Fraternity-Testvériség, 1958 (36. évfolyam, 1-11. szám)
1958-02-01 / 2. szám
6 FRATERNITY Eötvös College. Later he was closely associated with Dr. Bay, on the faculty of the University and at Tungsram. At the University he participated in the designing of a MeV neutron generator; did research in problems of fast coincidence counting and various applications of the electron multiplier tubes. He participated in electron multiplier studies at Tungsram also, and after the war engaged in experiments in which Dr. Bay succeeded in detecting microwave radiations from the sun, and reflecting radar pulses from the moon. When Dr. Bay left Hungary, he and Dr. Papp had a secret agreement. If Dr. Bay thought it advisable for Dr. Papp to leave, he would send a short message to him. The message came in November 1948. “People in Hungary at that time did not dare to talk to each other, not even at home — with only two present. Neither could be sure whether or not the other was a secret police agent, or, if not, whether he would go to the police and betray. There were nights, during the preparations to leave, when we were sure our house was watched. “This was the life we lived until one day at the end of January 1949 we crossed the Austrian border — me, my wife Bertha and the two children, Maria, who wa 3, and Margareth, not yet one year old.” They reached Vienna the next day. From Salzburg went the first letter to the George Washington University, to Dr. Bay. Young John Faragó had left Hungary uneventfully a year before. He was able to get a passport and plane tickets — because he was scheduled to make his trip just days before Ferenc Nagy, the Premier of Hungary, was forced to resign. As Assistant Director of the Chemical Institute of the City of Budapest, Dr. Faragó had set up a research division with duties similar to those of the Food and Drug Administration of the United States. He was also connected with a pharmaceutical firm, where he had developed a practical way to synthesize harmones, among them, stilboestrole. At the age of 30, he decided that Europe under the influence of Communism was “no place I wanted to live and bring up my children. The political swings from right to left, the Nazi occupation and the Russian occupation did not provide or promise an era of stability. Furthermore, I wanted to live where there is some stake in human dignity.” During the war he experienced the restraint of life in a concentration camp. Later he had known the shadow of underground activities. In the only free election in 1945 he saw less than 17 per cent of his nation vote pro-communist, yet the Communists took control. Professor Pulvari had been Technical Manager of the Hungarian Radio and Communication Corporation, a quasi-Government agency dealing in radio, film and teleprinting; and was Chief of Laboratories of the Hungarian Telephone and Telegraph agency. When Russia took over these groups after the war, Professor Pulvari started his own research laboratory. “We watched opportunity for scientific research and development deteriorate. A law was passed making all patents state property. Enterprises
