Tadeusz Sendzimir ( ; originally Sędzimir, ; July 15, 1894 – September 1, 1989) was a Polish

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and

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 ...

of international renown. He held 120 patents in

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

, 73 of which were awarded to him in the United States. He developed revolutionary methods of processing

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and metals used in every industrialized nation of the world. He was awarded many distinctions and honours including the Polish Gold Cross of Merit (1938), the

Bessemer Gold Medal The Bessemer Gold Medal is awarded annually by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) "for outstanding services to the steel industry, to the inventor or designer of any significant innovation in the process employed in the manufact ...

(1965) and the Brinell Gold Medal of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

(1974).

Early years

Sendzimir was the eldest son of Kazimierz Sędzimir belonging to the

Clan of Ostoja The Clan Ostoja (Moscics), Clan of Ostoja (old Polish: ''Ostoya'') was a powerful group of knights and lords in late-medieval Europe. The clan encompassed families in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (including present-day Belarus and Ukraine ...

and Wanda Jaskółowska. Fascinated by machinery as a child, he built his own camera at the age of 13. After studying at the 4th Classical Gymnasium (''Gimnazjum Klasyczne'') in Lwów he entered the Politechnika Lwowska. However when Lwów was captured by Russian troops the Polytechnic Institute was closed and he moved to

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. There he worked in auto services and in the Russian-American Chamber of commerce where he learned

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 ...

and English. The

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

forced Sendzimir to flee to

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

, then to

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, where Sendzimir built the first factory in China which produced screws, nails and wire. Financial support was provided by the Russian-Asian Bank, at the time headed by Poles (Władysław Jezierski and Zygmunt Jastrzębski).

Immigration and research

In 1922 Sendzimir married Barbara Alferieff. His first son Michael was born two years later. Designing and making his own machines, Sendzimir began experimenting with a new way to galvanize steel. Despite galvanization, the products still had a tendency to

oxidize Redox ( , , reduction–oxidation or oxidation–reduction) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of the reactants change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is ...

. Sendzimir discovered that the problem was due to the

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

bonding to a thin layer of

iron hydroxide An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust. Iron oxide ...

on its surface, rather than to the iron. Sendzimir-Walzwerk

In 1929 Sendzimir approached several American industrialists with his findings, but since the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

had begun, he was unsuccessful in gaining their interest. Returning to Poland in 1930, he established his original rolling mill; a year later, he contributed to constructing a galvanising plant in Kostuchna near

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

employing the technology of continuous hot-dip galvanising of steel sheets. It became known worldwide as the Sendzimir process. This process was explained by him in the following words: "Let's imagine a piece of a hard pastry. We are rolling it on the pastry-board to decrease its thickness. However it would be faster and easier if we asked someone to stretch it by holding the edges". In 1934, at the ''Pokój'' Steelworks in

Ruda Śląska Ruda Śląska (; ) is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is a city in the Metropolis GZM, a metropolis with a population of two million. It is in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica River (tributary of the Oder). It h ...

, he implemented another of his inventions: a method of cold rolling of thin sheet metal in industrial production. A steel mill in

Butler, Pennsylvania Butler is a city in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is north of Pittsburgh and part of the Greater Pittsburgh region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,502. Butler is named after Major General ...

was established by Sendzimir in 1936. By 1938

Armco Steel AK Steel Holdings Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in West Chester Township, Ohio. The company, whose name was derived from the initials of Armco, its predecessor company, and Kawasaki Steel Corporation, was acqui ...

became interested in his work and they formed a partnership with him, the Armzen Company, to oversee the worldwide expansion of his galvanizing and mill technology. In the spring of 1939 Sendzimir moved to

Middletown, Ohio Middletown is a city in Butler County, Ohio, Butler and Warren County, Ohio, Warren counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 50,987 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area in sou ...

