Ignaz Storek Engineering Plant – Šmeral

The present-day Šmeral Brno Machine Works was founded in 1861 under the name of Ignaz storek’s grey cast iron foundry. Storek started his career as a smelter scribe in the smelters of the Nové město estate, working his way up to the manager of the Domašov smelter and the Veveří estate. As grey cast iron was one of the core engineering materials at that time, his enterprise grew very quickly. Storek remained in charge of the company until 1887, when he handed it over to his son Heinrich Storek. Heinrich introduced precision casting and built the first open hearth (Siemens-Martin) furnace in the plant.

While the 19th century was “the age of steam”, the beginning of the 20th century turned the spotlight to the use of water power through turbines. The Francis turbine came first, but unfortunately wasn’t able to function with an uneven water flow. In 1913, Heinrich Storek expanded the original foundry with the company’s own engineering production, driven mostly by his cooperation with Viktor Kaplan, an inventor and professor of German Technical University in Brno.

Viktor Kaplan studied mechanical engineering and diesel engine construction at the Vienna University of Technology. Later he obtained a position as an engineer at the Brno German Technical College, where he also completed his post-doctoral degree in 1909. He spent much of his life trying to perfect the Francis turbine, finally coming up with the simple, yet groundbreaking idea of swivelling the rotor blades during operation to keep the turbine effective even with fluctuating water flow. Thus, the famous Kaplan turbine was born.

Its first prototype was built at the Storek factory in 1908, followed by several improved models. Kaplan tried to apply for a patent for his modified turbine as early as 1912, but only succeeded in 1920. The production of turbines, initially very faulty and expensive to manufacture, did not end up to be Storek’s main scope. In the 1920s, his focus shifted to the purchase of forming machines and presses for iron processing. During the Second World War, the plant produced components for the arms industry. After the nationalisation of German property, production resumed and the plant was renamed after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia founder Bohumír Šmeral.

Over the course of his life, Kaplan was awarded several honorary doctorates. The building where he used to lecture now houses the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University, his former laboratory now being the library of the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University. Under the library ceiling, a frame crane for heavy loads can still be seen. Another commemmoration of Viktor Kaplan in the streets of Brno is a bust in front of the former BUT building at the corner of Úvoz and Údolní streets.