Although Thomas Alva Edison presented the light bulb on 31 December 1879, his invention needed some improvements. This led to the invention of the Wolfram bulb by Hungarian chemical engineers Sándor Just and Ferenc Hanamann.
Holography
Holography is a technique used to record and later re-construct a wavefront. It was invented by Dénes Gábor in 1947, after he fled Nazi Germany and started to work in Britain. In 1971 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The Turk
Farkas Kempelen fooled the world with his invention. The inventor created a chess-playing machine that was entertaining Hungarian Queen Mária Terézia, but Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin also saw the machine. The original machine presented in 1769 burned in a fire in 1854, but the copy of it exists even today. The trick of the machine was discovered only decades after the passing of its inventor. Although the machine was considered a form of artificial intelligence in its time, it was later discovered that the mechanical machine was in fact moved by a small person inside of it.
Frommer Stop
Frommer stop is a gun invented by Rudolf Frommer. Approximately 350-360,000 pieces of this type of gun were manufactured between 1912 and 1945. The smaller version of the gun is called Frommer Liliput.
Rubik’s Sphere
Like the Rubik’s Cube, this invention is also the work of Ernő Rubik. This logic game has 3 spheres with 6 coloured bullets. The bullets have to be moved from the inner to the outer circles into a dome of the same colour. This game is suitable for kids and adults alike.
Nuclear weapon
The nuclear bomb was developed in the US as part of the Manhattan Project. This was initiated by Leó Szilárd, who developed the idea of the nuclear chain reaction in 1933. The project that started in 1939 was initiated in fear of German atomic developments. Among American, Italian, and English scientists, there were two other Hungarians participating in the project: Ede Teller and János Neumann.
Flavatar
This Hungarian invention makes plants glow in the dark. “Living or preserved flowers and potted plants are surface-treated to make them glow in the dark. Treated cut flowers, potted or preserved plants are ‘filled’ with light and then glow in green, blue, aqua blue, red, white, and orange when placed in the dark,” flavatar.com writes.
How well do you really know the English language? English has become an actual global language over the past centuries, but during the course of its existence, just like with most languages, history has left its mark on it. English has been influenced and impacted by many other languages and cultures, from French to German, from Greek and Latin to Spanish, but to some extent, also by Hungarian. In this article, we try to gather all words in the English language that have Hungarian origins.
If you are a long-time follower of this site, you will probably recognise some, if not most, of these words. Let us start with English words that come from proper Hungarian names.
Proper names
Rubik
This is probably the second outlier, but it is so well-known worldwide that it had to be included. It comes from none other than Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the world-famous Rubik-kocka, or Rubik’s cube.
Source: Pixabay / congerdesign
He invented it around 1975, and it was called “bűvös kocka” (magic cube) back then. Shortly after, it was nicknamed Rubik-kocka, and the name stuck. Since then, it has become a kind of brand, and there are many varieties of brain-teasing puzzles under Rubik’s name.
Tokay
“A name of a town in Upper Hungary (‘Tokaj’). Also, Tokay (‘Tokaji’) wine, rich sweet wine of an aromatic flavour, made near Tokay in Hungary. Tokay grape is the variety of grape from which Tokay wine is made.” – Oxford English Dictionary
Photo: Facebook.com/tokajiaszushop/
“The Tokaj aszu (or ‘Tokaji aszú’ in Hungarian) is a special wine produced in the Tokaj wine region; it is the nectar of individually hand-picked “aszu” berries botrytised on the vine stock” – Collection of Hungarikums. You can read more about this unique wine HERE.
Biro
The ballpoint pen is widely referred to as a ‘biro’ in many countries, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Italy. It is a registered trademark that comes from the name of its inventor László József Bíró, who was a Hungarian-Argentinian inventor.
He patented the first commercially successful modern ballpoint pen. In 1945, Marcel Bich bought the patent from Bíró for the pen, which soon became his company’s main product. BIC has since sold more than 100 billion ballpoint pens worldwide.
Foods
Dobos torte
“A torte made of multiple thin layers of sponge cake often containing ground hazelnuts, put together with a mocha-chocolate filling, and topped with caramel glaze,” – Merriam Webster Dictionary
“The layered pastry is named after its inventor, Hungarian chef József C. Dobos, a delicatessen owner in Budapest. Dobos cake was first introduced at the National General Exhibition of Budapest in 1885; King Franz Joseph I and Queen Elisabeth (Sisi) were among the first to taste it. The cake soon became popular throughout Europe” – Collection of Hungarikums.
Source: facebook.com/GerbeaudCafe/
We have already written several articles about this delicacy, and if you would like to try it at home, we also have the original recipe you can try.
Paprika
It is one of the staples or perhaps even the soul of Hungarian cuisine, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is a powdered spice that looks deep-orange or red, made by grinding the dried fruits of peppers.
In many languages, ‘paprika’ also refers to the plant itself, but not in English. ‘Paprika’ has been part of Hungarian cuisine since the plant’s arrival to the country around the 16th century. It is so characteristically Hungarian that paprika made from the peppers of Szeged and Kalocsa have become Hungarikums.
Goulash
This might be one of the most well-known and most commonly used words in English that originate from Hungary. It is not uncommon for foreigners to identify Hungarians with this dish.
Photo: facebook.com/magyargulyasetterem
“It originates from Hungarian ‘gulyáshús’, from ‘gulyás’ (herdsman of ox) + ‘hús’ (meat). A beef or lamb soup originally made by herdsmen while on the fields” – Online Etymology Dictionary.
The real question, however, is whether it is a soup or a stew. Find out HERE.
‘Halászlé’ or fisherman’s soup
It is another dish that uses quite a lot of paprika, the halászlé or fisherman’s soup, sometimes fish soup might be almost as well-known as goulash is. Every cook does it differently, but there is a heated debate between the two main types. One is the ‘Tisza’ (river in eastern Hungary) fish soup, and the other is the ‘Baja’ (a city in southern Hungary, next to the Danube). Never mention one to the other area.
Palacsinta
“In Hungarian cuisine: a thin pancake eaten as a dessert, often filled with jam, cheese, nuts, or chocolate” – Oxford English Dictionary.
Photo: facebook.com/GundelRestaurant
You can call it a pancake, but it might actually be closer to French crêpes. Regarding the fillings, the sky is the limit. Most often, you could find ‘túró’ as a filling, sweetened and sometimes with raisins. I personally like a little vanilla flavouring but hate raisins. You could use any kind of jam or marmalade, cocoa (sweetened), Nutella, pudding, but another one of my favourites is cinnamon with powdered sugar. There is also the famous Gundel ‘palacsinta’.
It is usually a dessert item, but there is also a savoury type that restaurants list with appetisers. It is called the ‘Hortobágyi húsos palacsinta’, meaning Hortobágy (a region in eastern Hungary) meat pancake. It contains minced meat, and it is drizzled with sour cream and – of course – paprika gravy.
“It means light-cavalryman. The original Hussars were bodies of light horsemen organised in Hungary in the late 15th century, famed for courage and elaborate, semi-oriental dresses. They were widely imitated all over Europe” – Online Etymology Dictionary.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, the Hungarian ‘huszár’ originates from the medieval Serbian husar, meaning brigand (because early hussars’ shock troop tactics resembled that of brigands). Another theory is that the term is an original Hungarian one, having nothing in common with the Serbian ‘gusar’.
This type of light cavalry was especially characteristic of the Hungarian armies, equipped with bows, arrows, spears, and sabres, later adopting the use of firearms.
“Also ‘chako’ is a cylindrical soldier’s hat with plume. It comes from the Hungarian ‘csákó’, short for ‘csákós süveg’ (peaked cap)” – Online Etymology Dictionary.
