BESZÉDES, József
* 13. 2. 1787, Magyarkanizsa, Hungary
† 28. 2. 1852, Dunaföldvár, Hungary
civil engineer
After finishing the secondary schools in Szeged and Temesvar, B. began studying theology in Cheb, but soon transferred to the University of Budapest, where he acquired knowledge at the Institute of Geometry and Hydrotechnology, and in 1813 obtained the title engineer. He also received his doctorate there in 1819. He began his career with the help of Prince Esterházy, by regulating water currents in different parts of the Prince's estate (1813 - 1816).
Later on, he took on state and parish works of water canal regulation – orders for regulation of different rivers in Hungary and for building dams. He thus became very famous and in 1827, Count Széchenyi took him boating on the lower Danube to draw plans of the unnavigable passages of this river. B. was also the first to embark on the regulation of the Tisza River and the arrangement of the banks of Lake Balaton and Lake Neusiedl. B. also participated in the planning of a railway pulled by horse teams, on the routes Linz - České Budějovice (1827/28) and Pešta - Szolnok (1847/48), and as the director of a company of the Central Railway saw to the construction of the first workshop for manufacturing railway wagons in Pešta. In 1831, he was the first technician to be accepted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences as its member.