. Sendzimir's patented mill could roll hard materials down to very light gauges. The U.S. company, T. Sendzimir, Inc., was formed by him in Waterbury, Connecticut, in the 1940s. In 1945, he married Bertha Bernoda. The following year he became a citizen of the United States. With the beginning of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, Sendzimir and his achievements were ignored by

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

Poland and he was not even mentioned in the Polish ''Encyklopedia Powszechna'' (Universal Encyclopedia). This changed when

Edward Gierek Edward Gierek (; 6 January 1913 – 29 July 2001) was a Polish communist politician who served as the '' de facto'' leader of the Polish People's Republic between 1970 and 1980. Gierek replaced Władysław Gomułka as the First Secretary of the ...

, a new leader of the

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party (, ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other legally permitted subordinate minor parti ...

, came to power. Sendzimir was awarded an Officer Cross of the Order

Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on foreigners for outstanding achievements in the fields of education, science, sport, culture, ...

(''Krzyż Oficerski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski''). In 1975 Sendzimir received the honorary degree of doctor ''honoris causa'' from the

AGH University of Science and Technology AGH University of Krakow, (abbreviated as ''AGH University''; formerly: AGH University of Science and Technology or ''AGH UST'') is a public university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1913, its inauguration took place in 1919. The university foc ...

in Kraków. Sendzimir's successful methods for galvanizing steel eventually were implemented in the first Z-mill rolling

silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...

steel, making it pliable enough for use in air defense radar. Between 1953 and 1989 he introduced the first productive Z-mill to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, and to Japan and Canada in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1974 Sendzimir invented a spiral steel looper used in both the United States and Japan. Ninety percent of the world's

galvanized steel Galvanization ( also spelled galvanisation) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which the parts are coated by submerging them in a bath of ...

production went through the Sendzimir process by the early 1980s. Poland, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada purchased his steel mills and technologies over the years. Most notably, Sendzimir was a major financial and personal supporter of the

Kościuszko Foundation The Kosciuszko Foundation is a charitable foundation based in New York City. It was created by Stephen Mizwa to fund programs that promote Polish-American intellectual and artistic exchange. History The Polish American Scholarship Committee ...

, the

Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA) is a Polish-American scholarly institution headquartered in Manhattan (New York City), at 208 East 30th Street. History The Institute was founded during the height of World War II, on 1 ...

and Alliance College in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. Sendzimir died after a massive stroke and was buried by his family in a zinc-plated coffin made according to his design.

Quote

* "I have been carrying family and my only capital - a new method of zinc-plating to another coast of the Pacific."

Remembrance

On the 100th anniversary of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

he was one of those prominent immigrants honored for their contributions to America. In 1989, his life and work were the subject of a documentary film entitled ''Sendzimir''. In 1990 Poland's large steel plant in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

(formerly the

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

Steelworks) was renamed to

Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks () is a steel plant in Poland in the district Nowa Huta. It is owned by ArcelorMittal Poland S.A. Oddział Kraków, a division of ArcelorMittal. History The plant, then named Vladimir Lenin Steelworks, opened on July ...

. The AIST Tadeusz Sendzimir Memorial Medal was established in the same year.

Notes

References

Sources

* Vanda Sendzimir. ''Steel Will: The Life of Tad Sendzimir''. New York, Hippocrene Books, 1994. * M. Kalisz. ''Walcownia znaczy Sendzimir''. "Przekrój", 1973, nr. 1468. * O. Budrewicz. ''Ocynkowane życie''. "Perspektywy", 1974, nr. 38.

External links

The Sendzimir Foundation site

Tadeusz Gajl, Herbarz Polski, Sędzimir CoA

T. Sendzimir, Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sendzimir, Tadeusz 1894 births 1989 deaths 20th-century American engineers Polish engineers Polish inventors Polish emigrants to the United States Engineers from Lviv People from Waterbury, Connecticut Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland) Clan of Ostoja Lviv Polytechnic alumni Bessemer Gold Medal Engineers from Connecticut 20th-century American inventors