HUNGARIAN INVENTORS I

Írta és összeállította:
Kerkayné Maczky Emese

Angolra fordította/translated by:
Bányai Bíbor
Felsővályi Klára
Kertész Kinga
Papp Tamás
Sziráki Dorottya
Tála Teréz

Rajzolta/Drawings by:
Benkő Andrea Veronika

Kiadta/Published by:
SZENT ISTVÁN MAGYAR ISKOLA
Passaic, New Jersey, 2000

INTRODUCTION

Hungarians are talented people with great knowledge, spreading it
throughout the world for a long time. It was a project of the older students
of Saint Stephen Hungarian School to learn more about the thousands of
Hungarian inventions. Over the years we collect ed 180 pages of data about
20 inventors. However, during our research we noticed with great
astonishment, that – apart from the Nobel Laureates – the Hungarian
inventors do not exist in the English language literature. The encyclopedias
treat the Hungarian genius with great silence. This urged us to research
even more seriously. The idea to translate the short sum maries into English
and publish them was the next logical step.

It was an extremely difficult task for the 14 years old students
to translate the Hungarian text full with technical terms. They passed this
hurdle with excellence. I have to mention the diligence and persistence of
Dorottya Sziráki who never gave up and without whom the work never would
have been finished. We are grateful to Andrea Veronika Benkő for the
wonderful portraits and cover page, which illustrations were her
contribution to this project.

Naturally the presented material is only a small portion of the
immense knowledge with which the Hungarians enriched humanity. With this
modest work our school would like to contribute to the huge task of making
known to the world the Hungarian mind, a bottomless well of knowledge, which
the world ignores.

Passaic, May 15, 2000
Emese Kerkay

ASBÓTH OSZKÁR (1891 – 1960)

Invention: HELICOPTER

Oszkár Asbóth was born in Pankota and died in Budapest. He finished
his stud ies at Arad and became an engineer. He was a student of Tódor von
Kármán, the Father of Supersonic Flight.

In 1917, during World War I, Oszkár Asbóth, Tódor von Kármán, István
Petróczy and Vilmos Zurovetz worked together on designing the helicopter.
After many years of experimentation following the war, he built the
Asbóth-helicopter. On September 9, 1928, witnessed by many foreign experts,
his model „AH 1” heli copter ascend ed from a standing position vertically
to a great height for the

FIRST TIME IN THE WORLD.

Liptrot from the British Air Ministry, who travelled on the
helicopter, wrote in a Journal of the Aeronautical Society in 1931:

the Asboth-helicopter ascends vertically with a remarkable speed… to any
height where it can hover stationary for some time. It can be perfectly
navigated. But the most remarkable is that, unlike other tested
helicopters, this one remains absolutely stable around all axes…

BÁNKI DÓNÁT (1859 – 1922)

Inventions:
BÁNKI-CSONKA PETROL ENGINE
CARBURETOR
FRONTWHEEL RUNNING CAR
WATER TURBINE

With JÁNOS CSO­NKA, creator of

Hun­gar­ian automo­bile manu­fac­turing

Dónát Bánki was born in Bánk and died in Budapest. He studied
mechanical engi­neering in Budapest. From 1899 to his death he taught at the
Technical Universi­ty in Budapest.

In 1892, before Diesel, Dónát Bánki created the first great
compression, low consumption gasoline engine, the Bánki-motor.

In 1892, Dónát Bánki and János Cson­ka invented the carburetor for
their gaso­line engine. Even though their invention went through some
changes as time passed, every modification was based on this inven­tion.

In 1917, Bánki invented the water tur­bine, which was useful for
utilizing the energy of small and medium sized water­falls.

BAY ZOLTÁN (1900 – 1992)

Inventions:

LUNAR – RADAR

GLOWING FLUORESCENT LIGHTS

DEVELOPER OF RADAR ASTRONOMY

Zoltán Bay was born in Gyulavár and died in Washington D.C. He studied
in Debrecen, at the Pázmány Péter University of Sciences in Budapest, where
he received his Ph.D. degree, and in Berlin. In 1930 he became professor of
physics at the Universi­ty of Szeged.

Zoltán Bay, the world renown physicist, was the first to perform the
following ex­periment, as a research engineer of the Standard Factory in
Budapest, in 1943: he sent ultra-short radio waves to the moon, which,
reflected from there worked as a radar, and could be used to measure
dis­tance, as well as to study the moon.

He was engaged in the development of televi­sion as early as 1936.

