The Most Famous
INVENTORS from Czechia
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Czech Inventors of all time. This list of famous Czech Inventors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Franz Reichelt (1879 - 1912)
With an HPI of 62.40, Franz Reichelt is the most famous Czech Inventor. His biography has been translated into 27 different languages on wikipedia.
Franz Karl Reichelt (German pronunciation: [fʁants kaʁl ˈʁaɪ̯çl̩t]; 16 October 1878 – 4 February 1912), also known as Henry François Reichelt after his French naturalization, was an Austro-Hungarian-born French tailor, inventor and parachuting pioneer, now sometimes referred to as the Flying Tailor, who is remembered for jumping to his death from the Eiffel Tower while testing a wearable parachute of his own design. Reichelt had become fixated on developing a suit for aviators that would convert into a parachute and allow them to survive a fall should they be forced to leave their aircraft in mid-air. Although he created and experimented with multiple prototypes of wings and parachute suits over the years, they were by and large failures, to the point that it was a point of contention between newspapers after his death whether or not any of his designs were ever functional. Believing that a suitably high test platform would prove his invention's efficacy, Reichelt repeatedly petitioned the Paris Police Prefecture for permission to conduct a test from the Eiffel Tower. He finally received permission in 1912, but when he arrived at the tower on 4 February he made it clear that he intended to jump personally rather than conduct an experiment with dummies. Despite attempts to dissuade him, he jumped from the first platform of the tower wearing his invention. The parachute failed to deploy and he plummeted 57 metres (187 ft) to his death. The next day, newspapers were full of illustrated stories about the death of the "reckless inventor", and the jump was shown in newsreels.
2. Alois Senefelder (1771 - 1834)
With an HPI of 62.38, Alois Senefelder is the 2nd most famous Czech Inventor. His biography has been translated into 34 different languages.
Johann Alois Senefelder (6 November 1771 – 26 February 1834) was a German actor and playwright who invented the printing technique of lithography in the 1790s.
3. Daniel Swarovski (1862 - 1956)
With an HPI of 61.97, Daniel Swarovski is the 3rd most famous Czech Inventor. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.
Daniel Swarovski (24 October 1862 – 23 January 1956) was a Bohemian-born Austrian businessman, glazier, and jeweler. He was a founder of the Swarovski crystal dynasty.
4. Josef Ressel (1793 - 1857)
With an HPI of 59.00, Josef Ressel is the 4th most famous Czech Inventor. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.
Joseph Ludwig Franz Ressel (Czech: Josef Ludvík František Ressel; June 29, 1793 – October 9, 1857) was a Czech-German forester and inventor, who designed one of the first working ship's propellers. Ressel was born in Chrudim, Bohemia then part of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by the Habsburg monarchy, which became part of the Austrian Empire in 1804. His father Anton Hermann Ressel was a native German speaker, and his mother Marie Anna Konvičková was a native Czech speaker. He studied at the Linz Gymnasium, Budweis (in today's České Budějovice) artillery school, University of Vienna and the Mariabrunn Forestry Academy at Mariabrunn Monastery then near (now in) Vienna. He worked for the Austrian government as a forester in the more southern parts of the monarchy, including in Motovun, Istria. His work was to secure a supply of quality wood for the Navy. He worked in Landstrass (Kostanjevica on the Krka river in Carniola), where he tested his ship propellers for the first time. In 1821 he was transferred to Trieste, the biggest port of the Austrian Empire, where his tests were successful. He was awarded a propeller patent in 1827. He modified a steam-powered boat Civetta by 1829 and test-navigated it in the Trieste harbor at six knots before the steam conduits exploded. Because of this misfortune, the police banned further testing. The explosion was not caused by the propeller being tested, as many believed at the time. As early as 1804, the American John Fitch is credited with a screw propeller, which was unsuccessful. In 1836, the Englishman Francis Pettit Smith tested a screw propeller similar to Ressel's. The first transatlantic journey of a ship powered by a screw-propeller was by the SS Great Britain in 1845. Propeller design stabilized in the 1880s. Besides having been called "the inventor of the propeller," he was also called the inventor of the steamship and a monument to him in a park in Vienna commemorates him as "the one and only inventor of the screw propeller and steam shipping." He was also commemorated on Austria's 500 Schilling banknote in the mid-1960s (P139), which shows him on the front and the ship Civetta on the back. Among Ressel's other inventions are pneumatic post and ball and cylinder bearings. He was granted numerous patents during his life. Ressel also played an important role in the reforestation of the Karst Plateau near Trieste. A bronze statue of him was placed along the waterfront of Trieste on March 30, 2022. He died in Laibach (now Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia) and was buried there in St. Christopher's Cemetery in the Bežigrad district. His gravestone is displayed today in Navje Memorial Park.
Pantheon has 4 people classified as inventors born between 1771 and 1879. Of these 4, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased inventors include Franz Reichelt, Alois Senefelder, and Daniel Swarovski.
Deceased Inventors
Go to all Rankings
Franz Reichelt
1879 - 1912
HPI: 62.40
Alois Senefelder
1771 - 1834
HPI: 62.38
Daniel Swarovski
1862 - 1956
HPI: 61.97
Josef Ressel
1793 - 1857
HPI: 59.00
Which Inventors were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 4 most globally memorable Inventors since 1700.
