 september to 4 november 2007 in the architects’ hall at the old town hall in prague other presentation activities
czech bugatti rally 2007
the museum took part in the static display of bugatti 51 and bugatti 13 automobiles lovers of the bugatti models gathered from almost the whole of europe in karlštejn on thursday 17 may the oldest preserved bu-
gatti 13 in the world part of the museum’s collections was on display friday 18 may saw the historically unique meeting of all four bugatti racing cars belong-
ing to jiří christian lobkovic at the mělník chateau the museum was represented at this meeting by the bugatti 51 the event ended with the presentation of the bugatti 13 in front of the černínský palace on sunday 20 may open-doors weekend in the locomotive depot in chomutov
an open-doors weekend was held on 30 june and 1 july in the railway museum depository in chomutov the general public was thus able for the first time to visit the spaces which are otherwise not open to the public in which the historic railbound vehicles are kept including the ntm’s latest additions altogether almost sixty railway cars were on view the public was accompanied through the whole complex by ntm guides some of the cars were displayed for photographs outside in front of the railway rotunda the depository was visited over both days by more than 1 250 visitors museum at the chamber of deputies
on 9 november 2007 the ntm managing director mgr horymír kubíček ing petr cenker curator of the aviation archive and mgr tomáš rezek curator of the aviation collection attended a meeting of the sub-committee for science research aviation and cosmonautics in the 9
10
chamber of deputies of the parliament of the czech republic as part of the presentations by museums and interested parties focusing on the collections of czechoslovak aviation the 90th anniversary of whose formation will be commemorated in october 2008 we presented the his-
tory and present of the aviation collection and the aviation archive ntm exhibitions loaned for presentation to other institutions miroslav klíma designer and sculptor 8 31 march 2007 university gallery in pilsen important personalities from czech science and technology district museum in nový jičín 1 march 13 may national history museum in olomouc 17 may 31 july technical museum in brno 27 august 21 october the hlučín region museum in hlučín 25 october 2007 27 january 2008 cooperation on exhibitions
for the prestigious international vintage car exhibition chromjuwelen autos mit geschichte 25 october 2007 - 3 march 2008 technical museum in vienna the ntm loaned two automobiles from its collections the bugatti 51 racing car and the tatra 80 automobile see picture which was used by president masaryk and is a national cultural monument in copenhagen the loan continued of 10 unique items from the 16th and 17th centuries j bürgi’s sextant from 1600 jacob’s staff armillary sphere veduta of prague etc for the exhibition tycho brahe and his world national museum in copenhagen until 17 april 2007 for the exhibition show what you can do kinetic objects of svatopluk král museum of play jičín ntm loaned 100 items from its industrial design collection three pieces from the same collection were then loaned for the itinerant exhibition on the automobile designer václav král the exhibition albrecht of waldstein and his era was enriched by 23 instruments from the 16th to 18th centuries from geodesy and astronomy waldstein riding school prague 15 november 2007 2 march 2008 the exhibition automatophones mechanical musical machines and instruments presented 4 playing machines museum of north bohemia in liberec 9 november 2007 13 january 2008 geodesic and astronomical instruments were presented for example at the exhibition technology through the eyes of a technologist prague bethlehem chapel 16 january 9 july 2007 and at the exhibition martin alois david institute of astronomy of the czech academy of sciences 9 30 november 2007 11 personnel information in the first half of 2007 the museum was still under the management of managing director tomáš kupec before he was recalled on 30 april 2007 by the ministry of culture the main reason for his recall was his longstanding inability to manage the said organisation effectively the failure to utilise the museum’s expert and creative potential and the loss of credit in the eyes of the expert and general public on 1 june 2007 the office of managing director was assumed by his successor mgr horymír kubíček there were also changes in personnel in the railway museum mgr milan sýkora left the office of director and in november mgr jiří střecha was appointed as his replacement in the second half of the year the priority for personnel policy was to stabilise and improve team cooperation between the various museum units some specific personnel changes were carried out financial management of the institution presentations and the already mentioned railway museum a very important aspect of the new management’s personnel policy is the introduction of the mentoring and assessment of new employees the positive results of this approach were already evident in the second half of 2007 finance
in 2007 the national technical museum operated with the revenue of czk 91 605 000 of which subsidies for operations amounted to czk 46 041 000 the remainder are the revenues generated by the museum in 2007 as in 2006 the ntm was closed to the public a fact which impacted on the level of own income which fell not only because of the absence of takings from admission fees but also of other income which relates directly or indirectly to the closure of the ntm main building despite this the ntm recorded an accounting profit of czk 328 000 národní technické muzeum 2008