Faust was born in 1551 – January 17, 1617 in Šibenik, Venetian Dalmatia into the family of counts Vrančić (Veranzio) who came from Bosnia, a notable family of writers and Berislavić family. As a youth, Vrančić was interested in science. Still a child, he moved to Venice, where he attended schools, and then to Padua to join the University, where he focused on law, physics, engineering and mechanics. After his wife's death, Vrančić left for Hungary. In 1598, he got the title of bishop of Csanád. In 1609, back in Venice, he joined the brotherhood of Paul of Tarsus and committed himself to the study of science. Vrančić died in 1617 in Venice and was buried in Dalmatia.
Homo Volans
Pons Unius Funis
Machinae Novae
INVENTIONS Faust Vrančić is widely believed to have performed an actual parachute jumping experiment and, therefore, to be the first man to build and test a parachute: according to the story passed on, Vrančić, in 1617, at over sixty-five years of age, implemented his design and tested the parachute by jumping from St Mark's Campanile in Venice. No evidence has ever been found that anybody ever tested Faust’s parachute. His areas of interest in engineering and mechanics were broad. Mills were one of his main point of research, where he created 18 different designs. He envisioned windmills with both vertical and horizontal axes, with different wing constructions to improve their efficiency. The idea of a mill powered by tides incorporated accumulation pools filled with water by the high tide and emptied when the tide ebbed, simply using gravity; the concept has just recently been engineered and used. The first wind turbines were described by Faust Vrančić.
Dictionarium quinque lingarum
Lexicography Vrančić was the author of a five-language dictionary published in Venice in 1595, with 5,000 entries for each language: Latin, Italian, German, the Dalmatian vernacular. The dictionary is a very early and significant example of both Croatian and Hungarian lexicography, and contains, in addition to the parallel list of vocabulary, other documentation of these two languages.
Nikola Tesla was a Croatian and American inventor, with Serbian roots. He was working whole his life in the USA where he patented all his inventions.
In the fall of 1882 he began working in Paris at Edison's telephone branch. In Budapest he conceived the application of multiphase alternating currents to produce a rotating magnetic field that would cause rotation in the electric motor. In June 1884, Tesla immigrated to the United States. In 1885 he founded Tesla in New York his own company Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company for the manufacture of electrical harnesses. Tesla system of alternating currents was submitted for hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls.
After several years, Tesla's multi-phase alternating current system started to be used all over the world for over a century, and basically until now it has not changed. He also invented radio communication and radio remote control. He also worked on studies in mechanical engineering, for example in 1913 patented a turbine with a multitude of wafers without blades (Tesla Turbine).
The greatest tribute to Tesla's work was given at the 11th General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1960, when the unit of magnetic field strength accepted the name “Tesla”. He died on January 7th, 1943, in the New Yorker Hotel.
Tesla's alternating current induction motor
Tesla sitting next to his "magnifying transmitter"