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Hungarian inventions that changed our lives – Part I

Despite being a small country, Hungary has had some brilliant scientists, who developed life-changing inventions. Many of these creations, you may not know, are coming from this part of the world, such as the ballpoint pen, the modern computer and the Vitamin C. Let’s see some remarkable gadgets from our daily life.

Hungarian journalist, László Bíró changed the way of writing forever thanks to his invention the ballpoint pen, also known as the biro. He and his brother developed a new type of pen that combined printing ink and a ball socket mechanism with a smaller ball inside. The ballpoint pen is a small but magnificent invention that was created in 1931 and it rapidly replaced the fountain pens. Being Jewish, Biro and his brother fled to Argentina during the beginning of the Second World War, where they sold the company.

Ányos Jedlik, an inventor, physicist, engineer and a Benedictine priest is best known for his invention, the self-excited dynamo. He discovered that the dynamo produces a magnetic field around itself, which helps generating current that keeps the dynamo turning. Furthermore, he built the first soda water machine in 1826. He was involved in the first Hungarian soda manufacturing plant as well. The soda industry was third-largest during the 1800’s.

In 1936 János Irinyi fabricated the safety match after watching a frustrated experiment from his professor. After many hours of analysis he achieved to create the silent and non-explosive matches that contains lead-dioxide in the head of the match. Soon after he patented his invention he sold it to a manufacturer and went to study abroad.

Another magnificent invention is one of the most famous puzzle, known as the Rubik’s cube. You probably have one at home or you saw someone struggling to put all the colours together. This toy was created by Ernő Rubik, Hungarian architect and professor of architecture in 1974. The Hungarian teacher created the first prototype of the Rubik’s cube in his eagerness to help his students understand about three dimensional problems and his invention became a great hit during the 1980’s. You can find one of them on the bank of the Danube with a beautiful background as well.

The list of Hungarian inventions are long, we will provide you with some more exciting facts in the next part.

Photos: Pixabay, Wikipedia

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