Tungsram
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Tungsram was a trade mark under which incandescent lamps and electron tubes , later also consumer electronics and entire production lines, were sold. Since 1984 Tungsram has been the company (company name) of the manufacturing company with several production sites in Hungary . The company was taken over by General Electric (GE) in 1989 , but lamps and equipment are still produced in the Hungarian manufacturing plants under his company.
history
prehistory
In 1862, Béla Egger founded his company, Mechanische Werkstätte und Telegraphenbauanstalt B. Egger , in Vienna , which mainly manufactured telephone and telegraph accessories. Shortly after Thomas Alva Edison had success with his carbon filament incandescent lamp in 1879, Egger had such incandescent lamps produced and also opened a branch in Budapest. At the same time he continued to develop his products.
First light bulb production in Budapest
In 1896 Egger opened two factories for lamp production in Budapest , in which Lipót Aschner also worked. A few years later invented here Franjo Hanaman and (Sándor) Alexander Just a filament in which the natural carbon filament with a suspension of tungsten (English Tungsten ) is covered. After the tungsten has adapted to the shape of the thread, the carbon is removed by heating. On December 13, 1904, they received a patent for it. (This method was later replaced by William D. Coolidge's metallurgical process.) In 1909 the brand name Tungsram (from the English and German TUNGSten + wolfRAM) was registered. The new incandescent lamps produced under this name had a higher light output and a longer service life than the original carbon filament lamps. The incandescent lamp factories in Austria-Hungary are now simply referred to as Tungsram.
Tungsram industrial research institute and expanded lamp production
After the First World War and the global economic crisis , Egger opened his own research institute in Budapest, which was responsible for the further development of the production technology for lighting . Successful engineers and technicians worked here, including Ignác Pfeifer (who should establish the chair for nuclear physics at the Budapest Technical University in the 1950s ), Pál Selényi (1884–1954), "father" of xerography , Pál Túry and Tivadar Millner . Imre Bródy joined the factory in 1923 and invented the krypton lamp in 1930. This was clearly superior to the previous lamps in terms of service life and was successfully sold. The Austrian part of the company received the state award in 1932 and was allowed to use the Austrian coat of arms in business transactions. At that time, Dr. Walter Levy (died 1938 in Geneva), formerly director of the German light bulb manufacturer Osram , owner of Tungsram.
The Hungarian parts of the Tungsram factory were expanded in the 1930s to produce the popular lamps in larger numbers.
Since 1938 the manufacturer's logo has been a letter "T" in a circle. During these years, the engineers at Tungsram also developed and produced the first electron tubes for use in radio sets. Large parts of the first tube factories were bought up by the Philips company before 1940 .
Like other well-known producers, Tungsram belonged to the Phoebus cartel of international light bulb manufacturers in the period 1924–1941 .
On August 10, 1946, Tungsram Bratislava , the Slovak part of the group, was taken over by the national company TESLA .
Tungsram products from 1945
During the time of communist rule in Hungary, the private company was converted into a state-owned company. In-house production of electron tubes was resumed, and from the 1960s onwards, the company's first own picture tubes for televisions as well as special light bulbs for the automotive industry were added. The development and production of new products continued: special tubes for medicine, semiconductor products, household appliances, even complete production lines.
Diversification
On January 1, 1984, the brand name Tungsram was registered as the official company name to secure foreign trade relations. The constant further development and adaptation to technology led to a diversification process in the 1980s, which resulted in the following large product lines:
- Incandescent lamps, fluorescent tubes, car headlights
- Semiconductor components
- Control electronics for industrial robots
- Car electronics
- domestic appliances
- CO 2 laser for industrial and medical use
- X-ray dosimeter
- Computer accessories such as floppy disks
- Machine units.
