A Kiskőrösi Közúti Szakgyűjtemény Évkönyve 2000-2006. (2007)

VIII. SUMMARY

SZÁSZI, András 1. Technical Collection of Road in Kiskőrös History of the collection The basis of the Technical Collection of Public Roads was established by Imre Lévárdy. Working in Vágsellye (today's Sala in Slovakia) as a road inspector he started collecting the means and objects of this profession in the second half of the 1930's. At the time he moved to Kiskőrös, in 1947, he took his collection with himself, and enriched it further. The collection was exhibited first in 1968. In the following years thereafter the founder put the collection on display in one part of his own home. Beside this small permanent exhibition he managed to display a collection material of a travelling exhibition on several locations. The adaptation of the old road maintenance depot for the purpose of the permanent exhibition started in 1974. Unfortunately, the founder, Imre Lévárdy was not able to see its opening. His colleague, the engineer László Tóth was asked to manage the collection. The opening ceremony took place on 5 November 1974. The Ministry of Transport and Post acquired the whole material in 1975, and at the same time it was pronounced to become a public collection. A systematic, museum-type activity began. The work, still carried out under modest circumstances, brought about numerous results: the collection was processed at this time, research was grounded, and publications came out on a regular basis. By this time, thematic selections of the material were prepared, for the purpose of being presented on several locations in the country. In the 1980's troubles with the location of the collection were solved twice by the extension of the existing building, but still, only the acquisition of the ground and the building, in 1994, brought final solution. The new permanent exhibition was opened in 1995, in a renovated and larger building. The old building accommodated offices and store rooms. At the same time, the open-air exhibition area was expanded to its threefold. László Tóth died in 1996, his work has been taken on by András Szászi, grandson of the founder. In 1999 and in 2000 it came to further area expansions. By the reconstruction of the new property and by building-in the loft one managed to create a modern storehouse. The area of the imparked open-air exhibition is close to one-and-a-half hectares. Role of the Technical Collection of Public Roads in Kiskőrös The Technical Collection is a documentation and service centre for the professionals, which, firstly, exhibits and brings technical relics relating to the national road network of 30 thousand kilometres and the bridges, as being part thereof, into the public domain. At the same time, from the aspect of the histroy of technics and technology it does not divide transport ways by ages and owners/operators. Its services are based on the collection and processing of factual and intellectual properties. The technical collection has wide-ranging duties: it supports ambitious professional research, provides for professional information and does an important informative work. Its extended contacts provide linkage between ages, regions, countries and professions. Thanks to the efforts of road administration organizations, the technical collection got through a significant improvement in the last years. Based on the thirty-year experience the location in Kiskőrös was renewed: nowadays, there is a bigger and more appropriate area for the storage, the processing and the display of artefacts and documents, and for research, too. But what's more important is that the Technical Collection updates its record system and services continuously, in accordance with the requirements of today's digital age. Collection sphere of the Technical Collection The nation-wide collection sphere covers all main professional areas: it contains relics related to roads, bridges, traffic management technology and mechanical engineering. From the collected material one may look into the development of road administration, planning, construction, maintenance and operation. Artifacts: Technical relics make up the most spectacular part of the collection, they provide for the most apparent advantage. Along with the collection of big-sized artifacts - it includes the biggest collection of road rollers in Central-Europe -, such as bridge elements, road building equipment, vehicles, measuring equipment, a high number of smaller artifacts, such as utensils, geodesic instruments, laboratory tools and design equipment have been collected on a regular basis. Library: In the professional library of the Technical Collection, which amounts to some thirteen thousand items, one can find all important Hungarian technical and school-books, and furthermore, 723