Photo: Alpár Kató – Daily News Hungary
An essential part of the Hussar dress, but also a paper toy that children can easily make.
Sabre
“It is a type of single-edged sword, […] probably ultimately from Hungarian ‘szablya’ (saber), literally means a tool to cut with, from the verb ‘szabni’ (to cut or to tear).” – Online Etymology Dictionary
A sabre or saber is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central-Eastern European cavalry, such as the hussars, the sabre became widespread in Western Europe a bit later. The sabre probably arrived in Europe with the Magyars and Turks.
Verbunkos
“A borrowing from Hungarian, the ‘verbunkos’ was originally danced by uniformed Hussars to the music of gipsy bands in Hungary in order to attract recruits to the army. The Hungarian word comes from the German ‘Werbung’, meaning recruitment.” – Oxford English Dictionary
Hungarian Dog Breeds
Puli
“More fully Hungarian Puli is a breed of large black, grey, or white sheepdog characterised by a long, thick coat with a corded appearance.” – Oxford English Dictionary
Komondor
“Large, powerful, shaggy-coated white dogs of Hungarian origin that are used to guard sheep” – Merriam-Webster
Kuvasz
“A large, white, long-coated Hungarian breed of dog used as a guard dog” – Oxford English Dictionary
Vizsla Photo: Pixabay / Anna-f
Vizsla
They are short-coated, golden-brown hunting dogs, specifically “pointers, with large pendant ears” – Oxford English Dictionary. They are robust but rather lightly built; they are lean dogs that have defined muscles.
Pumi
“It is a medium-sized alert, intelligent, energetic, and agile Hungarian herding breed” – American Kennel Club
Pusta or Puszta is a traditional Hungarian landscape meaning “a large plain, a steppe; a flat, treeless region.” – Oxford English Dictionary
Fogas
“An Eastern European fish (Lucioperca sandra) resembling a perch, especially one from Lake Balaton in Hungary that is highly esteemed as food,” – Merriam Webster Dictionary
‘Fogas’ or also referred to as ‘süllő’ depending on its size; the latter is smaller than 1.5 kg Source: Wikimedia Commons / Tiia Monto
“The principal monetary unit of Hungary; a coin of this denomination.” – Oxford English Dictionary.
Pengö
In Hungarian, it is written ‘pengő’. It was “the basic monetary unit of Hungary from 1925 to 1946.” – Merriam Webster Dictionary
Czárdás
‘Csárdás’, often seen as ‘czárdás’ or ‘csardas’, is a traditional Hungarian folk dance. The name is derived from ‘csárda’, an old Hungarian term for roadside tavern and restaurant. It originated in Hungary and was popularised by bands in Hungary as well as the neighbouring lands of Slovakia, Slovenia, Transylvania, etc.
According to a recent announcement, a new hypercar design commemorating the name and victories of one of Hungary’s most famous racehorses will be produced by a Swiss-based Hungarian entrepreneur and is said to revolutionise the supercar industry.
BAK Motors, which defines itself as the “world’s first digital car company”, is taking on designing a new hypercar that will fill a gap in the current market. According to BAK, most luxury cars only target achieving a single goal: either be the fastest or reach the longest distance with electric motors, and so on. BAK thinks that owners of such cars might want all of the above, or even different things depending on their mood.
They aim to offer a “zero-emission capable” car that feels just like a traditional petrol hypercar and one that is light and agile enough to be used on public roads and not just on the racetrack.
The company also highlights the beauty of the car, which is probably not an understatement as the design of the car will be fulfilled by none other than the company of ex-Jaguar designer Ian Callum. Although we do not know much about the design yet, the first digital images might surface this summer and, according to Autocar, the full-sized clay model will be completed this autumn. They also said that the first prototype of Kincsem might debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2022.
Source: facebook.com/BAKMOTORS
“With only 54 Hyper-GTs to be created – in reverence to Kincsem the racehorse, who won 54 races from 54 starts – this is a defining moment in motorcar history,” says Kincsem.
Although the development period of such a supercar seems to be quite short, BAK Motors, a company that believes in modern solutions in manufacturing, designing, and functioning as a company, aims to deliver its promise and much more.
If you would like to know more about Hungarian cars, THIS article might be perfect for you.
According to Autocar’s information, the brand-new Kincsem will use a V10 petrol engine running at around 13,000rpm, which will not only contribute to the sound of the car but also charge the car’s on-board battery and provide enough energy for four electric motors, one to drive each tyre. The other interesting design is that BAK Motors plans to have no physical connection between the motors and the tyres. Thanks to the battery, the car will also be able to operate solely electrically if necessary, although there is no information about the range of the car fully operating on battery.
The only design clue currently is this silhouette Source: facebook.com/BAKMOTORS
After the release of their new Kincsem hypercar, which is suspected to be around 2023, the company also plans to launch an SUV line that utilises the same technology to propel the car.
BAK says they want to cut down on the typical weight of the luxury SUV class and create a more responsive and agile SUV. We have no information on the car’s price yet, but it is to be expected that such design and innovation will certainly not come cheap.
The first Kincsem hypercar will be produced in the UK, but there are some plans that the SUVs will be manufactured in a factory yet-to-be-established in Hungary around 2025, says Autocar.
Wasting food has always been a very serious and sad issue. Due to the way restaurants work and the fact that people tend to overbuy groceries, this is becoming a more and more pressing issue. Luckily, a Hungarian startup aims to mitigate at least some part of the problem.
Meet Munch. Munch is a website and mobile app where you could buy leftover food from restaurants near you for half the price. The coronavirus and the measures have taken their toll on most restaurants and people. This new application aims to mitigate the wasting of food and it is also beneficial for people and restaurants. Restaurants could sell perfectly good food they do not manage to sell during the day and people can buy high-quality food for a much better price.
According to Szeretlekmagyarország, it all started when four young Hungarian guys decided to create a company that focuses on environmental, economic, and social sustainability. This is how Munch was born.
“We founded the company eight months ago. All of us knew that we wanted to create a social enterprise that is about more than just profit. We have all agreed that we want to find a solution for wasting food,” Albert Wettstein told Szeretlakmagyarország.
With the advent of smartphones, the application can easily be installed on any device both for iOS and Android. The app is GPS based – similar to most food ordering apps – and you can find the best deals around your location. The more restaurants register, the more matches you are going to get.
“Currently, we have around 150 registered restaurants and 20,000 people have downloaded the app. Since we started, 13,000 servings of food have been saved,” Bence Zwecker, one of the founders, proudly said.
If you find what you would like to order, or rather save, you need to pick it up on location. There are more than just one reason for this. Firstly, because these servings are usually half the price, delivery would cost much more than the food itself. Another reason, the founders highlighted, is that this way, it creates human interaction between the person who saved the food from the trash and the restaurant whose loss the customer had mitigated.
Szeretlekmagyarországalso reports that the application has won the Highlights of Hungary special award for their idea just las week. Currently, they have registered restaurants in Debrecen, Szeged, Sopron and, of course, Budapest.
The founders emphasised, however, that as they are an app-based company, if there are enough restaurants in a certain area, they could launch their program there immediately.
Munch has achieved quite a few things since its launch, but the founders also aim to help those who cannot even afford food at half the price. Bence Zwecker said that they are currently working on the IT and logistics solutions for the problem.
They are in collaboration with a food bank and would like to help by donating the food for them that is not saved by customers.
This is a company that aims to benefit all people. The restaurants can mitigate their loss or even make some money on the food they have prepared but cannot sell during the day. The customers benefit as they can eat high-quality food for much less, the company can sustain itself via the app, and they have also helped get closer to solving the pressing issue of wasting food.
