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• Posted Oct. 17, 2014, 11 a.m. - 10 years ago

Country Spotlight: Czech Republic

A small, landlocked country situated in central Europe, the Czech Republic was formerly known as Bohemia. Surrounded by Germany on the west, Austria on the south, Slovakia to the south east and Poland to the north east, the Czech Republic is home to over 10 million people. The capital, Prague is nearly 2 million of these call their home.

We take a closer look at some of the Czech Republic’s famous inhabitants and exports:

 

Inventors

Josef and Karel Čapek

Although they didn’t directly invent the robot, they have been credited with coining the phrase that is used by many, every day all over the world to refer to mechanical or intelligent agents that perform tasks and jobs – think of robots in a factory. Referred to for the first time in ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots,’ the play depicted humanoid workers, assembled in factories. And therefore, the phrase ROBOT was born!

 

J.E. Purkyně

Jan Evangelista Ritter von Purkyně was the man behind one of the most popular methods in criminology today – he discovered that all human fingerprints are completely unique and therefore could be used as a means of identifications – and crime solving!

 

Jakub Kryštof Rad

Director of a local sugar refinery in the 1840’s, Rad was the man behind the world’s first ever sugar cube! Inspired by his wife who was injured many a time with a knife when trying to cut the refined sugar that came into the work kitchen, Rad set about trying to produce the sugar in a more manageable shape and in 1843, Rad took out a patent for the sugar cube.  England later brought the licence for producing these sugar cubes, and we have never looked back since. One lump or two?

 

Companies

GUFEX

GUFEX create the world famous, Czech hockey pucks that have been used at many significant tournaments by the International Ice Hockey Federation, such as; the Winter Olympic Games World Championship and other international competitions.

 

MOIRAA

pioneer in the highly competitive field of functional sportswear, MOIRA have technology protected by a large amount of patents and each garment they produce is checked to insure that it meets the high company standards. The products are sold globally.

 

Famous for…

Skoda

Founded as a family business back in 1895, the successful car company is now one of only four in the world that can boast a truly impressive 100+ years of tradition. They successfully began manufacturing cars in 1905 and in 1991, Skoda Auto became the 4th brand to join the VW Group.

 

Glass making

With a very long tradition in the Czech Republic, glass making and Czech glass is world famous. Developed during the 13th century, Czech glass products are treasured around the world to this day, with the most popular Czech glass products being; lead crystal, glass figurines and cut glass items, Christmas ornaments and chandeliers.
Images

http://bit.ly/KarelČapek

http://bit.ly/JanEvangelistaPurkyně

http://bit.ly/JakubKryštofRad

http://bit.ly/CzechFlag

http://bit.ly/CzechPuck

http://bit.ly/CzechSkoda

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