Kongsberg School of Mines

Kongsberg School of Mines (Norwegian: Det Kongelige Norske Bergseminarium, or Bergseminaret på Kongsberg, or Kongsberg bergseminar) was an academic institution for mining technology in Kongsberg, Norway from 1757 to 1814.

At the 1769 Census, Kongsberg 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 exceeded 4,000.

In 1757, after the initiative from mining engineer Michael Heltzen and chemist and physician Johan Heinrich Becker,Det Kongelige Norske Berg-Seminarium was established through an Order in Council from Frederick V of Denmark dated 19 September 1757. The institution combined both practical and theoretical education related to mining. Among the theoretical subjects were mathematics (in particular geometry and trigonometry), mechanics (for construction of buildings and machinery), hydrostatics, hydraulics, physical chemistry, mineralogy, metallurgy and pyrotechnics. The new school building from 1783 has been preserved until today. The institution had a library of about 900 books, which centered on mining, mineralogy, chemistry, physics and mathematics.

The mining education was eventually transferred to Christiania, after the Universitas Regia Fredericiana had been established (1811–). After the establishment of the Norwegian Institute of Technology (in the 1910s), the education of mining engineers was further moved to Trondheim.

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