PENKALA, EDUARD-SLAVOJUB Invented the Pen

The invention is the “mechanical pencil” whose variant can be found in the pockets of our contemporaries. Both the technical pencil and the fountain pen were invented by the engineer Eduard Penkala (b. Sv. Mikulas 1871-d. Zagreb, Croatia 1919). A typical homo faber of the industrial age, he settled in Zagreb at the beginning of the century. He set up a chemical laboratory and workshops, where he invented and patented about 80 chemistry, mechanical and aviation devices. He was an extremely talented and innovative person, the first to record in 1909, the opera and operetta airs on a gramophone record, He was an amateur pilot and constructed his own aeroplane in 1910. In 1906 he patented a mechanical pencil in Budapest and started its largescale production in various shapes and sizes in Zagreb, shortly after. Penkala soon became a synonym and brand name for the mechanical pencil, the real forerunner of the modern types of technical pencils and pens. There are Penkala’s in Opatija, Rijeka and Zagreb, Croatia.

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