Everyday Inventions

Rubik's Cube & Hungarian Inventors

Course 1 · Chapter 5 · Other Everyday Inventions

Beyond the cube and the pen, a long list of Hungarian names is attached to inventions in electricity, engines, optics and communication. Some of these claims are solid, some are partial and some are disputed. This chapter goes through the main ones and rates each by how secure the claim is, using the distinctions of Chapter 1: idea, builder, success. Names, dates and details are from general knowledge and flagged for checking, and the ratings are my own judgement, not a settled verdict.

How to Read the List

A simple rating helps (check each, as the ratings are a judgement):

  • Secure. A well-documented contribution that most accounts agree on.
  • Partial. A real contribution, but one of several, or only part of the finished invention.
  • Disputed. A claim of "first" or "invented" that other sources contest.

The Claims

The safety match, János Irinyi

A chemistry student, said in the 1830s to have developed a match that lit quietly and reliably by using lead dioxide in place of potassium chlorate (check the details). Rating: partial to secure, since other chemists worked on matches at the same time.

The electric motor and dynamo, Ányos Jedlik

A Benedictine monk and physicist who built an early electromagnetic rotating device around 1827 to 1828, and the principle of the self-excited dynamo in the 1850s and 1860s (check the dates; he is also linked to a soda-water process). Rating: partial, since similar work was done elsewhere in the same years, and Jedlik published little.

The carburettor, Donát Bánki and János Csonka

Two engineers at Budapest who patented a carburettor design in 1893 (check). Rating: partial, since other designers, notably Wilhelm Maybach, are also credited (check).

The transformer, Zipernowsky, Déri and Bláthy

Three engineers at the Ganz works in Budapest who developed a practical closed-core transformer in 1885 (check) and the name "transformer" is often attributed to them. Rating: secure for a practical commercial design, partial for the idea.

Holography, Dennis Gábor

Born Gábor Dénes in Budapest, he devised the principle of holography in 1947 while working in Britain, and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971 (check). Rating: secure, though the lasers that made holograms practical came later.

Electronic television, Kálmán Tihanyi

An engineer who filed patents in the 1920s for an electronic camera tube (check), which is cited in disputes over the origins of television. Rating: disputed or partial, since Zworykin, Farnsworth and others also have claims.

The telephone exchange, Tivadar Puskás

A Hungarian entrepreneur linked with Edison, credited with early telephone exchange work and with the Telefon Hírmondó news service in Budapest in the 1890s (check). Rating: partial.

The Pattern

  • Ganz works. Several names are linked to the Ganz factory in Budapest, a major electrical and engineering firm of the later nineteenth century (check). This suggests that the achievement came from an institution as well as from individuals.
  • Simultaneous invention. For matches, motors, carburettors and television, similar ideas appeared in different places around the same time. That is common in the history of technology, and it complicates national claims.
  • Abroad. Gábor's holography and the work of the emigre scientists in later chapters were done outside Hungary (see Chapter 8).
  • Success. The names that people remember are often those whose products spread, which is not always the same as the first inventors.
Why the ratings matter A list that says "Hungarians invented all of these" mixes secure and doubtful claims, and does the achievements no favours. A careful list is more persuasive, because a reader who finds one error stops trusting the rest.
A British comparison Britain has the same disputes over who invented the television (John Logie Baird, a Scot, is the usual British claim), the steam engine and the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh). Compare how national pride shapes which claims get repeated (check the comparison).
Check the details Dates, patent details, the attribution of the word "transformer" and the ratings are easy to misstate, and the ratings are a judgement. Verify against patent records and a reliable history before quoting.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Choose two inventions from the chapter and rate each as secure, partial or disputed, with a reason.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Explain why simultaneous invention complicates a claim that a nation "invented" something.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Describe the role of an institution such as the Ganz works in a list of individual inventors.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Irinyi: match (check)
  • Jedlik: motor and dynamo (check)
  • Bánki and Csonka: carburettor, 1893 (check)
  • Ganz engineers: transformer, 1885 (check)
  • Gábor: holography, Nobel 1971 (check)
  • Tihanyi, Puskás: television and telephone claims (check)
  • Ratings: secure, partial, disputed