Top reasons why Hungarians are great

Being Hungarian gives you a sense of pride, the country is very beautiful and, across history, it has had its place among the most powerful empires in the world. Just think about the fact that there are 13 Nobel laureates that have brought a Nobel prize in every category except peace.

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The matter of fact is that Hungary has had its share of inventors all throughout history and we can be proud of every one of them because they revolutionized their fields one way or another. And we are not talking about inventing the Hoyer lift, although if we make a comparison between Hoyer lifts and the ballpoint pen, they both made a difference for a lot of people.

We’ve gathered 6 inventions of Hungarian people which you probably didn’t know come from Hungary.

1. Rubik’s cube

Erno Rubik was an architecture professor and also a sculptor who invented one of the most favorite puzzles around the world, a puzzle that still engages the minds of people everywhere. Rubik’s cube is the best-sold toy around the world, a 3D puzzle combination that can be used by children and adults at the same time.

It was invented in 1974 and it’s been making people use their minds for more than 4 decades.

• Puma’s newest collection features the world-famous Rubik’s Cube – Photos

2. The ballpoint pen

In the 19th century, people were still writing with pens. For László Bíró this was a burden. He was a journalist and it took him a lot of time to fill the fountain pen and his paper was always soaked in ink. That is why he came up with the idea of using ink similar to newspaper ink so that it could dry faster.

Together with his brother György, who was a chemist, they came up with a solution that involved a ball-socket mechanism that made it all possible. So in 1938, they patented it and their invention is now used by millions of people all over the world. From China to the UK, everybody has heard of the ballpoint pen, but few people know that is was a Hungarian who invented it.

3. Holography

We can say that holography is one of the most revolutionary inventions of all time. Some scientists studying the mind and quantum physics have developed a theory saying that the whole world is just a holographic image produced by the brain. Fascinating, right?

Holography is the field that studies holograms, structures that use light diffraction to produce 3D images.

The Hungarian responsible for discovering this new field was Dennis Gabor, who won a Nobel prize for his invention in 1971.

4. The functional helicopter

Asbóth Oszkár was an aviation engineer who began studying flight possibilities since he was very young, growing up in Arad, a city currently situated in Romania. Some of his inventions were used during World War I and he is often credited with being one of the pioneers who played with the idea of helicopters.

5. The electric motor

Believe it or not, the man who made the first electric motor was Hungarian.

His name was Ányos Jedlik and he used to study the continuous rotation process that he later on included in an invention that he called the electromagnetic self-rotors.

Unfortunately, his invention was only used for teaching, but he managed to revolutionize the way scientists thought of practical motors. He was a pioneer in DC motors, but his engine didn’t use permanent magnets. In 1828 Jedlik managed to get ideas that made the world what it is now and he was considered a great inventor of those times.

6. Matches

Matches are known to historians since the early years of the Chinese Empire, but the first noiseless matches were invented in 1836 by János Irinyi, who at that time was a chemistry student. He had the idea to use lead dioxide instead of potassium chlorate to ignite the match.

The rights for selling these matches came to a Hungarian pharmacist who was living in Vienna at the time, István Rómer, who became rich using this invention.

There are a lot of reasons why Hungary is a great country and a lot of inventors come from here not by chance. Hungarian people have always put a great price on education. It’s no wonder the literacy of the population in Hungary is up to 99%.

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