In 1948, he left Hungary, and became professor of the Physics
Department at the George Washington University in Washing­ton. After he
retired, he continued his research activity till the end of his life. It is
unbelievable, that this great scientist didn’t receive a Nobel prize.

Two years before he died, he wrote his autobiography, titled Az élet
erősebb (Life Is Stronger). His remains were buried in Gyu­la­vár, the place
of his birth.

BÍRÓ LÁSZLÓ JÓZSEF (1899 – 1985)

Inventions:

BALLPOINT PEN

AUTOMATIC SHIFT

STEAM POWERED WASH­ING MA­CHINE

more than 30 internationally

recog­nized inventions

József László Bíró was born in Budapest and died in Buenos Aires,
Argentina. He first studied medicine, but Biró was a many sided person.
Between 1921 and 1938, he was a journalist, sculp­tor, painter, art critic,
stock broker, hyp­notizer, race-car driver, car salesman and of course an
inventor.

József László Biró’s most famous inven­tion was the ballpoint pen. By
1938, he had patented it in over 100 countries. Finally in 1948 the Park­er
Company bought his pat­ent. In the USA it became known as the BIRÓ PEN.

His other important invention was the auto­mat­ic gear shift. In 1932,
he traveled with his engi­neer friend Rigó from Buda­pest to Berlin (more
than 1000 km = 625 mi) on a motorcycle with a sealed gear shift. General
Motors bought his patent, just so the com­petition wouldn’t be able to buy
it.

BLÁTHY OTTÓ TITUSZ

(1860 – 1938)

Inventions:

TRANSFORMER

WATT METER

Ottó Titusz Bláthy, mechanical engi­neer, was born in Tata, and died in
Buda­pest. He graduated from the Technical University in Vienna.

He invented the transformer with Miksa Déri and Károly Zipernowsky. At
Blathy’s suggestion they constructed it with a closed iron core. At that
time the trans­former was the most important invention in electronics.

Bláthy had more than 100 inventions. He was the first to join the
thermal power plant with the hydraulic power plant.

Another important invention of his was the Watt Meter, which was named
after him. Many similar mechanisms existed, but only Bláthy’s worked. All
Watt meters used today are based on his invention.

CSONKA JÁNOS

(1852 – 1939)

Inventions:

CARBURETOR

AUTOMATIC TUBE IGNITION

(for petrol engines)

GAS ENGINE

MOTORTRYCICLE (for mailmen)

GASOLINE MOTOR CAR

Creator of the Hungarian

automobile industry

János Csonka, inventor, was born in Szeged and died in Budapest. From
1875 he was head of the training shop at the Tech­ni­cal University in
Budapest.

In 1879 he constructed a four-cycle gas engine ac­cord­ing to his own
ideas, which was the first Hun­garian combustion engine.

During 1892 and 1893 János Csonka and Dónát Bánki invented the
carburetor for the Bánki-Csonka engine. Csonka and Bánki made new headways
with the en­gi­nes they constructed. They made Hungary inde­pendent from the
solutions of foreign facto­ries, which still struggled with ways inherit­ed
from steam engines.

Csonka’s main expertise was engine manufac­turing. Among many things,
he invented the regulating mechanism for the inner com­bus­tion engines, a
mechanism for forced auto­matic settings of the ignition for com­bustion
engines. He also patented a porta­ble chain saw equipment which could be
disassembled for easy transportation.

DÉRI MIKSA

(1854 – 1938)

Inventions:

TRANSFORMER

REPULSION MOTOR

Miksa Déri was born in Bács and died in Merano. He acquired his diploma
in mechanical engineering in Vienna.

Miksa Déri, together with Ottó Bláthy and Károly Ziperno­wszky became
world famous with the invention of the alternat­ing electric trans­former
system. This system made it possible to send electric energy to great
distances and divide it over large areas. Today, there is hardly any large
energy producer, which isn’t based on this system. The experimentation was
mainly done by Déri.

He had many other inventions also. The Déri-repulsion motor is one of
them. With it, elevators could be safely used. This had not been achieved by
any other type of motor until then.

báró EÖTVÖS LORÁND

­(1­848 – 1919)

Inventions:

GRAVITATIONAL TORSION BALANCE

EÖTVÖS UNIT OF GRAVITATION

LAW OF CAPILLARITY

The University of Science in Budapest

was named after Baron Loránd Eötvös.

