Czech inventions that took the world by storm: the verzatilka, the patentka and Semtex

Humans have been writing with graphite since time immemorial. The development of writing with a writing instrument, specifically the pencil, occurred in the first half of the 19th century. The Austrian architect and industrialist Josef Hardtmuth founded the Koh-i-noor Hardtmuth factory in Vienna in 1790. The architectural work, including the construction of the Lednice-Valtice site, required a lot of planning. To stop the lead breaking in the hand and to keep it from getting dirty, they encased it in a wooden sleeve. Koh-i-noor subsequently patented a number of important innovations: the production of pencil lead from graphite and clay, the principle of machine production, and the gradation of pencils by hardness from 8B to 10H. Other pencil manufacturers then adopted this gradation as the international standard.

Hardtmuth's son Carl moved the family business from Vienna to České Budějovice in 1848. Successes were not long in coming. In 1900, the iconic yellow pencil won an award at the Grand Prix in Paris and became the most famous pencil in the world. Output gradually reached its peak. The Budějovice factory employed almost two thousand people and produced around two hundred million pencils a year. The company was nationalized after the world wars. The famous mechanical pencil, the verzatilka, was launched in 1950. The name comes from the Czech word verzatilní (adaptable). The original wooden covering was replaced with metal and the lead could easily be replaced by opening the pencil.

An American girl with snap fasteners - Miss KIN

In addition to Zlín-based entrepreneur Tomáš Bat'a, the history of Czech haberdashery has another famous name - Jindřich Waldes. He successfully collaborated with mechanic Hynek Puc. In 1902, they started producing snap fasteners, pins and other metal haberdashery in the Prague district of Karlín and later in Vršovice. The company owes its unprecedented success to the snap fastener, and the subsequent automation of production.

The name of the fastener itself is also interesting. Waldes named it after the largest diamond in the world, the KOH-I-NOOR, and every button therefore bears the abbreviation K-I-N. Its publicity is just as famous as the fastener itself. After an ocean voyage together with an American girl, Elisabeth Coyens, known as Miss KIN, Waldes leaves with a photograph of her with a fastener over her left eye. This photograph is subsequently painted by the famous Czech painter František Kupka and, after some work by typographer Vojtěch Preissig, the iconic logo of Koh-i-noor Waldes is created.

Semtex from Pardubice

Pardubice is famous not only for its traditional gingerbread, but also for the production of the infamous plastic explosive Semtex. The explosive was created in 1952 by Czech chemist Stanislav Brebera at the instigation of the Czechoslovak army. The latter was looking for a replacement for the then inadequate explosives such as trinitrotoluene. The invention was easy to handle and was more effective in many ways, even under extreme conditions, for example under water.

The name originated as a combination of the words 'Semtín', a part of Pardubice, and 'Explosia', the the company's name. Although the production process is a guarded secret of the company, it can be traced on the Internet. The reputation of the explosive has been damaged by its great popularity with terrorists. Today, however, Semtex has many practical uses. For example, it is used in quarries, by the army and in the ejection seats of some aircraft.

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