András Mechwart

Then he went to Nuremberg to work in the 'Cramer & Clett' (a predecessor of MAN Group), where he learned the construction of bridges, wagons and machines of the mill industry.

Eichleiter introduced Mechwart to his boss who asked him to stay there because he wanted to expand his foundry with a machine factory, but he was according to his words lack of good engineers.

The achieved results reflected the success of the factory, at the World's Fairs in London in 1862 and in Paris in 1867 the company was awarded with silver medals.

After Abraham Ganz's death in December 1867, the heirs entrusted Eichleiter, Keller and Mechwart with the operational and business management.

As the recognition of the good work, the Ganz factory won a gold medal in Moscow in 1872, and on the World Exhibition in Vienna the company got honorary diploma in 1873.

As the head of the factory, his activities were imbued with the aspiration to create job opportunities, competitive and modern products and to find market for the produced goods.

Mechwart bought in 1874 Friedrich Wegmann's patent of the roller mill that the inventor could not sell for a long time.

The development of the factory is related closely to the production of the roller mill which pulled the company through the downturns of the financial crises.

With his personal call became the inventor trio (Károly Zipernowsky, Miksa Déri and Ottó Bláthy) engineers of the Ganz Works.

One of their first project was the planning and implementation of the electrical lighting of the National Theatre in Budapest which was the second in its type in Europe when it was completed.

With this machine they could provide constant current for arc lamps and – with a compensator keeping the voltage steady – light bulbs as well.

In the same year Déri, Zipernowsky and Bláthy took out a patent on the transformer whose application was shown in 1885 in Budapest, Amsterdam and London getting numerous orders from the inland and abroad.

At that time the Pozsony (today Bratislava) and Budapest-Újpest-Rákospalota electric railway lines were the most significant projects in Hungary.

Based on Mechwart's patents on locomobile rotary plow machine (steam used to drive machinery) their products could compete with others in Europe.

Mechwart's electric motor powered felling machine was created for domestic needs and for the hopes of mass production.

The machine consists of three main components: an electric motor, wood biter and a two-wheeled trolley-like vehicle.

[5] For Antal Eichleiter's silver wedding Mechwart wrote this poem: "Auf Grünen Gefilde, auf schattiger Höhe Nahe den Bergen, hoch über dem See'n Thront ein Haus heut im Glanze der Kerzen, Offen die Türen, offen die Herzen Nie strahlte die Freude hier heller als heute.

Drinnen sitzet im festlichen Prangen Oben ein Brautpaar von Liebe umfangen Rings ihre Kinder – der häusliche Segen Jubeln dem glücklichen Paare entgegen Silbernen Glanz strahlt der bräutliche Kranz.

András Mechwart in 1899
András Mechwart's roller mill (1874)
Steam powered lighting machine (1883)
The yard of the Electric Department of the Ganz Works in 18 Kacsa Street, Budapest , Austria-Hungary (1878)
András Mechwart and Lusie Eichleiter (1890)
Mechwart with his wife in 1866
Ceremony in honor of András Mechwart on his 40th year of work jubilee (6 December 1899)