Dr. Baron Loránd Eötvös, physicist, professor, minister of education,
was born in Buda and died in Budapest. He complet­ed his education in
Heidelberg, Germany.

The Torsion or Eötvös balance, de­signed by Baron Eötvös, is a
sensitive in­strument for measuring the density of un­derlying rock strata.
The device mea­sures not only the direction of force of gravity, but the
change in the force of gravity’s extent in horizontal plane. It determines
the distribu­tion of masses in the earth’s crust. The Eötvös torsion
bal­ance, an im­portant instru­ment of geodesy and geo­phys­ics thro­ughout
the whole world, studies the Earth’s physi­cal properties. It is used for
mine explora­tion, and also in the search for min­erals, such as oil, coal
and ores.

Eötvös’ law of capillarity served as a basis for Einstein’s theory of
relativ­ity.

(Capillarity: the property or exertion of capillary attraction of
repulsion, a force that is the resultant of adhesion, cohe­sion, and surface
tension in liquids which are in contact with solids, causing the liquid
surface to rise – or be depressed…)

FONÓ ALBERT

(1881 – 1972)

Inventions:

JET

TORPEDOES

Dr. Albert Fonó was born and died in Budapest. He studied mechanical
engineer­ing at the József Technical University in Budapest and continued
his studies abroad with a scholarship.

His theoretical work was many-sided. His main field was energetics.

His first in­vention – in 1915 – was an aerial torpedo, which worked
with jet pro­pulsion and would have increased the effec­tive­ness of
artillery. Its significance was not recognized and under­stood by his time.

In 1923 he patented a new prototype of the gas boiler (furnace) and in
1928 an air compres­sor for mines.

His most important invention was a jet propulsion engine for supersonic
aircrafts. After four years of preliminary exam­ination, it was patented in
Germany in 1932. With his invention he proved himself ahead of his time.

He became a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
in 1954; from 1965 he was a corre­sponding mem­ber of the Inter­na­tional
Aca­demy of Astro­nau­tics.

GALAMB JÓZSEF

(1881 – 1955)

Inventions:

DESIGNER OF THE

FORD MODEL-T CAR

PLANETARY GEARBOX

IGNITION PLUG

FORDSON TRACTOR

József Galamb was born in Makó Hun­gary and died in Detroit. He
graduated in Budapest in me­chanical engineering.

József Galamb, as the employee of the Ford Company, designed the famous
Mod­el-T car. He invented the planetary gearbox and the electrical ignition
system (spark plug). At the same time, he de­signed the mass pro­duc­tion of
cars. The small Ford Compa­ny became a huge facto­ry. In 19 years, they made
15 ½ million Model-T cars.

József Galamb also designed the elegant Model-A car.

During World War I, he designed the Ford­son tractor. The English
government or­dered 7000 pieces of this model. The farm­ers were very fond
of this tractor be­cause it was lighter than the other available tractors
and han­dling it was also much easier. In 1925, more than half of the
trac­tors made in the USA were manufactured by the Ford Company.

IRINYI JÁNOS

(1817 – 1895)

Invention:

MATCHES

János Irinyi, a chemist, was born in Nagyléta and died in Vértes. He
completed his education in Vienna and in Hohenheim, Ger­many.

Many experimented with the lighting of fire, but they only came up with
complicat­ed and dangerous solutions. In 1836, Irinyi invented a match,
which was neither dan­gerous, nor unhealthy.

He dissolved phos­phorus in water and shook it in a glass foil, until
it became gran­ulated. He mixed the phosphorus with lead and gumiarabicum,
poured the paste-like mass into a jar, and dipped the pine sticks into the
mixture and let them dry. When he tried them that evening, all of them
lighted even­ly.

He had invented the MATCH!

István Rómer, a rich Hungarian phar­macist living in Vienna, bought the
inven­tion and production rights from Irinyi, the poor student, for 60
Forint. The production of matches began, and everybody was happy throughout
the world. István Rómer be­came rich off Irinyi’s invention, but Irinyi
himself died poor and abandoned in Vértes.

JEDLIK ÁNYOS

(1800 – 1895)

Inventions:

ELECTROMOTOR

DYNAMO

Dr. Ányos Jedlik, a Benedictine monk, scientist and inventor, was born
in Szimő and died in Győr. He completed his educa­tion in Győr and Pest.

In 1828, 18 years before Siemens, Ányos Jedlik constructed the first
electromo­tor in Győr. He invented the dynamo in 1861. He did not patent his
inventions, nor did he sell them. He was satisfied with knowing that his
machines worked. He taught his theories and inventions at the university in
Hungary. However, the world didn’t know about them. Several years later,
Siemens invented both of these machines, and both were named after him.

