The ČKD brand is one of the most distinguished and oldest brands in the Czech Republic in the area of engineering and electrical engineering. The CKD brand represents a traditional high technical level connected with a high level of quality.

Company's production was "from pins to locomotives" - it included a complete range of machinery and electrotechnical equipment for the power, chemical and food industries, steam engines, steam and water turbines, automobiles, locomotives, industrial refrigeration, cranes, boats, diesel motors, compressors, rail cars, aircraft and airplane motors, steel building and bridge constructions, trolley-busses, tanks and military tractors, medical equipment, electrical appliances and farm tractors

The ČKD brand name originated in 1927 and the full name "Českomoravská Kolben Daněk" brings to mind the three major companies at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries whose eventual merger gave a rise to the company CKD:
   1. První Českomoravská továrna na stroje v Praze, a.s.
   2. Elektrotechnická akciová společnost, dříve Kolben a spol. Praha
   3. Akciová společnost Strojírny - dříve Breitfeld-Daněk a spol.

The newly-established concern CKD was one of the two largest engineering companies in the first half of the twentieth century in what was then Czechoslovakia with a total of 12,000 employees, 250,000 m² of building space and 1.5 million m² of land.

1.První Českomoravská továrna na stroje v Praze, a.s.
An engineering company founded in Prague's Libeň district in 1871.
From its very beginning the company was oriented on the production of machinery and equipment for the chemical and food industries - sugar factories and distilleries, the production of steel building and bridge constructions, water and steam turbines, the production of steam boilers and engines, industrial refrigeration, the production of cranes, locomotives, Praga automobiles, diesel motors and the production of farming machinery.

The Libeň Factory, 1886

The Petřín observation tower and Industrial Palace at the Prague fair ground or the construction of the National Theatre's all-metal stage are among the company's interesting projects. At the turn of the last century the company began the production of rail vehicles and in 1906 it set up a department for the production of automobiles in cooperation with the company Ringhoffer and in 1909 it established its own separate Prague factory for PRAGA automobiles.

Construction of the Petřín Observation Tower, 1891

2.Elektrotechnická akciová společnost, dříve Kolben a spol. Praha


Generator, London, 1902

On October 29th, 1896 Ing. Dr. h. c. Emil Kolben founded the company "Kolben a spol. - elektrotechnická továrna Praha-Vysočany." Dr, Emil Kolben, a former chief engineer of the technical office and trial laboratory of the "Edison General Electric Company," brought the most modern technology to Prague. The factory offers (and only 4 months after being established also delivers) one and three-phase motors, alternators, dynamos and crane propulsion.


Francis Turbines, the Company's Most Successful Products, 1920

In 1898 the company changes its name to "Elektrotechnická akciová společnost, dříve Kolben a spol. Praha" with Živnobanka's financial contribution. The company delivered the electrotechnical equipment to the Holešovice power plant. Starting in 1901 the company produced water turbines and provided complete equipment to water power plants. The company supplied 70 complete large power plants including switching stations up to 1911. Their other products were electric motors, transformers, the complete equipment of electrically-operated lifts and cranes, motors for municipal transport trams, floodlights, oil switches.


Kolben's Factory at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century


ČMK Share, 1921

In 1921 the companies První Českomoravská továrna na stroje v Praze, a.s. and Elektrotechnická a.s., dříve Kolben a spol. Praha merged, thus creating "Českomoravská-Kolben, a.s." (ČMK). The technical cooperation agreement and mutual exchange of experience with the American company Westinghouse was of great importance for the fledgling company. In 1923 a project for a new thermal power station in Ervěnice was developed including equipment for the long-distance transmission of energy. In 1924 the thousandth locomotive was produced and the company started to work on a project to electrify the railways and railways stations in Prague and environs and two years later started production on electric locomotives

3. Akciová společnost Strojírny - dříve Breitfeld-Daněk a spol.

In 1854 Čeněk Daněk founded the company "Daněk a spol.", which provided sugar-making and mining equipment. In 1872 "Breitfeld & Evans" merged with "Daněk a spol." and a new company, "Strojírenská akciová společnost, dříve Breitfeld-Daněk a spol.", arose in Karlín. The company specialised in the construction of steam engines and boilers, provided extraction equipment for mines and machinery for sugar factories, distilleries, breweries or mills.


Breitfeld & Daněk Pump Steam Engine, 1903