Penkala.... a Famous Croat

I heard something the other day that surprised me... The inventor of the pen was from Croatia!

Slavoljub Eduard Penkala was actually born in Slovakia, but immigrated to Croatia with his wife and family to Zagreb, and became a naturalized Croat.

He became famous for inventing the mechanical pencil (then called an automatic pencil) in 1906 and the first solid ink fountain pen in 1907. Indeed, the name of "pen" is derived from his family name, and the name of "penkala" is also in use today for the chemical pen.

Collaborating with 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. TOZ stands for "Tvornica olovaka Zagreb," which means "Zagreb pencil factory."

I like a good, smooth flowing pen (especially the color blue!) and I've always preferred a mechanical pencil over the regular kind. I especially like using mechanical pencils in church, when I'm taking sermon notes. However, it doesn't matter if I use a pencil or a pen, my handwriting has definitely taken a turn for the worse in the past few years, probably because I'm out of practice. Depending on computers and word processing programs has meant that I just don't use my hand for writing like I used to. It's kind of sad, really. Handwriting is so personal, and a type-written page is certainly not!

We leave Croatia next month, but I think we better squeeze in a field trip to the Zagreb pencil factory before we go!