The main buyer of the products was the Soviet Union with around 70 percent. The rest was exported to the other socialist states, developing countries and Western Europe. Tungsram has the following locations in Hungary in 1989:
Tungsram today
After the socialist camp was dissolved, the market for tungsten products collapsed almost completely. New capital was required for a realignment and modernization of both the machines and systems as well as the production range. The management started negotiations with the Hungarian credit (Hitel) bank and the Austrian bank consortium Girozentrale . The desired partnership did not materialize, however; instead, Tungsram merged with General Electric (GE). On November 15, 1989, the deed of purchase was signed by GE simultaneously in Cleveland and Budapest, with which 50% plus one share of Tungsram went to GE. The new main owner thus gained a sales area in the former Eastern Bloc countries, and new sales markets opened up for Tungsram in Western Europe.
In the 1990s, GE invested around US $ 600 million at selected previous Tungsram locations in Hungary to upgrade production facilities, introduce new technologies and protect the environment. In former Tungsram factories, also in neighboring countries such as Bosnia-Herzegovina or Slovenia , around 11,000 employees have since manufactured the following GE products (marking GE Lighting Tungsram) from the lighting division:
- lightbulbs
- compact fluorescent lamps
- Energy-saving lamps with a particularly long service life ( Genura ), with which, for example, the parliament building in Budapest is illuminated
- High pressure sodium vapor lamps ( Lucalox , which already received a "Grand Prix" at the Hanover industrial fair )
- compact fluorescent lamps with strongly coiled tubes ( Heliax )
- Car lighting
- Halogen and LED lamps as well as glow lamps
Plastic products, medical equipment, transport systems and aircraft engines are produced at other former Tungsram locations.
The largest production facilities for conventional incandescent lamps in Nagykanizsa had to be gradually shut down from 2009 due to the Ecodesign Directive , which banned the manufacture and sale of incandescent lamps in the EU.
literature
- The History of Tungsram, 1896-1945 ; Gutenberg Printing House, Hungary 1990
- Paul Marer and Vincent Mabert: GE acquires and restructures Tungsram: the first six years (1990-1995) ; In: Trends and policies in privatization ; Paris, OECD, ISSN 1021-3287 ; Pp. 149-185
- Tarnschrift: Fictitious advertising leaflet for Tungsram tubes. KPD, KPÖ, AdS and RSÖ, end of March 1939. Call for cohesion “To the workers of Germany and Austria!” on the occasion of the annexation of Czechoslovakia.
Web links
- Brief history of Tungsram, also with historical photos and certificates , (English and Hungarian), PDF file
- Big Business in Austria - Watt-Tungsram on books.google.at
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f www.tungsram.hu: Brief history of Tungsram, partly with historical photos , (Hungarian and English), PDF file, accessed on December 26, 2009
- ↑ www.radiomuseum.org: Various Tungsram logos on old packaging
- ↑ www.radiomuseum.org: Details on Tungsram radio tubes in a museum , accessed December 27, 2009
- ↑ www.jogis-roehrenbude.de: private homepage on the history of the EL34 tube , accessed on December 27, 2009
- ↑ www.light-electric.net: Incandescent Tungsram catalog of the plant in Banja Luka ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 28, 2009
- ↑ sftp.slovenka.net: Incandescent Tungsram catalog of the plant in Šoštanj ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 175 kB), accessed on December 28, 2009
- ↑ bolthely.hu: KLL range on the Tungsram homepage , accessed on December 28, 2009
- ↑ www.tungsram.hu: The Hungarian Parliament illuminated by GE Genura ™ Lamps , (English), accessed on December 28, 2009
- ↑ bolthely.hu: Na lamps , accessed December 28, 2009
- ↑ bolthely.hu: Car lamp range , accessed on December 28, 2009
- ↑ bolthely.hu: LED lamp range , accessed on December 28, 2009
- ↑ bolthely.hu: range of glow lamps , accessed on December 28, 2009
- ↑ diepresse.com: Hungary: Off for lightbulbs costs jobs. , Article dated November 9, 2009, accessed December 27, 2009
