Bruno

Abdank 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 According ...

-Abakanowicz (6 October 1852 – 29 August 1900) was a Polish

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 id ...

, and

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

Life

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

Riga Technical University Riga Technical University (RTU) ( lv, Rīgas Tehniskā universitāte) 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 Insti ...

, Abakanowicz passed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

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. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

in Parc St. Maur on the outskirts of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. Earlier he invented the

integraph An Integraph is a mechanical analog computing device for plotting the integral of a graphically defined Function (mathematics), function. History Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis first described the fundamental principal of a mechanical integraph ...

, 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 ...

, 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 (p ...

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

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,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

. 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 (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in 1889.

Le château de Costaeres à Trégastel - PSIMG 4117

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 10 kilometres away. Population Inhabitants of Tréga ...

, off the coast of

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period o ...

, where between 1892 and 1896 he erected a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

manor. Although the construction works were not finished in Abakanowicz's lifetime, the castle of Costaérès became a notable centre of

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

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 precur ...

Władysław Mickiewicz Władysław is a Polish given male name, cognate with Vladislav. The feminine form is Władysława, archaic forms are Włodzisław (male) and Włodzisława (female), and Wladislaw is a variation. These names may refer to: Famous people Mononym *W� ...

Leon Wyczółkowski Leon Jan Wyczółkowski (; 24 April 1852 – 27 December 1936) was one of the leading painters of the Young Poland movement, as well as the principal representative of Polish Realism in art of the Interbellum. From 1895 to 1911 he served as prof ...

and

Henryk Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz ( , ; 5 May 1846 – 15 November 1916), also known by the pseudonym Litwos (), was a Polish writer, novelist, journalist and Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, espe ...

. 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 ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

'', while the ''

Quo Vadis ''Quō vādis?'' (, ) is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you marching?". It is also commonly translated as "Where are you going?" or, poetically, "Whither goest thou?" The phrase originates from the Christian tradition regarding Saint Pet ...

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

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

, 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 Branic ...

, who later graduated from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

and the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

and was murdered during World War II at the Auschwitz concentration camp. As for Abakanowicz's nationality, he was born in the lands which were once part of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ...

. Some later documents refer to him as a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

because at the time of his birth,

Ukmergė Ukmergė (; previously ''Vilkmergė''; pl, Wiłkomierz) is a city in Vilnius County, Lithuania, located northwest of Vilnius, with a population of about 20,000. Etymology and variant names The city took its original name ''Vilkmergė'' from th ...

was part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

. ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various ...

'' calls him a Lithuanian mathematician in its article on the

. Others consider him a

Pole Pole may refer to: Astronomy *Celestial pole, the projection of the planet Earth's axis of rotation onto the celestial sphere; also applies to the axis of rotation of other planets * Pole star, a visible star that is approximately aligned with th ...

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

Lipka Tatar The Lipka Tatars (Lipka – refers to '' Lithuania'', also known as Lithuanian Tatars; later also – Polish Tatars, Polish-Lithuanian Tatars, ''Lipkowie'', ''Lipcani'', ''Muślimi'', ''Lietuvos totoriai'') are a Turkic ethnic group who origin ...

roots goes back to the

szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...

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 According t ...

.A. Boniecki, ''Herbarz polski'', t. 1, Warszawa 1899, s. 17.S. Uruski, ''Rodzina. Herbarz szlachty polskiej'', t. 1, Warszawa 1904, s. 1.Fera na Latvia: Julho 2007
/ref>

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
">quadratrix">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 Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Riga Technical University alumni

Life

Works

See also

Notes

References

External links