Page - 102 - in Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech

102 The leading sciences of the day were botany and mineralogy, both closely con- nected to a practical world ‘hungry for improvement’ comprising agriculture, medicine – especially homeopathy, mining and metallurgy, manufacturing and dyeing technology, transport and the military. At the instigation of Archduke Johann, a systematic survey of the geognostic conditions in Styria was started in 1811. Begun by Friederich Mohs, whose scale of hardness is still used for mineral classifications today, it was continued from 1817 by Mathias Josef Anker. Its result was the establishment of the Styrian Technological Mineral Collection at the Joanneum, which served primarily to in- form prospectors, tradesmen and manufacturers, as well as a mountain map of the country drawn up according to an English model. The Joanneum also included a collection of machines which, as Gustav Schreiner noted in 1843, ‘serve an excellent purpose for teaching ... and therefore very expensive machines and models are not to be found here. However, the older engines should be quite complete, including a steam engine of the old type ...’. The university, which evolved out of the Lyceum, also had such a collection called the Physics Cabinet. It contained ‘over a thousand items, part instruments, part physico-chemistry apparatus, which do not only include everything necessary for teaching, but are also remarkable for the optical, magnetic and electrical in- struments, which have been particularly propagated in recent times.’ (Gustav Schreiner) However, mechanisation and industrialisation also met with distrust and even resistance. Industrial hostility can be detected early among the population living close to the factories because of the smoke, roar and stench. Craftsmen saw them- selves increasingly in competition with machines, and factory owners also tried to circumvent legal regulations for the sake of their profits. However, there was a lack of a real mercantile and upper middle class in the city and countryside. In addition, wheel makers and hammer masters had difficulty adapting to the changed conditions and complained about the English compe- tition. Archduke Johann also founded the Steiermärkische Sparkasse in 1825. Not least, it was meant to put a stop to usury, which largely dominated the domestic capital market. Thanks to his initiative, an association was founded two years later for the ‘pro- motion and support of industry and trade in Inner Austria’.