This paper has its point of departure at a unique educational constellation in the frame of the Institute Emile Metz, which was founded in 1914 as a vocational school by industrialist circles in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The institute developed a strong attitude and self-image of educational progress inspired by circulating ideas of reform within Western Europe (Herman 2013): psychometrics, gymnastics, health care and school hygiene were key issues. As different as these approaches and concepts may appear, all of them referred to the human body and were built on specific anthropological traditions reaching back to ancient times, the rise of the natural sciences and modern anatomy as of the 16^th and 17^th centuries (cf. Jauch 1998). From around the 19^th century not only psychometric concepts, but also various forms of gymnastics and different approaches to health care and hygiene were paving the way to a renewed interest in the body as a key determinant in education despite resistance from various sides. The human body thereby was perceived as an organic and mechanical entity and, furthermore, as a motor of progress whether or not decoupled or coupled with the human mind. These developments were underpinned by science-oriented philosophies and related ideas of happiness, which, at first glance, neither fitted in neatly with Ancient Greek ideas nor relied on Christian concepts of humanity. Nevertheless it cannot be denied that psychometrics, gymnastics and health education were inspired and impacted by secular-religious ideas of a new mankind, which would be blessed by physical strength, related skills, willpower, a well-functioning body and mind, all of which resulting in a happy life and a well-balanced society in which energy was rationally distributed (cf. de Bont 2002; Jauch 1998). Not only psychometrics and gymnastics, but also health care initiatives concentrated on physical movement and organic functions of human bodies thereby trying to bridge gaps between nature and technology, mind and materiality, humans and machines or motors respectively (cf. Mazin 2013; Rabinach 1990). The body was seen as an instrument representing both: it was seen as flowing, flexible and rhythmical by nature and it was described as a machine or motor thereby attributed as automatic, steerable, repetitive and potentially strong (cf. Bode 1922). All these renewed body concepts were aiming at reforming social life, they inspired the invention of a huge technical apparatus to support new methodologies of research and educational practices, they led to changing philosophical and scientific languages, and, finally, fuelled the creation of related technologies of life and health care. The paper has three main objectives: The first one deals with philosophical and scientific approaches to the human body as a machine and physical carrier of the mind. The second an third part will provide analysis of how psychometric approaches and gymnastic concepts materialized and were translated in related apparatuses, objects, technologies, and practices to make them work (mainly related to a vocational school at the heart of Western Europe).  The last part of the paper will, then, be dedicated to health education in general and how the human body as a machine in the wider context of health care was used as a metaphor for constant progress and reform in various ways. 

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