Invention and Memory

An invention is made in a particular place and political system, and it is later remembered, or not, by a particular country. This chapter looks at the conditions under which Hungarian inventors worked, especially in the communist period; how the cube fits into that picture; how inventors are commemorated today; and why credit and nationality are still argued over. It touches politics and national identity, and the course describes the facts and the disputes without taking a side. Names, dates and details are from general knowledge and flagged for checking.

Invention Under the State

From the late 1940s until 1989 Hungary had a state-run economy. For an inventor this had several consequences (check each, since the detailed rules changed over the decades):

• Employment. Most research and development took place in state institutes, universities and state-owned firms, so inventions were often made by employees and belonged to the institution (check how ownership and credit were handled).
• Patents and rewards. There was a patent system and a system of rewards for inventors and "innovators" at firms, with payments and awards (check the details and how generous they were).
• Trade. Foreign trade was handled by state trading organisations, so an inventor with a product for export needed to work through them (check which organisations).
• Travel and contact. Travel, publication abroad and contact with Western firms were limited and controlled, though not wholly closed, and varied over time (check).

The Cube as a Cold War Success

The Magic Cube passed through this system (Chapter 2). It was made by a Hungarian firm, sold abroad through a state trading organisation, and licensed to Western firms (check the organisations, and the sums involved, which accounts disagree on). It became a rare example of a consumer product from a socialist country that was a worldwide bestseller. Rubik himself became a public figure, and later a champion of creativity and education, and was allowed some freedom to travel (check).

Museums and Heritage

Inventors are remembered in several ways (check what exists and what is currently open):

How Hungary Remembers Its Inventors

• Pride. The idea of a clever small nation is a strong part of Hungarian popular self-image, and appears in school books, television and tourism (check).
• Selectivity. The names remembered are often those with international fame. Others who worked quietly at home may be less known (check).
• The emigres. Their place in memory changed over the decades, from silence or ambivalence in the communist period to open celebration later (Chapter 8, check).
• Commerce. Inventors' names are used on products, streets and companies, and the cube appears in souvenir shops and tourist material (check).

Disputes over Credit and Nationality

Three kinds of dispute recur (check examples of each):

1. Who did it first? The questions of Chapters 1, 4, 5 and 6: priority, shared work and simultaneous invention.
2. Whose is it? People born in the old Kingdom of Hungary in territories now in other countries, or who took other citizenship, are claimed by more than one country (Chapter 7).
3. Who profited? Inventors and states, firms and licensees, shared the money unevenly, and some inventors received little (check cases).

The course does not try to settle these. A useful habit is to state which sense of "Hungarian" a claim uses, and what exactly was contributed.

Exercises