President János Áder on Monday hosted two young Hungarian chemists in his podcast Blue Planet, who had created a mixture of bacteria which could make plastics bio-degradable.
In his conversation with Liz Madaras and Krisztina Lévay, Áder noted that the annual volume of plastic produced in the past 50 years had increased 20 times, adding that 20,000 plastic bottles per second were sold globally. Those bottles take 500 years to decompose, he said, and insisted that in view of the rate of production by 2050 “we could have more plastic in the seas and oceans than fish”.
Lévay said in the podcast that
their invention, now registered, could be used to decompose a wide range of plastics, “roughly all plastic waste produced in a household”.
Madaras said that the bacteria could transform plastic, produced to be long-lasting, into environment-friendly matter and re-enter the eco-system. The mineral oil, which serves as a raw material for those plastics, “came from vegetable and animal remains many million years ago”.
The inventors said that the waste would not require any preliminary chemical treatment before being exposed to the bacteria.
The selectively collected waste could be transformed into biomass in a matter of eight weeks, and then used as a soil fertiliser.
The president voiced hope that industrial utilisation of the invention could start before the end of this year.
One of the eternal issues of a big city is the traffic. This is no different in Budapest. In a new consortium, Gamax Ltd. tries to find a new, modern solution to the problem, MTI has been informed.
According to Portfolio, Gamax Ltd. will team up with Racionet and the Department of Networked Systems and Services of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics to create a modern urban traffic management system.
This cooperation aims to design a system where the flow of traffic can be accessed and actively modified from a command centre
far away from the noise and clutter of the traffic itself. They would like to be able to change traffic lights, if necessary, in order to mitigate the traffic jams in the rush hours both in the morning and late afternoon. In THIS article, you can find out how bad Budapest’s traffic is according to statistics.
They would also like to develop a mobile application for drivers. This way, the drivers could get notified immediately if there is a better or faster way available. This is a huge endeavour, as such an idea requires a lot of programming and planning to be realised. The idea is great, and the app could also help mitigate traffic jams by helping people reach their destination by following the development of traffic in real-time or even by communicating between the app users.
There certainly lies a great opportunity in the idea, which is why it received support from the Hungarian government or, more precisely, won the competitiveness and excellence collaboration program of the National Research, Development, and Innovation Office.
To realise the project, the Office gave HUF 1.456 billion (€3.9 million) support. The estimated overall cost of the project would be HUF 2.371 billion (€6.5 million). The consortium aims to become marketable both domestically in Hungary and in other countries abroad.
The finished product will take advantage of the most modern AI algorithms and machine learning methods to maximise its capabilities.
We do not want to state that life is easier thanks to Hungarians and their inventions, but it is indeed true that many objects we use now on a daily basis were invented or developed by a Hungarian.
When it comes to Hungarian inventions, there is a very long list from which many items are well-known around the world. Surely you know that theballpoint pen with which you sign a contract, for instance, was developed by a Hungarian newspaper editor. Or one of the most important and fundamental vitamins of our diets, vitamin C, was first isolated by a Hungarian biochemist, Albert Szent-Györgyi. The list goes on, but not all items on it are as well-known as the ones mentioned above. (If you forgot about the most famous Hungarian inventions, HERE is a link to refresh your memory.)
Here we have some very useful inventions and objects which are integrated parts of our everyday life. Without these items, life would be either tougher or just simply very different.
Safety matches
These little pieces of wood are probably the most used among all items on the list. Even if your oven does not run on gas anymore (which it still does in quite a lot of households in Hungary) or you light your cigarette with a lighter, safety matches are still something almost everyone has at home. Even though the first matches were already produced at the beginning of the 1800s, the world had to wait almost four decades for someone to come up with a much safer version. He was called János Irinyi, who started to wonder about how to turn this extremely useful object (even more at the time) into something that is also very safe to use. In 1836, he switched potassium chloride with lead dioxide when mixing it with white phosphor, thus getting rid of the loud sound and the flicker of the original matches, making them a bit more pleasant to use and definitely much safer.
safety matches – pixabay
BASIC language
No, it is not the basis of an existing language, nor an artificially created one that is easy to learn and can connect people faster. The latter, however, is true in a way. The BASIC language was artificially created and today connects people from different corners of the world, but not in the sense you would think – unless you are familiar with information technology. BASIC stands for Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It is a high-level computer programming language, one of the many programming languages developed for third-generation computers that actually stood the test of time. It was “born” in 1964 thanks to the expertise of János Kemény and Thomas Kurtz. In the beginning, it was used for educational purposes for over 20 years, when Microsoft renewed it in 1991 and re-released it under the name Visual Basic. Even though the original programme itself has been through many smaller and bigger changes, nowadays, it is still the macro language of Office, reaching millions and millions of people every single day.
Colour TV
Hands up if you have a TV at home. It would be an even weirder question to ask whether it is a colour one. Less than 100 years ago – 60 to be exact –, no one would have been surprised by these questions. Having a television at home was a rare luxury only very few could afford, let alone a colour TV, as it still had not been invented yet. Television was given, but a Hungarian engineer-physicist, Péter Károly Goldmark, was needed to develop a screen able to display an image in colour. The Budapest-born scientist amazed his teachers with his knowledge in Physics already in high-school. Not long after, he started to show interest in the then-very new and young field of television. Thanks to him, the world’s first colour television was presented on 4 September 1940.
1970, Cegléd, Hungary, GELKA TV servicing
Source: Fortepan / Péterffy István
Soda water – industrial production
Now, this is something we have all seen, experienced, tasted etc. Water is the basis of life, but many people find it too plain or boring and prefer to drink sparkling soda water instead. By many, I mean millions, probably even more than a billion, if we only just consider the United States where all types of soda waters are extremely popular. Their love for these drinks could not be satisfied if it were not for Ányos Jedlik, scientist and inventor, whose name can already ring a bell if you have heard about the dynamo. Making soda water is also linked to his name. Around 1828-1829, he started working on how to make sparkling water. His work proved to be successful as soon he developed a machine that was able to fill water with carbon dioxide in an industrial way, avoiding high costs and enablingmass production.
When an airline, a boat tour company, and even a sports event organiser wants to ensure that service users do not get infected with the coronavirus, it is not an easy task. The so-called “Covid passports” offer a solution to this problem, and one Hungarian company developed a digital passport that can be easily installed on smartphones. TrustOne is an application that can be used to keep track of who had negative COVID-19 tests reliably, and it is now even capable of storing data about vaccinations.
According to Hvg, passengers and guests must be tested within a specified time before the start of the service, and the results of the tests must be checked upon entry. This requires ensuring both that the service users are real (the person using the service is the one who was tested) and the test is authentic (it is not a fake result), Te-Food highlighted.
Originally, this Hungary-based company developed a platform to trace food shipments. Still, now they have come up with a solution that helps private companies and government agencies register and administrate people who have passed the coronavirus test.
TrustOne supports passenger and guest registration, the booking of test dates and even prepayment, the digitalisation of the sampling, managing all communications among different laboratory systems, the automatic transmission of test results, and the verification of compliance with testing at the start of the service – the description reads.
The company’s announcement reveals that Eurofins, one of the world’s largest test laboratory network operators, supports the product and has been using it since last Summer to manage regular testings for Formula 1 and MotoGP teams and local workers. The world’s second-largest ocean-liner company, the Royal Caribbean, has been using it in Singapore since December on the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship, departing every 3-4 days, to manage and register the tests of its few thousand passengers. Those entering the UK can use it to shorten mandatory quarantine.
In Germany, several companies have introduced it by private health care providers for regular testing of corporate employees. The Emirates and Etihad airlines are currently trying it out on passengers in five countries.
