First Slovene Inventors with Patents

Baron Anton Codelli – Process for electric television
Creativity, like innovation, is an important driver of economic and social development. For this reason, Slovenia’s Intellectual Property Office combines its core mission of protecting intellectual property rights with efforts to preserve and disseminate knowledge of Slovenia’s technical heritage. It has therefore decided to highlight the achievements of a number of Slovene inventors who obtained patents for their inventions and left a profound mark on Slovene science, helping to create Slovenia’s technical heritage with inventions that are known around the world.

ANTON CODELLI (1875–1954), baron, holder of 31 patents, inventor and mechanical engineering pioneer. He owned the first motor car in Carniola, a two-seater machine producing around 2 kW and capable of a top speed of 20 km/h. He refined the engine ignition process and designed a vehicle with a rotary engine and an enclosed body. He successfully established wireless communication between Austrian warships in the Adriatic. He accepted an offer from Telefunken to build the first wireless intercontinental radio telegraphy station and connect Africa and Europe. He also made two films in Africa and became Slovenia’s first film producer. He came up with inventions relating to television and patented a system of electromechanical-optical image transmission. He designed a giant airship and worked on many other projects including electrically charged water jets, mechanical encryption, measurement of distances, automatic determination of the position of ships and aircraft, an aerial torpedo and an armoured vehicle in the shape of a steel sphere. He developed mechanically resistant tyres, an electromagnetic radiation detector, a high-frequency telephone, a self-propelled lawn mower and a motorboat.