Technikatörténeti szemle 18. (1990-1991)

KRÓNIKA - „Társaink a háztartásban tegnap és ma” (A háztartási eszközök forradalma) c. időszaki kiállítás

Changes were brought about by the advent of industrial society. Working place and dwelling parted. Housekeeping became women's concern for good, be it an employee or a housewife. However, the new society soon challenged this establishment from two sides. Labour was revalued, increasing numbers of women assumed permanent jobs, keeping domestic servants became ever more expensive. Owing to this, emancipation of women gained ever more ground. In parallel to this, initiation of men in housekeeping started. As a consequence of this, various appliances and machines were invented to ease housekeeping. In our century industrial products tor such purposes appeared one after the other. In many cases only centruies-old devices were transformed, in that they were connected to machines necessary for their operation. The energy used for their operation was nearly in every case electricity, thus the process became dependent on progress of electrification in the individual countries. In the 20th century a real race developed between manufacturersand sonsumers. On the market of household appliances demand and supply became intertwined. The development of the economic branches called simply services was no more a technical but a social problem, in the highly developed countries consumers' society came into being. In Hungary, mechanisation of households started, in the better-off families between 1920 and 1940. After a decade's stagnation following World War II., this process became — with a lagging of 30—40 years behind the highly developed countries — a mass phenomenon in our country only in our days.