The article presents a historical overview of one of the oldest departments. The Department of Materials Processing Technology was founded in 1864/65. It was the year when the engineer, later Professor Karl Loviss, read the course in general mechanical technology to the first two students of Mechanics. It was also the year when the laboratory of the department and a mechanical workshop were established. After World War I, the Department worked within the University of Latvia and educated engineers for the needs of the republic. The first textbook in Latvian "Metals, metal alloys and their properties" was written in 1927. Its authors were Professor P. Denfer and Assistant J. Abolins. The phase of rapid development of the department began with the renewal of the Riga Polytechnic Institute in 1958. Over the last 25 years the Department is a structural unit of the Faculty of Transport and Mechanical Engineering of the Riga Technical University.