Slavoljub Penkala
Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (April 20, 1871 - February 5, 1922) was an engineer and inventor from Croatia.
Penkala was born in Liptovský Mikuláš (in what is now Slovakia), to a Polish/Dutch family. He finished schooling in Vienna and Dresden. He then immigrated with his family to Zagreb and subsequently added "Slavoljub" to his name, also becoming a naturalized Croat.
He became renowned for his inventions of the first mechanical pencil (1906) (then called "automatic pencil") and the first solid-ink fountain pen (1907). Together with an enterpreneur by the name of Edmund Moster, he started a factory of pens and pencils "Penkala-Moster" that was one of the bigger in the world at the time, and still exists today (named "TOZ-Penkala", where TOZ stood for "Tvornica olovaka Zagreb", meaning "Zagreb pencil factory").
He also constructed the first Croatian two-seat aeroplane in 1909. He constructed and invented many other products and devices, and has under his name a total of 80 patents.
Among his patented inventions are:
- a hot water bottle (his first patented invention, the "Termofor"),
- a type of bluing detergent,
- a rail-car brake
- and an anode battery.
He also founded another factory named "Elevator" that produced various chemistry-related items, such as "Radium Vinovica", a patent-medicine-like product sold as curing various forms of rheumatism.
Penkala died rather abruptly in Zagreb at the age of 51, after picking up pneumonia on a business trip.
