Magyar Hírek, 1987 (40. évfolyam, 1-23. szám)
1987-09-01 / 17. szám
A RISK-TAKER ALL HIS LIFE Rehabilitation of an opencast lignite mine The occasion for this writing is given by the 175th anniversary of the birth of Ágoston Haraszthy, one of the most important Hungaro-Americans. He was bom in 1812 at Futak as the scion of a well-to-do noble family. After studying law he became a member of the Royal Hungarian Bodyguard, then a private secretary of Archduke Joseph, the Palatine of Hungary. In 1840 he travelled to the United States, visited the territories East of the Mississipi and bought an estate in the then barely settled state of Wisconsin. He started on the foundation of a new settlement, which became the core of Sauk City. That was the location from which he set out for the lands beyond the Mississippi. He spent three and a half months there, mostly living amongst Indians. Early in 1842 after a year and a half in America he returned to Hungary. He made arrangements about the publication of his travel notes, sold his estates, and moved to the United States with his parents, wife and children. For the next seven years he lived in Wisconsin. Being an industrious man blessed with the spirit of enterprise he engaged in numerous business ventures. He set up a timber-mill, built a brick works and a flour mill, opened a general store, operated a ferryboat, and farmed his land. In 1949 he decided to move to California, where he lived for twenty ^ears. He opened a livery-stable and a butchershop there, served as sheriff, managed a gold-refining plant, planted and improved vines, established a vineyard. He is looked on as the father of Californian viticulture. In 1868 he moved to Nicaragua, where he bought a plantation and set up a sawmill. One year later he fell into a river alive witli crocodiles in obscure oircumstances and lost his life. pletely unknown to them. Based on certain evidence it is assumed that they proceeded through the territory of present Iowa, East Nebraska and Kansas. In 105 days they travelled about 1,400 kilometers in Indian country. Haraszthy provided a detailed description of his experiences and some .ethnographic observations in his book. Here is his description of the rite of smoking the pipe of peace amongst Winnebago Indians. “One of the sentries placed some glowing embers onto the pipe of his chief, who first let spiralling smoke emanate from his pipe, then shook off the embers, drew deeply, and blew the smoke at me, who sat nearest to him, with such force that it filled my eyes and nose. 1 began to cough instantly, and was about to stand up when our interpreter shouted at me: I must take over the pipe, draw and The only authentic photo of Ágoston Haraszti (taken by R. H. Furman, San Francisco) Amongst Indians All his work promoted the progress of his adopted country. The sole cultural legacy he left to his native land was his book Utazás Észak-Amerikában (A Journey in North America), publisher! in 1844. The first part of this contained a description of his travels, while the second part was a comprehensive description of the United States. The most interesting part of the book is the seventyfive pages section, where Haraszthy described some of the Indian tribes of the central region of the United States (Ohippewas, Winnebagoes, Sacks and Foxes) on the basis of his personal experience. This is an important work for Hungarian ethnography, being the first authentic source about the natives of the American continent in Hungarian. Guided by a half-caste Indian of the Winnebago tribe, Haraszthy and his companions - a German doctor and an English nobleman — set out »rom Sauk City in the spring of 1841. The small group of riders roamed the territory West of the Mississippi for fifteen weeks and finally arrived in Forth Smith (Arkansas). They were unable to determine the route of their journey in that region, then as yet untouched by civilization, and comblow the smoke at the person sitting next to me. That was a lot to do, but I had to do it. I took the pipe from the hand of the chief, drew as litfle as I could, and exhaled the smoke onto the companion sitting next to me. The pipe went from hand to hand until it arrived back at the chief, who just as before drew deeply, blew the smoke on me and put the pipe into my hand to continue smoking it. Then I passed it on again like before, but could barely stay sitting, since the whole wigwam was turning around with me and cold sweat was running from my brow. Eventually I staggered to the lake and threw myself into the water. Having found relief and refreshment that way I went bzek again, and my companions, who were feeling very ill. followed my advice, and my example.” Fortunately, this was the severest of their ordeals in the whole of their journey. At the end they rightly found that “these people are not as cruel as many have claimed. One can sleep amongst them with greater safety than one would at a camp of herdsmen at home... It is impossible to deny them the virtue of taking good care of all they befriended. They carry out all their wishes; and it is easy to win their friendship.” MIKLÓS LÉTAY The current level of world prices makes it imperative to cover more than half of Hungary’s energy needs from domestic resources. This means first of all that the coal reserves of the country must be exploited to the maximum. in order to provide a proper supply of energy the power stations of the country need 24 million tonnes of coal. The production of the mines is, however, continuously declining. The seams are becoming exhausted. The deficiency must, therefore, be made good using lignite extracted far more cheaply. The Visonta Colliery The open cast colliery at Visonta is the largest in Hungary. It was established for the explicit purpose of supplying fuel to the Gagarin thermal power station. Its economic importance is due to the fact that the lignite extracted there is transformed into electric energy within a few hours. The millions of tonnes of lignite just under the surface will provide 5.5 million tonnes of fuel annually for the power station for at least eighty years. The almost fifty kilometers long conveyor belt snaking between the opencut colliery and the power station cuts across this district, laden with brownish-black lignite, day and night. It is hard to believe that the miners work at halfpace now, since the power works consume less fuel during a reconstruction in progress. This circumstance gives an opportunity also for the renewal of mining machinery. Undoubtedly, the time is ripe for that, since some of the machines have been in operation continuously for twenty years, and have reached the limit of their usefulness. The reconstruction will finish in 1995. In that period not only the giant excavators will be renewed but also the conveyor system and the chain of machines that moves it. When the reconstruction is complete, these will have to transport 7.5 million lignite annually to the power station. The first fruites of rehabilitation People have unpleasant memories of the start of mining twenty years ago. The residents of the district received the news of the project rather grimly. They feared and not without reason. — it would endanger the peace, and even more the beauty, of the tranquil country-side at the foot of the Mátra hills. The first thing the giant machines did was to strip the soil of wheat fields, vineyards and orchards to get at the lignite below. The locals just could not understand for a long time why it was necessary to get at the dark-brown stone, which they could not use to heat their stoves with, even though it looked like coal. In fact it emitted more smoke than heat, and was really not suitable for domestic use, because of its high (50 — 70 per cent) water contents. However, practice proved that it burnt well in the furnaces of the power station and provided cheap electricity to the country. It generated electricity more cheaply than any of the most efficient hydroelectric power plants. Peace has been restored between the miners and the local farmere. It was not arguments that convinced the latter but facts. The first bunches of grapes, the first tasty fruit they picked on the rehabilitated soil after the devastation twenty years ago. Where the lignite has already been extracted the hole left behind was refilled, and the soil was made arable again thanks to a carefully worked out rehabilitation process. Visitors at Visonta can hardly distinguish between fruit orchards and vineyards on virgin soil, or the rehabilitated soil of the opencast colliery. The wounds inflicted by the machines are slowly healing, and the countryside now looks as if nothing had happened there. Yet the country obtained millions of kilowatt hours in the meantime. (w. W. 30