The first electromotor, built in 1828, and Jedlik’s operating
instructions are kept at the Museum of Applied Arts in Buda­pest. The motor
still works perfectly today.

KANDÓ KÁLMÁN

(1869 – 1931)

Inventions:

PHASE-CHANGING

ELECTRIC LOCO­MOTIVE

ELECTRIFICATION OF RAILWAYS

Kálmán Kandó was born in Buda and died in Budapest. He studied
me­chan­ical engi­neer­ing at the Techni­cal Univer­sity of Budapest. He was
the pioneer of rail­way-electrifica­tion.

Kandó’s main invention is, that three-phase alternating current can be
used for the hauling of large trains.

His most marvelous invention is the phase-changing electric locomotive,
which was named Kandó-locomotive after him. The Kandó-locomotives are used
in many coun­tries of the world. This revolutionary inven­tion trans­forms
standard public utility (single-phase) current into three-phase alternating
current in the locomotive and therefore makes it capable of hauling.

The electric railways in Northern Italy and the section of the
Hungarian State Rail­ways between Budapest–Hegyeshalom– Vienna (1929) were
built based on Kan­dó’s inven­tion.

KÁRMÁN TÓDOR

(1881 – 1963)

FATHER OF SUPERSONIC FLIGHT

ARCHITECT OF THE SPACE AGE

(United States Postal Service 1991)

Tódor von Kármán, a leading theoretici­an in aerodynamics, was born in
Buda­pest and died in Aa­chen, Germany. After gradu­ating in me­chanical
engi­neering at the Technical Uni­versity in Budapest, he went to study in
Göttingen on a scholar­ship. He received there his Ph.D. degree and became a
pro­fessor till 1912.

During World War I. he was chief of research in the aviation corps of
the Aus­tro-Hungarian army. There, with his col­leagues he developed the
world’s first mili­tary vehicle with rotating blades, the PKZ-type
helicopter. After the war he was one of the founders of the German Luftwaffe
and adviser to the Junkers airplane company.

In 1929, he was invited to the United States, and in 1930, became
director of the Guggenheim Aeronautics Laboratory at the California
Institute of Technology. After World War II. he was one of the founders of
the JET Propulsion Laboratory for space re­search. He was a scientific
advisor world­wide in the fields of aerodynamics, aero­plane design,
aeronautics, astronautic and space flight. Kármán had a leading role in the
development of the B-36, B-47 and B-52 aircrafts, the Atlas, Titan and
Minute­man rockets.

As recognition for his work craters on the Moon and Mars were named
after him.

KEMPELEN FARKAS

(1734 – 1804)

Inventions:

SPEAKING MACHINE

recorded and imitated human speech

TYPEWRITER for the blind

STEAM TURBINE

ELEVATOR FOR PEOPLE

for the palace of Schönbrunn

SELF-REGULATING PUMP

for the fountains of Schönbrunn

CHESS AUTOMATON

This was his most peculiar invention, with which he astonished everyone.
This ma­ch­ine defeated all the chess players of the world. Nobody could
solve its secret. The chess playing machine was destroyed by fire in
Philadel­phia, and the way it worked remained a mystery forev­er.

Farkas Kempelen, counsellor of the royal chancellery, mechanic,
scientist, inven­tor, was born in Pozsony and died in Vien­na. He studied
law and philoso­phy in Győr and Vienna. His talents were extraor­dinari­ly
versatile.

PETZVAL JÓZSEF

(1807 – 1891)

Inventions:

ACHROMATIC PORTRAIT LENS

DARK ROOM

PROJECTOR

József Miksa Petzval was born in Sze­pesbéla and died in Vienna. He
became an engineer at the Institutum Geometricum in Pest and later received
a Ph.D. degree in math­emat­ics. He taught mathemat­ics and me­chan­ics at
the Universities of Pest and Vienna.

In Petzval’s time, two French scientists invented photography. The
luminosity of the optical lens was so weak that taking pic­tures of persons
was impossible because it took at least 30 minutes. In 1840 Petzval designed
a double lens, that reduced the time of taking a picture to seconds. The
first lens was cut by Voigtländer, a German optician, according to the
calcu­lations and directions of Petzval. This lens made por­trait
photog­raphy possible and became the basis of the photographic indus­try.

