Kongsberg School of Mines ( no, Det Kongelige Norske Bergseminarium, or Bergseminaret på Kongsberg, or Kongsberg bergseminar) was an academic institution for

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

technology in

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...

, Norway from 1757 to 1814.

History

At the 1769 Census,

was the second largest city in Norway (after Bergen), with more than 8,000 inhabitants, and the number of employees at the

Kongsberg Silver Mines Kongsberg Silver works () was a mining operation at Kongsberg in Viken county in Norway. The town of Kongsberg is the site of the Norwegian Mining Museum (). History Operating from over 80 different sites, Kongsberg silver mines constituted th ...

exceeded 4,000. In 1757, after an initiative from mining engineer

Michael Heltzen Michael Heltzen (22 June 1712 – 10 September 1770) was a Norwegian mining engineer. He was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of Helle Michelsen (1674-1725) and Sophie Cathrine Paulsdatter Vogt (d. 1723). He started s ...

and chemist and physician

Johan Heinrich Becker Johan Heinrich Becker (18 December 1715 – 21 February 1761) was a Germans, German physician and chemist who settled in Norway. He was born in Aurich, East Frisia, and graduated as medical doctor in 1736. He was appointed as physician ( no, b ...

, ''Det Kongelige Norske Berg-Seminarium'' was established by an

Order in Council An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...

from

Frederick V of Denmark Frederick V (Danish and Norwegian: ''Frederik V''; 31 March 1723 – 14 January 1766) was King of Denmark–Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from 6 August 1746 until his death in 1766. He was the son of Christian VI of Denmark and Sophie Ma ...

dated 19 September 1757. The institution combined both practical and theoretical education related to mining. Among the theoretical subjects were mathematics (in particular

geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...

and

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics that studies relationships between side lengths and angles of triangles. The field emerged in the Hellenistic world during the 3rd century BC from applications of geometry to astronomical studies. T ...

), mechanics (for construction of buildings and machinery),

hydrostatics Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body " fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an imm ...

hydraulics Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

and

pyrotechnics Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating such things as fireworks, safety matches, oxygen candles, explosive bolts and other fasteners, parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, quarrying, and demolition. ...

. The new school building from 1783 has been preserved. The institution had a library of about 900 books on mining, mineralogy, chemistry, physics and mathematics. The mining curricula were eventually transferred to Christiania, after the Universitas Regia Fredericiana was established (1811–). After the establishment of the

Norwegian Institute of Technology The Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was m ...

in the 1910s, the education of mining engineers was further moved to

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Notable alumni

* Erik Otto Knoph *

Jens Esmark Jens Esmark (31 January 1763 – 26 January 1839) was a Danish-Norwegian professor of mineralogy who contributed to many of the initial discoveries and conceptual analyses of glaciers, specifically the concept that glaciers had covered larger ...

* Peter Petersen *

Paul Steenstrup Poul Steenstrup (10 December 1772 – 9 October 1864) was a Norwegian industrialist and politician. He was the founder of the Kongsberg Arms Factory (''Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk'') and served as a representative at the Norwegian Constituent Assem ...

Notable faculty

Peter Ascanius Peter Ascanius (24 May 1723 – 4 June 1803) was a Norwegian-Danish biologist and geologist. He was a professor of zoology and mineralogy. Early life and education He was born at Aure in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. In 1742 he graduated from ...

Peter Thorstensen Peter Thorstensen (1752–1792) was a Danish physician and chemist who settled in Norway. He was born in Denmark to immigrants from Iceland, and studied medicine in Copenhagen. His doctoral thesis in 1775 examined medical use of quassin from t ...

* Olav Olavsen

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kongsberg School of Mines 1757 establishments in Norway Educational institutions established in 1757 19th-century disestablishments in Norway Kongsberg Defunct universities and colleges in Norway