Josef Šperka

* 1927  †︎ 2018

  • “It was a hard work. Imagine that it was a large mould, about this large, and it weighted about eighty kilograms. There were several holes in it and you poured in the rubber through them. Then it went through a vulcanization process and the produced heels then had to cool down, and so on. Then you had to place other material into the pressing machine, and so on. It was a hard work, and I, I don’t know why, but I thought, damn, it has to be possible to do it in some other way. It was me who discovered how to handle this rubber. I was able to design it in such a way that the material overflow was eliminated.”

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    Gymnázium Zlín – Lesní čtvrť, 25.02.2015

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    délka: 02:20:52
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu The Stories of Our Neigbours
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I liked it when somebody struggled with something and I eventually came up with a solution

Josef  Šperka
Josef Šperka
zdroj: internet

Josef Šperka was born January 19, 1927 in Bratislava to Czech parents. His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a housewife. Josef actively pursued sports already as a little boy. He received his first skis from his teacher. In 1939 he moved with his parents to Zlín, where his father got a job in the Baťa factory. Josef completed the master level of Baťa School of Work. After completing basic military service he worked in the company Svit in Zlín. Josef became a respected designer of machines for production of shoes and gradually he also became an author of a number of technical proposals and many improvements. His machine for producing shoe heels was presented at industrial exhibitions in the United States as well as in Moscow and elsewhere. Josef continued to be active in skiing and he befriended members of the Czech Tourist Club. Later he established the first ski sports club TJ Gottwaldov with them and he served as one of its leaders. He is credited with the development of skiing all over the country, since his design of ski lifts with the reversible grip system was adopted by all ski centres that were being built at that time. In the 1970s he proposed the idea for artificial surface for all-year skiing in Zlín and he put it into practice. Josef is now retired and he strives to push ahead his own design of hinged road posts. Josef Šperka passed away on october, the 8th, 2018