Scientists and inventors

Important names in the 18th century are Maximilian Hell (astronomer), János Sajnovics (linguist), Matthias Bel (polyhistor), Sámuel Mikoviny (engineer) and Wolfgang von Kempelen (polyhistor and co-founder of comparative linguistics). Physicist and engineer Ányos Jedlik invented the first electric motor (1828), the dynamo, self-excitation, the impulse generator, and the cascade connection of capacitors. An important name in 19th-century physics is Joseph Petzval, one of the founders of modern optics. The invention of the transformer (by Ottó Bláthy, Miksa Déri and Károly Zipernowsky), the AC electricity meter, and electricity distribution systems with parallel-connected power sources decided the future of electrification in the war of the currents, which resulted in the global triumph of alternating current systems over the earlier direct current systems. Roland von Eötvös discovered the weak equivalence principle (one of the cornerstones in Einsteinian relativity). Radó von Kövesligethy discovered laws of black-body radiation before Planck and Wien.^[27][28]

Hungary is famous for its excellent mathematics education, which has trained numerous outstanding scientists. Famous Hungarian mathematicians include father Farkas Bolyai and son János Bolyai, designer of modern geometry (non-Euclidean geometry) 1820–1823. Together with John von Neumann, János Bolyai is considered to be the greatest Hungarian mathematician ever. The most prestigious Hungarian scientific award is named in honor of János Bolyai. John von Neumann was a pioneer in quantum theory, game theory and digital computing, and he was the key mathematician on the Manhattan Project. Mathematician Paul Erdős is famed for publishing in over forty languages, and his Erdős numbers are still tracked.^[29]

Many Hungarian scientists, including Zoltán Bay, Victor Szebehely (practical solution to the three-body problem; Newton the two-body problem), Mária Telkes, Imre Izsak, Louis W. Parker, Erdős, von Neumann, Leó Szilárd, Eugene Wigner, Theodore von Kármán and Edward Teller, emigrated to the United States and made valuable contributions there. (Some Hungarian scientists went to Germany instead: engineer/scientist István Szabó (1906-1980), for example.^[30] (Some went to Soviet Union:Robert Bartini). István Juhász, inventor of one of the earliest electro-mechanical computers, Gamma-Juhász,^[31][32] stayed at home and was ostracized) An influential cause of scientist emigration was the 1920 Treaty of Trianon after World War I, by which Hungary, diminished by the treaty, became unable to support large-scale, costly scientific research. At least fifteen (15-20) Hungarian or Hungarian-born scientists received the Nobel Prize: von Lenárd, Bárány, Zsigmondy, von Szent-Györgyi, de Hevesy, von Békésy, Wigner, Gábor, Polányi, Oláh, Harsányi,Herskó and in 2023: Katalin Karikó and Ferenc Krausz. Most of them had emigrated, mostly because of persecution by communist and/or fascist regimes.^{[citation needed]} A significant group of Hungarian dissident scientists of Jewish descent who settled in the United States in the first half of the 20th century were called The Martians.^[33]

Béla Gáspár patented the first one-strip fullcolor film: Gasparcolor. Names in psychology are János Selye founder of Stress-theory and Csikszentmihalyi founder of Flow- theory. Tamás Roska is co-inventor of CNN (cellular neural network).

Some internationally well-known figures of today include: mathematician László Lovász, physicist Albert-László Barabási, physicist Ferenc Krausz, chemist Julius Rebek, chemist Árpád Furka, biochemist Árpád Pusztai and the highly controversial former NASA-physicist Ferenc Miskolczi, who denies the green-house effect.^[34] According to Science Watch: In Hadron research Hungary has most citations per paper in the world.^[35] In 2011 neuroscientists György Buzsáki, Tamás Freund and Peter Somogyi were awarded with The Brain Prize ("Danish Nobel Prize" in neurology)" for "brain circuits involved in memory".^[36] Péter Horváth,^[37] in Szeged, is a biophysicist, explaining minimal changes in a cell.

