The tenth child of a repair tailor, and a laundress
Compiled by Péter Krausz
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Hungarian radio, which began broadcasting in December 1925, an article in the December issue of Győri Szalon cultural magazine drew my attention to Ernő Winter, whose name, in my opinion, has been undeservedly forgotten in Győr.
I confess and am ashamed to say that, as a resident of Győr, I had never heard of him before. I am grateful to the magazine and the author of the article for recalling the life of this outstanding technical intellectual, who was born in Győr. [1] Without him, radio would have taken much longer to become widespread in Hungary.
This piece is based on an article published in Győri Szalon and other sources. In several cases, I copied the information I found verbatim. I have indicated sources other than Győri Szalon separately.
Beginnings
He came from an old Jewish family in Győr. Nándor Winter was born in Győr on March 15, 1897, as the tenth (youngest) child of Nándor Winter, a repair tailor, and Regina Dringler, a laundress. He died in Budapest on June 2, 1971.[2]
“At the age of fourteen, I was the sole breadwinner for my family,” he said in 1969. [3]
In 1915, he graduated with excellent results from the State Secondary School in Győr (now the Miklós Révai Gymnasium). His headmaster was Pál Pitroff, mathematics teacher Béla Kallós, and natural history teacher Sándor Polgár (see our previous announcement about the latter – ed.).
After graduating from school, several members of his class enlisted in the army, and he served as a volunteer in Bosnia until 1918.
After World War I, he began working at the Meister Soap Factory in Budapest and, while working, completed his studies at the József University of Technology, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering in 1925. He borrowed money and travelled also to Brno, Breslau, and Dresden to deepen his studies. [3]
In 1925, he joined the chemical laboratory of the United Light Bulb and Electric Company (later Tungsram), where his career began and flourished.
The development of the modern radio tube
His name is associated with several inventions, including the development of the so-called reduction barium metal vapor process. The result of this was the barium-magnesium radio tube (P 415, a high-power Tungsram tube) developed in 1927. With this product, Hungarian radio tube manufacturing immediately jumped to the forefront, ahead of Philips and Telefunken. Hungarian-made tubes based on Ernő Winter’s invention were also installed in French, Belgian, German, Austrian, and Dutch radio sets.
Tungsram manufactured 200 million electron tubes based on Winter’s patents. However, when he asked the factory management for a raise in his modest salary, they refused. He then took up a position as a “chemist with professional experience” in the Netherlands, where he was offered a five-year contract with excellent remuneration[3] at the Philips factory in Nijmegen (Nijmegen is a Dutch town where Philips operated a light bulb factory called Splendor as early as the 1930s).[4] – ed.) “Our homesickness grew ever more intense in our hearts,” his wife said in 1969.[3] After two years, Lipót Aschner, president and CEO of United Light Bulb and Electric Company, lured him back home.[2]
Thereafter, he developed the indirectly heated cathode and, together with his colleagues, several original radio tube designs. He also invented the globally used method of coating the grid with gold to prevent secondary emission.[2]
In addition to his work, he was a passionate alpinist and rock climber: he climbed the highest peak in the Eastern Alps, the 3,899-meter-high Ortler[5] (which is the highest peak in the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, located today in Italy, in South Tyrol – ed.).
In 1944, despite his Jewish origins, he was granted protection on account of his merits, but was assigned to Building 17 of the United Light Bulb Company as his place of forced residence.[2]
His achievements after World War II
After the war, a telegram arrived from Philips, which read: “Please let us know if Winter is alive.”[3]
But Ernő Winter remained in Budapest. His work contributed to the development of an independent electron tube industry in Hungary, which ensured production many times superior to that of the old industry. In 1950, he became an employee of the Telecommunications Research Institute, and in 1962, he headed the electron physics department of the Technical Physics Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
He developed the low-consumption battery and direct-heated tubes. After 1950, he also worked on the development of microwave tubes: he invented a particularly long-lasting, high-performance cathode.[2]
He received the Kossuth Prize twice for his achievements (1950, 1953), and was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1951 and a full member in 1956. He was a founding member of the National Technical Development Committee (OMFB) in 1961.
Further awards: Hungarian Order of Merit for Work (gold, 1948 and 1950), Order of Merit of the Hungarian People’s Republic (1952), Order of Merit for Work (gold, 1967).[5]
His wife was Lívia Barta (1902–1994), daughter of merchant Sámuel Barta and Margit Frischmann, whom he married on December 23, 1926, in Budapest. His children were Péter Ada-Winter (1923–2020), a computer scientist; Mihály Winter (1940–1976), a doctor and PhD candidate; and János Winter (1941–?).
Major works: Vacuum Technology (Budapest, 1954), Selected Chapters on Ferromagnetism (Budapest, 1955), Single Electron Generated Current Pulse in a Vacuum Diode (Budapest, 1964)[2]
Ernő Winter, a prominent figure in Hungarian communications and vacuum technology research, whose more than seventy Hungarian and nearly two hundred foreign patents were protected, died in Budapest on June 2, 1971. He is buried in Farkasréti Cemetery, and his grave was declared a protected site by the National Memorial and Remembrance Committee in 2002.
Sources
[1] Ernő Winter, the Founder of Hungarian Radio Tube Manufacturing; László Veres, December 1, 2025, Győri Szalon
We would like to thank Győri Szalon for allowing us to freely use the various compilations appearing on its website.
[2] Winter Ernő, Wikipedia
[3] From the Journalist’s Archive – The „cathode Winter”; László Kulcsár, March 30, 2024, Infovilág
[4] Industrial city, the arrival of NV Philips, Into Nijmegen
[5] Ernő Winter, Névpont.hu
Cover photo: Lampes pour radio Tungsram, Suisse, circa 1930 (Source: Galerie123.com)
English translation: P. Krausz