MARCHI

Tungsram grew out of the major Hungarian electrical company founded in 1896. Its name, registered as a trademark in 1909, refers to tungsten and wolfram used in lamps. Light-source manufacture provided skills in glass, filaments and vacuum technology that accompanied the move into electronic tubes. Tungsram tubes for radio and other uses thus belong to a wider industrial history, rather than to an isolated product line or a purely commercial label. The name must not be confused with Tung-Sol, a separate American producer.

Between the world wars Tungsram developed a range of receiving tubes and types for professional use. Company research became central under the direction of Lipót Aschner; the laboratory established in the 1920s brought together expertise in lighting, telecommunications and radio. The journal “Tungsram Radio,” published in the late 1930s, records the company's interest in scientific advances and in users of radio equipment. Technical and commercial ties with other major groups of the period did not erase the identity of the Hungarian brand.

The war interrupted and severely damaged the plants. After equipment was dismantled, lamp production restarted in 1945 and radio-tube production resumed that same year. In the postwar period the range also expanded into television tubes and semiconductors; in 1989 General Electric acquired a controlling stake in the company. Foreign subsidiaries and plants, including those using the Tungsram name outside Hungary, have their own histories. On a Tungsram tube, the printed brand, the tube type and the actual place of manufacture must be distinguished.