Ganz Works

Prominent engineers

Prominent engineers at Ganz works included András Mechwart, Károly Zipernowsky, Miksa Déri, Ottó Titusz Bláthy, Kálmán Kandó and Ernő Wilczek.

Power plants, generators turbines and transformers

In 1878, the company's general manager András Mechwart founded the Department of Electrical Engineering headed by Károly Zipernowsky. Engineers Miksa Déri and Ottó Bláthy also worked at the department producing direct-current machines and arc lamps.

Generators

The first turbo generators were water turbines which drove electric generators. The first Hungarian water turbine was designed by engineers of the Ganz Works in 1866. Mass production of dynamo generators started in 1883.^[4]

The missing link of a full Voltage Sensitive/Voltage Intensive (VSVI) system was the reliable alternating current constant voltage generator. Therefore the invention of the constant voltage generator by the Ganz Works in 1883^[5] had a crucial role in the beginnings of industrial scale AC power generation, because only these type of generators can produce a stable output voltage, regardless of the actual load.^[6]

Transformers

In cooperation, Zipernovsky, Bláthy and Déri (known as the ZBD team) constructed and patented the transformer. The "transformer" was named by Ottó Titusz Bláthy. The three invented the first high efficiency, closed core shunt connection transformer. They also invented the modern power distribution system: Instead of a series of connections they connected supply transformers in parallel to the main line.^[7]

The transformer patents described two basic principles. Loads were to be connected in parallel, not in series as had been the general practice until 1885. Additionally, the inventors described the closed armature as an essential part of the transformer. Both factors assisted the stabilisation of voltage under varying load, and allowed definition of standard voltages for distribution and loads. The parallel connection and efficient closed core made construction of electrical distribution systems technically and economically feasible.

The Ganz Works built the first transformers using iron plating of enamelled mild iron wire, and started to use laminated core at the end of 1885.

Power stations

In 1886, the ZBD engineers designed, and the company supplied, electrical equipment for the world's first power station to use AC generators to power a parallel connected common electrical network. This was the Italian steam-powered Rome-Cerchi power plant.^[8]

Following the introduction of the transformer, the Ganz Works changed over to production of alternating-current equipment. For instance, Rome's electricity was supplied by hydroelectric plant and long-distance energy transfer.^[9]

Electricity meters

The first mass-produced kilowatt-hour meter (electricity meter), based on Hungarian Ottó Bláthy's patent and named after him, was presented by the Ganz Works at the Frankfurt Fair in the autumn of 1889, and the company was marketing the first induction kilowatt-hour meter by the end of the year. These were the first alternating-current wattmeters, known by the name of Bláthy-meters.^[10]

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  The Hungarian "ZBD" Team (Károly Zipernowsky, Ottó Bláthy, Miksa Déri).
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  Prototypes of the world's first high efficiency transformers (Széchenyi István Memorial Exhibition, Nagycenk, Hungary, 1885)
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  The construction of a Ganz water turbo generator in 1886
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  PSM V56 D0433 Direct connected electric railway generator in 1899
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  Ottó Bláthy in the armature of a Ganz turbo generator (1904)
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  Ganz 21.000 kW Transformer, Hungary in 1911, weight: 38t
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  A generator assembly hall of the Ganz Works in 1922
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  Alternators in a hydroelectric station on the Murghab River.
• 
  Generator in Zwevegem, West Flanders, Belgium

Internal combustion engines and vehicles

Csonka automobile of 1905

Photograph of a Ganz bus in 1914, It was published in Vasárnapi Újság in 1916

The beginning of gas engine manufacturing in Hungary is linked to Donát Bánki and János Csonka but it is not clear that they ever worked for Ganz.

Ganz produced engines whose designs were licensed to Western European partners, notably in the United Kingdom and Italy.

Timeline

• 1889 the first four-stroke gas engine was built by the Ganz factory
• 1893 the manufacture of paraffin and petrol fuelled engine with carburetor
• 1898 the manufacture of engines with the Bánki water injection system
• 1908 the introduction of a new petrol engine type, the series Am
• 1913 the manufacture of Büssing petrol engines for trucks
• 1914–18 the manufacture of fighter plane engines
• 1916 the manufacture of petrol engines, type Fiat
• 1920 the modification of petrol engines for suction gas operation
• 1924 György Jendrassik started his engine development activity
• 1928 the first railway diesel engine was completed, according to the plans of Ganz-Jendrassik
• 1929 the first export delivery of a railway engine using the system of Ganz-Jendrassik
• 1934 there was an engine reliability World Competition in the USSR where the Ganz engine achieved the best fuel consumption in its category
• 1939-42 construction of the Jendrassik Cs-1 turboprop engine
• 1944 the first application of the engine type XII JV 170/240 in a motor-train set
• 1953 modernisationon of the diesel engine system Ganz-Jendrassik
• 1959 the union of the Ganz factory and the MÁVAG company, establishing Ganz-MÁVAG

Railways

A prototype of a Ganz AC electric locomotive in Valtellina , Italy, 1901

Ganz train on the Ferrocarriles Patagónicos railway in Argentina (1945)

Cutaway Drawing of Millennium Underground in Budapest (1894–1896) which was the first underground in Continental Europe

The first steam railcar built by Ganz and de Dion-Bouton

The Ganz Company started to construct steam locomotives and steam railcars from the 1860s.

