Imre Vass

* Rozsnyó, June 4, 1795 – † Sárospatak, March 20, 1863 /engineer, caver, surveyor ; ; He began his school studies in his hometown. He obtained an engineering diploma in 1818 at the Institutum Geometricum in Pest. Initially, he was a manorial engineer, then a certified surveyor of Borsod County. Between 1826 and 1829, he discovered previously unknown passages in the Baradla Cave in Aggtelek, more than 15 km long, and made a detailed map of them in 1829. He studied earth and mountain science in order to describe the geological and hydrological conditions of the area based on appropriate knowledge. His work was published in print in 1831 in Hungarian and German, with two maps depicting the cave and the surface. This is the first scientific description of a cave in the Hungarian language. The engineering-precise map of the Baradla Cave is Imre Vass's most significant work of scientific historical value. In the 1830s and 1840s, he was preoccupied with the problem of incombustible roofs, and he tried to popularize and sell his related invention. He later moved to Pest and in 1846 applied for the Tisza regulation. He took part in the 1848/49 War of Independence as a military engineer, and his fate after its fall is unknown. One of the caves in Jósvafő was named after him, and a street in Aggtelek bears his name. In his self-portrait, he is shown next to a mountain stream, holding his hat in his right hand. ; ; His main works: ; Neue Beschreibung der Aggteleker Höhle, 1831, ; Az Aggteleki Barlang berüsas…, 1831, ; Èghetetlen házfedelek, 1837.