■ special FEaturES Sama KaLausová _zech InvEnn 2 I / one were to ask a layperson what the I Czech Republic has given the world, I most likely the answer would be beer. But although the Pilsner form oftheamber nectar was first brewed in West Bohemia, it was actually a Bavarian by the name of Josef Groll that invented the national tip-_pk^_So what does that leave the residents of this small republic? Surprisin0y, quite a lot. The contact Lens Many of you will b e reading this magazine blissfully unaware of how much you owe Czech chemist, Otto Wichterle. While working in the Czechoslovak Academy lences, Wichterle produced the first hydrogen contact lenses, the same kind íSaTáxěused today. Previous incarnations had been constructed from brown glass and were neither particularly effective nor were they particularly comfortable "'ana could only be worn for an hour or two at a time. Today, about 125 million people wear contact lenses across the globe. _ Fate and coim:idejKeoften play a large -role in-JnventLons. The Czech chemist Otto Wichterle, born in 1913, already had a successful careerieEind him, with synthetic fibres^being his most notable discovery. Wichterle was born in the Moravian town of Prostějov and studied at the Facultyjof Chemical_and Technological. Engineering (ČVUT), where he later went on to work as a research assistant. The occupation of Czechoslovakia and the_ensuing closure of Universities by the Nazis led Wichterle to seek work at the research and development department ofjhe Baťa shoe company. It was here that he succeeded in developing a siretchins^polyhnid$ silitxm.fibre. After the war, this material was sold as Silon (Czechs today call stockings "silonky"). In Czechoslovakia, this discovery represented a breakthrough in synthetic material production. Wichterle soon became a professor at the Technical University in Prague, from where he continued to experiment with (polymě^in 1953, he patented a method used for the production of hydrophiiic_gels foi^medtcal uses. And it is this material that would later be used for Wichtele's most famous invention, the contact lens. Wichterle was by no means a darling of eitherthe Nazior communist regimes. During the war, the Nazisimprisoned the chemist, and life under the communists, despite his anti-Nazi<£re^ěntial|>vas also not rosy. In 1958, Wicritexlewas jorced to abandon his_position_as a professor, but his indispensability was soon recog"' nised, and Wichterle was given another "chance". He was soon entrusted with creating an Institute of Macromolecular chemistry, and became_its first head. The Soviet invasion 6f 196j!jmarked the decline of Wichterles career. The chemist openly criticised the new puppet governr mentand signed a petition opposing its actions. The onset of President Gustav Husák's normalisation led to Wichterle beingjLtngpedof all of his positions. He was only allowed to continue working as a researcher, and his name was not allowed to feature on any lists of Czechoslovak professors. But let us return to Wichterles most famous invention. Back in 1952, on a journey from Olomouc to Prague, Wichterle saw one of his fellow passengers reading an article abouLjnetd arlificiaLeye implants. He began to talk to the reader and soon started to think about a synthetic material that might he better suited to the eye. By coincidence, the passanger was thř-secřět^y ^ \ of a health ministry commission, which was studying the usage of synthetic materials in healthcare. Wichterle did not immediately know of any particular material that could be used in the eye, but the idea of-hydrophilic_.polymers was soon_cD_alescing in his mind. Directly translated "water-loving" material would be ideal for this purpose. In such [ 52 ] THE NEW PRESENCE/vnmaiaaii Í spECiaL fEaxurEs ins A look ai some of ihe Czech Republic's mosr Famous anp inFamous inventions. i a material, interwoven chains of organic macromolecules create a mesh and are surrounded by molecules of water. When the material dries up, it loses its properties and becomes as fragile as thin glass. The more water is pTesent, the softer the material and the less it irritatesjxuman rtissjje^particularly the £yeT"For a contact lens to be feasible,,the material also had to be porous in order to allow the eye to breathif Wichterle experimented by trying out his lenses on himself. Initially, they were 'unreflned^/'and they burned his eyes, but the inventor soon realised that despite the /setoaclgs^ he was definitely on to something. But Wichterle was greeted with apathy back at his place of work. The Institute of Macromolecular chemistry was still under construction and so Wichterle chose to do much of his hydrogel work at home assisted by his wife Lydia, a doctor by profession. By~Christmas 1961, Wichterle built, with the aid of some of his son's toys(!) a prototype'mould from which he fashioned four particularly uniform lenses. This proved that contact lenses could l^e mass-produced - indeed, in the^nstfing1 months, Wichterle produced more than five thousand of them. Of course, Wichterle was not the first to toy with the idea of a contact lens. Such ■esteemed names as Leonardo da Vinci and René Descartes can claim that credit. But theLformiir never had the means to even attempt to create such an invention; the Jtattej^merely^ focused on thejnathemati-cal coriiplexities of such a device. The first glass lenses were created in 1887 by the German .glasjmaker JiE^Muller, but it was Wichterle who created a functional design that could be worn far jonger, and was far more affordable. Wichterle travelled around the world with his invention, and demonstrated its \ usage and functionality on himself - he Jtook a lens out of his eye, threw it on the ['floor and stood on it. Then, he washed it in his mouth, and put it back in his eye. Naturally, such an unhygienic approach would raise eyebrows today. The presentations were successes, yet, for a long time it seemed that contact lens was far more of an attractive gimmick that would simply not catch on. Then, a company expressed interest in purchasing the patent. The J Czechoslovak academy did not waste anyj time, and without the knowledge of the\ inventor, it sold the patent to the US com- ] pany_National Patent Development Corp. for 1« million dollars. When one considers how many billions of dollars have been spent on contact lenses, this sum seems all the more laughable. Further, Wichterle only received a'paltfyxut'bf this sum. As a person who spent his whole life carrying the burden of his talents in the faceofjhejranous^z^^^ Wichterle remained philosophical, telling the British Guardian newspaper "I would have had problems with what to do with that sum of money." But Otto Wichterle did, finally receive some recognition for his efforts. After viinTErjoon/ THE NEW PRESENCE [ 53 ] 7 spEcraL ftaxöTES 1989, he was elected to serve as the head of the Czech Science Academy and during the nineties, he remained active in the field of synthetic lens^sfcr patients that had undergone"- cataract removal. Among many other rewards, in 1993 Wichterle was honoured by having an asteroid named after him in recognition of his work. In the Czech Television series "The Greatest Czech" Wichterle was voted number 23. He died in 1998. The Sugar Cube There is something about the sugar cube that makes one believe that it is such a logical invention that it must have always been in existence. Not so. Dacice is a Czech town o£anmncLSi]00 people not far from the Austrian border. The locals are proud of th^^iean^air, largely achieved through a preference for gas jjqwer as well as jjjack of industrial pollutants. They are also proud of their historical landmarks scattered densely across the town, But more than any of that, Dacice's inhabitants are proud of their sugar cube. In fact, Dacice even has a granite sugar-cube shaped memoriaKconstruct-ed in 1983) to the towns most prolific invention. During the 19lh centufyTKarl Dalberg, an^earl from the town, invited the' Grebner brothers to hear a proposal to build X.beet_sugar refinery in the town. František and Tomáš Grebner had credentials and experience in this field in countries such as Germany and France and their plans were eventually accepted. Dačice lies about 500 metres above sea level, tiond^aTco^^ for the cultivation ofsugár beet. In 1829, the Grebner brothers planted three hectares worth of crops, which soon failed. After several more attempts, they were forced to give up on the idea of growing sugar in the region. But in 1833, a sugar refinery opened in Dačice which refined imported sugar from Italy and later also domestic sugar. In the early 1840s, a new manager came to Dačice by the name of Jakub Kryštof Rad. Rad, a Swiss national, expanded the factory and soon it was exporting across Europe, fa 1842, it became. _the_first_sugar factory to use stearin power. The successful manager was also something of a handyman. In those days, sugar_was sold in ajolid-^tate.jncl jnjargercjuantities, usually injhe shape of a loaf JThis was less than ideal for the domestic kitchen, as before each use, the sugar would have to be chipped off the large block. Juliana, Rad's wife, keenly observed this limitation. Once, while hacking at her sugar loaf, she injured herself. With a bandaged finger, she ran to her husband, imploring him, as the manager of a sugar factory, to come up with a better solution. The end result of this marital squabble was a mould for a sugar cube, which Mr Rad built himself. The mould contained 400 small holes and would then be pressed between two plates, which shrunk the sugar to half its size. The cubes would then be dried for around twelve hours, and then they could be wrapped up and sold. Soon after, Juliana received her first box of sugar cube,s.^-All this occurred some time aroun^l 184i\ Within two years, Rad manage£Kt»^gain a licence and patent for the manufacture of sugar cubes. Soon, the cubes found their way to Vienna, and from there, the rest of Europe. The Dacice refinery was highly successful during the 1840s. However, the problem of its less than ideal altitude and location soon became an issue again. Specifically, costs were increased due to the need to import raw materials from afar. As a result, and despite the lucrative sugar cube, the refinery closed in 1852, and Rad soon returned to Vienna, where his part in the sugar cube was soon forgotten, ft wasn't until 20th century sugar [ 54 ] THE NEW PRESENCE/winter ^000 SPECiai FEatUľES historian R.E. Grottkas pointed to Raďs contribution during the 1930s that this invention was again highlighted. Thus, the citizens of Dačice continue to be proud of their invention, even though its inventor was in actuality a Swiss citizen from Vienna. SEmtEx One of the most famous Czech inventions is also, by definition, one of the most notorious. It is certainly an invention that Czechs are not particularly proud of, namely the explosive Semtex. When on the 21st October 1988, a Pan Am airplane blew up and crashed on the Scottish town of Lockerbie, a small Czech invention gained notoriety around the world. Results showed that the 259 passengers and a further 11 people in Lockerbie had died because of an explosion on board the plane - traces of Hexogen and Penitrite were found in the wreckage, unmistakably the hallmark of a Czechoslovak manufactured plastic explosive known as Semtex. Semtex was invented in the 1960s by Stanislav Brebera. The name was derived from the words Semtin and Explosia. The first is the name of a small village near the Czech town of Pardubice where the substance was made, and the latter is the name of the company that created it. Semtex was initially created for industrial usage, but soon its use was extended to military, and later terrorist purposes. Its use as a terrorist weapon is understandable: Semtex is resistant to high temperatures, pressures and is even waterproof. At first sight, it looks like simple plasticine, and can only be detonated with the aid of a detonator or other explosive. In the Lockerbie incident, it was later discovered~that the Semtex had been hidden in a portable cassette player. From 1991, Semtex has been deliberately marked in order to make it more difficult to conceal - a special chemical is added which makes it visible to detectors. The Czechoslovak government also rnntriliiit-prl tn fcm\r\'