In Slovakia, where they use extensive antigen rapid testing every week, it is utilised in three cities (Nyitra, Prešov, Trnava) for full testing of the population – the developers said. As many regions can only be entered with a recent negative coronavirus test, the local police in Nitra also use TrustOne to check the test results of those who want to enter. The Jaguar Land Rover plant in Slovakia also joined the program by testing their employees.
Based on customer need and feedback, TrustOne was recently updated to handle vaccination data as well.
“As achieving herd immunity depends on many, partly unknown conditions, we believe that in 2021, the combined management and control of adequate testing and vaccination results will be key for the relaunching the travel, hospitality and entertainment industries,” – Márton Vén, Co-founder of TrustOne says.
There is currently a huge international demand for managing test results. However, there are relatively only a few options on the market that provides a solution. The right solution must be both flexible and secure at the same time. TrustOne announced that their upcoming updates will include support for European airports, drive-thru test sites in the US and will also offer support for home testing.
The Puli is probably one of the most well-known and intelligent Hungarian dog breeds, but it is also the name of a Hungarian space project, the Puli Space Technologies, and they have managed to achieve what only a few could. Since their foundation, the Puli Space Project has performed well in several international competitions and recently achieved first place in NASA’s “Honey, I shrunk the NASA payload” challenge.
According to 24, the challenge of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s “Honey, I shrunk the NASA payload” was to design easily realisable, small-scale, and light-weight lunar measuring and monitoring devices that could be deployed on small robots the size of a shoebox. To take on this challenge, Puli Space Technologies developed a device that could help detect water ice on the Moon.
Puli Space Technologies’ Puli Lunar Water Snooper won first place in the category of Lunar Resource Potential and was awarded $30,000 for their idea and hard work.
Logo of the PLWS
Source: pulispace.com
This is not everything, however, as in the second instalment of the challenge, creatively named “Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload Challenge, the Sequel”,
the relatively small group of Hungarian scientists and engineers received a whopping $225,000 budget and direct support from NASA
by reviewing the team project and providing insight or expertise if needed. NASA ended up increasing the prize pool by and additional $65,000 to support a fourth project.
Only the winners of the first challenge could partake in the second competition and, in the end, ten teams submitted their detailed project plan, including estimated budget costs, milestones, real-life tests, and risk assessment. The four winners have 12 months to execute their project plans, and they must deliver at least three identical and operational working prototypes.
PLWS (Puli Lunar Water Snooper) concept
Source: pulispace.com
3D model of the rover
Source: pulispace.com
Assembly and maintenance
Source: pulispace.com
“We have received tremendous recognition from the world’s leading space agency; we are very happy and proud. We have achieved this with incredible collective effort, and after ten years of struggling, we feel we deserve the success,” said Tibor Pacher, CEO and Founder of Puli Space Technologies.
He is happy that they have managed to win over excellent domestic partners and that they have a strong team to take on the task. He believes that by working together, Hungary could join the very narrow group of countries that have reached a celestial body. He also quoted “the Greatest Hungarian”, István Széchenyi: “Egynek minden nehéz, soknak semmi sem lehetetlen” (Everything is difficult for one, nothing is impossible for many).
After the recent success of the Chinese Chang’e-5 lunar expedition, in addition to Indian, Russian, and Japanese expeditions, NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program will bring landing units developed by private companies onto Earth’s celestial companion. The probes of Intuitive Machines and Astrobotic in 2021 – the latter of which will transport the device of Puli Space Technologies carrying an aluminium “Spacetime plaque” with messages from the supporters of Puli Space Technologies –, Masten Systems in 2022, and Astrobotic again in 2023 will help bring NASA equipment and small instruments and devices to the Moon, among other things.
Field practice of the rover and with astronauts
Source: pulispace.com
Field practice of the rover and with astronauts.
Source: pulispace.com
Field practice of the rover and with astronauts
Source: pulispace.com
Puli Space Technologies’ rover
Source: pulispace.com
Puli moon rovers
Source: pulispace.com
The task of such expeditions is to map lunar resources and explore their potential for utilisation. This is called ISRU principle, meaning the use of resources available on site. (ISRU stands for In Situ Resource Utilisation). On the Moon, water is the number one candidate for ISRU opportunities, or more precisely, water ice. In the future, Moon settlers could utilise it as a water supply, but it could also serve as rocket fuel, as electrolysis can produce hydrogen and oxygen.
According to the latest research, there is 40,000 km2 worth of potential ice deposits. Exploring them is of paramount importance. Here enters the Puli Lunar Water Snooper (PLWS), the latest Hungarian development that uses CMOS image sensors in a special way to measure cosmic radiation and to count the number of neutrons of different levels of energy coming from the soil of the Moon. This way,
it is able to identify hydrogen (water ice) and measure the amount of it in the soil. Moreover, the PLWS is very compact and can be mounted on the underside of moon rovers of only 2 kg in size,
making it cost-effective to launch. In the near future, we will be able to create detailed water ice maps of the Moon thanks to the sniffing of a dog which will not bark at but BE on the Moon.
The world-famous Hungarian scientist, Ede Teller, known as Edward Teller in the US, was the inventor of the hydrogen bomb. He was born in 1908, on January 15, exactly 113 years ago. He became a legend during his lifetime and was considered the most influential scientist of the 20th century. Gorbachev would not want to shake hands with him, but many American presidents believed his word. In Hungary, we remember him mostly as a world-famous Hungarian scientist who reinforced the everything-was-invented-by-Hungarians image.
“They are already here among us, they call themselves Hungarians” – according to an anecdote, another world-famous Hungarian physicist, Leó Szilárd, gave this as an answer when they asked him why there is no evidence of life outside of Earth.
Born in Budapest to a Jewish family, Ede Teller was a member of this “extraterrestrial” group, which gained him a reputation in the United States for being very smart, but speaking an unintelligible, strange, incomprehensible language and coming from a faraway little country.
He owes his success to his mother tongue
Photo: Wikicommons by User: Greg L
According to Híradó, Teller later said that he owes his academic successes to the fact that his mother tongue was Hungarian. He thought that without it, he would have only become a high school teacher. Some people, as well as Ede Teller, thought that the Hungarian language often proved helpful in the development of logical thinking.
At a very young age, shortly before he was 18, he went to Germany in 1926, where he studied at several famous universities. After the Nazis came to power in 1934, he moved to England and then to the United States, where he lived until his death. He regularly returned to Hungary in the ‘30s, and in 1933, he married Augusta Schütz-Harkányi.
In 1937 he developed one of his most famous theories along with Herman Arthur Jahn.
It is known as the Jahn–Teller effect, which is an important mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking in molecular and solid-state systems which has far-reaching consequences in different fields.
Letter to the US President and sunscreen at the detonation of the first atomic bomb
Fermi Award for Teller in 1962. Teller leaving the White House after receiving the award. Source: Wikimedia Commons / ENERGY.GOV
In 1939, together with Leó Szilárd and other Hungarian scientists, he participated in the writing of the “Einstein-Szilárd letter”. In it, the scientists warned Franklin D. Roosevelt that experiments are being carried out by the Nazis that could lead to the creation of a destructive weapon capable of destroying an entire port. The letter was signed by Albert Einstein, but according to recollections, it was mainly written by Leó Szilárd and other Hungarian scientists. This letter ultimately led to the launch of the Manhattan Project, which resulted in the first atomic bomb. Many Hungarian scientists worked under the leadership of Robert Oppenheimer, including Ede Teller and Leó Szilárd.
“I did not want to turn away, but based on my calculations, I thought the explosion could be much bigger than expected. So, I put some sunscreen on,” Teller recalled about the day of the first experimental nuclear explosion.
