The article outlines the principles of functioning of the Dubliany Testing Station of Agricultural Machinery and Implements in 1874-1879, which became a testing centre on the Ukrainian lands within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The main attention is paid to the analysis of the role of Professor Tomasz Rylski as the initiator and direct leader of this institution. The content and structure of technical reports on machine tests are revealed, and their scientific level, objectivity and practical significance are described.

The purpose of the article is to analyse the activities of the Dubliany Agricultural Machinery and Implements Testing Station in 1874-1879, with a particular focus on the content and methodology of reports on its activities, the nature of interaction with machine-building enterprises, and the role of the station in standardising technical requirements for agricultural machinery.

Particular attention is paid to the principles of evaluation of agricultural machinery (reapers, ploughs, choppers) in real field conditions, the process of adapting imported models to the peculiarities of the soil of Galicia, and the justification of technical disadvantages and advantages of individual models of agricultural machinery and implements.

The methodological basis of the study is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity, combined with the use of generalisation and content analysis of reports on the activities of the Dubliany test centre. We also used general scientific, interdisciplinary, problematic and chronological methods.

We emphasise the important institutional role of the station as an intermediary between farmers and machine manufacturers. The tests contributed not only to improving the quality of machinery, but also initiated the process of its standardisation and formed requirements for design solutions. The station's relationship with the manufacturers was revealed, who took into account the comments, improved their products and established a dialogue with scientists. Despite the short period of its existence, the Dubliany station fulfilled an important mission in the formation of agricultural mechanics as a science, the spread of technical culture in the agricultural environment and the development of professional expertise in agricultural machinery.

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