Abstract
Die Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule in Zürich was one of many polytechnics that were established in Europe during the nineteenth century. Swiss polytechnics began to grant doctoral degrees in 1909 and two years later the name was changed to Die Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, (ETH). In English, it is called The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. In terms of the number of students, it is not among the largest universities — not even among the biggest technical universities. Prior to World War I, its annual enrolment remained at fewer than 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students and exceeded 6,000 students only in the late 1970s. Nevertheless, the ETH has maintained a good reputation among Nordic students of technology. Young men from Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark were among the first foreigners to enter the ETH in the late 1850s and early 1860s. Why then did they bother to travel 2,000 – 3,000 kilometres on foot, in post wagons, by steamship and train from their hometowns to remote Zurich?
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Notes
A model of transfer channels is examined in more detail in Timo Myllyntaus, “The Finnish Model of Technology Transfer,” Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago), 38 (3) (1990), 625–43 and Timo Myllyntaus, “The Transfer of Electrical Technology to Finland, 1870–1930,” Technology and Culture, 32 (2) (1991), 293–317.
For example, the newspaper Papperslyktan 1859–1861.
August Schauman, Bitar of reseminnen IV, En schweizisk nationalfest, Papperslyktan no. 20, 16 Maj 1859, p. 153.
August Schauman, Kuudelta vuosikymmeneltä, Muistoja elämän varrelta, vol. 2, Finnish translation (Porvoo: WSOY 1967), p. 141.
Frederick B. Artz, The Development of Technical Education in France, 1500–1850 (Cambridge, Mass, 1966), p. 161.
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Jahresbericht 1995, ETH (Zürich, 1996), pp. 50, 56.
Commercial Year-Book of the Soviet Union 1925, compiled and edited by Louis Segal and A.A. Santalov (London, 1925), p. 192.
Hochschul-Nachrichten vol. 11 (Mai 1901) no 8, pp. 178–179.
Hochschul-Nachrichten vol. 9 (März 1899) no 6, pp. 117–118.
See Timo Myllyntaus, “`The Best Way to Pick Up a Trade,’ Journeys Abroad by Finnish Technical Students, 1860–1940,” ICON, 2 (1996), 138–63.
Studies Abroad, Half-Yearly Bulletin no 1, League of Nations, Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (Paris, 1935).
For a more detailed analysis of Nordic technical education, see the article manuscript by Timo Myllyntaus, “Foreign models and national styles in teaching technology in the Nordic countries.”
Henrik Björk, Teknikerns art och teknikernas grad. Föreställningar om teknik, vetenskap och kultur speglade i debatten kring en teknisk doktorsgrad, 1900–1927, Stockholm Papers in History and Philosophy of Technology, TRITA-HOT-202 (Uppsala: Royal Institute of Technology, 1992), pp. 22–25, 32–36, 86–89.
Göran Ahlström, Engineers and Industrial Growth, Higher Technical Education and the Engineering Profession during the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: France, Germany, Sweden and England (London: Croom Helm, 1982), pp. 34–36, 68, 80.
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Ahlström op. cit. (18), p. 33; Göran Ahlström, “Technical Education, Engineering, and Industrial Growth: Sweden in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century,” in Robert Fox and Anna Guagnini, eds., Education, Technology and Industrial Performance in Europe, 1850–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 116–120.
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The Helsinki University of Technology had five Fachschulen at first: those for architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, chemistry and land surveying. B. Wuolle, Suo-men teknillinen korkeakouluopetus 1849–1949 (Helsinki: Otava, 1949), pp. 41–52, 93–114, 305–14.
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Matrikel öfver tekniska realskolans och Polytekniska skolans i Helsingfors samt Polytekniska institutets i Finland lärare och elever 1849–1897 jämte historik öfver läroanstalten, Teknologföreningen och Polyteknikemas förening (Kotka: Polyteknikernas förening, 1899), pp. 158–9.
Ferdinand Ahlmann, Hendric Pantsar, Ernst Qvist, Theodor Uschakoff and Alfred Wahl-fors.
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Komppa was the first Nordic scholar to receive the silver von Hofmann medal of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker. Lauri Niinistö, “Kemistikilta ja vuosisadan vaihteen Suomi,” Kemia-Kemi, 18 (11–12) (1991), 1008; Veikko Komppa, “Professori Gust. Komppa ja Suomen kemianteollisuus,” Kemia-Kemi, 18 (11–12) (1991), 1014–5.
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The annual fee rose to 400 frangs. Programm der Eidg. Technischen Hochschule für das Wintersemester 1919/20 (Zürich, 1919), p. 7.
Programm der eidgenösischen polytechnischen Schule, the annual lists of regular students are included in the programmes for the years 1856–1921.
Adressverzeichnis der (regulären) Studierenden der E.T.H. 1920–1939, Wissenschaftshistorische Sammlungen, ETH-Bibliothek, Zürich.
An educated guess would indicate that about 20,000 graduate engineers and technical scientists were working in the four Nordic countries between 1855 and 1939. Göran Ahlström, Engineers and Economic Growth (London: Croom Helm, 1982), pp. 107–8; Timo Myllyntaus, Electrifying Finland, The Transfer of a New Technology into a Late Industrialising Economy (London: Macmillan & ETLA, 1991), p. 153.
In autumn 1935, this department was divided into two: mechanical engineering and electrical technology. Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich 1955–1980, Festschrift zum 125 jährigen Bestehen (Zürich, 1980), p. 659
In 1909 an abbreviation Dipl. EP was introduced and in 1924 it was replaced to Dipl. ETH.
The holders of degrees are listed in the archival materials at the Federal Institute; see ETH Diplome I, 1858–1915,Rektorat der ETH-Zürich 1985, Signum Hs 1184:1; ETH Diplome II, 1916–1944,Rektorat der ETH-Zürich, Signum Hs 1184:2; ETHZ, Dissertationenverzeichnis 1909–1971, Schriftenreihe der Bibliothek, Nr 15 (Zürich, 1972).
R. Jespersen, Biografiske oplysninger angaaende den Polytekniske laereanstalts kandidater 1829–1929, Udgivet of Dansk ingeniorsforening (K0benhavn, 1930), p. 605.
Erik Jusélius, Finnlands Wasserkräfte und ihre Ausbauwürdigkeit gegenüber kalorischen Kraftwerken für die Landesversorgung mit elektrischer Energie, Diss. (Zürich: Leemann 1929); Suomen korkeakouluinsinöörit ja arkkitehdit 1956 (Helsinki, 1956), p. 292.
Gunnar Nerheim, “Technology Transfer from Germany to Norway at the Turn of the Century,” Bürgentum und Bürokratie im 19. Jahrhundert. Technologie, Innovation, Technologietransfer, Bericht über das 2. Deutsch-norwegische Historikertreffen in Bonn, Mai 1987, Norges allmennvitenskapelige forskningsrâd and Sifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft (Oslo, 1988), p. 161.
Jan Hult, “Technology in Sweden,” in Jan Hult and Bengt Nyström, eds., Technology & Industry, A Nordic Heritage (Canton, MA: Science History Publication/USA, 1992), pp. 88–89.
Myllyntaus, 1990, op. cit. (1); Myllyntaus, op.cit. (32).
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Myllyntaus, T. (2003). Discovering Switzerland. In: Simões, A., Carneiro, A., Diogo, M.P. (eds) Travels of Learning. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 233. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3584-1_12
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