Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 2001

Tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven

János Csonka, Jr.: Letters to Elemér Halden

János Csonka Sr. (1852-1939) was bom in Szeged, SE Hungary, and was the seventh child of a highly recognised blacksmith. He learned the trade from his father, and then began to study iron implement manufacturing within Hungary. He continued these studies in Vienna, Paris, and London, learning advanced metalworking. On returning home, he was barely 25 when he became chief of the machine shop used to train students at JózsefTechnical University. In his spare time he designed power machinery, and built gas and petroleum-powered engines. Working together with engineer and inventor Donát Bánki (1859-1922), he designed and built the world’s first carburettor, patented in 1893. In 1904, the Hungarian post office issued a tender for motor driven vehicles, ahead of many other countries. János Csonka’s designs won the bidding, and were used to build the first Hungarian motor-powered vehicle. When he retired in 1925 at the age of 73, he opened a car shop. Initially he worked only with his two sons, János and Béla, where they made small petrol-powered engines. Csonka himself did the designing for the rest of his life. The workshop evolved into the Csonka Machine Factory, later called the Small Engine and Machine Factory.

When Csonka died in 1939, the factory employed a hundred people. It was managed by János Csonka, Jr. in the tradition of his father. János Csonka Jr. had an excellent knowledge of technology, and strong social and humanitarian sensitivities. The facility continued to grow, and in 1941 it moved from the basement of the family’s private residence into a factory building of its own in outer Budapest, as the János Csonka Machine Factory Corporation. There it continued to grow and required regular enlargement. The factory included a trade school and dormitory for apprentices, where numerous outstanding skilled workers received their training.

In 1948 the factory was nationalised. The two brothers were forced to flee the country, leaving family behind and deprived of the profits of 25 years of work, when brought up on bogus criminal charges. Four years later they settled in the United States of America. Eleven years after their departure, their families were finally allowed to join them. They lived, worked and continued to innovate in the United States throughout their lives. János Csonka, Jr. continued working as a recognised design engineer for 20 years after leaving Hungary, but never stopped experimenting. In the spring of 1973, he and his brother Béla invented a micro-carburettor, which they continued perfecting for the rest of their lives.

In January 1981 the Central Vehicle Facility of the Hungarian Post Office held an anniversary ceremony to commemorate the first Hungarian-made motor-driven postal delivery vehicles, which were put into regular service on January 15, 1906. Since the vehicles had been built using János Csonka, Sr.’s designs, he too was remembered and a memorial plaque was placed on the wall of one of the central buildings in the vehicle facility.

The letters written by János Csonka. Jr. to Elemér Halden revolve around the location of the memorial plaque, the commemoration of János Csonka, Sr., and a professional and humanitarian relationship. Elemér Halden (1894-1990) was a mechanical engineer, granted a diamond degree after 50 years in the profession, and a retired post office technology director. He began his postal service at the vehicle facility in 1925,

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