Petrache Poenaru

Life & Legacy

Petrache Poenaru (Romanian pronunciation: [peˈtrake po.eˈnaru]; 10 January 1799 – 2 October 1875) was a Romanian inventor.
Poenaru, who had studied in Paris and Vienna and, later, completed his specialized studies in England, was a mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, teacher and organizer of the educational system, as well as a politician, agronomist, and zootechnologist, founder of the Philharmonic Society, the Botanical Gardens and the National Museum of Antiquities in Bucharest.
While a student in Paris, Petrache Poenaru invented the world's first fountain pen, an invention for which the French Government issued a patent on 25 May 1827.