The new facilities for measuring technology will be created in the castle’s dilapidated carriage house. Inside will be stored devices, many of which are unique. Passers-by will be able to look inside through the peepholes and take an imaginary look back into the past, namely at some of the historical machines and also at objects reminiscent of the inventor Roučka.
He surprised even Edison and pleased Čapek
“He was a personality of international importance. In the future, we would like to build a large, modern exposition for him, which he deserves without a doubt,” Pavlína Komínková, director of the Blanenska Museum, told Novinkám. She recalled that Roučka once met Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the light bulb in the USA, who was a great inspiration for him. He earned the nickname Moravian Edison thanks to the inventions he worked on in his factory in Blanen, founded in 1911.
Photo: Blanensko Museum
The inventor Erich Roučka surprised even Thomas Alva Edison, who said of him that he was “ahead of his time”.
Roučka made no secret of his admiration for the writer Karl Čapek and his work, especially his play RUR, in which Čapek used the word robot for the first time as the name of a machine that toils or robots for a person. When Roučka suggested that he would like to name one of his machines a robot, Čapek was enthusiastic and gave him the go-ahead. He liked that the literary novelty in the form of the word robot did not fit.
The first robot was called ER Robot and it was an automatic boiler regulator. “Robots” began to be produced in Blansko in 1921, i.e. just a few months after the premiere of the RUR game
A flood of unique gauges
The pride of the Blane museum is the unique collection of more than 1,700 gauges and devices that Roučka and his followers from the Blane industrial enterprise Metra worked on. It was once collected by the SPRIMT association, and the collection was acquired by the museum a few years ago.
For now, the gauges are located in the depository and on the grounds of the castle, in which the museum is located. The new facilities will make it possible to work better with the collection, gradually present it to the public and start working on Rouček’s exhibition.
Photo: Blanenska Museum/SPRIMT
A view of Erich Roučka’s factory, which started producing machines called ER Robot in 1921, with the permission of Karel Čapek.
The project will cost 20 million crowns. The depository with a researchable and unconventional mini-exhibition will be opened in 2026. “With this project, the city continues the gradual reconstruction of the buildings in the immediate vicinity of the castle,” said Blanen Mayor Jiří Crha (ODS).
