Mór Balázs de Verőcze
Balázs Mór Verőczei, Mór Mózes Kohn (Pest, 5 March 1849 - Remagen, 1 August 1897), private physician, founding director general of the Budapest Municipal Tramway Company.
Biography
His father died when he was one year old. His mother remarried, married the wealthy merchant Zsigmond Blasz, who raised the boy as his son.
He studied at the Royal József Technical University in Budapest and then studied transport in England.
He was known as Mór Conn-Blasz in the 1870s, was a member of the board of directors of the Sződ-Rákosi brickworks, and owned real estate. In 1882, he applied for a name change, when he took the name of his foster-father and changed it to Balázs Mór. In 1874 he married Malvina Deutsch, by whom he had 4 children (Vera, Pálma, Aurél and Károly).
After completing his studies, he took a job at Siemens & Halske. This company presented the first electrically powered railway at the Berlin Trade Fair in 1879. Nevertheless, in his 1885 work "Budapest Steam Locomotive Road Railway Network", he was still thinking of a steam locomotive railway, but later advocated electric propulsion.
The capital has already signed contracts with several railway companies (notably the Budapest Public Railway Company), which were not happy about the competition. Taking advantage of the fact that the motor railways were not covered by the licence, Siemens registered the company Siemens & Halske, Lindheim & Cie and Mór Balázs as the Circular Electric Railway Company, of which it became the manager. On October 1, 1887, Gábor Baross gave permission for the construction of the first narrow-gauge trial railway, which ran on the section of the Grand Boulevard between Király Street and Nyugati Railway Station, and was completed by November 28, 1887.
Following the successful first flight, the capital city signed a contract for the entire network. On 30 July 1889, the first standard gauge tram was launched in Budapest, running between Egyetem tér and Orczy tér in Stáció Street (today's Baross Street), followed by the Podmaniczky Street tram on 10 September 1889. The Anglo-Hungarian Bank bought the company in March 1891 due to the large capital requirements, and then founded the Budapest Municipal Electric Railway Company, of which he became the first CEO.
He is also responsible for the construction of the underground tramway. The first cars were presented to the authorities on 18 February 1893, together with Henrik Jellinek, head of the large competitor BKVT. The design was well received and construction began in early August 1894, and the continent's first underground railway was completed in 21 months. The section was 3228 metres long. The line was opened by Franz Joseph I on 2 May 1896. Other plans (including the the extension of the capital's metro network, on which he essentially dreamt up the tracks of the current metro lines 2 and 3), he was unable to realise it because he died young.
Public engagement
Balázs was an ordinary member of the District VII Committee of the Municipal Council, and from 1891 he actively participated in the meetings of the Municipal Council of Budapest and the capital. In the same year he was elected to the Committee of Public Works. He was delegated by the capital city to the committee 'organizing the national exhibition and the millennium celebrations' in 1896.
His work
Budapest's network of steam-powered tramways (steam tramway). Budapest, 1886.
In memory of
His grave is in the Israelite cemetery on Kozma Street.
The Mór Balázs Plan, Budapest's transport development concept, is named after him.
Sources
- Hungarian biographical lexicon I-II. Editor Ágnes Kenyeres. Bp., Akadémiai Kiadó, 1967-1969.
- József Szinnyei: Lives and works of Hungarian writers I. (Aachs-Bzenszki). Budapest: Hornyánszky. 1891.
- Data in the catalogue of the Petőfi Literary Museum
- Birth certificate, downloaded on 18 February 2024
- Éva Nádor:Mór Balázs, to whom we owe the underground railway in What Decades, Nádor & Co., Budapest, 2023
- Siemens: 135 years of service to the development of Hungarian transport, downloaded on 18 February 2024
- Gábor Zsigmond:The life and work of Mór Balázs, Review of the History of Transport and Technology, 2018, pp. 63-84.
Born: 1849.03.05.
Place of birth: Pest
Date of death: 1897.08.01.
Place of death: Remagen
Occupation: private entrepreneur
Parents: Ármin Kohn, Rózsa Lurje
Spouses: Deutsch Malvina
Children: Vera, Palma, Aurel and Charles
Author: by Radnai Márton
Born: 1849.03.05.
