Who is J. A. Mišković – the forgotten Croatian who invented the water cannon

John Arthur Mišković was born on this day March 7, 1918, in the USA, in the town of Flat, Alaska. He is almost unknown in Croatia, while in the USA he is recognized as an Alaskan pioneer, a gold miner, and above all, as a great Croatian-American inventor.

Intelligent Giant Intelligiant

He patented more than 300 inventions, the most famous of which is the water cannon used today on fire trucks and vessels around the world. He named it Intelligiant, a portmanteau of the English intelligent (intelligent) and giant (giant).

This invention significantly influenced the development of hydraulic gold extraction as well as firefighting; the technology of powerful water jets later found application in numerous other areas, from crowd control to tank cleaning and excavation.

Today, the intelligiant is primarily used in firefighting, as it can discharge nearly 950 liters of water per second, 15 times more than previous American fire nozzles.

How the Water Cannon Conquered the World

While John was working on his invention, World War II began. After returning from the war, he created a new prototype that significantly eased operation. In California, they were so impressed with the intelligiant that they appointed John as a usage designer and engineering consultant.

In 1968, the British postal service used a drawing of the water cannon with the inscription Intelligiant for promotional purposes, encouraging fire services to adopt its use.

Among Mišković’s inventions are also advanced hydraulic lifts used for unloading cargo from transoceanic ships.

Self-Taught Inventor

J. A. Mišković was the third of seven children of Pera Mišković from Imotski in today’s municipality of Dubrovacko Primorje and his wife Stana Mišković (Bagoj) from Čilipi. He was self-taught. Later, he ironically stated that he graduated people at Flat University.

His birthplace is now abandoned, and even after the gold rush, it only had an elementary school. Therefore, he attended high school in Fairbanks, nearly 600 kilometers away by air, but he dropped out in the third grade.

Connections to the ‘Old Country’

Regarding connections to the ‘old country’, Mišković one day decided to get rid of piles of tungsten that were unnecessary to him. Having already profited from the gold he found, he decided to give tungsten to the Croatian Electric Bulb Factory (TEŽ).

He sent his cousin Đuro Mišković to TEŽ, but he had an unusual condition. He said he would give them tungsten completely free of charge, but that every bulb must bear the name John Mišković. It seems that TEŽ did not accept this, and thus he lost large supplies of tungsten.

Who Silences Mišković

Perhaps this unverified story suggests why the great inventor is overlooked in his homeland. The only publicly available source about him in Croatia currently is Wikipedia. He is not mentioned in the publications of the Lexicographic Institute, nor in historical records, and he has not been remembered by the academic community.

He is only mentioned after the publication in the digital space, on Wikipedia in 2015, and subsequently in commemorative texts like this one.

Died Without Verification in Croatia

John’s father also had an impressive portfolio of inventions, including a washing machine, a modernized steam bath, and hydraulic gravel lifts, which were once called Miscovich-lift. His inventions were recorded in the USA but were not included in Croatian lexicons. He died in the USA at the age of 65 in 1950.

His son John Arthur Mišković received an award for outstanding service from the Alaska Miners Assn. based in Anchorage in 1990. He died in his summer retreat in Orange, California, on August 22, 2014, at the age of 97. His work still awaits its first systematic research in Croatia.