A large camera factory under the name of Voigtländer is still operating
in Ger­ma­ny. Nobody mentions the name of Petz­val. The same thing happened
to him as to Ányos Jedlik.

Petzval built the first dark room.

PUSKÁS TIVADAR

(1844 – 1893)

Inventions:

TELEPHONE EXCHANGE

TELEPHONOGRAPH

(Speaking Newspaper)

Tivadar Puskás was born in Pest and died in Budapest. He studied in
Vienna. According to Edison „Tivadar Puskás was the first man in the world,
who thought about a telephone exchange”.

In 1878, he built the first telephone exchange in Boston, then he built
one in Paris and Budapest. On Bell’s telephone one person could talk to one
other person only. Tivadar Puskás invented the multi­ple switch box, which
made any number of phone users’ connection or disconnection possible.

The telephonograph (speaking new­spa­per) transmitted news and music
programs, using the telephone network. From 1893, 20 years before the
inven­tion of the radio, peo­ple could listen to news and music in Buda­pest
daily. They could enjoy direct bro­ad­castings from the Opera house.

SEMMELWEIS IGNÁC

(1818 – 1865)

He discovered the

CAUSE OF PUERPERAL (CHILD BED)

FEVER: INFECTION!

DISINFECTION WITH CHLORINATED WATER STOPS DEATH

THE SAVIOR OF MOTHERS!

Doctor Ignác Semmelweis was born in Buda and died in Vienna. He studied
in Pest and Vienna.

In Vienna, he worked in the maternity ward and saw in dismay how many
mothers and children die during birth. He soon realized that the cause was
in­fection, which the doctors spread from one mother to the next. He
discovered that this could be stopped if doc­tors wash their hands with
chlo­ri­nated water before they touch the mothers. The doctors work­ing
around him ridiculed him. In 1850 he went back to Budapest, where he be­came
head physician of the maternity ward of the Rokus Hospi­tal. By using his
meth­ods – hygiene – puer­peral fever was almost com­plete­ly eliminat­ed in
his clinic in Pest.

“After an autopsy, we must wash our hands, otherwise we spread poisonous
death.”

Dr. Ignác Semmelweis

SZENT-GYÖRGYI AL­BERT

(1893 – 1986)

Invention:

ASCORBIC ACID or VITAMIN C

Albert Szent-Györgyi was born in Buda­pest and died in Woods Hole, MA,
USA. He completed his studies in Hungary, Ger­many, Holland and England. He
re­ceived his doctorate in medicine at the University of Science in
Buda­pest and his second Ph.D. in chemistry in Cam­bridge. From 1930 to 1945
he was professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Szeged.

Albert Szent-Györgyi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1937 for his
discover­ies in connection with the biological com­bustion process,
especially in reference to vitamin C and the catalyst of fumaric acid.
Szent-Györgyi discovered that vitamin C is abundant not only in citrus
fruits but in Hungarian paprika as well.

Vitamin C has an important role in maintaining good health, such as
strength­ening the immune system, in the preven­tion of heart disease,
certain forms of can­cer, allergic symptoms, colds and influenza, etc.

From 1947 until his death Szent-Györ­gyi lived and worked in the United
States. He researched the biochemistry of muscular action and the causes of
cell division. He also took active part in can­cer re­search.

ZIPERNOWSKY KÁROLY

(1853 – 1942)

Inventions:

TRANSFORMER

MULTI PHASE CURRENT

DISTRIBU­TION SYSTEM

BAYONET-LOCKED LAMP SOCKET

COHERER

Károly Zipernowsky was born in Vienna and died in Budapest. He started
as a phar­macist. Later he graduated as a mechani­cal engineer in Bu­dapest.

He invented the transformer together with Ottó Bláthy and Miksa Déri.
They also developed the alternating current distribu­tion system based on
the transform­er con­nected in parallel.

The coherer (radio conductor) was a vital component of the old radio.
Coherer means: waves having a constant phase rela­tionship.

He was fascinated with electrotech­nology. As a student, he gave many
lectures in this field. At age 25 he was invited by the CEO of the Ganz
factory to organize the electrical department. Under his leadership, Ganz
Villamossági M_vek became Europe’s first large-scale electrical factory, and
soon after, it was recognized worldwide.

Zipernowsky was a many-sided inventor. He wrote a book: Saját és
másokkal szaba­dalmaztatott találmányaim (My own and jointly pat­ent­ed
inventions). In this book he describes 40 of his inventions.