Prof. Miroslav Plohl Sr: »Even the Poorest Must Receive Electricity«

Abstract

Prof. Plohl set down the basis for the electrification of the Sava Banate (banovina) and in doing so significantly contributed to the improvement of the wealth, health, and education of the poorest households, especially in rural areas. He founded the Banal Electrical Company (Bansko električno poduzeće – BEP) in October 1937 and served as its chairman until his tragic death in September 1939. Together with the Peasants’ Concord (Seljačka sloga) organisation, within two years he managed to electrify the Vojni Križ Municipality, initiate he construction of the hydroelectric power station in Tribalj, and set down a plan for electrifying the Sušak–Zagreb railway. He managed to decrease the cost of electrifying rural households five- to sixfold! The owners of electrification companies feared they would lose their planned income and thus employed engineer Ivo Radulović, director of Elektra–Sušak, to hold professional lectures in which he would discredit the BEP’s tenets of electrification. This paper also describes in detail a heated polemic between Plohl and Radulović that developed in the newspapers.

Keywords

• Banal Electrical Company (Bansko električno poduzeće – BEP)
• electrification of the Sava Banate (banovina)
• Miroslav Plohl
• Ivo Radulović
• Vinodol Hydroelectric Power Station
• Vojni Križ
• Zagreb–Rijeka railway