Draft:Vladimír Svatý

Vladimír Svatý (1919–1986) was an inventor in the field of textile engineering.

Career
After graduating from grammar school in Nová Paka in 1938, Svatý joined the family textile factory in Roztoky u Jilemnice that employed 35 people and became its director after his father's death in 1944. He was fascinated by improving weaving techniques since his youth and his first patent application for an air-jet weaving machine was filed in 1947. The factory was nationalized in 1948 and wound up, and Svatý was first moved to the then national enterprise Nopaka and in 1951 joined the Research Institute of Textile Machinery in Liberec, where he worked until the end of his life.

The air-jet loom had a maximum throw of only 45 cm. To overcome this limitation, Svatý and his colleague Josef Mohelnický came up with the idea of replacing the air jet with a water droplet. Their invention of the hydraulic weaving machine, which revolutionized the way the world produces fabrics by extending the throw to 175 cm, dates back to 1950.The significance of this invention is evidenced by the fact that one fifth of fabrics produced around the world in the second decade of the 21st century originated from hydraulic weaving machines based on Vladimir Svatý’s patent.

Svatý and his colleagues filed a total of 139 patent applications, most of which were granted author's certificates. The inventions related predominantly to improvements of pneumatic and grip weaving machines.

Svatý was awarded the Czech State Prize for his work in 1953, but was frequently bullied by the regime behind the scenes due to his “bourgeois origins”. He was forced to give up the financial rights to his patents in favour of state-owned enterprises for the symbolic price of one Czech crown, was interrogated a number of times and twice imprisoned for several weeks after false criminal charges. The state meanwhile licensed his invention first to Japan, then to other countries, at considerable financial gain.

Legacy
Svatý's achievements were fully recognized only after the Prague Spring of 1968, when he was awarded the academic degree of Candidate of Science (CSc), and particularly after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. The Textile Faculty of the Technical University together with theResearch Institute of Textile Machinery in Liberec, established the "Honorary Plaque of Vladimir Svatý", which is awarded to outstanding personalities in the textile sciences and textile engineering, and one of the lecture rooms of Liberec University bears his name.