Postai és Távközlési Múzeumi Alapítvány Évkönyve, 1998

Rövid tartalmi összefoglaló angol nyelven

The first article on it appeared anonymously on 15 July 1924 under the title Kossuth’s postal bond design in Emánuel János Jászai’s journal, Magyar Levélbélyeg (Hungarian Postage Stamps). This tells the story that Kossuth intended to issue a postal bond, and had Mór Than draw up a design on 3 June 1848. Jászai came by the postal bond by a fortunate inheritance. (His wife was the granddaughter of Jakab Urschitz, who was chief mechanic of the Mint in 1848, and followed the government to Debrecen, Szeged and Arad, producing the red-centred banknotes right to the end.) With an eye to a profit, Jászai wanted to hand over the Than design to the Stamp Museum in exchange for 10,000 pengős. Other sources put the price demanded even higher, because he had already made some three thousand pengős from reproducing the design in reduced form and selling it to collectors under the name Kossuth ’s Stamp. He permitted studies to be carried out on the family treasure, because he had to prove its age, originality, and that it was really produced in the Mint. He also had to demonstrate the extent to which Kossuth was involved with it, but no document referring to such a commission could be found.

Ernő Beszédes: Teletype machines in the telegraphic system

The Morse telegraphs that had been operating since 1850 were no longer able to carry the increased traffic, and required new developments. The rapid growth in the telegraph machines was followed by the rapid development of printing telegraphs.

Attempts to build machines that could write were being made even when the Morse system was invented. Samuel Morse himself also produced a design for one. The first printing telegraph was patented by Wheatstone in 1841. It required two or three wires, but Wheatstone used a switching arrangement that enabled it to be operated with one wire. At the same time, similar devices were developed by Vail, Bain and Brett, but they did not come into practical use.

In 1854, David Edward Hughes produced the synchronous teletype, which he patented in America in 1855. He wanted to apply his invention to the telegraph system in his own country, but did not meet with enough support. He further perfected his machine and patented it again in 1858. This patent was bought by the French government for 200,000 francs in 1860, and the licence for manufacture was granted to the company Froment C. Hughes machines were put into operation in France first between Paris and Lyon in 1861, followed by the cities of Bordeaux, Le Havre, Marseille and Lille in 1862. The devices were awarded the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867.

The main resolution taken by the Paris meeting of the International Telegraph Union that ended on 17 May 1867 was the licensing of Hughes-system synchronous teletype. This device was also accepted for long-distance international lines by the International Telegram meeting held in Vienna in 1868. The devices were made standard in Italy in 1862, Britain in 1863, Russia in 1865, Prussia and Austria-Hungary in 1867, the Netherlands in 1868 and Bavaria in 1869, and gradually across the whole of Europe.

Júlia Kisfaludi: 70th anniversary of a postal service, the greetings telegram

The greetings telegram is a form of communication which has been received by just about every family on some occasion or other. Their rarity and special significance often make

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