Technikatörténeti szemle 25. (2001-02)

Forrásközlések - Bencze Géza: Beszédes József értekezése a Kapos szabályozásáról

GÉZA BENCZE: JÓZSEF BESZÉDESS TREATISE ON THE REGULATION OF THE RIVER KAPÓS József Beszédes was an outstanding surveying and hydraulic engineer of the reform period and one of the most prominent characters of domestic water regulation, hydraulic construction and water utilization. One of the most important fields of his active life and rich oeuvre was the Kapos valley in South Transdanubia. It was his activity that made the water regulation works carried out here under his leadership countrywide well-known. After several unsuccessful attempts at regulating the river and some of its sections, József Beszédes carried out, between 1820 and 1835, the regulation of the river's whole length from its mouth below Simontornya to its section above Kaposvár. At the end of the regulation - in 1835 - he summarized, in a handwritten "Treatise", the story of the works carried out here, the course of the work and its results. Beyond the detailed description he pointed out the main tasks to be fulfilled for long-term maintenance of the finished canal as well as the possible modes of water management and utilization. In spite of contemporary promises his manuscript remained unpublished and - apart from some shorter details that had appeared earlier - has been published now for the first time in full length along with the original text, on the basis of the manuscript preserved at the Archives of County Somogy.