In July 1945, when the first atomic bomb called the Gadget was detonated in the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico, the explosion caused a 12-kilometre mushroom cloud and vaporised the steel tower holding the bomb.
Although scientists were warned to turn away and lie on their stomachs before the explosion, they did not want to miss the result of years of their work. Ede, after putting it on himself, gave the sunscreen to the other scientists, who, with a straight face, also put it on in the darkness way before daybreak, 30 kilometres away from the bomb.
He was considered the most influential scientist
Teller’s reputation and influence grew after he realised the danger posed by the Soviets and developed the hydrogen bomb which was detonated by the Americans in 1952. The Soviets developed their own hydrogen bomb a year later.
Ede Teller appearing on television discussion programme After Dark 3 July 1987 (“Peace In Our Time”) Source: Wikimedia Commons / AnOpenMedium
But Ede Teller also achieved outstanding results in the civilian use of nuclear energy. For example, the development of the basic safety aspects of U.S. nuclear power plants can be connected to him. He recognised the dangers of uranium-graphite-water type reactors.
The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which exploded in 1986, also operated on this principle, and it was later found out that the catastrophe, among other things, was caused by the void coefficient, which Teller considered very dangerous before.
“He was one of the most influential scientists of the nuclear age, but moreover, Ede Teller had unprecedented political influence. Presidents came and went, along with their staff. Scientifically trained statesmen rose and became disgraced, but Ede remained on the scene for decades. He built bombs, expressed his views before Congress, and provided advice to generals and presidents alike. His influence has left its mark on an entire era…” – a paraphrase of William Broad’s comment on him in Teller’s War.
He only went back to Hungary after five decades
Ede Teller’s first visit to Hungary since 1936 was during the change of the regime, in 1990. In his last years, he regularly visited Hungary, gave lectures and interviews, and often visited the Paks Nuclear Power Plant. While his opinion was controversial abroad, back home, he was remembered as a famous Hungarian scientist.
Ede Teller and Ronald Reagan in 1983
He strengthened the image that Hungary has enriched the world with outstanding people in the field of science as well, in addition to sports.
During his life, he received many prestigious national and international awards, including the Albert Einstein Prize (1958), the American National Science Medal (1982), the Order of the Republic of Hungary Embellished with Rubies (1990), and the Hungarian Corvin Chain (2001). Not only was he elected an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1990), but he also became an honorary doctorate of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and an honorary professor of Eötvös Loránd University (1991).
Shortly before his death, he was able to receive the highest American civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from U.S. President George W. Bush.
After a long life spent contributing to the world of science, he died at the age of 95 on September 9, 2003, in Stanford, California. In addition to a street in Csepel and a primary school in Nagybánhegyes, an asteroid discovered in 1989, the “5006 Teller”, also bears his name.
Many helping hands and minds contributed to the success of the project.
Thanks to the volunteer team of the MassVentil Project, under the leadership of Miklós Kozlovszky MD and with the support of the University of Óbuda, the first modular mass ventilation system developed in Hungary will be built, which will be suitable for the care of up to fifty patients battling with the coronavirus at the same time. The members of the project explained to Magyar Nemzet that they are already in the preparatory stage of the preclinical testing of the system, after which the clinical trial may follow, now with the involvement of people. The developers also reported that growing and increasingly strict requirements as a result of the coronavirus epidemic pose new challenges for them, so they are currently working on a prototype that can be built into a container.
“During the development in recent months, we had to develop a number of prototypes in order to prove the functionality of the original mass ventilation concept in all respects. However, in addition to the test environment, the system must also be tested on living organisms, so the preparation of animal testing is currently underway,” reported to Magyar Nemzet the professional team of the MassVentil Project.
The members of the volunteer group described the current phase of the development: during the animal testing, they examined whether there were any microscopically observable lung tissue injuries after long artificial ventilation cycles. However, these studies should not be performed on humans, but
if the preclinical trials are successful, clinical trials may follow, now involving humans.
According to them, this phase will be followed by the production phase, when a prototype version will be made. Then, a series of different tests and authorisations are needed for mass production and marketing, which require a manufacturer of professional medical devices. “We are now working to make the invention a real product on the market with the help of such a collaboration,” the developers said. They added that they are very close to a solution and noted that this pace is extremely fast in the market for this type of medical device, where similar developments typically take four to eight years.
Summarising the results of the last months, the participants also recalled that not everyone welcomed the idea of the revolutionary equipment – like all large-scale innovations, the concept of a mass ventilation system had its sceptics, so the developers try to counter this with professional presentations, and ultimately, a working prototype speaks for itself. It also helped a lot that
the MassVentil system won the first prize in the European Commission’s EUvsVirus hackathon ventilator category.
In addition, getting the materials necessary for development was a serious challenge in the beginning. At first, the inventors financed the costs themselves, but their budgets were not sufficient to sponsor an invention of this volume. Therefore, the team decided to make the results of the research public, as a result of which they received a lot of voluntary professional and financial help, so they managed to start the more serious development phase as well.
Numerous small and large helping hands and minds contributed to the success of the project, from highly skilled professionals through students and companies to more than 1,300 people following their professional communication forum.
Among the volunteers were those who worked to solve a specific problem: they programmed, made a valve, designed a logo or a description for the invention, or they just offered tools. Part of the team took part in the professional thinking and brainstorming, and many of them communicated and internationalised the project, or they built business relationships or partnerships with institutions, wrote tenders, or lobbied in different countries for the success of the development.
The success of the project has been supported by the government from the very beginning.
The developers said that since spring, the Science Diplomacy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has also been helping the work by sending the international introductory materials of the MassVentil Project to every country. At the beginning of September, the Ministry of Innovation and Technology also provided financial support for the construction of a prototype of the mass ventilation system.
At the moment, the aim is no longer just to develop an emergency mass ventilation system. In connection with their latest plans, they revealed that they also strive to meet the requirements of easy transportation and installing, and their goals include ensuring continuous, long-term, and reliable operation, more efficient support for medical work, and thus radically improving the current state of patient care. Therefore, they are currently working on a prototype that can be built into a container that is transportable and suitable and that offers safe ventilation for up to several weeks or months.
Apple users’ prayers have been heard by a Hungarian start-up that promises to make the life of the brand’s loyal users much easier. Fruitdock’s team is now working alongside Tungsram to help launch their device called DoBox both in the domestic and global markets.
According to Hvg, back in 2019, at the CES – the world’s largest annual electronics expo – in Las Vegas, the gadget of a Hungarian start-up called Fruitdock won the Innovation Award of that year. The developers of DoBox promised that this device would be the missing link between Apple’s closed systems and various accessories. It connects to Apple devices wirelessly, but you are able to connect a traditional mouse and keyboard and use it on your iPhone or iPad, for example.
DoBox’s CES Award 2019
Source: facebook.com/thisisdobox
But the DoBox has countless other functions which you can manage through a free app.
Thanks to its plethora of ports, almost any device can be connected to it. It has internal storage that can be further enhanced thanks to a memory card slot, so you can safely and easily back up any data on it from your Apple devices. The DoBox can also create a secure hotspot connection for public Wi-fi networks, and it can be used as a portable wireless router. You can even connect wired headphones or earphones to it so you can enjoy your favourite music, connect to your TV, and play videos, but if you are in a pinch, you can use it as a power bank.
“Our company was founded to create electronic products that make life easier for Apple users and expand the usability of Apple products in everyday work as well,”
Tungsram’s statement quotes Máté Molnár and Szabolcs Duli, two dreamers of the DoBox. According to them, the biggest advantage of their product is that users do not have to buy new adapters and cables or discard their old accessories every time they purchase a new iPhone, iPad, or MacBook with a different plug.
