Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Direct current versus alternating current
outage. This is how the supplier recorded the event in its logbook: "Note: The tire station has been advised to retrain from sprinkling water on the transformers." Having successfully tried out gas lighting in a gesture of self-promotion, the general assembly of Budapest took the decision in the heady atmosphere of these early days to have electric lighting installed in the assembly hall and its auxiliary rooms. But at a time when not even the council’s quota of free lighting gas stipulated in the concession was used, it would have been an irresponsible act of wastefulness to spend on this "luxury lighting” requiring the implementation of new equipment. Similarly, the issue of this most advanced form of street lighting was also taken off the agenda for a good while when plans for electrically illuminating the Danube bank promenade were scrapped by the assembly. Domestic customers of limited means complained that meters measured consumption erroneously (the errors benefiting the supplier). To placate suspicious customers the two electrical companies did all they could to make a better impression by having recourse to every possible marketing ruse and by offering first-class service. They cut rates for private consumers, and those agreeing to use lamps fitted with a special type of socket were given up to 25 per cent discounts. A veritable advertisement war broke out, in which Ganz emphasised its Hungarian background, and BÁV Rt, on its part, called attention to the fact that direct current with its backup batteries provided a more reliable service. What brought a real breakthrough was connecting public buildings and larger private properties to the network, something that the two distributors peacefully shared between themselves. BÁV Rt. illuminated the Opera House, Parliament, the University of Technology, the clinics and the Medical School, several museums (the Museum of Applied Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts and the National Museum), the Art Gallery, the Ludovika Military Academy, the National Casino, the General Post Office, the Hotel Royal, the skating rink, Archduke Joseph’s palace in the Buda Castle, the Klotild Palaces, and the Athenaeum Press. Its competitor, MV Rt., supplied electricity to the royal palace, the Austrian-Hungarian Bank, the National Theatre, the Somossy Orpheum, the New York Palace, the Leopold Town Casino, the Óbuda Tobacco Factory, the Drechsler Palace and several villas on the Rózsadomb and in Pasarét. The Opera House was originally provided with gas lighting, but as this could not be turned off altogether during performances, the audience sat in a twilit hall. The introduction of electrical illumination in 1895 made attendance that much more enjoyable. Electric lighting had been part of the attractions with which New York Café welcomed its patrons from the very beginning. 'The interior is floodlit with daylight illumination by 21 electrical arc 36
