Steam engine

The collection of mechanical engines has been compiled since founding the Museum (1908). The fund is represented by a collection of original engines completed with a large group of functional models that have currently also gained their historical value. In addition, the collection contains models of steam generators, examples of engine components, crucial structural details, auxiliary mechanisms and equipment for mechanical distribution of power. According to fields, this collection fund is divided into wind engines, water engines, steam engines (piston steam engines and turbines) and combustion engines (with internal and external combustion). Altogether, the collection contains about 350 objects. Important exhibits are, for instance, collection of gas engines from the 60s and 70s of the 19th century - Lenoir's gas engine (first factory-produced combustion engine) and atmospheric gas engines of Otto and Bisschop. The collection of mechanical engines of domestic provenance is represented above all by the Kaplan testing turbine which is the first specimen of this type of engine in the world, or Persons steam engine built in 1902 in the First Brno Engineering Works. Important domestic machines documented in the collection include also the steam engine with Zvonicek's valve gear from 1908 manufactured by the Bohemian-Moravian Machine Factory in Pilsen.