The old mining town of Banská Štiavnica has a unique and ingenious system for the management of water, dating back to the early 1700’s. A complete system of “tajchy”, or reservoirs, with interconnecting racing channels, was built for the accumulation of surface water and also as a source of energy. The energy generated proved invaluable for subterranean water pumping machinery in the local mines; indeed Banská Štiavnica became the most important center of precious metal mining during the Habsburg dynasty. It is thanks to the inventors Matej Kornel Hell and Jozef Karol Hell, as well as the scientist and polymath Samuel...