Bruno Abakanowicz
| Bruno Abakanowicz | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
6 October 1852 Ukmergė, Lithuania (then part of Russian Empire) |
| Died | 29 August 1900 (aged 47) Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France |
| Occupation | mathematician, inventor and electrical engineer |
Bruno Abdank-Abakanowicz (6 October 1852 – 29 August 1900) was a Polish mathematician, inventor and electrical engineer.
Abakanowicz was born in 1852 in Vilkmergė, Russian Empire (now Lithuania). After graduating from the Riga Technical University, Abakanowicz passed his habilitation and began an assistantship at the Technical University of Lwów. In 1881, he moved to France where he purchased a villa in Parc St. Maur on the outskirts of Paris.
Earlier he invented the integraph, a form of the integrator, which was patented in 1880, and was henceforth produced by the Swiss firm Coradi. Among his other patents were the parabolagraph, the spirograph, the electric bell used in trains, and an electric arc lamp of his own design. Abakanowicz published several works, including works on statistics, integrators and numerous popular scientific works, such as one describing his integraph. He was also hired by the French government as an expert on electrification and was the main engineer behind the electrification of, among other places, the city of Lyon. His patents allowed him to become a wealthy man and made him receive the Legion d'Honneur in 1889.
Around that time he retired to a small island in Trégastel, off the coast of Brittany, where between 1892 and 1896 he erected a neo-Gothic manor. Although the construction works were not finished in Abakanowicz's lifetime, the castle of Costaérès became a notable centre of Polish emigree culture, housing many notable artists, scientists and politicians. Among frequent guests of Abakanowicz were Aleksander Gierymski, Władysław Mickiewicz, Leon Wyczółkowski and Henryk Sienkiewicz. The latter became the closest friend of Abakanowicz. It was in Abakanowicz's villa in Parc St. Maur that he finished his The Teutonic Knights and The Polaniecki Family, while the Quo Vadis novel, one of the works for which Sienkiewicz was awarded with the Nobel Prize, was written entirely in Abakanowicz's manor.
...
Wikipedia