As far as European countries go, Hungary is not one of the most well known. But as Budapest gets ever more popular, more attention is being drawn to this Central European country and all it has to offer. But Hungarian minds and inventions have probably already influenced your life more than you know. Here are five inventions you may not have known were Hungarian. Have you used any of them before?
Rubik’s Cube
When I first moved to Budapest I wondered why there were Rubik’s Cubes in allll of the souvenir shops. And now I get it! The Rubik’s Cube is basically a national treasure of Hungary. In 1974, Erno Rubik presented his prototype of the 3×3 Rubik’s Cube to the world. For the first five years, Rubik’s invention was actually called the “Magic Cube”, due to the intense difficulty of solving it. Because of the Iron Curtain, most of the world actually didn’t meet the Rubik’s Cube until the early 80s. But from there, success skyrocketed. Decades later, the puzzle toy has gone down in history. And it all started in Hungary!
Vitamin C
I’ll never look at an orange the same way again. While no one can take the credit for inventing Vitamin C, Albert Szent-Györgyi is credited for its discovery. And as if the discovery couldn’t get any more Hungarian, Szent-Györgyi actually used paprika as a crucial part of his research! So the next time a cold comes on and you knock back a packet of Emergen-C, you can say a silent thank you to Albert.
Holography
Think of your favorite sci-fi show. Are there aliens in it? Space travels? Holograms? If it has the last one, you can thank Dénes Gábor. Otherwise known as the “Father of Holography”, the story goes that Gábor had his final breakthrough while waiting for a game of tennis. He later won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his advances in 1971. Gábor’s original hologram was a far cry from those in Star Trek, but he still made waves (light waves, that is). So all of your sci-fi fantasies just got a little more Hungarian!
Ballpoint Pen
For every love letter, angry journal entry, or last-minute grocery list you’ve put down in ink, you can thank László Bíró, the inventor of the ballpoint pen. (Feather quill, who?) And who knew there was so much drama surrounding a tool as commonplace as a pen?
Bíró perfected his design for the ballpoint pen in 1938 with the help of his brother. The Bíró brothers whisked their invention off to Argentina, of all places, where the design was eventually copied by an American traveler and redistributed in the States under a new patent. The disputes and lawsuits abounded, with quite a few companies laying claim, but eventually Bíró teamed up with Marcel Bich (of Bic), and his design of ballpoint pens reign supreme once again.
Prezi
A more recent innovation of technological nature, chances are you’ve come across Prezi in the office or your school. The presentation software was invented by Adam Somlai-Fischer, Peter Halacsy and Peter Arvai in 2009. What I think of as the “fun Powerpoint”, Prezi is known for it’s conversational style, intuitive layout, and strong customer service. And the software has done nothing but expand! The Hungarian innovations just keep on coming!
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