Kiss Katalin: Industrial Monuments - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)
sewage water is mechanically cleaned. The engine house consists of six pumping units, suitable for pumping 7.6 cubic metres of water per second. Rainwater from the hills only takes a few minutes to get to the plant, where its reception and passing on is handled. The plant, which is still functioning, can be visited. Here is housed a small museum about the history of drainage. It opened in 1987. Visitors can observe the functioning waterworks. The machines are more than eighty years old and count as monuments of industrial history. The inner details of the building are also noteworthy. The stair railings and the panelling are contemporary works. The Art Mouveau style switchboard, made by the Hungarian Siemens-Schuckert Works, is a unique rarity. The building which modestly stands at the riverside corner of Zsigmond tér, is somewhat segregated from its surroundings. When the neighbouring areas were being developed, it was suggested that its land be used for building purposes. But it would be a shame to let this little industrial establishment disappear, for with all of its buildings it forms a rare historical unit. A FORMER ELECTRIC SUBSTATION III, Szentendrei út 138 Budapest’s electric power transmission system was set up in the 1890s and by the 1930s had outdated. At the same time the electric energy needs of the capital for industry, railways and lighting grew so high, that the former 10 kV transmission had to be increased to 30 kV. The construction of new electric substations was begun everywhere in the capital. Here current was transformed to the distribution networks. In order to give an aesthetic appearance to new substations, the most distinguished architects were commissioned to design them. Every substation was built according to the so-called “cell-system”, and considering their arrangement, they were very similar to each other. The lower floor housed the main switches for the “in” and “out” cables, choking coils and tension reducers. The transformers were situated on the ground floor. On the first floor were cor24
