Josef Homola (1859─1934) is an example of an enthusiastic patriot, archaeologist, collector, inventor, teacher and naturalist (with a focus on pomology). We may smile at some of his efforts today, but his life is the story of a man with an unquenchable desire to learn and to educate himself and society. Inspired by bird anatomy, he designed flying machines, and he even registered patents for them. Much more successful though, were his abacuses or calculation tools for children, which became popular in Russia.

Josef Homola was born in 1859 in Holice near Olomouc. He studied at the Slavonic Grammar School and from 1874 at the Institute for Teacher Education in Olomouc. From the preserved report cards it is evident that he was not very talented in any of the subjects, except for natural history. He only managed to graduate from high school on his third attempt. After finishing his studies, he began to work as a teacher, starting in 1891 in Veselí nad Moravou, where he spent most of his active life. His wife Johanna worked as a teacher in the same town.

After he moved to Veselí, Homola became active in the local patriotic clubs, he was treasurer of the Sokol Youth Club and a member of the Beseda Svatopluk reading group. In 1906, together with other local teachers, he participated in the founding of the Museum Society for Slovácko and Veselí nad Moravou; the exposition was opened to the public in 1910. The museum`s collections consisted of historical and folkloristic artefacts as well as archaeological finds, some of which were unearthed by Homola himself.

The most important discovery in which he participated was that of the foundations of a church with hundreds of graves near Zárazice (a part of Veselí nad Moravou). Today we date these finds to the 13th century, but for Homola and his contemporaries they were proof that the Great Moravia had its centre in Veselí nad Moravou. Homola even believed he found a grave with the skeletal remains of St. Methodius. It should be noted that in the 19th century there was a feverish search for relics from the Great Moravian period in the region. Various enthusiasts took part in the hunt with gusto, sometimes going so far as to use spiritualism. The Homola collections, including anthropological material, are now housed in the Municipal Museum in Veselí nad Moravou.

Homola was also an active inventor and had registered several patents. These include, among other things, two new types of school abacuses (these were then exported as far as Russia), special container for food preservation and, above all, several designs for an airship and other flying machines. The most peculiar is probably the 1931 patent for a machine that imitates the way birds and insects fly. This apparatus was to have two pairs of movable wings and a tail serving as rudder. Homola was inspired by the anatomy of vertebrates in his design of the machines, which were to be powered by an engine or even human power.

Simona MAREŠOVÁ KASALOVÁ: Josef Homola a jeho odkaz ve sbírkách Městského muzea Veselí nad Moravou. Školní práce. Masarykova univerzita v Brně, Filozofická fakulta, Ústav archeologie a muzeologie. Dostupné na http://www.masaryk.info/mestske-muzeum-veseli-nad-moravou/427/element/95469/download (cit. 02.05.2020)

https://www.veselihistoricke.cz/uvod (cit. 02.05.2020)