Technikatörténeti szemle 7. (1973-74)
MŰSZAKI SZAKMÚZEUMOK - Pál Vajda: Industrial Museums in Hungary (in English)
PAUL VAJDA* INDUSTRIAL MUSEUMS IN HUNGARY Engineering and technology have always influenced social development to a significant degree, and quite critically after the industrial revolution. Engineering has penetrated every field, the number of technical facilities increased, and today it is no exaggeration to state that technology is intertwining society just like blood vessels the human body. So, undoubtedly, who wants to promote future development, must be familiar with past phenomena as well. The knowledge of each subject demands familiarity with the previous development stages, and the critical evaluation of the advantages representing progress. Since the history of engineering is not only that of the productive means but also the history of production technology, its knowledge may and often does influence technical development. After the Second World War incredible changes have taken place in Hungary as far as the evaluation of science and engineering was concerned, although investigations on the history of engineering have not been sufficiently supported for a while. It was as late as in the 'fifties that one of the most remarkable development trend of the century's cultural life manifested itself: interest in the history of science and engineering. Law-decree No. 4, 1954. of the Presidential Council-of the Hungarian People's Republic provides for the collection and preservation of objects connected with the history of industrial and technological development. The law-decree has the special merit of being the first of its kind of a world scale by giving statutory protection to precisely defined technical material of historical value. By force of the law-decree the Group of Registration and Collection of Old Technical Values was established and put in charge of the execution thereof. Initially it had a two-directional task : to search for technical and industrial material of historical value, declaring them as being under protection if necessary and, if their survival did not seem to be ensured, to collect them and take care of their expert protection. The first step was to clear the idea of technical value of historical character, and to take stock of such values in a National Register. It had to be stated and put down what might count as a valuable piece of history to be protected by law, and what did not belong to this category. The problem was finally solved after ten years of research during which the Group had time and opportunity to gather useful experience ; then a new law-decree much better co-ordinated with modern requirements was issued. 1123 Budapest, Alkotás utca l/A
