Tungsram was a

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

located in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and known for their light bulbs and electronics. Established in Újpest (today part of

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

) in 1896, it initially produced telephones, wires and switchboards. The name "Tungsram" is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of ''tungsten'' ( ) and ''wolfram'' ( ), the two common names of the metal used for making light bulb filaments. Before becoming nationalized by the Communist government in 1945, the company was the world's third largest manufacturer of light bulbs and radiotubes, after the American General Electric and RCA companies.

History

On 13 December 1904, Hungarian Sándor Just and Croatian Franjo Hanaman were granted Hungarian patent no. 34541 for the world's first tungsten filament bulb that lasted longer and produced brighter light than a carbon filament. The co-inventors licensed their patent to the company, which came to be named Tungsram after the eponymous tungsten incandescent bulbs, which are still called Tungsram bulbs in many European countries. In 1934, Tungsram incorporated a patent by Imre Bródy for bulbs filled with

krypton Krypton (from 'the hidden one') is a chemical element; it has symbol (chemistry), symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless noble gas that occurs in trace element, trace amounts in the Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere and is of ...

gas, providing for a longer bulb lifetime. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

mass production of radio tubes began and became the most profitable division of the company. In March 1937, the first television experimental broadcasts of still images (Tungsram trademark and Mickey Mouse) began in the Tungsram laboratory, initially with low FPS. With the help of the charge storage video camera developed by the company, a successful continuous motion picture transmission was tested in an experimental TV broadcasting station at Újpest in June 1937. British Tungsram Radio Works was a subsidiary of Hungarian Tungsram in pre-war days. In 1990,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

acquired a majority stake in Tungsram and over six years invested $600 million in the venture, thoroughly restructuring every aspect of its operations. To date, this has been the largest manufacturing investment by a U.S. firm in Central and Eastern Europe. Thereafter Tungsram operated as a subsidiary of General Electric and the name merely was retained as a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

. As of February 2018, the CEO of GE Hungary, Jörg Bauer agreed to buy GEʼs lighting business in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, as well as its global automotive lighting business. The business continues to operate again under the name ''Tungsram Group''. Since February 2020, the business partners of the company have been able to use the recently opened Tungsram Lounge at the Ferenc Liszt International Airport with conference rooms. In April 2022, Tungsram laid off 1600 employees and then in May they filed for bankruptcy protection. In November nearing the end of the six month protection period they announced they had been unable to come to an agreement with their creditors and were thus going into liquidation. As part of the liquidation process it was decided the Zalaegerszeg plant would continue to operate under the name Scintilla Fémalkatrész Kft.

Factories in Hungary

* Budapest, Váci út - Light source factory *

Győr Győr ( , ; ; names of European cities in different languages: E-H#G, names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia, Western Transdanubia region, and – halfwa ...

- Target machine design, production * Nagykanizsa - Light Source Factory and Logistics Centre *

Kisvárda Kisvárda (; , ) is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary near the border of Slovakia and Ukraine. It is the 3rd largest town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg after Nyíregyháza and Mátészalka ...

- Halogen and Automotive Lamp Factory *

Zalaegerszeg Zalaegerszeg (; ; ; ) is the administrative center of Zala County, Zala county in western Hungary. Location Zalaegerszeg lies on the banks of the Zala River, close to the Slovenian and Austrian borders, and west-southwest of Budapest by road. Hi ...

- Component factory * Hajdúböszörmény - Component factory * Budapest, Fóti út - Machinery Division, Vacuum Engineering Machine Factory (closed) * Vác - Light source factory (closed) * Kaposvár - Electron tube factory (closed) * Hajdúnánás - Component factory (closed)

Famous engineers and inventors

Gallery

File:Tungsram advertisement.jpg, Hungarian advertising of the Tungsram-bulb from 1906. This was the first light bulb that used a filament made from tungsten instead of carbon. The inscription reads: ''wire lamp with a drawn wire – indestructible'' File:Izzólámpák.jpg, Incandescent light bulbs with carbon filaments (left) and the modern tungsten bulb (right) (not a Tungsram) File:Tungsram MR-X radio transmitter tube for audio communication (1917).png, Tungsram MR-X radio transmitter tube for audio communication (1917) File:Tungsram H2 radio transmitter tube 1916.jpg, Tungsram H2 radio transmitter tube prototype 1916 File:Tungsram searchlight.jpg, Tungsram searchlight for air defense (1914) File:Tungsram Television prototype in 1937.png, Tungsram television prototype in 1937 File:Tungsram vacuum tubes.jpg, Tungsram commercial vacuum tubes from the 1970s File:Power pentode TAL4.jpg, Tungsram vacuum tubes File:Magic eye tube EM1.jpeg, Tungsram vacuum tubes File:Az Egyesült Izzó látképe.jpg, The factory in Budapest in 1920 File:Budapest XIII., Egyesült Izzólámpa és Villamossági Rt.-Váci út 77.jpg, Former Headquarter of the ''United Lightbulb and Electronic Ltd'' File:Radio vacuum tubes.jpg, Tungsram vacuum tubes File:ECL80.jpg, Tungsram vacuum tubes File:EZ80 var.jpg, Tungsram vacuum tubes File:ECC83 var.jpg, Tungsram vacuum tubes

External links

* Free English language book about the detailed history of Tungsram

Patent US1018502, Incandescent bodies for electric lamps

References