Bruno Abakanowicz

Bruno Abdank-Abakanowicz (October 6, 1852 - August 29 1900) was a mathematician, inventor and electrical engineer.

Life and Nationality

Abakanowicz was born in 1852 in Vilkmergė, Kovno Governorate of the Russian Empire (formerly the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) pl icon cite web | author=Piotr Bielerzewski | title=Wiłkomierz | publisher=own | year=2005 | work=Rzeczpospolita Wirtualna | url=http://rzecz-pospolita.com/wilkomierz0.php3 | accessdate=2006-09-20 ] . After graduating from the Riga Technical University (then Riga Polytechnicum), at the age of 23 Abakanowicz passed his habilitationpl icon cite journal | author =Ewa Klaputh | year =2006 | month = | title =Le Château de Costaérès, czyli tajemnice inżyniera Abakanowicza | journal =Po Prostu | volume = | issue =22 | pages = | id = | url =http://www.po-prostu.info/index.php?module=News&catid=22 | format = | accessdate =2006-09-20 ] 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.

There, among other things, he invented the integraph, a form of the integrator, which was patented in 1880fr icon cite book | author =Bruno Abdank-Abakanowicz | title =Les intégraphes | year =1886 | editor = | pages = | chapter = | chapterurl = | publisher =Gauthier-Villars | location =Paris | id = | url = | format = | accessdate = ] , and was henceforth produced by the Swiss firm "Coradi"en icon [http://research.microsoft.com/~GBell/CyberMuseum_files%5CBell_Book_Files%5Cbooks.htm] ] . Among his other patents were the parabolagraph, the spirograph, the electric bell used in trains, and an electric arc lamp of his own designen icon cite journal | author =sir William Henry Preece | year =1882 | month =November | title =On a New Electric Arc Lamp | journal =Scientific American | volume =Supplement No. 360 | issue =1882-10-25 | pages = | id = | url =http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/gutenberg/etext05/8036010h.htm#20 | format = | accessdate =2006-09-20 ] . 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 near Trégastel, off the coast of Brittany, where between 1892 and 1896 he erected a neo-Gothic manorfr icon cite web | author= | title=maison de villégiature dite Château de Costaérès | publisher= | year=2005 | work=Monuments de France | url=http://www.monuments-de-france.org/notice_97154.html | accessdate=2006-09-20 ] . 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.

Bruno Abakanowicz died suddenly on August 29, 1900. In his will, he made Sienkiewicz the tutor of his sole daughter Zofia, who later graduated from the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne 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. Some later documents refer to him as a Russian because at the time of his birth, Ukmergė was part of the Russian Empire. Encyclopædia Britannica calls him a Lithuanian mathematician in its article on the integraph. 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 Lipka Tatar roots goes back to the szlachta of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the Abdank Coat of ArmsA. Boniecki, "Herbarz polski", t. 1, Warszawa 1899, s. 17.] S. Uruski, "Rodzina. Herbarz szlachty polskiej", t. 1, Warszawa 1904, s. 1.] [ [http://www.apropospage.com/uchebnik/abc/abc.html Выдающиеся математики - биографические сведения - а ] ] [ [http://feranalatvia.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html Fera na Latvia: Julho 2007 ] ] .

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 and references

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See also

* For other notable members of his family see: Abakanowicz

External links

Abakanowicz's calculating devices

* [http://www.rehseis.cnrs.fr/calculsavant/Exposition/ArtsetMetiers/13300-0001-e.html Integraph with transfer of direction by cog-wheels]
* [http://www.rehseis.cnrs.fr/calculsavant/Exposition/ArtsetMetiers/13300-0002-e.html Orthogonal planimeter/integrimeter with wheel-and-cylinder mechanism, Type I]
* [http://www.rehseis.cnrs.fr/calculsavant/Exposition/ArtsetMetiers/13300-0003-e.html Orthogonal planimeter/integrimeter with wheel-and-cylinder mechanism, Type II]
* [http://www.rehseis.cnrs.fr/calculsavant/Exposition/ArtsetMetiers/13300-0004-e.html Continuous screw]
* [http://www.rehseis.cnrs.fr/calculsavant/Exposition/ArtsetMetiers/13300-0005-e.html Logarithmic spiral]
* [http://www.rehseis.cnrs.fr/calculsavant/Exposition/ArtsetMetiers/13424-0000-e.html Integraph with transfer of direction by a linkage parallelogram]
* [http://www.rehseis.cnrs.fr/calculsavant/Exposition/ArtsetMetiers/13588-0000-e.html Integraph with transfer of direction by filament]

Mathematical contributions

* [http://www.mathcurve.com/courbes2d/abdank/abdank.shtml Description of Abdank-Abakanowicz quadratrix ]

Other

* [http://tassel.damien.neuf.fr/HPIM0350.jpgPhoto of Château de Costaeres built by Agdank-Abakanowicz near Trégastel]