the Kingdom of Hungary) and religion; however, he struggled with his Hungarian. Before arriving at Lőcse, he was also very weak in mathematics. In Lőcse, however, he clearly improved in this discipline. One anecdote told about Petzval is as follows: When his family had already decided to make a shoemaker out of Petzval, he read the book Analytic Paper on the Elements of Mathematics by the German mathematician Hauser over the summer holidays, just after completing his fourth class in elementary school. He was preparing to undergo a repeat class in mathematics. After Petzval finished the book, the child who had been a weak math pupil swiftly became a math genius. After finishing high school, Petzval decided to move to the Institutum Geometricum, the engineering faculty of the Pester University. Before that, he had to complete a two-year lyceum, which he attended from 1823 to 1825 in Kassa (in German: Kaschau, today Košice, Slovakia). When he arrived there in 1823, Petzval was already well-versed in the subjects of Latin, mathematical analysis, classical literature and stylistics. In addition to his Slovak he was able to speak perfectly in Czech, German and Hungarian. With his father's assistance, he also learned French and English. Further studies and career After completing the Lyceum, Petzval worked for a year as an educator for Count Almássy in the Heves county. In addition to bringing in some urgently needed money, this experience also provided him with important social contacts. From 1826 to 1828, Petzval studied at the Institutum Geometricum in Buda, and earned an engineering diploma in 1828. In the same year, he joined the graduate degree program of the university, and became the self-appointed adjunct chair for the Physics Department (in 1831). From 1828 to 1835, Petzval simultaneously worked as an urban engineer for the city of Buda—particularly as a specialist in flood abatement and sewers—and studied mathematics, mechanics and practical geometry. He authored an unrealized plan to build a navigation channel around Buda. In 1830, his dam computations saved the city from an inundation caused by the flooding of the Danube. After he received his Ph.D. in 1832, he taught as an associate professor at the university. During this period, he also received a degree in mathematics. In 1835, he was appointed a university professor in higher mathematics. After being invited to the University of Vienna in 1836, Petzval accepted a position of the chair