Inventors

1. Hungary is believed to be the country of the so-called Tokaji wine, red paprika, gipsy music and „csárdás” (dance and music). It is not announced, however, that Hungary is also the birth place of inventors of the following inventions: car, match, bulb, Vitamin C, the ball point pen, the Rubik cube, the atomic reactor, the computer, not to mention the Basic language, the Word processor, and so on. At the beginning of the 20th century, several Hungarian scientists left Hungary to continue their studies in world standard Universities and famous research laboratories throughout Europe and even in the USA. Eugene Wigner (Jenő as Hungrian), Edward Teller (Ede in Hungarian), Leo Szilárd, John Neumann (János). They common feature was not being able to speak any foreign language without their strange accent. They all came from Budapest, Hungary.

2. Inventors

3. John Neumann ( 1903-1957) Do you know who John Neumann was? He was a Hungarian-American mathematician who made important contributions in quantum physics and he is also known as the „father of computer”. Can you mention some of his other inventions? Are you curious about what he had been dealing with?

4. Albert Szent –Györgyi • Albert von Szent-Györgyi was born in Budapest on 16th, September,1893. • He took his medical degree at the University of Sciences in Budapest in1917, and went on to work at several famous research laboratories throughout Europe (Prague, Berlin, Hamburg, Leiden) • He served on the Italian and Russian fronts, gaining the Silver Medal for Valour, and the was discharged in1917, after being wounded in action . • He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1937, ”for his discoveries…..(WHAT DO YOU THINK for WHAT?) • He was the only Hungarian scientist getting the Nobel Price for his reasearches made in Hungary.

5. József László Bíró (1899-1985) He was a journalist, magazine publisher, sculptor, and painter in Budapest. He was a world-famous inventor, creating two important inventions. One of them is a kind of pen which replaced the fountain pen. It is useful because using this, the printer’s ink does not dry so quickly. What do you think it is? The other invention of him is in connection with cars. One day he bought a red Bugatti car, but found the clutch mechanism too clumsy and began to muse about an automatic solution. After one year of experiments, he made and patented his invention. Do you know what it could be?

6. Ernő Rubik

7. The Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture created his invention in 1974. Actually, his aim was to solve a structural problem instead of inventing „the most successful puzzle of the history”. His toy (which was named after his creator), however, became famous and popular in the lives of children as well as adults, as it is up today. In the world-championship, organized in Budapest, Hungary, in 1982, a 16-year-old Vietnamese child became champion (with 22.95 seconds). Still, he is the record-holder all over the world. Can you guess, what this mysterious toy was called?