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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