Place of birth: Pest
Date of death: 1897.08.01.
Place of death: Remagen
Occupation: private entrepreneur
Parents: Ármin Kohn, Rózsa Lurje
Spouses: Deutsch Malvina
Children: Vera, Palma, Aurel and Charles
Author: by Radnai Márton
Mór Balázs de Verőcze
Balázs Mór Verőczei, Mór Mózes Kohn (Pest, 5 March 1849 - Remagen, 1 August 1897), private physician, founding director general of the Budapest Municipal Tramway Company.
Biography
His father died when he was one year old. His mother remarried, married the wealthy merchant Zsigmond Blasz, who raised the boy as his son.
He studied at the Royal József Technical University in Budapest and then studied transport in England.
He was known as Mór Conn-Blasz in the 1870s, was a member of the board of directors of the Sződ-Rákosi brickworks, and owned real estate. In 1882, he applied for a name change, when he took the name of his foster-father and changed it to Balázs Mór. In 1874 he married Malvina Deutsch, by whom he had 4 children (Vera, Pálma, Aurél and Károly).
After completing his studies, he took a job at Siemens & Halske. This company presented the first electrically powered railway at the Berlin Trade Fair in 1879. Nevertheless, in his 1885 work "Budapest Steam Locomotive Road Railway Network", he was still thinking of a steam locomotive railway, but later advocated electric propulsion.
The capital has already signed contracts with several railway companies (notably the Budapest Public Railway Company), which were not happy about the competition. Taking advantage of the fact that the motor railways were not covered by the licence, Siemens registered the company Siemens & Halske, Lindheim & Cie and Mór Balázs as the Circular Electric Railway Company, of which it became the manager. On October 1, 1887, Gábor Baross gave permission for the construction of the first narrow-gauge trial railway, which ran on the section of the Grand Boulevard between Király Street and Nyugati Railway Station, and was completed by November 28, 1887.
Following the successful first flight, the capital city signed a contract for the entire network. On 30 July 1889, the first standard gauge tram was launched in Budapest, running between Egyetem tér and Orczy tér in Stáció Street (today's Baross Street), followed by the Podmaniczky Street tram on 10 September 1889. The Anglo-Hungarian Bank bought the company in March 1891 due to the large capital requirements, and then founded the Budapest Municipal Electric Railway Company, of which he became the first CEO.
He is also responsible for the construction of the underground tramway. The first cars were presented to the authorities on 18 February 1893, together with Henrik Jellinek, head of the large competitor BKVT. The design was well received and construction began in early August 1894, and the continent's first underground railway was completed in 21 months. The section was 3228 metres long. The line was opened by Franz Joseph I on 2 May 1896. Other plans (including the the extension of the capital's metro network, on which he essentially dreamt up the tracks of the current metro lines 2 and 3), he was unable to realise it because he died young.
Public engagement
Balázs was an ordinary member of the District VII Committee of the Municipal Council, and from 1891 he actively participated in the meetings of the Municipal Council of Budapest and the capital. In the same year he was elected to the Committee of Public Works. He was delegated by the capital city to the committee 'organizing the national exhibition and the millennium celebrations' in 1896.
His work
Budapest's network of steam-powered tramways (steam tramway). Budapest, 1886.
In memory of
His grave is in the Israelite cemetery on Kozma Street.
The Mór Balázs Plan, Budapest's transport development concept, is named after him.
Sources
- Hungarian biographical lexicon I-II. Editor Ágnes Kenyeres. Bp., Akadémiai Kiadó, 1967-1969.
- József Szinnyei: Lives and works of Hungarian writers I. (Aachs-Bzenszki). Budapest: Hornyánszky. 1891.
- Data in the catalogue of the Petőfi Literary Museum
- Birth certificate, downloaded on 18 February 2024
- Éva Nádor:Mór Balázs, to whom we owe the underground railway in What Decades, Nádor & Co., Budapest, 2023
- Siemens: 135 years of service to the development of Hungarian transport, downloaded on 18 February 2024
- Gábor Zsigmond:The life and work of Mór Balázs, Review of the History of Transport and Technology, 2018, pp. 63-84.