Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 10. (1994)

Király István Szabolcs: A nagybirtok gépesítése

A NAGYBIRTOK GÉPESÍTÉSE 279 ISTVÁN SZABOLCS KIRÁLY: THE MECHANIZATION OF THE LARGE ESTATE Resume The increased demand towards the agricultural products created the first attempts to the mechanization of agriculture. References to mechanization of the threshing can be found at the beginning of the 19th century. The built-in threshing-machines with horse-gins can be found at almost every large estates in the 1850's. The real breakthrough was the introduction of the steam-engine, causing similar revolution in the mechanization of agriculture as in industry. The machine-used for actuating only the threshing machine in the beginning - is employed wide-spread: e. g. in farming (steam-plough), for actuating the machine-tools of breeding, the mill and the engine-room. In the beginning the old trade plying carpenters, wheelers, carvers managed the repairing of the machines containing lot of wood. But the more and more metal-working, repairing and changing required a new kind of skill. A new production line developed on the large estates practically with the appearance of the steam-engine: the manorial engineering. The first mechanic, who was in the estates's service for about three decades, was found in 1869 in Fonó (Somogy county) on the estate of the Piarist custodiatum. Antal Ivanich had been already a well-know technician at that time as he had his own work-shop at the nearby Dombóvár, where he produced agricultural machines of several kinds, among others threshing machines and seeding-machines as well. Ivanich planned the building-later became work-shop- and supported the whole equipping. The engine-room's machine-tools (2 power-lathes, 1 driller) were actuated by the steam-engine of the neighbouring mill. The work-shop - working with 5 persons in the beginning - was modernized and the personal staff was increased at the beginning of the 20th century. The technicians had to be skilled in a lot of things in the early times (steam-engines, several agricultural machines, machine-tools, etc.). The certain trades became specialized only later. The big manor at Mernye also caught up with the more developed large estates in the respect of mechanization by the end of the 19th century. They bought the first steam-plough (Fowler) in 1906 and the first tractor (Hart-Parr) in 1918. The study is based on the wide-spread technical literature and archives sources. The supplements contain the promotion of the chief-engineer, the numerical development of mechanization, the work-shop's plan, the salaries of the technicians and so on.