Technikatörténeti szemle 9. (1977)

KRÓNIKA - Debreczeny Ágnes: Energia – Ember – Munka. Az Országos Műszaki Múzeum új kiállítása

ing as the descendants of water-mills, the hydro-turbines and the wind power plants (developed from wind-mills) have, coupled with dynamos, an increasing share among the sources of energy. Added to this is the frequently mentioned but, as of today, negligibly utilized solar energy. Unfortunately, this latter type of energy represents a really practical source of energy on a small area of the Earth only. Nevertheless, it is a fact that in India and some cities of California successful experiments are being conducted in this field, too. A rather Utopian concept today, the utilization of the Earth's internal heat is a reality in some places. In Iceland, successful efforts were made long ago to utilize the heat of geysers; in the Soviet Union, large scale industrial geothermal power plants are being designed. In 1938 the first atomic nuclear fission was produced (Hahn and Strassmann), opening the vistas of the release of enormous amounts of energies. Nuclear fission may be regarded as an important way of future energy production — at least until the energy yield of thermo-nuclear fusion becomes practically viable. However, the truly „infinite" prospects of those possibilities do not eliminate our present need for the highly efficient utilization of water, wind, solar and geothermal energies. A special mention is deserved by the Hungarian exhibits at the show of the Museum for Sience and Technology, a few of which have already been described. The list might be continued with the steam engine of József Károly Hell, which was brought on stream in 1722 at Selmecbánya. Hell's pumps, based on the pressure of water, were mentioned as worthy examples all over Europe. One of the pioneers of water turbine is János András Segner, of Hungarian origis, the „father of turbines". The water-wheel („impeller") employed by him had a performance that was four times that of machines employed before. In the 20th century, the university professor Donát Bánky performed a noteworthy work in this field. He designed a turbine for midget hydro-electric plants, which was named after him. The turbine has been working down to the present day. In electrical engineering, the activities of Hungarian inventors and research workers had a decisive importance — particularly from the end of the last century. Ányos Jedlik's dynamo was the first in the world. Otto Titusz Bláthy was also the first in history to apply for a patent for his watt-hour meter based on the principle of inductance. Similarly valuable work was performed by Hungarian engineers in the development of international combustion engines. The best known achievement is the carburettor invented by Donát Bánki and János Csonka. That invention was an important milestone in the history of internal combustion engines. The exploitation of nuclear energy is also associated with the names of a number of Hungarian research workers. Following the theoretical physicists of the first half of this century, Leo Szilárd, Ede Teller and Jenő Wigner played a decisive role in solving the problem of releasing the nuclear energy. The exhibition „Energy — Man — Work" of the Museum for Science and Technology provides a convincing evidence of the activities and talents of Hungarian research workers and inventors.