After the fall of the communist dictatorship (1989), a new scientific prize, the János Bolyai Creative Award (Bolyai János alkotói díj), was established (1997), politically unbiased and of the highest international standard. Tibor Gánti got full recognition first after his death for his Chemoton-theory which explains how life started.

Early milestones in technology and infrastructure (1700–1918)

The first steam engines of continental Europe was built in Újbánya – Köngisberg, Kingdom of Hungary (Today Nová Baňa Slovakia) in 1722. They were similar to the Newcomen engines, it served on pumping water from mines.^{[57][58][59][60]}

Aeronautical industry

The first Hungarian hydrogen-filled experimental balloons were built by István Szabik and József Domin in 1784. The first Hungarian designed and produced airplane to be powered by a Hungarian aero engine was flown in 1909 at Rákosmező.^[88] The International Air-race was organized in Budapest, Rákosmező in June 1910. The earliest Hungarian radial engine powered airplane was built in 1913. Between 1913 and 1918, the Hungarian aircraft industry began developing. The three mist significant were UFAG Hungarian Aircraft Factory (1912), Hungarian General Aircraft Factory (1916) and the Hungarian Lloyd Aircraft engine factory (at Aszód (1916),^[89] and Marta in Arad (1914).^[90] During the WW I, fighter planes, bombers and reconnaissance planes were produced in these factories. The most important aero engine factories of the period were Weiss Manfred Works, Ganz Works, and Hungarian Automobile Joint-stock Company Arad.^{[citation needed]}

During the interwar and WWII periods, Hungarian designs continued to be developed and flown, however for the most part German types were modified and/or manufactured under license. Examples include those developed or manufactured by Weiss Manfred and the RMI (Repülo Muszaki Intézet, or Aviation Technical Institute).

Electrical industry and electronics

• Jedlik motor 1827
• The ZBD Transformer of GANZ Works, 1885
• construction of a Ganz water turbo generator (1886)
• PSM V56 D0433 direct connected electric railway generator (1899)
• Ottó Bláthy in the armature of a turbo generator (1904)
• Ganz 21.000 kW Transformer (1911, weight: 38t)
• 36700 hp steam turbine under construction in the Láng Machine Factory, 1913
• Láng turbogenerators in the Salgótarján Colliery Company, 1915
• Alternators in a hydroelectric station on the Murghab River.
• Generator in Zwevegem, West Flanders, Belgium
• A generator assembly hall of the Ganz Works (1922)

Power plants, generators and transformers

In 1878, the Ganz company's general manager András Mechwart (1853–1942) founded the Department of Electrical Engineering headed by Károly Zipernowsky (1860–1939). Engineers Miksa Déri (1854–1938) and Ottó Bláthy (1860–1939) also worked at the department producing direct-current machines and arc lamps.

In autumn 1884, Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy and Miksa Déri (ZBD), three engineers associated with the Ganz factory, had determined that open-core devices were impracticable, as they were incapable of reliably regulating voltage.^[91] In their joint 1885 patent applications for novel transformers (later called ZBD transformers), they described two designs with closed magnetic circuits where copper windings were either a) wound around iron wire ring core or b) surrounded by iron wire core.^[92] The two designs were the first application of the two basic transformer constructions in common use to this day, which can as a class all be termed as either core form or shell form (or alternatively, core type or shell type), as in a) or b), respectively (see images).^{[93][94][95][96]} The Ganz factory had also in the autumn of 1884 made delivery of the world's first five high-efficiency AC transformers, the first of these units having been shipped on September 16, 1884.^[97] This first unit had been manufactured to the following specifications: 1,400 W, 40 Hz, 120:72 V, 11.6:19.4 A, ratio 1.67:1, one-phase, shell form.^[97] In both designs, the magnetic flux linking the primary and secondary windings traveled almost entirely within the confines of the iron core, with no intentional path through air (see Toroidal cores below). The new transformers were 3.4 times more efficient than the open-core bipolar devices of Gaulard and Gibbs.^[98]

