Julij Nardin - First Slovene Inventors with Patents

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.

JULIJ NARDIN (1877–1959) was interested in many fields: from aviation, electrical engineering and aerodynamics to seismology, radioactivity and X-rays. One of his inventions was a vacuum tube for use in multi-channel telegraphy, telephony and wireless communication. He also built an unpowered aircraft and researched jet propulsion. When the First World War broke out he designed an unmanned submarine and a rocket-powered self-guided torpedo that was controlled by a program on a perforated tape, making him a Slovene pioneer of cybernetics and automation. He also worked on the development of relays for wired communication and, later, radio communication, successfully registering three patents in this field.

Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Slovenia