17 The guiding principles of polytechnic education, as developed at the École Polytechnique in Paris from 1794, aimed at practical application and democratization. Accordingly, great value was attached to the practical experience of technology. At that time, it was possible to acquire these primarily through drawing exercises, demonstrations and experiments, as well as through geometric methods. In order to synthesize new technical means, it was supremely important to be able to determine from a drawing those connections that were both constructive and related to manufacturing technology. Therefore, the educational goals at the emerging polytechnic schools involved training spatial powers of imagination, conveying design thinking and encouraging precision skills. Such precision and reproducibility were required by the developing mechanized production in factories. Mechanical engineering was, then, paramount in engineering endeavors. The great demand for engines and work machines gave rise to a flood of original inventions for transforming movement and force, and also led to the publication of entire catalogs of elementary mechanisms. These basic ideas on construction, unsurpassable in their diversity and objectified as models, promoted the creative drafting of new variations and combinations when it came to training practical mechanics and mechanical engineers. At the Technical School* in Dresden founded in 1828, models and other visual aids were also incorporated into teaching at an early stage, partly to make up for the lack of suitable textbooks. From the beginning, the pupils were trained in the practical handling of machines, instruments and tools. Instruction sometimes took place in workshops and factories, comparable to today’s internships. During the founding years, the use of the Royal Model Chamber − the remaining stock of which later formed part of the Mathematisch- Physikalischer Salon, Dresden’s collection of mathematical and scientific instruments in the Zwinger Building − was also subject to ministerial regulation. The special technical collections, which were primarily established at the polytechnic schools, thus represent the process of scientification of technology and industry. In addition to raw materials, material and product samples, devices, measuring instruments and entire machines, the collections mainly contained presentation sheets and models. In addition to the drawn templates used for technical instruction, the exceptional didactic value of the models should be emphasized. One of the earliest collections in Dresden, the “Machine and Model Cabinet”, was aimed at the training in mechanical engineering, whereby the mechanism and gear models can be attributed to the constructive branch of scientific mechanical engineering. The basic stock of today’s Collection of Mechanism and Gear KLAUS MAUERSBERGER The historical development of the collections at the TUD Dresden University of Technology Forest Zoological Collection (around 1860) in the main building of the Academy of Forestry in Tharandt * Since its foundation in 1828, the Technical School (Technische Bildungsanstalt) has undergone a series of name changes that reflect its constantly rising status and significance. In 1851, the Technical School (Technische Bildungsanstalt) became the Royal Polytechnic School (Königliche Polytechnische Schule). Since 1871 the name Polytechnic (Polytechnikum) was used, officially introduced as Royal Polytechnical College of Dresden (Königliches Polytechnicum zu Dresden) in 1878. In 1890, the College was given a university constitution and the name Royal Saxon Technical College (Kgl. Technische Hochschule Dresden/ TH Dresden). Finally, the renaming to TUD Dresden University of Technology followed in 1961.
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