The ZBD patents included two other major interrelated innovations: one concerning the use of parallel connected, instead of series connected, utilization loads, the other concerning the ability to have high turns ratio transformers such that the supply network voltage could be much higher (initially 1,400 to 2,000 V) than the voltage of utilization loads (100 V initially preferred).^[99][100] When employed in parallel connected electric distribution systems, closed-core transformers finally made it technically and economically feasible to provide electric power for lighting in homes, businesses and public spaces.^[101][102] Bláthy had suggested the use of closed cores, Zipernowsky had suggested the use of parallel shunt connections, and Déri had performed the experiments;^[103] The other essential milestone was the introduction of 'voltage source, voltage intensive' (VSVI) systems'^[104] by the invention of constant voltage generators in 1885.^[105] Ottó Bláthy also invented the first AC electricity meter.^{[106][107][108][109]} Transformers today are designed on the principles discovered by the three engineers. They also popularized the word 'transformer' to describe a device for altering the emf of an electric current,^[101][110] although the term had already been in use by 1882.^[111][112] In 1886, the ZBD engineers designed, and the Ganz factory supplied electrical equipment for, the world's first power station that used AC generators to power a parallel connected common electrical network, the steam-powered Rome-Cerchi power plant.^[113] The reliability of the AC technology received impetus after the Ganz Works electrified a large European metropolis: Rome in 1886.^[113]

Turbines and Turbogenerators

The first turbo-generators were water turbines which propelled electric generators. The first Hungarian water turbine was designed by the engineers of the Ganz Works in 1866, the mass production with dynamo generators started in 1883.^[114] The manufacturing of steam turbo generators started in the Ganz Works in 1903.

In 1905, the Láng Machine Factory company also started the production of steam turbines for alternators.^[115]

Light bulbs, radio tubes and X-ray

Tungsram is a Hungarian manufacturer of light bulbs and vacuum tubes since 1896. On 13 December 1904, Hungarian Sándor Just and Croatian Franjo Hanaman were granted a Hungarian patent (No. 34541) for the world's first tungsten filament lamp. The tungsten filament lasted longer and gave brighter light than the traditional carbon filament. Tungsten filament lamps were first marketed by the Hungarian company Tungsram in 1904. This type is often called Tungsram-bulbs in many European countries.^[116] Their experiments also showed that the luminosity of bulbs filled with an inert gas was higher than in vacuum. The tungsten filament outlasted all other types (especially the former carbon filaments). The British Tungsram Radio Works was a subsidiary of the Hungarian Tungsram in pre-WW2 days.

Despite the long experimentation with vacuum tubes at Tungsram company, the mass production of radio tubes begun during WW1,^[117] and the production of X-ray tubes started also during the WW1 in Tungsram Company.^[118]

signal generators, oscilloscopes and pulse generators

The signal generators, oscilloscopes and pulse generators manufactured by Orion's instrumentation class have done a good job for the domestic industry as well as for export.

Home appliances

The Orion Electronics was founded in 1913. Its main profiles were the production of electrical switches, sockets, wires, incandescent lamps, electric fans, electric kettles, and various household electronics.

Industrial Refrigerators

In 1894, Hungarian inventor and industrialist István Röck started to manufacture an industrial ammonia refrigerator which was powered by electric compressors (together with the Esslingen Machine Works). At the 1896 Millennium Exhibition, Röck and the Esslingen Machine Works presented a 6-tonne capacity artificial ice producing plant. Until nationalisation after the Second World War, large-scale refrigerator production in Hungary was in the hands of Röck and Ganz Works. In 1906, the first Hungarian cold store (with a capacity of 3,000 tonnes, the largest in Europe) opened in Tóth Kálmán Street, Budapest.^[119]