Tungsram, which has been known worldwide for its lighting solutions, but it has also been a technology solutions provider for the past two years, comes into the picture as, according to a preliminary agreement with Fruitdock, it will manufacture and market the DoBox. With 5G network available in Budapest, this device may become even more potent.
The new innovative technique was first used in Szolnok by a young local doctor, based on the suggestion of a colleague from the isolation hospital of Kiskunhalas.
Hetényi Géza Hospital of Szolnok is doing the ventilation of coronavirus patients in a distinctive way. Dr László Juhász, anaesthetist and intensive care specialist, gave an interview, shedding light on the innovative and successive method used by the care unit.
“We got the idea from a doctor of the isolation hospital in Kiskunhalas who himself saw the technique in action in Italy. They told us in details on the phone how it is executed. With the supervision of Dr Gábor Bencsik, chief physician, we introduced the method that is used in several hospitals in Hungary” – told the doctor, who has recently passed the bar exam, to szoljon.hu.
Then he went on explaining that the condition of patients suffering from pneumonia caused by Covid or any other illness can get so severe that conventional methods of oxygen therapy can not guarantee the appropriate level of oxygen in their body. This is when ventilation enters the scene.
“The conventional method is called invasive ventilation when a plastic tube is inserted in the windpipe of the patient through which we do the ventilation. The patient needs to be anaesthetised. Moreover, the process itself can have critical complications, so we try to avoid it whenever it is possible to do so.”
According to the doctor, a better method for this is the so-called non-invasive ventilation performed by the use of a mask.
“In this case, we put a mask on the patient that fits the face perfectly, through which we supply him with air containing a high level of oxygen. Meanwhile, we can control pressure in the windpipes as well. No sedation is needed, and all side-effects and consequences of ventilation can be avoided.” – as Dr Juhász explained.
Several masks to perform this procedure exist on the market, but according to the doctor, these are almost impossible to purchase right now. In normal conditions, the hospital of Szolnok uses four pieces a month, but lately, it has occurred that they needed eight pieces a day.
“Italian doctors started to utilise these diving masks originally used for snorkelling. We need the air pumped into the mask to stay inside when the diver needs water not to get inside. The problem is similar. So I went into a popular store of sports equipment, and I bought some masks. Then I bumped into the next problem. The pipe of the snorkel mask is rectangular when that of the ventilation machine is round.” – said the doctor.
snorkelling mask – Decathlon
Then he was told by a colleague how a group of locals helped the hospital in Spring with a 3D printer printing face shields, so he contacted them, and by the afternoon they had the solution in their hands in the form of a printed adapter fitting the mask and the ventilator pipe perfectly. The prototype ready to be used and tested was done in 12 hours.
“This printed adapter can be mass-produced in the fastest, simplest way. It was the best choice in this situation. Since then we can produce it very quickly, even in 3 hours, the only question left is the colour of the component.
We have been recently told that one of the patients who was supplied with oxygen using the new mask is already recuperating at home. It feels good that the work in which we took a small part has a positive outcome.”
– said Ádám Csaba, who produces the component for the masks.
With the current situation in view, the coronavirus related state of medical preparedness is expected to be maintained in the country—more information to be found here.
Henry Ford, Ferdinand Porsche, and the Bentley brothers – the names of the pioneers in the car industry are still preserved in the factories they founded. Perhaps fewer people know, however, that engineers of Hungarian origin also made a significant contribution to the development of the industry. The name of József Galamb, who designed the Ford T-model, is still relatively known, but did you know that one of the inventors of the streamlined body and car safety is also of Hungarian origin?
The first era of driving began when two rival German engineers, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, laid the foundations for the revolution in individual mobility by creating the internal combustion engine; this is the first milestone in the rise of cars.
Hungarian engineers also played an important role in the history of the car industry that started around that time.
With the help of information received from the History television channel, Origo recalls the most important Hungarian pioneers in the automotive industry.
The birth of the carburettor
The first petrol engines still used surface atomisation, so the petrol-air mixture produced in the combustion chamber was only more-or-less good. This problem was solved by the invention of the carburettor, invented by two employees of the Ganz factory, Donát Bánki and János Csonka, professors at the Technical University.
The idea, the legend says, was given by a circuit flower girl who sprayed the flowers with a hand water sprayer.
We do not know if this is true. In any case, with the invention, the gasoline engine has become a reliable engine. The patent application was granted to them in 1893, about half a year before the German Wilhelm Maybach. All over the world, the two Hungarian geniuses are still considered the inventors of the carburettor.
From Makó to Detroit
Born into a poor peasant family in Makó, József Galamb had already decided at school that he wanted to work with cars. He first went to Germany on a scholarship and then travelled to America with all his money saved to see the 1900 St. Louis World Fair. He then settled in Detroit, where Henry Ford noticed him. At Ford, Galamb, with another Hungarian, Farkas Eugene, planned the T-Model.
It became a real people’s car, with 15 million sold in twenty years. During the designing, the engineers of Hungarian origin introduced several innovations. His invention was, for example, the planetary gearbox. Until his retirement as a valued employee at Ford, he was involved in the design of several models of József Galamb, aka Joe Galamb, who died in 1955 at the age of 74 in Detroit.
The father of streamlines
The first cars were made with an angular carriage-like body. The science of aerodynamics was brought into the automotive industry by a monarchical engineer. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family, Pál Járay studied in Vienna, Prague, and then designed airships at the famous German Zeppelin factory. After World War I, he built the largest wind tunnel in the world at the time and then turned to cars. He settled in Switzerland, where he opened his auto body design office.
Járay showed that it is not enough to simply round the square parts, as the air prefers only certain shapes. He used a tilted windshield, placed the wheels under the bodywork, and also designed the passenger compartment into a drop shape. In 1922, a car with a design that is scientifically based in aerodynamics was completed under its patent, which exceeded the speed of 100 kilometres per hour with its 1.5-litre, 20 horsepower engine. Its principles are also applied by Audi, Bugatti, and Mercedes.
Italian racing cars with a Hungarian heart
The history of today’s Formula 1 began in 1950, but even before World War II, grand prize seasons and even a constructors world championship were held. The first was won by Alfa Romeo in 1925; their P2 race car won 2 of the four races. His designer was called Viktor János – it is true that the world did not know him with that name but as Vittorio Jano because he was born in Italy, of Hungarian emigrants. He was one of the leading designers in the automotive industry in the 1920s and 1930s. He later joined Lancia and then Ferrari, where
he designed the Jano V12 engine with which the famous brand won two sports car world championships in the 1950s.
His work is perhaps best praised by Henry Ford’s saying: “When I see an Alfa Romeo go by, I tip my hat.”
The guardian angel of drivers
Not far from Detroit is the Automotive Hall of Fame, the hall of the automotive immortals, which has only had one member of Hungarian descent to this day, who, moreover, was elected, in an unprecedented way, in his lifetime. Béla Barényi was born the child of a Hungarian military officer and a wealthy Austrian factory heiress, but after his father fell in World War I, the family became impoverished. Yet Barényi learned the engineering profession and entered the German automotive industry.
He participated in the design of the Volkswagen beet,
then from 1939, he worked for Mercedes, where he devoted his life primarily to safety improvements. His name is associated with the collapsible safety steering column, crumble zone, safety headrest, or non-deformable passenger compartment, but he also began crash testing at Mercedes. The German car factory owes 2,500 inventions and patents to him, including those that have since defined not only Benz’s products but also the car industry as a whole.
The Rubik’s Cube, also known as the Hungarian Magic Cube, broke into the Japanese market 40 years ago. On this occasion, the Hungarian Embassy in Tokyo called on the Japanese art world to create works inspired by the Rubik’s Cube. The project started in September and the “cube exhibition” was opened to the media this week.
