Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Town gas from coal - The Óbuda Gas Works (1913-84)
be sufficient initially. The committee also recommended the dismantling of the Joseph Town and Buda gashouses, the future of the Francis Town unit to be decided on when the new factory had started production. There was no time to waste as the old gashouses had reached the limits of their capacities, and in peak periods the holders were occasionally depleted. Construction had not yet started when serious doubts arose as to whether it was worth entering upon such a giant enterprise at a time when natural gas could be transported from Transylvania to Budapest at half the price. Were these worries well- founded? Natural gas was in fact used in many places in the U.S.A. for illumination, which meant that it could really happen that Budapest found itself straddled with an outdated coal-gas factory. Writer Viktor Cholnoky voiced these doubts poignantly, noting that "...natural gas has already broken to the surface in Kissdrmds and what ii called mother earth ii now yelling in the ean of the nation that 'here I am. coming to your help hree ojj charge, and if it ii impossible by any other meam to ease the financial and administrative dihhiculties oh your capital city, then the intestinal movements oh dinosaurs can stilt be oh help. All this hree gas is now being puhhed into the air useless, even as people still use tallow candles in ■ More than a hundred lamps light the streets oh the capital. Cight replicas made oh lamps manuhactured in 193/ were set up in the Zoo l8
