Matthias Huszar

* Kisheresztény, 1778 – † Nagyvárad, March 10, 1843 / engineer ; ; The most theoretically and practically knowledgeable geodesist of the first half of the 19th century. As a water regulation engineer, he established the modern principles of regulating rivers and marshes in Hungary. He studied philosophy at the Academy in Bratislava in 1796–1798 and law at the Academy in Košice in 1798–1799. He obtained his engineering degree at the Institutum Geometricum in Pest in 1804, but already in 1798–1799 he participated as an apprentice in the astronomical location determinations of Dániel Bogdanich, then he was an apprentice engineer at the estate of János Litzner, the engineer of Heves County, and in 1802 he worked on the Tata estate of the Esterházy Counts. From 1805 to 1808 he was the engineer of Satu Mare. From there he was sent on a study trip to Western Europe in 1809–1810 (to Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands). Upon returning home he worked again as a manorial engineer, from 1815 he was a chamber engineer in Lugos, and from 1818 he was the director-engineer of the chamber district of Oradea. He prepared the plan for the regulation of the Tisza (the Körösök and the Berettyó), but at the same time he prepared a plan for the regulation of the Tisza, which can be considered a precursor to the later Vásárhelyi plan. (Already at that time he proposed the construction of the Tiszadob embankment blocking the Hortobágy, Zádor and surrounding rivers!) In 1823 he was assigned to the Danube as a director-engineer. He coordinated his surveying work with Károly Bogovich and András Holecz so that a unified leveling network was established from Nagyszőlős to Szeged via Hortobágy and Veresnád. In 1824, he was a shipping inspector. He was the first to map the Danube, the Maros, the Tisza and the Körös. He designed a leveling instrument with a scaffold and a micrometer screw. On his initiative, the decimal number system was introduced on leveling rods and in geodetic practice in general. Due to his attitude of sympathy with the national aspirations of the time (the use of the national language) and – probably – his repeated criticism of the errors of the military surveys, he was removed from his position in 1827 and returned to the district of Oradea, and the management of the survey work was entrusted to his student, Pál Vásárhelyi: Mátyás Huszár was completely pushed into the background and forgotten, and he died disabled by the illness he contracted during his work. His versatile practice, education and language skills elevated him above contemporary engineers. He was significant not only as a water engineer, but also as a surveying engineer: he did pioneering work in the fields of triangulation and leveling. He also excelled as an instrument designer: he made the Woltman wing suitable for river measurements, and with it he carried out water flow measurements near Bratislava in 1825. His innovative leveling instrument was later manufactured by the Voigtländer company. His written works remained in manuscript and were partially lost.