Peter Florjančič

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Peter Florjančič
Born(1919-03-05)5 March 1919
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died14 November 2020(2020-11-14) (aged 101)
Radovljica, Slovenia
OccupationInventor
SpouseVerena

Peter Florjančič (5 March 1919 – 14 November 2020)[1][2] was a Slovene inventor and Olympic athlete.[3] His successful inventions included the perfume atomiser, and the plastic photographic slide frame.[3]

Life

Florjančič was born in the

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, present-day Slovenia.[2] At sixteen, he was the youngest member of the Yugoslav ski-jumping team in the 1936 Olympic Games.[4]

In 1943, during the

Austria. He faked his own death on Hahnenkamm, escaping over the border into neutral Switzerland.[3] He met his future wife Verena, a Swiss model and actress, in Zürich and they went on to be married for more than 65 years.[5]

Work

While held in an

internment camp as a refugee, he invented a loom that could be used by disabled servicemen.[3][4]

In 1950, he moved to

atomiser, and appeared in an uncredited role in the film The Monte Carlo Story.[3] He subsequently lived in a number of countries, including Monaco, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany
.

His other successful

ice skates. He also invented the plastic zipper (1948), and the airbag (1957), neither of which were successful at the time because of the quality of the materials available.[3]
Both were perfected at later dates by other inventors.

In 2007, Florjančič published his autobiography, Skok v Smetano (Jump into the Cream). He described himself thus: "I’ve had five citizenships, 43 cars and the longest passport. The profession of inventor forced me to spend 25 years in hotels, four years in cars, three years on trains, a year and a half on airplanes and a year on board of ships."[4]

In 2011, at 92 years old, and almost blind, Florjančič was still working, and sketching his inventions. He made and lost several fortunes over the course of his career.

Documentary

In 2002, a documentary film by Slovenian film director Karpo Godina was made about Florjančič's life story.[6]

References

  1. ^ Košir, Alenka Teran (November 14, 2020). "Umrl je veliki izumitelj Peter Florjančič". SiolNET. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  2. ^ a b "Peter Florjancic: Story of ski-jumping inventor who escaped the Nazis". BBC News. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Phil Cain, Peter Florjancic: Slovenian inventor extraordinaire, BBC news (2011-04-12)
  4. ^ a b c Marjan Žiberna, Peter Florjančič, inventor[permanent dead link], A Cosmopolitan and Vivid Life, Slovenian Times, (2010-03-08)
  5. YouTube
    November 5, 2009 Deutsche-Welle
  6. RTV Slovenija
    , 29 August 2007

External links

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