Telecommunication

The first telegraph station on Hungarian territory was opened in December 1847 in Pressburg/ Pozsony /Bratislava/. In 1848, – during the Hungarian Revolution – another telegraph centre was built in Buda to connect the most important governmental centres. The first telegraph connection between Vienna and Pest – Buda (later Budapest) was constructed in 1850.^[120] In 1884, 2,406 telegraph post offices operated in the Kingdom of Hungary.^[121] By 1914 the number of telegraph offices reached 3,000 in post offices, and a further 2,400 were installed in the railway stations of the Kingdom of Hungary.^[122]

The first Hungarian telephone exchange was opened in Budapest (May 1, 1881).^[123] All telephone exchanges of the cities and towns in the Kingdom of Hungary were linked in 1893.^[120] By 1914, more than 2,000 settlements had telephone exchange in the Kingdom of Hungary.^[122]

The Telefon Hírmondó (Telephone Herald) service was established in 1893. Two decades before the introduction of radio broadcasting, residents of Budapest could listen to news, cabaret, music and opera at home and in public spaces daily. It operated over a special type of telephone exchange system and its own separate network. The technology was later licensed in Italy and the United States. (see: telephone newspaper).

The first Hungarian telephone factory (Factory for Telephone Apparatuses) was founded by János Neuhold in Budapest in 1879, which produced telephones microphones, telegraphs, and telephone exchanges.^{[124][125][126]}

In 1884, the Tungsram company also started to produce microphones, telephone apparatuses, telephone switchboards and cables.^[127]

The Ericsson company also established a factory for telephones and switchboards in Budapest in 1911.^[128]

Navigation and shipbuilding

• Ganz–Danubius ships and submarines
• The back of U-29 submarine during assembly (24 April 1916)
• U-29 submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, built by Ganz-Danubius
• The battle-damaged SMS Novara (1913) after a victorious naval battle
• Austro-Hungarian built dreadnought class battleship SMS Szent István at Pula (military dock)
• construction of SMS Szent István battleship in the Ganz Danubius shipyard in Rijeka (filmed 1912)

The first Hungarian steamship was built by Antal Bernhard in 1817, called S.S. Carolina. It was also the first steamship in Habsburg-ruled states.^[129] The daily passenger traffic between the two sides of the Danube by the Carolina started in 1820.^[130] The regular cargo and passenger transports between Pest and Vienna began in 1831.^[129] However, it was Count István Széchenyi (with the help of Austrian ship's company Erste Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft (DDSG) ), who established the Óbuda Shipyard on the Hungarian Hajógyári Island in 1835, which was the first industrial scale steamship building company in the Habsburg Empire.^[131] The most important seaport for the Hungarian part of the k.u.k. was Fiume (Rijeka, today part of Croatia), where the Hungarian shipping companies, such as the Adria, operated. The largest Hungarian shipbuilding company was the Ganz-Danubius. In 1911, The Ganz Company merged with the Danubius shipbuilding company, which largest shipbuilding company in Hungary. Since 1911, the unified company adopted the "Ganz – Danubius" brand name. As Ganz Danubius, the company became involved in shipbuilding before, and during, World War I. Ganz was responsible for building the dreadnought Szent István, supplied the machinery for the cruiser Novara.

Diesel-electric military submarines:

The Ganz-Danubius company started to build U-boats at its shipyard in Budapest, for final assembly at Fiume. Several U-boats of the U-XXIX class, U-XXX class, U-XXXI class and U-XXXII class were completed,^[132] and a number of other types were laid down, remaining incomplete at the war's end.^[133] The company built some ocean liners too.

In 1915, the Whitehead company established one of its largest enterprise, the Hungarian Submarine Building Corporation (or in its German name: Ungarische Unterseebotsbau AG (UBAG)), in Fiume, Kingdom of Hungary (Now Rijeka, Croatia).^[134][135] SM U-XX, SM U-XXI, SM U-XXII and SM U-XXIII Type diesel-electric submarines were produced by the UBAG Corporation in Fiume.^[136][137]