Some famous names

Have you known that Slovaks are quite inventing nation? Although a small country, several Slovak names have been world famous:

• Ján Vlk Kempelen (Johann Wolfgang von Kempelen, 1734-1804) built the first fountain and pressure water piping, designed a chess machine, speaking machine and a special typewriter for the blind.
• Thanks to Jozef Murgaš (1864-1929), who invented the wireless telegraph, you can listen to the radio.
• If you are keen on aviation, Štefan Banič (1870-1941) invented the military parachute and the first actively used parachute in the world.
• Jozef Maximilián Petzval (Josef Maximilian Petzval, 1807-1891) – mathematician, optician, constructor of camera zoom lens, is considered by many to be the founder of modern photography.
• Samuel Fischer (1859-1934), founder of the Fischer-Verlag (in 1886),was born in the northern Slovakia in Liptovský Mikuláš.
• Parents of Andy Warhol (Andrej Warhola, 1928-1987), immigrated to the USA 7 years before Andy’s birthday, in 1921, from Eastern Slovakia. Andy Warhol, the significant personality within the Pop-Art movement, has been considered one of the most influential artist of the 20th century.
• The former world No. 1 in women tennis, Martina Hingis, was born and lived her first years in Košice in a family of Slovak father and Czech mother, who has later immigrated to Switzerland.