Ján Bahýľ (25 May 1856 – 13 March 1916) was a Slovak inventor and engineer. He specialised in military science, military construction, and engineering. Flying machines were a particular interest of his. In 1895, he was granted a patent on the

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

Biography

Bahýľ was born in Zvolenská Slatina in the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

(in present-day

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

). In 1869 he graduated from the Mining Academy of Banská Štiavnica with a diploma in technical drawing. After graduation, he joined the Hungarian Army; his superior officers noticed his technical ability and transferred him to the technical staff. The new assignment allowed Bahýľ to study at the

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Military Academy, where he graduated in 1879 and was commissioned as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

. During his time in the army, Bahýľ developed a number of inventions, many of which involved hydraulics.

Inventions

Bahýľ financed his first invention himself. It was called the Steam Tank, and was purchased by the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n army. Bahýľ was granted seventeen

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s in all, including patents for the tank pump, a hot air balloon combined with an air turbine, the first petrol engine car in Slovakia (in partnership with Anton Marschall), and a lift to the Bratislava Castle. He flew one of the earliest helicopter models which he developed using an internal combustion engine as a power source. On 5 May 1905, a version reached a height of and flew .

References

External links

Jan Bahyl biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahyl, Jan 1856 births 1916 deaths People from Zvolen District Scientists from Austria-Hungary Slovak scientists Slovak inventors