Bruno Abdank-Abakanowicz (6 October 1852 – 29 August 1900) was a Lithuanian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

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 ...

, and

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Life

Abakanowicz was born in 1852 in the Russian Empire (now Lithuania). After graduating from the

Riga Technical University Riga Technical University (RTU) () is the oldest technical university in the Baltic countries established on October 14, 1862. It is located in Riga, Latvia and was previously known as Riga Polytechnical Institute and Riga Polytechnicum. In 1 ...

, Abakanowicz passed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

and began an assistantship at the Technical University of Lwów. In 1881, he moved to France where he purchased a

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

in Parc St. Maur on the outskirts of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Earlier he invented the

integraph An Integraph is a mechanical analog computing device for plotting the integral of a graphically defined function. History Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis first described the fundamental principal of a mechanical integraph in 1836 in the ''Journa ...

, a form of the

integrator An integrator in measurement and control applications is an element whose output signal is the time integral of its input signal. It accumulates the input quantity over a defined time to produce a representative output. Integration is an importan ...

, which was patented in 1880, and was henceforth produced by the Swiss firm ''Coradi''. Among his other patents were the parabolagraph, the

spirograph Spirograph is a geometric drawing device that produces mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids. The well-known toy version was developed by British engineer Denys Fisher and first sold in ...

, the electric bell used in trains, and an

electric arc An electric arc (or arc discharge) is an electrical breakdown of a gas that produces a prolonged electrical discharge. The electric current, current through a normally Electrical conductance, nonconductive medium such as air produces a plasma ( ...

lamp of his own design. Abakanowicz published several works, including works on

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

s and numerous popular scientific works, such as one describing his

. 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 Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. His patents allowed him to become a wealthy man and made him receive the

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

in 1889. Around that time he retired to a small island in

Trégastel Trégastel (; ) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of the region of Brittany in northwestern France. Trégastel is situated between Perros-Guirec and Pleumeur-Bodou. Lannion is away. Population Inhabitants of Trégastel are c ...

, off the coast of

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, where between 1892 and 1896 he erected a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

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 Ignacy Aleksander Gierymski (30 January 1850, Warsaw – d. 6–8 March 1901, Rome) was a Polish painter of the late 19th century, the younger brother of Maksymilian Gierymski. He was a representative of Realism as well as an important prec ...

, Władysław Mickiewicz,

Leon Wyczółkowski Leon Jan Wyczółkowski (; 11 April 1852 – 27 December 1936) was a Polish painter and educator who was one of the leading painters of the Young Poland movement, as well as the principal representative of Polish Realism (arts), Realism in art of ...

and

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish epic writer. He is remembered for his historical novels, such as The Trilogy, the Trilogy series and especially ...

. 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 ''Quo vadis?'' (, ) is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you going?". It is commonly translated, quoting the KJV translation of John 13:36, as "Whither goest thou?" The phrase originates from the Christian tradition regarding Saint Peter's fi ...

'' novel, one of the works for which Sienkiewicz was awarded with the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

, was written entirely in Abakanowicz's manor. Bruno Abakanowicz died suddenly on 29 August 1900. In his will, he made Sienkiewicz the tutor of his sole daughter

Zofia Zofia is a Slavic given name of Old Greek origin, meaning wisdom. It is a variant of Sofia. Famous people with the name Zofia: * Anna Zofia Sapieha (1799–1864) * Maria Zofia Sieniawska * Zofia Albinowska-Minkiewiczowa (1886–1971) * Zofia Balt ...

, who later graduated from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

and the Sorbonne and was murdered during World War II at the

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. As for Abakanowicz's nationality, he was born in the lands which were once part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. Some later documents refer to him as a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

because at the time of his birth,

Ukmergė Ukmergė (; previously ''Vilkmergė''; ) is a city in Vilnius County, Lithuania, located northwest of Vilnius. It is the administrative center of the Ukmergė District Municipality. Ukmergė (Vilkmergė) was mentioned for the first time as a ...

was part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

'' calls him a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n mathematician in its article on the

. Others consider him a Pole due to his fluent command of the language, friendship with many leading Polish personalities of the time, and literary contributions in Polish. His surname Abakanowicz which has Lithuanian Tatar roots goes back to the

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

of the

under the

Abdank coat of arms Abdank is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several ''szlachta'' families in the times of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Blazoning Gules '' łękawica'' argent, crest: łąkawica as in arms. History Accord ...

.A. Boniecki, ''Herbarz polski'', t. 1, Warszawa 1899, s. 17.S. Uruski, ''Rodzina. Herbarz szlachty polskiej'', t. 1, Warszawa 1904, s. 1.Выдающиеся математики - биографические сведения - а

Works

* ''Les intégraphes. La courbe intégrale et ses applications'', Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1886. Translated into German as ''Die Integraphen. Die Integralkurve und ihre Anwendungen'', Leipzig, Teubner, 1889.

Notes

References

"Bruno Abdank-Abakanowicz" Polish Contributions to Computing

External links

;Mathematical contributions
Description of Abdank-Abakanowicz quadratrix
;Other
Photo of Château de Costaeres built by Abdank-Abakanowicz near Trégastel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abakanowicz, Bruno 1852 births 1900 deaths People from Ukmergė People from Vilkomirsky Uyezd People from the Russian Empire of Lipka Tatar descent Mathematicians from the Russian Empire Inventors from the Russian Empire 19th-century Polish mathematicians Polish inventors Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France Knights of the Legion of Honour Riga Technical University alumni Russian inventors

Life

Works

See also

Notes

References

External links