THE HISTORY OF TUNGSRAM 1896-1945 - MEK

37 TUNGSRAMTHE COMPANY DURINGTHE TWO HUNGARIAN REVOLUTIONSIN 1918 AND 1919After the obvious loss of the World War I and the totalcollapse of the former Habsburg Monarchy abourgeois democratic revolution known as Aster-Revoulionwas aroused in Hungary by the general despair.Hungary became a republic with the presidentcount Michael Karoiyi, a democratic politician knownabroad too.The atmosphere in the Ujpest factory was very tenseduring the weeks prior to the bourgeois democraticrevolution of October. The workers' latest demand fora new wage settlement was turned down by themanagement who gave their grounds in that only abrief spell had passed since the last pay-rise. Theworkers went to a committee specially set up by thegovernment to examine public grievances. After prolongednegotiations the company finally agreed to a 25percent pay-rise. Consequently, the administratorsalso managed to procure a substantial raise for themselves.(179)After the triumphant October revolution, in earlyNovember, war production in the Ujpest factory wasproduction in the Ujpest factory was cancelled withimmediate effect by a government order. The Ministryof Defense was owing 3.8 million Koronas to thecompany. (180)The shortage of raw materia Is — due to the long war —posed grave difficulties for TUNGSRAM in running itsvarious departments. While the management succeededin piling up enough coal for the production ofgas for its Lamp Manufacturing Department to lastuntil the end of January, 1919, the coal to be burnt inboilers was only enough for a few weeks. As the Ujpestpower plant of PHOEBUS was able to supply electricalpower to the factory for the time being, the coalreserves for boilers were stashed away for leaneryears. In order to save coal the Trade Ministry limitedthe working hours in the Lamp Manufacturing Departmentto the interval between 7.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. asof 1 December, 1918. The workers were allowedcompensation for the lost two hours, which was paidby the Trade Ministry. Special departments, such asthe Gas and Hydrogen Unit, continued to operateround the clock.During the bourgeois democratic revolution of OctoberTUNGSRAM did not export goods in order to beable to meet the demands of the completely exhaustedhome market. The company had considerable stocksof raw materials necessary for incandescent lampproduction. (181)In early December, 1918 the executive committeethoroughly restructered its business management.Lipot Aschner was entrusted with the position ofmanaging director, so Gyula Egger's term was ended.After acting for 24 years as chief executive officer andmanaging director, Egger retired from active management,only retaining his seat on the board of directors.Jozsef Pinter remained the technical director andbecame vicepresident of the board. Dr. Ferenc Salzer,head of the Lamp Manufacturing Department wastransferred to Watt as director, while Frigyes Baumannmoved from Vienna to Ujpest as head of the department.Bela Friedmann was appointed to the post oftechnical director, the manager, David Aschner becamedeputy director, and the chief engineer, Bela