404 PHYSICO-TECHNICAL INSTITUTION IN CHAKLOTTENBURG. 



detail a plan of organization. The memorialists had in mind at that 

 time a ""physico-mechanical institution,'' but in a memorial of the 

 following- year (March 2(»'. 1S.S4) the title was changed to the one which 

 the institution now bears — "Physikaliseh-Technische Reichsanstalt." 

 From this second memorial it is learned that the first steps toward the 

 furtherance of exact science and technical precision in an institution to 

 be founded and maintained l)y the State w(M-e taken as early as 1S72. 

 This movement had the support of the crown prince, the late Emperor 

 Frederick, and the matter was taken in hand l)y Count von Moltke as 

 chairman of the central bureau of metrology in Prussia. He called 

 together a commission near the end of the year 187H, and in the fol- 

 lowing January this conunission reported a series of })ro})ositi()ns for 

 the improvement of the scientific mechanic arts and of instruments 

 of precision. These propositions formed the foundation for a memo- 

 rial on the same subject to the Chaml)er of Delegates of the Prussian 

 Government in bsTd. The result was that a})propriate rooms were set 

 aside in the new buildingof the Technical High School in Charlottenburg 

 for the organization of an institution for the cultivation of the arts of 

 precision. 



The general plan of the Reichsanstalt was adopted in 18ST, and an 

 appropriation of 8^)S,:>54 marks was made and spread over the budget 

 for three years. The main building for the first or scientific division 

 was completed in 1S93. The second or technical division was housed 

 in a portion of the Technical High School till the buildings for this 

 division were completed, in 1897. All departments of activity of the 

 Reichsanstalt are now acconmiodated on the square facing on March 

 strasse in Charlottenburg. They include the division for pure scientific 

 research, mechanical measurements of precision, electrical measure- 

 ments and instruments, the measurement of large direct and alter- 

 nating currents and electromotive forces, the optical department, the 

 department of thermometry, the department of pyrometry, and the 

 department of chemistry. To these as auxiliaries should be added 

 the power plant and the workshop. 



II. ORGANIZATION. 



The two divisions into which the Reichsanstalt is divided correspond 

 to the two paramount objects which the founders had in view, viz, 

 research in pure science and the cultivation of precision in the tech- 

 nical applications of science. The same idea is embodied in the very 

 name of the institution — The Imperial Physico-Technical Institution. 

 If the sole purpose of the Anstalt had been the pi'omotion of improve- 

 ments in the mechanic arts, in engineering, and in instruments of pre- 

 cision, the first, or scientific, division would still have been essential to 

 secure the ends sought. All the applications of science rest on the 

 foundation of pure scientific discovery. The creation of new and 