Between 1901 and 1908, Ganz Works of Budapest and de Dion-Bouton of Paris collaborated to build a number of railcars for the Hungarian State Railways together with units with de Dion-Bouton boilers, Ganz steam motors and equipments, and Raba carriages built by the Raba Hungarian Wagon and Machine Factory in Győr. In 1908, the Borzsavölgyi Gazdasági Vasút (BGV), a narrow-gauge railway in Carpathian Ruthenia (today's Ukraine), purchased five railcars from Ganz and four railcars from the Hungarian Royal State Railway Machine Factory with de Dion-Bouton boilers. The Ganz company started to export steam motor railcars to the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Japan, Russia and Bulgaria.^[11][12][13]

The Ganz Works, having identified the significance of induction motors and synchronous motors, commissioned Kálmán Kandó to develop them. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed high-voltage three-phase AC motors and generators for electric locomotives. The first-ever electric rail vehicle manufactured by Ganz Works was a 6 HP pit locomotive with direct current traction system. The first Ganz made asynchronous rail vehicles (altogether 2 pieces) were supplied in 1898 to Évian-les-Bains (France) with a 37 HP asynchronous traction system. The Ganz Works won the tender for electrification of the Valtellina Railway in Italy in 1897. Under the management, and on the basis of plans from Kálmán Kandó, three phase electric power at 3 kV and 15 Hz was fed through two upper wires and the rails. The electricity was produced in a dedicated power station and the system operated for thirty years from 1902. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than just a short stretch. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works.^[14][15] The voltage was significantly higher than used earlier and it required new designs for electric motors and switching devices.^[16][17] The three-phase two-wire system was used on several railways in Northern Italy and became known as "the Italian system". Kandó was invited in 1905 to undertake the management of Società Italiana Westinghouse and led the development of several Italian electric locomotives.^[16] In 1918,^[18] Kandó invented and developed the rotary phase converter, enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks.^[15]

After World War I, at the Ganz Works, Kálmán Kandó constructed a single-phase electric railway system using 16 kV at 50 Hz. A similar system, but using 15 kV at 16.7 Hz, later became widely used in Europe. The main attribute of Kandó's 50 Hz system was that it was fed by the normal power network, so dedicated railway power stations became unnecessary. Because of the early death of Kálmán Kandó, László Verebélÿ continued the work for the Hungarian State Railways (MÁV).^[19]

Rail rolling stock

A Tranz Metro EM class Ganz-Mávag unit in service in the Hutt Valley, New Zealand

A series V63 Ganz-Mávag electric locomotive of Hungarian State Railways

In 1959 Ganz merged with the MÁVAG company and was renamed Ganz-MÁVAG.

In 1976 Ganz-Mávag supplied ten standard gauge 3-car diesel trainset to the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE), designated as Class AA-91 and four metre gauge 4-car trainsets, designated as Class A-6451. In 1981/82 Ganz-Mávag supplied to OSE 11 B-B diesel-hydraulic DHM7-9 locomotives, designated as class A-251. Finally, in 1983, OSE bought eleven 3-car metre gauge trainsets, designated as Class A-6461. All these locomotives and trainsets have been withdrawn with the exception of one standard and one metre gauge trainset.

In 1982/83 Ganz-Mávag supplied an order for electric multiple units to New Zealand Railways Corporation for Wellington suburban services. The order was made in 1979, and was for 44 powered units and 44 trailer units, see New Zealand EM class electric multiple unit.

Shipbuilding

In 1911, The Ganz Company merged with the Danubius shipbuilding company, which was the largest shipbuilding company in Hungary. From 1911, the unified company adopted the "Ganz–Danubius" brand name. As Ganz Danubius, the company became involved in shipbuilding before, and during, World War I. Ganz was responsible for building the dreadnought SMS Szent István, all of the Novara-class cruisers, and built diesel-electric U-boats at its shipyard in Budapest, for final assembly at Fiume. Several U-boats of the U-XXIX class, U-XXX class, U-XXXI class and U-XXXII class were completed,^[21] A number of other types were laid down, but remained incomplete at the war's end.^[22] By the end of the First World War, 116 naval vessels had been built by The Ganz-Danubius company. The company built some ocean liners too.

Aircraft

The first Hungarian "aeroplane factory" was founded by the Ganz Company and Weiss-Manfréd Works in 1912. During World War I, the company made many types of Albatros and Fokker fighter planes.

The world's first turboprop engine was the Jendrassik Cs-1 designed by the Hungarian mechanical engineer György Jendrassik. It was built and tested in the Ganz factory in Budapest between 1939 and 1942. It was planned to be fitted to the Varga RMI-1 X/H twin-engined reconnaissance bomber designed by László Varga in 1940, but the program was cancelled. Jendrassik had also designed a small-scale 75 kW turboprop in 1937.