Croatia is a small country on the Adriatic sea – about the size of West Virginia, but that hasn’t stopped Croatian inventors from changing the world. Although Croatia is most known for its natural beauty and tourism, I’m pretty sure that you will be very familiar with 1-2 Croatian inventions. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.
The Necktie
The necktie is undoubtedly the most famous Croatian invention.
In the 17th century, France – King Louis XIII – the son of Henry IV and Marie de’ Medici, hired Croatian merchants. He soon realized that they all were wearing a tie around their neck as part of their uniform. He quite liked the look and decided that this piece of cloth around the neck, has to be worn at Royal gatherings. King Louis XIII names this clothing piece “La Cravate” (to honor the Croatian soldiers), which remains the French name for the necktie to this day.
You can find the oldest portrait of a person wearing a ‘cravat’ in Dubrovnik. The painting from 1622 is depicting Ivan Gundulic – the great Croatian poet – with a scarf tied around his neck like a cravat. The Cravat remains a worldwide recognized symbol for Croatia. It’s also very fashionable too!
Alternating Current
The alternating current is only one of many inventions by the great Nikola Tesla (I will write separate posts about Tesla, as he is one of my all-time favorite inventors of time. I may or may not have visited Palo Alto on Tesla’s birthday, just to see the Nikola Tesla Statue).
Back to the A/C. The alternating current changes its direction constantly and it delivers power to businesses and residences so that we can plug in our kitchen appliances and other electronics. I won’t go into the details of the differences between the alternating current and direct current as this is not a scientific post 🙂
Mechanical Pen
in the year 1906 Eduard Slavoljub Penkalo invented the mechanical pen. In the past people used to write with goose feathers, which was very messy and complicated. Penkalo improved previous prototypes and patented the idea of the pen that is filled with ink and much easier to use. His factory TOZ Penkala (Tvornica Olovaka Zagreb- Zagreb’s Pen Factory) still exists today.
‘Pen’ is obviously short of ‘Penkalo’ and used in a spoken language all over the world today.
MP3 Player
In 1997 Tomislav Uzelac – a Croatian programmer and student – developed the AMP MP3 Playback Engine, which is considered to be the first MP3 player. He studied at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER).
Dactyloscopy
Born on the island of Hvar in the Dalmatian region of Croatia in 1858 a part of the Habsburg Monarchy, Ivan Vučetić also known as Juan Vucetich changed the world of the criminal investigation. In 1884 Vucetic moved to Argentina, where he worked as a police official. He perfected the method of fingerprint analysis and helped to solve a double murder case with the use of fingerprints for the very first time. Dactyloscopy: the scientific study of fingerprints was born.
Parachute
16th Century, Šibenik, Croatia: Faust Vrančić – a Croatian bishop and inventor builds the first parachute. Although it is widely believed that one of my other favorite historic figures Leonardo Da Vinci was the one who created the first sketched for the parachute, Faust was the first one to successfully build and test the parachute by jumping of St Mark’s Campanile in 1617, Venice, Italy.
Sumamed (Azitromycin)
Another Croatian invention is Sumamed – one of the most used antibiotics in the world was developed by Pliva in Croatia. The name Sumamed derived from “Sum sumarum medicinae”, as the medicine was very effective in the treatment against bacteria.
Laminate Flooring
In 1970 Darko Pervan – a Swedish Croat – invented the laminate flooring in Sweden.
Dalmatians
While the dog breed Dalmatian is not an invention per se, it is good to know that the cute dog breed originates from the historical region Dalmatia in Croatia. Look at them! They are adorable 🙂
What is your favorite Croatian invention? Did you know that all of the above inventions came from Croatia? Next time you visit Croatia, try and look into the history and its inventions, as you may learn a thing or two 🙂 (also stop next to each statue, street, or library named after Nikola Tesla if you are like me).
