Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (April 20, 1871 - February 5, 1922) was an engineer and inventor from Croatia. Photo of Slavoljub Penkala, inventor of the mechanical pencil and the fountain pen; photo taken in 1920. ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 1871 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

Penkala was born in Liptovský Mikuláš (in what is now Slovakia), to a Polish/Dutch family. He finished schooling in Vienna and Dresden. He then immigrated with his family to Zagreb and subsequently added "Slavoljub" to his name, also becoming a naturalized Croat. Liptovský Mikuláš (German: Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus, Hungarian: Liptószentmiklós) is a town in northern Slovakia, on the river Váh. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... Brühls Terrace and the Frauenkirche Dresden [ˈdreːsdn̩] (Sorbian/Lusatian Drježdźany), the capital city of the German federal state of Saxony, is situated in a valley on the river Elbe. ... Zagreb (pronounced ZA-greb) is the capital city of Croatia. ... Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a south Slavic people mostly living in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (where theyre one of the constitutive nations). ...

He became renowned for his inventions of the first mechanical pencil (1906) (then called "automatic pencil") and the first solid-ink fountain pen (1907). Together with an enterpreneur by the name of Edmund Moster, he started a factory of pens and pencils "Penkala-Moster" that was one of the bigger in the world at the time, and still exists today (named "TOZ-Penkala", where TOZ stood for "Tvornica olovaka Zagreb", meaning "Zagreb pencil factory"). A couple of very simple pencils Colored pencils are usually used for drawing instead of writing. ... 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... A fountain pen is a writing instrument, more specifically a pen, that contains a reservoir of water-based ink that is fed to a nib through a feed via a combination of gravity and capillary action. ... 1907 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

He also constructed the first Croatian two-seat aeroplane in 1909. He constructed and invented many other products and devices, and has under his name a total of 80 patents. This article refers to the tool of travel. ... 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Among his patented inventions are:

• a hot water bottle (his first patented invention, the "Termofor"),
• a type of bluing detergent,
• a rail-car brake
• and an anode battery.

He also founded another factory named "Elevator" that produced various chemistry-related items, such as "Radium Vinovica", a patent-medicine-like product sold as curing various forms of rheumatism. A detergent is a compound, or a mixture of compounds, intended to assist cleaning. ... Four double-A batteries In science and technology, a battery is a device that stores energy and makes it available in an electrical form. ... Patent medicine is the term given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels, though they were for the most part actually trademarked medicines, not patented. ... Rheumatism or Rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the bones and joints. ...

Penkala died rather abruptly in Zagreb at the age of 51, after picking up pneumonia on a business trip. Zagreb (pronounced ZA-greb) is the capital city of Croatia. ... Pneumonia (the ancient Greek word for lungs) is defined as an inflamation, usually caused by infection, involving the alveoli of the lungs. ...

External link

• About Penkala (http://www.penkala.hr/)