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Intriguing OTTO A. LANGOS History
WELCOME to AMERICA
"The land of opportunity"
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| OTTO & MAGDALENA LANGOS Circa 1903 |
Before Langson Mfg. Co. there was the driven man Otto A. Langos, who immigrated to the United States
in 1902 from Budapest Hungary, where he was born in 1877. He arrived at Ellis Island, New York with his sweetheart Magdalena
Kebluschek, who he then married in Alliance, Ohio in 1903. They would live there until 1908 when they moved to a house on
Warner Avenue in Chicago, IL.
As a teacher of the musical instrument the Zither back in Hungary, it was presumably difficult to
find work in his profession in this new land, so Otto found work in the respected trade of tool & die making. It was after
that when his talent for inventing started to emerge as he learned and developed his skills in the fine art of toolmaking.
After that " the rest is history" as Otto began to do what he apparently did best, invent. Amazingly and against the
odds of still being a foreign citizen at the time, in 1904 he was legally bestowed the title of: Inventor, Otto
A. Langos, with the issuance of his first US Patent # 752,015.
It was then that Otto presumably realized that he could indeed create the American
dream he came to this country in search of.
In 1923 and now with a total of 4 US Patents in hand, Otto founded Langson Mfg. Co. out
of the garage of his house in Chicago.The company would grow and move many times, eventually ending up at its final
location of 4200 Wrightwood. Extraordinarily by any business standards this company would last for 51 years!
Until his death in 1954, Otto A. Langos would personally accumulate a known total of 2 Canadian
patent, 1 Great Britian Patent and 16 US patents, with quite possibly more that have yet to be discovered.
Along the way Otto would sell the rights to several of his patents and use the money to grow his
businesses. Most notably he assigned the rights to his "Electrical Resistance Element Machine" to the Russel
Electric Co. that was used to make the first hair curling irons, and also a "Vest Pocket Flash light" to Chicago Electric
Co., the likes of which can still be purchased today in any hardware store.
To see these and many more of Otto's fascinating array of inventions, please visit the US Patents section of this web site.
The influence and the inspiration derived from the legacy of Otto A. Langos apparently runs
deep because two of his children and one of his great grandchildren also became inventors who were issued US patents,
the latest one being issued in 2004, nearly a century after his own first Patent was issued. Otto would be proud.
That same enduring inspiration also drove the creation of this memorial website which even he could
never have dreamed of. Or could he?
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| Otto Langos & Sons - Left to right: ALFRED, OTTO E., OTTO A., LOUIE, & HAROLD |
Circa 1940 - A proud Otto Langos and Son's in front of their
Chicago plant.
Here is Otto and Son's after the hunt.
Below is an original piece of music composed and hand written by Otto Langos.
The English translation of the title, written in an Austrian-German dialect,
is: "Bells Play From Home" or "Home Bells Play". Thank you cousin Jeanie for pursuing that information!
Here is the ship manifest showing the Langos, Otto name (#5)
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