János Csonka (22 January 1852 in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

– 27 October 1939 in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

) was a Hungarian

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, the co-

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

of the

carburetor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...

for the stationary engine with

Donát Bánki Donát Bánki (born as Donát Lőwinger, 6 June 1859 – 1 August 1922) "The Contribution of Hungarians to Universal Culture" (with inventors), Embassy of the Republic of Hungary in Damascus, Syria, 2006, webpage: HungEmb-Culture. wa ...

, patented on 13 February 1893.

Life

Csonka, self-educated in many fields, had no university degree, but became one of the greatest figures of Hungarian engineering industry, and with the carburetor he has heavily contributed to technical development in the world. He studied the Lenoir motor in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1874 and there he recognized the prospects of the

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...

. He became head of the training workshop at the

Technical University of Budapest Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

at the age of 25 where he employed skilled workers at his own expense, which allowed him to use the workshop for his experiments. Csonka retired at the age of 73 and filed his last patent application at the age of 84.

Inventions

As the head of the workshop in 1879, Csonka invented the first Hungarian

gas engine A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a gaseous fuel, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas or natural gas. In the United Kingdom, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of ...

, several other engines and

vehicles A vehicle (from la, vehiculum) is a machine that transports people or cargo. Vehicles include wagons, bicycles, motor vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, mobility scooters for disabled people), railed vehicles (trains, trams), wate ...

, including the first motor tricycle and postal automobile of the Hungarian Post, which were used for decades. In the 1890s, together with

, they produced the Bánki-Csonka engine and the first Hungarian motorcycle and motor-boat.

References

External links

JÁNOS CSONKA (1852 - 1939)
at www.hungarianhistory.com 1852 births 1939 deaths Hungarian inventors Hungarian automotive engineers Hungarian automotive pioneers People from Szeged Hungarian industrialists Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery {{automobile-bio-stub