Soon Van den Broek found out that there was little demand for his medical aid but much more for his aid in a variety of other technological disciplines. He helped the Japanese in constructing iron foundries, reverbatory furnaces, shipbuilding, steam engines and their construction, the making of sulphuric acid and other chemicals, etc. In December 1854 he started work on a Japanese-Dutch/Dutch-Japanese dictionary which kept him occupied till the end of his life. In 1856, at the request of the Japanese authorities, he started lessons in photography to Japanese students, among whom were Furukawa Shumpei and Yoshio Keisai.