Technikatörténeti szemle 19. (1992)

TANULMÁNYOK - Bartha, Lajos: In Memoriam Miklós Konkoly Thege (1842–1916)

ter a short time the institute became one of the most efficient in Europe. Ha allocated the geomagnetic and seismological station to Ógyalla, where urban conditions did disturb measurements. Finally in 1900 he built a big and modern meteorological and geomagnetic-seismological observatory in Ógyalla. He donated the plot for this purpose from his own property. (The obsrevatory still operates as Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute.) Konkoly laid uch emphasis on the equipment of the meteorological stations with the best instruments. Many instruments of complicated structure were designed by and built by himself in his excellent workshop. He amended the Richard's system anemometer and Robinson's anemograph and balance barograph. He carefully studied the opportunities of cloud photography and altitude measurements. Miklós Konkoly Thege led the Meteorological Institute until 1911. He started daily weather reporst with maps attached, weather forecasts in 1891, and the spacious headquarters of the Meteorological Survey were built in 1910. When he became director, the institute consisted of one leader, two or three officers and one office-messenger. When he retired, the number of meteorological stations grew (from 190!) to 1438 and 31 strong scientific staff worked in the institute. 3. For Hungarian society and culture Miklós Konkoly Thege offered his observatory to the Hungarian state in the 1870s. In 1899 he achieved that Hungarian Treasury took over the obsrevatory as a gift (the director without salary remained Konkoly). From the to 1919 the institute was called Hungarian Royal Konkoly Foundation Astrophysical Observatory. In the sate observatory, besides the director, there worked two or three observators and a separate small obsrevatory was set up for university astronomical practices. In the state observatory the main field of activity was — in addition to spectroscopy — astronomical photometry and continuous solar obsrevations. In 1919 Czechoslovakia got hold of the Astrophysical Observatory and the instruments and library moved to Budapest. The official successor of the Konkoly observatory is the Astronomical Research Institute Hungarian Academy of Sciences. On the site of the old observatory in Hurbanovo (the former Ógyalla) a centre of Slovak amateur astronomists still works. Konkoly also built a small observatory in Nagytagyos (a village near Kornye, Komárom county). He donated its equipment to the Benedictine Abbacy grammar school, Pannonhalma. He raised interest towards astronomy in other wealthy people. With his cooperation the Haynald observatory was built in Kalocsa in 1878, Jenő Gothard's (1856—1909) astrophysical observatory in Herény (1881), near Szombathely (now belongs to the Department of Astronomy, University of Budapest) and Geiza Podmaniczky's private observatory in Kiskartal (1885). On his 60th birthday he gave another gift to his country. He presented the 2200 acre property of the Konkoly family to the Hungarian Treasury to settle landless peasants there. Part of his wealth was devoted to support scientific work and publication of journals and books. At his own expense he published the first volume of the first Hungarian journal on aeronautics and sponsored the journal „Időjárás" (Weat-