Slavoljub Eduard Penkala

Who was Slavoljub Eduard Penkala?

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala was a Croatian engineer and inventor of Dutch-Polish-Jewish descent.

Eduard Penkala was born in Liptovský Mikuláš, to Franciszek Pękała, who was of Polish heritage, and Maria Pękała, who was of Dutch heritage. He attended the University of Vienna and Technische Universität Dresden, graduating from the latter in 1898 and going on to earn a doctorate in organic chemistry. He then moved with his wife and family to Zagreb and to mark his loyalty to his new homeland he took on the Croatian name Slavoljub, becoming a naturalized Croat.

He became renowned for further development of the mechanical pencil —then called an "automatic pencil"—and the first solid-ink fountain pen. Collaborating with an entrepreneur by the name of Edmund Moster, he started the Penkala-Moster Company and built a pen-and-pencil factory that was one of the biggest in the world at the time. This company, now called TOZ Penkala, still exists today.

He also constructed the first Croatian two-seat aeroplane in 1909, which Dragutin Novak, the first Croatian pilot, used for his first flight. He constructed and invented many other products and devices, and held a total of 80 patents.