Since its introduction, the 3D puzzle game has affected almost every area of life, including design, math, brain research etc. The special project was launched by the Hungarian Embassy in Tokyo in September, during which the artists, the works made for the anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube and the creative process were presented in short videos. The show opened on the 40th anniversary of the Magic Cube’s debut in Japan.
The unique feature of these works is that they were all inspired by the most famous Hungarian invention in the world, the Rubik’s Cube.
On 24th November, the works of art created by Japanese artists at the initiative of the Hungarian Embassy in Tokyo were presented to the Japanese press and the general public. At the solemn opening, Her Majesty Princess Takamado paid tribute as a guest of honour.
One of the most creative ideas was born by Kuma Kengo, the designer of the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and other famous Japanese buildings, who created a rotatable and movable Rubik’s cube-shaped furniture.
However, other creative ideas also impressed the audience, such as:
Chef Koyama Susumu’s white chocolate cube creation process.
Nakashima Jo, who has millions of views on his video channel and created a special magnetic origami Rubik’s cube.
The eleventh-generation, renowned potter, Ohi Toshio, who has a tradition of 350 years, reproduced the colours of the cube to create fired pottery.
A contemporary Japanese dancer who performed a dance inspired by the Rubik’s Cube.
Kayama Hiroyasu, the owner of one of the best bars in Asia, Ben Fiddich in Tokyo, made a Unicum-based cocktail.
A documentary will be made about the artists’ creative process and creations which will soon be uploaded to the embassy’s online platforms.
According to Ambassador, Norbert Palanovics, the Hungarian Magic Cube is “experiencing its third heyday in Japan. The first was in the 1980s, when the Rubik’s Cube was introduced, and the second was in the early 2000s, when brain gymnastics games became popular. And the third is now, this year. This is not only due to the 40th anniversary, but also to the fact that many have rediscovered the cube for themselves during the restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Japanese distributor, two and a half times as many Rubik’s Cubes were sold in Japan in the first half of this year as last year.”
He also added that “the peculiarity of the Rubik’s Cube is that almost every Japanese person knows what it is. So far, very few knew that the cube and its inventor were Hungarian. One of our most important missions during the current project and exhibition is to make as many people as possible aware that this creative invention and its creator is Hungarian. We want the Japanese people to be able to connect the message and symbolism of the Rubik’s Cube, especially creativity, science-based playful learning and innovation, even better with Hungary.”
As the Hungarian news portal Index reports, the special objects can be seen from Wednesday, 25th November to February 2021 at the Hungarian Cultural Institute, which opened last year in the heart of Tokyo. After the exhibition, the works of art will be put up for auction, and the proceeds will be used for charity.
The Rubik’s Cube is a Hungarian invention named after its inventor, architect Ernő Rubik. It is a colourful puzzle in the shape of a cube that has captivated the world since its invention in the ‘80s. But how could it help us solve the current coronavirus pandemic or any other pressing matters?
Ernő Rubik himself has written an article in The Washington Post in which he explains why it might help us find answers to the pressing matters of our era. He admits that the first time he made the Cube, it took nearly a month for him to figure it out, but he sees the possibility of ending crises with the help of the mentality that allows people to solve the Cube itself.
As Ernő Rubik points out, the expression of solving the Cube has become a metaphor for solving “vexing” and complex matters,
as he puts it, and it has become a shorthand for intricate matters that do not have an easy answer. He thinks that it might not only become a shorthand for the coronavirus, as the world was shocked by this pandemic and people are still blindly searching for answers, but the clue to solving it as well.
“A Rubik’s Cube is engaged individually, but solving it is about human solidarity,” Ernő Rubik wrote.
He argues that the Rubik’s Cube is a good metaphor for teaching humanity how it can cope with its problems. It is not force or impatience or sly acts that get one closer to solving the Cube. In fact, it is quite the opposite, as it teaches people patience and effort. There are more than “43 quintillion possible combinations”, but it is only one that leads to success. Yet, people irrespective of their age, beliefs, gender, race, or any other attributes can be puzzled by and solve the Cube. People might feel overwhelmed or powerless when trying to figure out the Cube on their own. Of course, there are dedicated people who can achieve such things themselves, but the majority of people who have ever held a Rubik’s Cube in their hands do not know how to do that. Even though this is true, many people who, by themselves, might never have been able to reach the rewarding conclusion of such a puzzle can now do so. People are best when sharing knowledge and learning:
“[I]f true innovation is the calling of the few, teaching and learning is the realm of many”.
Although, in essence, solving the Cube is a “solitary challenge”, it is something that also calls up a deeper human quality: “empathy”. Most people who have solved the Rubik’s Cube learned how to do so from someone else, read it in a book, or found a tutorial about it. What is important is that it shows us that
“[W]hen humanity faces a crisis, we must always remember that we are more alike than different; it is our similarities that make us human in the first place […] the successful approach will be based on comprehending our shared humanity”.
Humanity needs to endure failures and persevere in the face of all odds until it finally finds the answers it seeks. And when it does find answers, mankind needs to share that knowledge because it is only then that it moves all of us forward and solves the crises of our modern age. Here is hoping that the chaotic blend of some of the most pressing matters of 2020 will mark a turning point and help us realise our vulnerability and shape humanity to have more concern for its own fate.
This series will try to introduce our readers to Hungarian inventions or products that might be less known. This particular article will be about Hungarian weapons or weaponised vehicles built or designed by Hungarian professionals. Some of them were only prototypes, but others have even influenced the conduct of modern warfare.
Hungarian Panzerfaust
Heavy anti-tank rocket developed by Hungarians
Source: honvedelem.hu/hatter/multidezo/magyar-csodafegyverek-a-masodik-vilaghaboruban.html
The emergence and number of the Soviet armoured vehicles and heavy tanks in 1942 incited the production of Hungarian anti-tank missiles, as at that time the Germans were reluctant to hand over the blueprints of their own panzerfaust – Honvédelem reports. The missile department of the Institute of Military Technology embarked on the development of two types. The smaller was the 60mm diameter 44M anti-tank hand-held missile launcher, the larger was
the 215mm 44M mace projectile’, which was the first known heavy anti-tank missile in the world,
with a charge of more than four pounds. It had its own portable dual launcher that could be operated from a truck-bed or the ground. Hungary was the third state in the world – only after the Third Reich and the US – to build deployable anti-tank missiles.
Turán Medium Tank
Turán medium tank
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Fortepan: Lissák Tivadar
The Turán was a Hungarian medium tank developed during WWII. It was inspired by and used solutions from the Czechoslovak Škoda T-21 medium tank. The Turán was produced in two main variants: the 40M (or Turán I) with a 40mm gun and the 41M (or Turán II) with a 75 mm gun. There was also a prototype variant, the 43M (or Turán III). The prototypes were built, but as work on the project stopped in 1944, it did not go to production. Two of the Škoda T-22s were given to Hungary in 1941. It had a 47mm gun, but Hungarian engineers decided to replace the original with a Hungarian-manufactured 40mm gun due to both economic and military reasons. The domestically manufactured 40mm’s muzzle velocity was higher, therefore it had better armour penetrating capabilities.
Hungarian soldiers riding on a Turán medium tank
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-244-2306-15
The Škoda factory carried out the modifications. They put the Hungarian gun into the original Czech gun cradle; additionally, the front armour was also modified by riveting an additional 20mm thick armour plate onto the original making it 50mm thick. In total, only 424 were made. The Turáns were employed by the 1st and 2nd Hungarian Armoured Divisions, as well as the 1st Cavalry Division, in 1943 and 1944.
