Nikola Tesla Technical Museum

The Nikola Tesla Technical Museum was founded in 1954 on the model of modern technical museums in Europe. Although ideas and initiatives for a museum that would collect technical material appeared in the late 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century, the Technical Museum began its existence with the decision to establish the Zagreb City Committee on December 21, 1954. The father of the idea was a respected university professor. dr. sc. Božo Težak, who visionarily designed the Museum as a combination of a science center and a classic complex museum of technology. Professor Težak's vision can be seen in his understanding of the Technical Museum, which in addition to the basic content of the classical museum with exhibits of original exhibits in the field of technique and technology, acts as an educational center for teaching a better understanding of natural sciences and technology. The extent to which Professor Težak 's idea was in this area and beyond ahead of time is indicated by the fact that the first Dr. Frank Oppenheimer' s Exploratorium was opened in San Francisco in 1969.

Of the thousands of exhibits that the visitor can see in the permanent exhibition of the Technical Museum, it is very difficult to single out the most interesting, but let's try to single out at least some of the large number of attractive objects:

In the Energy Transformation department, the following stand out: a wine press from 1871 used on the property of the Zagreb Archdiocese in Vugrovac near Zagreb, the control panel of the Ozalj hydroelectric power plant from 1908, Girard's water turbine from 1870 (Museum yard) which powered machines in the Rijeka paper factory . The 19th-century upright steam engine from the Prezid sawmill in Gorski Kotar and the 1909 Umrath locomotive that powered the Knin electricity generator belong to the steam engine collection, and the 1911 Grazer Wagonn Fabriks stationary diesel engine from the 1911 collection to the internal combustion engine collection. .

From the Traffic Assets Department, we single out the narrow-gauge steam locomotive Gabor from 1890, the tender steam locomotive Samoborček from 1930, the Dubrovnik tram from 1912, the Mercedes-Benz S car from 1927, the Knez snowmobile from 1931, the pocket submarine CB 20 – Mališan, from 1943, the Fizir FNH plane of the Croatian designer Rudolf Fizir from 1944 and the public clock from Kvaternik Square in Zagreb from 1925.

In the Fire Department, we notice a team fire truck from the second half of the 19th century, a Kernereuter steam fire hydrant from 1889, a Magirus K-20 car fire ladder from 1924, a Chevrolet combined fire truck from 1931 – all used in the Zagreb Fire Brigade. a 1928 Seltenhofer syringe used by DVD Brdovec.

In addition to attractive models of rockets and satellites, the Astronomy Department exhibits the Reiner Felder & Hertel telescope from 1901, which Oton Kučera acquired for the needs of the Zagreb Observatory, and the Kleinplanetarium ZKP-1 projector, Carl Zeiss (TM 2460) installed in the Technical Museum Planetarium and in everyday function. .

In the Nikola Tesla Demonstration Cabinet department is Tesla's transformer E. Durelf & Lefeuen from 1895 and replicas of his inventions.

From the Department of Agriculture we single out: an iron plow from 1880 from Martin Brijeg (Dugo Selo) and a wooden plow with an iron ploughshare from the 19th century from the vicinity of Drniš.

In the Mining-Geology-Petroleum department, the Craelius drilling rig, AB-2 from 1950, and the Wuelfel deep-rotor oil pump from 1935 (Museum yard) are on display. The Telefunken broadcasting transmitter from 1926, which was the first transmitter of Radio Zagreb, exhibited in the Open Doors exhibition, is also extremely valuable.

Along with a tour of monumental buildings of wooden urban architecture and now a unique experience of part of the exhibition from the 1960s, a unique experience is a tour of objects such as submarines, planes, trams, steam locomotives, vintage cars, fire trucks, steam engines and other exhibits. We especially emphasize the descent into the underground of a mine more than 300 meters long in the very center of the city, the observation of the star vault in the Planetarium and participation in experiments in the cabinet of Nikola Tesla. With the help of glass hives with live bees (which feed outside the Museum), visitors are introduced to bee communities as a natural system of life and production and an important factor in survival on Earth.

The attractive M 24 tram from 1924, which is located in the ZET depot, runs visitors to the Museum through the streets of Zagreb free of charge on Sundays.

In the courtyard of the Museum, in addition to several exhibits, there is a park with eight sculptures of important personalities from the history of science and technology who were born or worked in Croatia: Faust Vrančić, Ivan Krstitelj Rabljanin, Ruđer Bošković, Oton Kučera, Ferdinand Kovačević, David Schwarz , Franjo Hanaman and Slavoljub Penkala …