science

Jan Felkl

Jan Felkl is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jan Felkl rather than just read about it. In short: Jan Felkl (20 May 1817 – 7 October 1887) was a Czech globe maker and industrialist. He came from Banín, but settled in Prague where he got to know cartographer and globe maker Václav Merklas.

Key takeaways

Jan Felkl belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jan Felkl to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jan Felkl from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jan Felkl (20 May 1817 – 7 October 1887) was a Czech globe maker and industrialist. He came from Banín, but settled in Prague where he got to know cartographer and globe maker Václav Merklas. Merklas soon after gifted his tools to Felkl, who set up his own workshop in the Old Town of Prague in the early 1850s. Felkl's company grew rapidly and was eventually to become the most important and internationally most well-known globe manufacturing firm of Austria-Hungary. In 1870 the factory for the manufacturing of Felkl's globes relocated from Prague to the nearby town of Roztoky. By 1873 it produced 15,000 globes annually and, by 1877, in 17 languages. After Jan Felkl's death, the company continued to produce globes until 1952, when it closed due to setbacks suffered from market loss after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, legal conflicts, World War II, the installation of the Communist regime, and not least stiffening competition.

Early life Jan Felkl was born on 20 May 1817 in Banín, in what is today the Czech Republic but was then the Austrian Empire. He was the son of an ethnic German farmer. His interest in globe making was supposedly born when he was a conscripted soldier in the Imperial Austrian Army, and had a superior whose hobby was globe making. With the military he came to Prague, where he after his discharge found a job working for the postal service and settled in Hradčany. In Prague he got to know cartographer Václav Merklas, who had made the first Czech-language globe in 1848. Merklas soon thereafter took up a teaching position and abandoned further attempts at globe making, and therefore gifted his tools to Felkl in 1849. Felkl moved to the Old Town in 1850 and only began producing his own globes sometimes after this. They were initially copies of Merklas' models with diameters of 2.5 inches (6.4 cm), 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) and 4.5 inches (11 cm), respectively. Two friends from his military days helped Felkl set up his workshop. He formally founded a globe making company in 1854.

Globe manufacturing The business grew rapidly. In 1855, the firm produced 800 globes annually; by 1873 it had expanded to 15,000 globes annually. Felkl employed a simple manufacturing technique, whereby plaster globes were moulded in brass moulds, onto which printed and initially hand-painted paper slips were attached. Later, some globes would also be made of cardboard. With the introduction of colouring by lithography, as opposed to by hand, production costs went down further. The printing was done in Prague but from the outset also in Leipzig. With the rapid growth of the company, in 1870 the factory for the manufacturing of Felkl's globes relocated from Prague to the nearby town of Roztoky. At that time, the company employed around 24 people. Felkl also set up his own lithographic printing office in Prague c. 1873. In the same year, at the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, Felk's globes were awarded the first prize, and the next year one of the German-language versions of the globes was approved for use in primary and secondary schools in Austria-Hungary. This was followed by an approval in 1879 to use a Czech-language version in Czech-language schools. Felkl's son entered the company in 1875 as his father's business partner, whereafter the firm was known as "Felkl & Son". The firm had its heyday in the 1890s. At its peak, it was the most important and internationally most well-known globe manufacturing firm of Austria-Hungary. It dominated the domestic market and exported thousands of globes. Though his first globe models were with text in Czech, early on he began printing and manufacturing globes in German, which opened a larger market. Felkl thereafter soon expanded to producing globes in other languages as well, using translations from the German-language globes. By 1861 Felkl produced globes in English, Dutch, Hungarian, Polish and Russian. By 1877, Felkl's company offered globes in 17 different languages. Already in 1855, Felkl also produced a celestial globe, which he had developed with the aid of the director of the Prague observatory, Joseph Böhm. Felkl also cooperated with others in producing his terrestrial globes, including German geographer Otto Delitsch (who aided Felkl in designing a relief globe) and Czech statistician Josef Erben, who collaborated with Felkl on finding the right terminology for the Czech globes. Apart from globes, the company also produced a range of other instruments such as telluria and orreries. Jan Felkl married Maria Anna Jakob and the couple had nine children. He died on 7 October 1887. After his death, the company continued to operate and remained a family business. Production stood still between the advent of World War I in 1914 and 1921. The dissolution of Austria-Hungary after the war meant that the domestic market vanished. The company had a second period of success after 1924, when it pioneered selling illuminated globes. However, legal conflicts, World War II, the installation of the Communist regime, and not least stiffening competition led to its decline. The company formally closed in 1952.

References Citations

Sources

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jan Felkl

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jan Felkl claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jan Felkl before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jan Felkl ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jan Felkl

In research: Jan Felkl appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jan Felkl in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jan Felkl is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1817 births, 1887 deaths, Czech geographers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jan Felkl outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jan Felkl in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jan Felkl means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jan Felkl out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jan Felkl in simple terms?

Jan Felkl (20 May 1817 – 7 October 1887) was a Czech globe maker and industrialist. He came from Banín, but settled in Prague where he got to know cartographer and globe maker Václav Merklas.

Why does Jan Felkl matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jan Felkl?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jan Felkl.