There is only one known surviving Turán tank, which is a Turán II on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum.
The only Turán left in the Kubinka Museum
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Mike1979 Russia
Hollow charge
According to Honvédelem, the basis of the modern cumulative (HEAT) ammunition is based on the works of a Hungarian-German scientist pair. Their devices’ principle of operation is called the Misnay-Schardin effect. The cumulative explosives used today are primarily based on the weapons developed by József Misnay, Major General of the Military Technical Staff at the Royal Hungarian Institute of Military Technology between 1938 and 1944.
Although other contemporary scientists were also tackling the field of hollow charges, such as German physicists from ‘30s, it was Misnay, who achieved serious practical results that could be used during WWII.
He developed both the 43M cumulative and the LŐTAK, meaning “shooting plate mine” which were widely deployed as a line of defence in the Eastern Carpathians, but they could not affect the outcome of the war.
“Király submachine gun”
According to Portfolio, the Danuvia 39M and 43M are often referred to as “Király submachine gun” after the firearm’s engineer and designer, Pál Király. This handgun was manufactured in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s and was used by the Royal Hungarian Army. The main difference between the two types is mainly the fact that the original had a wooden stock, while the later 43M model had a foldable metal stock and the barrel was a bit shorter. The special feature of the gun is that the magazine can be folded into a slot parallel to the barrel. It was a popular, reliable and effective weapon. Unfortunately, only 8-10,000 of them were manufactured, so only a few Hungarian fighting formations received one.
The Gepárd family of weapons
Source: Honvédelem.hu
According to Portolio, the Gepárd family of weapons is a series of high-performance sniper and anti-material weapons. Their development began in the late ‘80s. The Gepárd has several members from M1 to M6, firing 12.7mm and 14.5mm ammunitions. Basically, they are especially heavy (12-18 kg) large-sized weapons (0.8-1.37 metres of transport length). They are suitable for both live targets and are capable of destroying lightly armoured vehicles, equipment or buildings.
Apart from the Hungarian Defence Forces, the weapons of the Gepárd family are also used by U.S. armed forces, French legionnaires and Turkey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGmcf6qjI7g
Titan – the ultrasonic weapon
It sounds like a far-fetched idea even by today’s standards, but during WWII, Hungarian engineers were serious about building an ultrasonic weapon. According to Honvédelem, its designer, Kálmán Tihanyi, was already interested in ultrasound before the war broke out and was trying to develop a device that could use ultrasonic waves as a means of killing insects. After Hungary joined the conflict, a plan was hatched to develop an ultrasonic weapon for the military. It used a parabolic mirror to focus and control the sound waves, and the range was designed to be nearly eight kilometres.
The Titan would have been a new type of weapon in the entire world. Although the Germans were previously experimenting with such weapons, the Hungarian variant could have been applied more widely. Miklós Horthy’s imagination was also captured by futuristic weapon, so he met Tihany at audiences and began to urge the prototype.
The inventor, on the other hand, came into contact with the anti-Nazi civil resistance movement and became increasingly afraid of how his invention could be used, so he and his colleagues began to slow down the project intentionally.
This series will try to introduce our readers to Hungarian inventions or products that might be less known. You might have heard about József Galamb for example, a Hungarian engineer who helped develop the world-famous Ford Model T. In this article we would like to introduce some other cars that were designed, built or assembled by Hungarian people.
Puli
Puli car
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Dh7adr
The name of the Hódmezővásárhely Agricultural Machinery Manufacturing Company is associated with the production of the electric-powered small car named ‘Puli’. The small vehicle, mainly designed for urban use, was marketed in multiple body variants; there was a two-seater, an open leisure car and a van. According to Vezess, at first, it was powered by a small diesel engine with a performance of about five horsepower. Later they developed a 7.4 kW electric motor version, which was originally powered by ten 6V 240 amp-hour Perion batteries. The vehicle’s main components came from cars available on the market at the time; Škoda, Polski, Lada, Zuk. The chassis was made of fibreglass plastic, for which they awarded the makers. By today, they have almost completely disappeared from the roads, although there have never been many, to begin with.
Some of them are heavily remodelled and still hold themselves in cemeteries as quiet, though not so elegant hearses. The Puli cost twice as much as a Lada due to custom manufacturing, so it was never really a market hit.
János Csonka car
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Pilgab
According to Vezess, the Hungarian car production was at its peak in the time of János Csonka. The very first, “truly” Hungarian car was named after its creator, János Csonka. The vehicle was completed at the end of May 1905 and immediately set off from the campus of the University of Technology and Economics for a 2,000 km test drive. It performed very well. Its engine was a four-cylinder, four-stroke water-cooled design with a transmission attached to it. It managed to achieve an average speed of 26 km/h on the rough roads of Transylvania, Upper Hungary and the Great Plain.
The car also had a large cargo space, so it was widely used by the Hungarian Post for decades.
Source: Wikimedia Commons / Elekes Andor
Borbála
Borbála sports car Source: autoszektor.hu
According to Origo, lacking a door, the driver had to climb into the car. Even though the gauges of the car were from a Lada and it had Ikarus seats, the Borbála sports car was the star of the 1989 Hungexpo. It originally started as a hobby car; Lajos Tóth, an engineer of the Institute of Transport Sciences and an outstanding figure of the Hungarian kart racing, built it in his free time. The Platinum Small Cooperative liked the car and wanted to make it in small series production.
For many decades, this was the first Hungarian sports car. It has an English-style chassis, but the engine, transmission and suspension were from the Lada 2106.
The roadster was named Borbála, after the daughter of the designer. Many people were interested in the car, but the type approval would have required various examinations and tests, for which Albert László’s cooperative could not raise enough capital after the change of regime.
Borbála sports car in the news Source: autoszektor.hu
Alma
Alma convertible from the 1995/16 copy of Autó Motor Source: automotor.hu
It is not common to organise a press conference for a Hungarian-designed car, but this happened at ‘Alma’ in 1995. According to Origo, public opinion was somewhat mixed, but the majority of people thought that the car was not worth its price. Alma was a convertible based on a second-hand Trabant 601 that had been refurbished. The drum brake was poor, and the suspension was jumping, but the refurbished Fiat 127 engine built next to the tank was quite good. Actually, the only part made in Hungary was the fibreglass body, but at least the company from Biharkeresztes tried to cook something interesting up.
As the roughly 20 sold cars indicate the idea was overdue, but today many veterans car enthusiasts are hunting for the remaining Alma.
Silver Sting
The Silver Sting Source: bovims.com
According to Hvg, the Brokernet Silver Sting is the first domestic racing car to be designed and built entirely in Hungary with the help of Hungarian experts. The development of the car took nine years in total, and only two were made.
The total cost of the development reached 250 million Forints (~€714,000).
The car was designed by Bovi Motorsport and the departments of Automotive and Fluid Mechanics of the University of Technology and Economics, but the production process was carried out entirely by Bovi Motorsport. The design of the car was made by designer and craftsman Zoltán Peredy. The race car was made using Kevlar, titanium, carbon fibre, and composite materials used in aircraft manufacturing.
The Silver Sting Source: bovims.com
The Brokernet Silver Sting is powered by a 437-horsepower, 3.6-liter, six-cylinder engine that was developed from the Porsche 911 GT3 engine. The car is just over 1.1 tonnes thanks to its lightweight construction. As a result of its remarkable 2.5 kg/hp weight-horsepower ratio and sophisticated aerodynamics, the vehicle has a high downforce, which, combined with the extended wheelbase and broader track gauge, gives the car excellent stability.
The acceleration of the car is also remarkable, reaching a speed of 100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds.
