Jozef Murgaš Biography

Jozef Murgaš was a Slovak inventor, painter and priest who contributed greatly towards the development of wireless communications. From a young age he was bright and clever, and showed interest in painting and science. After completing his graduation, he was unable to study further because of financial difficulties and decided to become a priest. But when his painting talent was spotted by a Slovak painter, he was admitted to an arts school and went on to become an accomplished painter. He used to paint sacral pieces, Slovak landscapes and Slovak personalities. Later, he traveled to the United States and set up a workshop which helped him to perform experiments on wireless technology. After tireless research and intense work, he had a breakthrough and came up with a new method of wireless transmission. He developed a musical tone system that enabled faster recognition of Morse code signals and also achieved radio transmission over a considerable distance. In 1917, when America entered the First World War, all the private radio-telegraphic stations were banned. Thereafter, he worked towards creation of a common state of Czechs and Slovaks in Czechoslovakia. After his health deteriorated, he gave away his entire life’s research and patent rights to Marconi, as he did not want his work to be lost after him. He was a generous man whose contributions towards creating a better society are deemed priceless