Johann Joseph von Prechtl

Johann Joseph Ritter von Prechtl (1778 to 1854) was a German-born Austrian technologist and educator, regarded as a pioneer of technical education in Austria. Born in Bischofsheim in the territory of Würzburg, he studied philosophy, theology and law in Würzburg, worked as a private instructor near Brünn, and then taught natural sciences, chemistry and physics at a secondary school in Vienna between 1810 and 1814. In 1815 he founded the Vienna Polytechnic Institute and became its first director. With Johann Arzberger he researched public gas lighting and is credited with introducing a coal gas generating plant at the institute, and in 1823 he developed a portable baroscope. With Karl Karmarsch he edited a twenty volume technological encyclopedia begun in 1830, and he also wrote a practical guide to making achromatic telescopes.