Site history

MOM Park, a multifunctional building complex situated in an area of 40 000 m2, consisting of offices of over 30 000 m2, 166 exclusive apartments, and a shopping centre of 30 000 m2, was built at the site of the former Magyar Optikai Művek, MOM (Hungarian Optical Works).

The History of the Hungarian Optical Works (MOM)

The acronym MOM is an abbreviation of Magyar Optikai Művek (Hungarian Optical Works), founded in 1876, which, during the years, became one of the biggest optical and precision-mechanics companies in Central Europe.

The precision mechanics workshop founded by Nándor Süss (1848-1921) in the University of Kolozsvár in 1876 operated at 8 Mozsár utca in the 1880s.

Süss also made scientific instruments, initiating precision mechanics in the country. In 1900 the then named Süss Precision Mechanics Institution moved to 9 Alkotás utca. Due to the shaking of the building, the busy place proved to be unsuitable for producing Eötvös torsion pendulums, theodolites and levellers, therefore, after a long time of searching, it moved to the peaceful and quiet Csörsz utca. There were hardly any houses in the vicinity; there were only two cemeteries near the good-sized site.

The company developed into a giant company after 1930, changing its name to Hungarian Optical Works Plc in 1939. In World War Two, just like Standard, Gamma, and other Hungarian factories, it became a military target, and the majority of its buildings and equipment was destroyed.

After the war the shares held by Germans were taken over by the Soviet Union, therefore MOM’s production went mostly for reparations until 1952. From 1952 the factory belonged to the supervision of the Ministry of Metallurgy and Mechanics, and, in the meanwhile, developed into a precision instrument giant company. In its heyday it was an 8000-employee company with its six further sites in the country.

In 1953, in cooperation with the Optical Research Laboratory, they developed a range-finder small camera which became known as Momikon. In 1962 the production of cameras was ceased, since within COMECON, MOM manufactured the best quality theodolites and other thermoanalytical and optical measurement instruments suitable for similar as well as different military use, therefore such production offered a much bigger business opportunity. MOM closed down in 1995.

The prominent products of the Hungarian Optical Works: miniature camera, Te-823 second-theodolite (Károly Bors), Ni-A31 autoset level (Pál Tóth), Gi-B2 girotheodolite, winner of the Grand Prix of the Brussels Expo in 1958 (Ferenc Pusztai), pie chart tachymeter (László Bezzegh), microwave telemeter, SPEKTROMOM laboratory spectrophotometer line in the visible ultra-violet wavelength spectrum (András Balog), Derivatograph thermogravimetric material analysing equipment (Ferenc Paulik-Jenő Paulik), 60 000 revolutions/min laboratory ultracentrifuge (Ferenc Rohonci), MOMCOLOR colorimeter line (Gyula Lukács), production of fiberscope and fibroscopic systems (Antal Lisziewicz, Géza Hegyessy, Dezső Besskó, winners of the State Award), He-Ne direction-setting laser, tape- and edge-perforated card-punching machine, {IV-294.} card reader, magnetic disk storage etc.