Technikatörténeti szemle 7. (1973-74)

MŰSZAKI SZAKMÚZEUMOK - Pál Vajda: Industrial Museums in Hungary (in English)

„István Széchenyi" Memorial Museum The exposition is accommodated in the two observation halls on the eight floor of the University observatory tower, built in 1765. Above the tower is a terrace from which a beautiful view is seen of the town and the fort, still famous from the Turkish period. From the terrace rises the cupola of the former observatory. The instruments were built on the instructions of Maxiraillian Hell, at that time the famous director of the Vienna observatory, imperial court astronomer of Hungarian origin (1720— 1792), by London and Viennese master builders, mostly in London, partly in Vienna. In the western room there is a large wall quadrant which serves for the observation of star courses over the northsouth meridian for the determination of exact astronomical time and place definition. The exact angular measurement was carried out with the aid of the large quadrant, the radius of which is 241 cm, diameter of the objective of the telescope is 9.2 cm, its lenght 250 cm, the mobile quadrant from which the present-day theodolite has originated is similar. In this hall is also the „Instrumentum Parallactum", an axis of the telescope lies parallel to the axis of the earth and points in the direction of the celestial pole. In the eastern hall, attention is drawn especially to a large azimuthal refractor resting on a wooden stand, the tube of which is also made of wood, with a length of 310 cm and, an objective beautifully finished brass tube

: length 108 cm, objective diameter 10 cm. Both instruments are so-called Dollond achromatic refractors. Furthermore, there can still be seen two reflecting telescopes, Newton system, of 13 and 16 cm diameter respectively.