Jan Szczepanik (June 13, 1872 – April 18, 1926) was a Polish

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

, with several hundred patents and over 50 discoveries to his name, many of which are still applied today, especially in the motion picture industry, as well as in photography and television. Some of his concepts helped the future evolution of TV broadcasting, such as the

telectroscope : The telectroscope (also referred to as 'electroscope') was the first conceptual model of a television or videophone system. The term was used in the 19th century to describe science-based systems of distant seeing. The name and its concep ...

(an apparatus for distant reproduction of images and sound using electricity) or the wireless telegraph, which greatly affected the development of telecommunications. He died in

Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Tarn� ...

in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

Biography

Szczepanik was born in the Austrian Partition, in the village of Rudniki near Mościska (now

Mostyska Mostyska ( uk, Мости́ська, pl, Mościska, both in the ''plural''), is a small city in Yavoriv Raion, Lviv Oblast ( region) of Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Mostyska urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: ...

, Ukraine) but relocated as infant with his mother to Zręcin in the industrial region of

Krosno Krosno (in full ''The Royal Free City of Krosno'', pl, Królewskie Wolne Miasto Krosno) is a historical town and county in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland. The estimated population of the town is 47,140 inhabitants as of 2 ...

Andrzej Pilipiuk Andrzej Pilipiuk (born 20 March 1974 in Warsaw), Poland, Polish humoristic science-fiction and fantasy author. He debuted in 1996 with short story "Hiena", which featured the first appearance of Jakub Wędrowycz, an alcoholic exorcist. Since that ...

, Paweł Wiliński (2005)
Zapomniany geniusz
'' (Forgotten genius). Retrieved June 20, 2012. where he grew up. His birthplace was controlled by

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

between 1772–1918 after the

partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

. Szczepanik graduated from a teachers' college and spent a lot of time reading scientific literature and journals. He moved to Vienna after his attempt to advance the

Jacquard loom The Jacquard machine () is a device fitted to a loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask and matelassé. The resulting ensemble of the loom and Jacquard machine is then called ...

from France (invented in 1801) was rejected by some local weavers for fear of losing business. His knowledge of fabric however, enabled him to create the first ballistic vest using silk. Spanish king

Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African, was King of Spain from 17 May 1886 to 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alf ...

(who used it in 1901) awarded him an order for its invention. Szczepanik was granted awards by other royal courts. The Emperor

Franz Joseph of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the Grand title of the Emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg m ...

relieved him of mandatory military service fascinated with ''photosculpture'' – known also as ''photoplastigraphy'' – introduced to him by Szczepanik. It was based on an idea patented in 1859 by François Willème (1830–1905) for producing portrait sculpture using synchronized photo projections. The Emperor gave him a pair of pistols for that as a souvenir. Before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Szczepanik carried out experiments with photography and image projection, as well as with small format color film. He holds patents for a new weaving method, a system of obtaining tri-color photography rasters, and equipment for sound recording and playback. Following the discoverer's idea, Agfa corporation produced its Agfacolor reversible paper; color films were also made for the first time, projecting 24 frames per second. Szczepanik's more significant discoveries also include the colorimeter (a color control tool), an electric rifle, and a color image weaving method, together with the automation of their production. Szczepanik also worked on a moving wing aircraft, a duplex rotor

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

, a dirigible, and a

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

met Szczepanik and described him in two of his articles
"The Austrian Edison keeping school again"
(1898) an

(1898).

References

Entry at Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
''Poland.gov.pl'' website (either the main source in 2004, or a mirror from 2008).

External links

*
Szczepanik on Timeline of Historical Film Colors
with primary and secondary sources. {{DEFAULTSORT:Szczepanik, Jan 1872 births 1926 deaths Cinema pioneers Polish inventors

Biography

See also

References

External links