Unknown inventors

Many worldwide-used inventions were created in Romania by anonymous people.

The cradle of European civilization
In 1965 were discoveded at Schela-Cladovei, Mehedinţi County, near the Danube Iron Gates, the remains of a civilization totally unknown to the historians, a complex phenomenon unique in Europe. Radioactive carbon analysis indicates the age of about 8750 years for the 30 archaeological sites discovered. Here was discovered the oldest workshop for copper smelting in the world.

The Dacian year
The Dacians were calculating the astronomical year at 365,242197 days, in comparison with 365,242198 days (modern measuring).

The high oven for iron ore
Was discovered in 1895 at Houses Valley, near Ghelari, Hunedoara County, has been reconstituted from the original materials and it is exposed at "The Science Museum", London. The oven was cut off, cleverly, in rock, having tronconical form, with the top diameter of about 0.65 m, was covered at the interior with refractory material and provided with a cap and a loading platform. Some swell introduced air at the bottom, and circulation was provided with a channel of smoke, slanted at the top. After some authors, it dates from the Ist century and after others, based on a more rigorous research, from IXth century.



The washing machine
Şteaza is a mere technical accomplishment, but incredibly efficient. It was formed from a trellis over which water falls through a sewer, washing the fabrics.
Şteaza - as a simple village equipment - is recorded in an act of 1473, in which Prince Stefan the Great (1457 - 1504), gives to one of his vassals the "village Berchişeşti in Suceava County..., Vadul Făguleţului from Moldova river to Vlaşin's şteaza and from Vlaşin's şteaza to Gura Bălcoaii".



The ancestor of Yale lock
The wood locks were used by peasants in the Middle-Age (the XIVth century) and had a wood key who pushed 3-4 cilinders, same as the modern Yale locks.



The use of explosives in mining
The first use of explosives in mining (XIIIth - XIVth century), is attested in a latin-written manuscript from 1395 - 1396, accompanied by a drawing (the manuscript is kept at the National Library of Paris). This writing presents the using of explosives in mines, realized for the first time in "the counties between Hungary and the Danube", so in the regions inhabited by Romanians.



An ancient turbine
'Roata cu făcaie' (XIIIth - XIVth century) is a top achievement of a popular Romanian hidrotehnics, "the queen of hidrotehnic instalations". The wheel has a vertical axis and the blades have an effective superior shape, very efficient. This romanian popular invention appeared before the hydraulic turbine, invented in 1884 by the American engineer Lester Allen Pelton (1829 - 1908). Original copies are exhibited in Vienna at "The Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology", the "Technical Museum Professor engineer Dimitrie Leonida", and the Museum of Popular Technics in Sibiu, Sibiu County.







The railway transport
The mining coach from Brad is the first rail-driven vehicle in the history (the XIVth century) and was used at a gold mine in Brad, Hunedoara County, where it was used for the transport of the gold ore. It was made of wood and the rails were made from wood too, presenting also a kind of switch path mechanism. The original was exposed in 1930, at the "Transport Museum", Berlin; replicas of the truck can be found at the "Museum of Railways" and the "Technical Museum Professor engineer Dimitrie Leonida", in Bucharest.