Technikatörténeti szemle 7. (1973-74)

MŰSZAKI SZAKMÚZEUMOK - Pál Vajda: Industrial Museums in Hungary (in English)

why an aureola of romanticism surrounds the oil miners who bring to the surface the wealth hidden inside the earth, be it in the jungle, a desert, the snowfields of Alaska, or offshore. Chemical industry has revolutionized our society in the past decades. Hungary, a former importer of chemicals has become exporter in addition to importing. County Veszprém is the most important center of the Hungarian chemical industry. This is the reason why the Hungarian Chemistry Museum was founded, and is located in the medieval Thury Castle at Várpalota, just in one of the towns of this region. The exhibitions of the museum display the history of chemistry and chemical industry in Hungary, beginning with mediaeval metallurgy. In the 12th and 13th centuries gold and silver have been the most important export goods of Hungary, but from the 14th century on copper joined the list. Hungary was the pioneer in two important technologies, the use of nitric acid at an industrial scale for the separation of gold and silver, and the extraction of the copper content of waste waters from mines by cementation using iron. In connection with metallurgy, analytical chemistry has also been developed here, and one of its achievements was the discovery of tellurium. The Mining School of Selmecbánya, founded in 1735 and promoted to academy rank in 1763, was the first home of chemistry as a science, with a separate chemistry department and a laboratory for students set up. This method of instruction has since spread all over the world, and is now a common practice in all institutions of high-grade education. The first Hungarian manufactures had been set up in the 18th century, and this was the beginning of the use of natural resources at an industrial scale. At the beginning of the 19th century the wars in Europe increased the importance of the Hungarian chemical industry being able to produce in peace. Several saltpeter and gunpowder factories were set up, mostly for military purposes. The early 20th century witnessed the foundation of the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry establishments (Richter, Chinoin) although their major development, like that of the other branches of chemical industry, followed only after the Second World War. The Budapest Museum of Fire Fighting, opened in 1957 with displays in 12 rooms, is located in the Fire Brigade Headquarters building, in the Budapest suburb of Kőbánya. The Museum presents the history of fire fighting, a very wide subject with a past of thousands of years, and a rich collection of objects illustrating this history in Hungary. In seven rooms the historical material, in five other rooms fire fighting methods and equipment are exhibited in a historical order. Aimed at explanation, the collection wants to add something new to the general knowledge about the subject. It is not only episodes of the history of fire fighting apparatus and regulation, note simply a theoretical presentation of the problems, but a follow-up of the chain of events of historic development over past centuries. At the same time, visitors may collect useful information on fire regulations for everday situations. Extensive technical arrangements in connection with the management of water supply look back upon long traditions in Hungary. A number of documentary and material evidence prove that as early as in the 3rd and 4th centuries the Romans carried out noteworthy water-engineering works in this country. With regard to the fact that water supply management has always played an essential