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19. NARODNi Technicke Museum v Praze. Exposition Le Palais de la Decounerte a Paris. Exposition itinćrante organisće conjointement par li Musće national dc la tcchniquc ct le Conscil international des musees, icom. Ellc a ćte prćscntće a Prague et & Brno. On envisage de 1’elargir et dc la presenter dans d'autres pays d’Europe. Son but est de retraccr bri£vcmenr l’activite de tous les grands musees tcchniqucs du mondc.

Visitors will find a number of unicjue items among thc exhibits here, including the first automobile of the President type, the first motor-cycles produced by the Laurin and Klement works in Mlada Boleslav, a model of Boźek’s locomobile, etc.

Radio and television collections illustrate the development of wireless tele-graphy from its experimental beginnings down to its youngest offshoot—television.

The objects include numerous types of reccivers and transmitters, unique exhibits and equipment produced in Czechoslovakia in all fields of communication techniques. There arc also cxamples of the very latest types of receivcr, both wireless and television.

The Mechanized coal-mining exhibition opened in 1952, is an attempt to present the collections of mining plant and equipment along modern lines so as to give a elear idea of how they are used in practice. The exhibition takes the form of a coal minę with two ex-traction levels (covering 800 metres in all). Fifty metric tons of coal were shipped from Kladno in order to linę the walls. The display gives an idea of the development of mechanized mining, with equipment ranging from pneumatic drills and pick-hammers to pneumatic cutters, loaders, shaker conveyors and electrically driven tubs.

The Mechanized ore-mine exhibi-tion (fig. if) opened in 195 3 is the logical complemcnt of the coal-mining exhibi-tion, and also has two cxtraction levels to illustrate its work. It contains spcci-mens of powcrful boring machines, va-rious types of drills, pneumatic loaders, tip wagons, modern pumping plants,

shaker conveyors, gate-loaders and a large number of modern machines for extract-ing and transporting the ore. The exhibition provides an illustration of operations in Czech and Slovak mines, from which large quantities of ore were supplied for the purposes of the exhibition.

The number of visitors to the National Technical Museum is rising year by ycar. It jumped from 200,000 in 1952 to 360,000 in 1953 and 460,000 in 1954, and sińce 1955 it has regularly topped the half-million mark. The task of ensuring a steady inerease in the flow of visitors is in the hands of thc Cultural and cducational section, which is responsible for organizing lectures, seminars, and temporary, permanent and travelling exhibitions (fig. ij, 16), and producing publications.

This section also issues an Annual Report containing original scientific papers by members of the museum staff and a detailed survey of the museunTs activities.

Of the main exhibitions organized during the past few years, mention may be madę of those on Techniąue in tbe Sernice of Woman_y The World’s Debt to C^ech and Slonak Techniqne_y Technical Innentineness among Youth_y Techniqncs of To morro w (fig. 77), Atomie Energy, 2jo Years of Higher Technical Education in Bobemia and Technological Museums Abroad. The Prague Museum recently houscd Uncsco’s International Exhibition Alan Ale 2snr es the Uninerse (fig. 18), when it concludcd its successful three-year tour of Europę.

The Educational and cultural section also organizes exhibitions outside Prague— in Brno, Bratislava, J-ablonec on Nisa, Liberec, Ćeskć Budejovice, Kladno and else-where—and in 1958 it is to extend its activities to foreign countries. It is preparing an exhibition to be held in Moscow on the main aspects of Czech and Slovak tech-nique, and*another in Warsaw on the history of Czech motor vehicle production. Inaddition, it co-operates in staging exhibitions prepared by institutions abroad for presentation in Prague. The subjects covered include the development of Hydro-powerin tbe Sonic t Union (in collaboration with the Poły technical Museum in Moscow), the activities of the Palais de la Decounerte in Paris (fig. /$>), and the dcvelopmcnt of the

19. Palais de la Decourerte, Paris. This travclling cxhibition, organized jointly by the National Technical Museum and the International Coun-cil of Museums, icom, was presented in Prague and Brno. It is planned to cxtend it and present it in other Europcan countries. It gives a brief account of the work of leading technical mu-scums throughout the world.

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