Niobium capacitor
The development of solid electrolyte tantalum capacitors began in the early 1950s as a miniaturized, more reliable low-voltage support capacitor to complement the newly invented transistor. The solution found by R. L. Taylor and H. E. Haring of the Bell Labs was based on experience with ceramics. They ground down tantalum to a powder, pressed this powder into a cylindrical form and then sintered the powder particles into a pellet (“slug”) at high temperatures, between 1500 and 2000 °C, under vacuum conditions. These first sintered tantalum capacitors used a non-solid electrolyte not consistent with the concept of solid state electronics. 1952 a targeted search in the Bell Labs for a solid electrolyte by D. A. McLean and F. S. Power led to the invention of manganese dioxide as a solid electrolyte for a sintered tantalum capacitor.
János Csonka
János Csonka (1852 in Szeged – 1939 in Budapest) was a Hungarian engineer, the co-inventor of the carburetor for the stationary engine with Donát Bánki, patented on 13 February 1893.
Csonka, self-educated in many fields, had no university degree, but became one of the greatest figures of Hungarian engineering industry, and with the carburetor he has heavily contributed to technical development in the world. He studied the Lenoir motor in Paris in 1874 and there he recognized the prospects of the internal combustion engine.
He became head of the training workshop at the Technical University of Budapest at the age of 25 where he employed skilled workers at his own expense, which allowed him to use the workshop for his experiments.
Csonka retired at the age of 73 and filed his last patent application at the age of 84.