Can you imagine life without the light bulb, the fridge, the computer or even the humble wheel? Although most inventions were made abroad, Slovakia too can boast of contributions that have changed the world for the better. Do you know these famous Slovak inventors?
The parachute – Štefan Banič
Štefan Banič was born on 23 November 1870 in Neštich (today’s Smolenice). In 1912 he witnessed a tragic accident that affected him so deeply that he began thinking about how to build a parachute, and by 1913 he had submitted a prototype design to the US authorities for assessment. It was based on a telescopic, umbrella-like frame carrying a fabric canopy, attached to the aviator’s body by straps around the chest beneath the arms. In 1914, in Washington, Banič demonstrated his parachute to the public and to representatives of the US Patent Office and the military aviation service, jumping safely from the roof of a 15-storey building.
Would you believe this was one of the first officially recorded parachute jumps in human history? His invention even went on to be used in the global conflicts of the First and Second World Wars. Yet it brought Banič neither wealth nor fame. In 1920 he returned to his home village and lived quietly as a master bricklayer. His name resurfaced a few years later when, in 1930, together with his brother Ján and members of the Vajsábel and Valo families, he discovered the underground wonders of the Driny Cave near Smolenice.
String instruments – Ján Dopjera
Ján was born in 1893 in the village of Stráže and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 15. Once in the USA, he opened a carpentry workshop on the outskirts of the city, where among other things he repaired and later built violins, guitars and other instruments. One day a cabaret owner asked him to make the guitars in his orchestra louder. Ján solved the problem, and in 1926 he applied for a patent on an all-metal guitar with three resonators.
Investors soon came forward and success followed quickly. Together with his brothers, he founded the National String Instrument Corporation. After disagreements, however, they left and set up DOBRO – a name formed from the first syllables of “Dopyera Brothers” – where he brought his next string-instrument idea to life. Unlike its predecessor, this guitar was made of wood rather than metal, with a single central resonator instead of three, which gave it a much cleaner, brighter sound.
VINEA – Ján Farkáš
Twelve years after Kofola first appeared, another popular drink reached Czechoslovak shop shelves: Vinea. Its inventor, Associate Professor Ján Farkáš, set out to give people a natural drink – above all one without preservatives, pasteurised and, of course, tasting of grapes. The winery in Pezinok was given a tough brief: create an inexpensive, tasty alcohol-free drink that could compete with foreign products. The result was a beverage made from leftover grape must produced during table-wine making. The brand of this new Czechoslovak soft drink was created in 1973. Vinea is Latin for vineyard, and the inventor’s daughters helped choose the name. Farkáš understood perfectly that people wanted a natural drink rather than the artificial sweet lemonades that were plentiful at the time.
Vinea officially went on sale in Czechoslovakia in 1974. The first drinks were bottled in 0.25-litre bottles and cost 1.50 Czechoslovak crowns under socialism. A year later Vinea won the prestigious Golden Salima award at the food fair in Brno. At first it was produced only at the Pezinok winery, but strong demand soon led to bottling in Nitra and Banská Bystrica as well. From 1980 Vinea was also sold in 0.7-litre bottles, and from the mid-1980s it became one of the few drinks from the socialist bloc behind the Iron Curtain to be exported to the USA and Canada.
The helicopter – Ján Bahýľ
This renowned inventor was born in 1856 in Zvolenská Slatina. Exceptionally gifted technically, he worked on a wide range of problems in military science, military construction, mechanical engineering and other fields, and produced numerous proposals for improving artillery and railway transport in particular. As early as 1894 he designed a human-powered helicopter, and in 1895 he received a patent privilege to build his proposed invention, although the deadline for doing so was not met.
He later teamed up with the coachbuilder Anton Marschall. Less well known is that, between 1895 and 1897, the two of them built the first car in Slovakia powered by a petrol engine and a battery. From 1895 to 1914 he chaired an aeronautical society in Martin, and in 1978 a documentary about his work entitled “The Man Who Beat Edison” was made. He was granted 17 military and other technical patents, including a balloon with an air turbine, a steam-powered tank, a coupling mechanism for railway wagons and a lift at Bratislava Castle.
Mine pumping machines – Jozef Karol Hell
This Slovak master engineer and inventor was born in 1713 in Banská Štiavnica. He was the son of Matej Kornel Hell, an engineer, designer and builder of the Štiavnica water reservoirs (tajchy), and the brother of the eminent astronomer Maximilian Hell. It was thanks to his father that he became so familiar with the design of pumping machines. Together with his father and the scientist, mathematician, cartographer and builder Samuel Mikovìni, he helped create the remarkable system of reservoirs around Banská Štiavnica that powered the local mining equipment. He became famous for his ingenious mining machines and pumps.