Petrache Poenaru 

Petrache Poenaru (1799–1875) was a Romanian inventor of the Enlightenment era.

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.
He was born in 1799 in Băneşti, Vâlcea County. His uncle, Iordache Otetelişanu, was one of the
promoters of an institutionalized educational system, in a time when a great part of the population
was illiterate. Poenaru attended the secondary school Obedeanu in Craiova and worked as a
copyist at the office of the bishop of Râmnicu Vâlcea. Later on, between 1820 and 1821, he taught
Greek language at the Metropolitan School in Bucharest.
Poenaru's fountain pen
In 1826 he went to France and attended the École Polytechnique in Paris, where he studied
geodesy and surveying. He was so busy taking notes and copying courses, that he invented a
fountain pen that used a swan's quill as an ink reservoir. On 25 May 1827, the Manufacture
Department of the French Ministry of the Interior registered Poenaru’s invention with the code
number 3208 and the description plume portable sans fin, qui s’alimente elle-meme avec de
l’ancre (never-ending portable pen, which recharges itself with ink).
 Dimitrie Leonida

Dimitrie Leonida (b. May 23, 1883, Fălticeni; d. March 14, 1965) was an engineer, energy
specialist, university professor, Romanian scientist.
Dimitrie Leonida was born in Fălticeni as the son of Atanase Leonida officer and Matilda
Leonida
His passion for technique was decisive when choosing his profession, wanting to become an
engineer. He chose to study electricity at the Polytechnic in Charlottenburg, even though before he
went abroad he had to satisfy the military trajectory. During his university studies at the Polytechnic
in Charlottenburg (1903 - 1908), near Berlin, he visited the Technical Museum in Munich (1903).
He will design the project "Metropolitan of Bucharest", with the main line Gara de Nord-Sf.
Gheorghe-Calea Moșilor and the branch of St. Gheorghe-Filaret, being among the first to propose
the construction of a metro network in Bucharest, and the diploma project will focus on "The
hydrotechnical and hydropower complex of Bistrita in the Bicaz region."
In 1912 he designed the thermoelectric power station in Grozavești, and in 1914 he
designed the Botoșani power plant.
For his work, he was awarded the title of State Prize Laureate.
Its name is borne by several educational institutions in Bucharest, Iași, Constanța, Oradea and
Petroșani, by streets in several localities, by the most important Technical Museum in Romania and
by a metro station in Bucharest.