Poland is considered to be a country that goes along with technology. “Polskie kasyna online”, for example, are very popular here and are growing rapidly. Poland’s history abounds in interesting characters, among whom there is no shortage of inventors. But not all of them are popular, not only that: some of them were not even recognised as Poles for many years!
Photography and colour film
Jan Szczepanik is also known for his numerous works on photographic techniques. His inventions in this field include a colour image registration system using a camera with three lenses, recording an image separately for each colour on monochrome film. He also developed colour film, which was perfected and used by Kodak almost 30 years later. Jan Szczepanik also worked on the design of the photometer, as well as the colourimeter, devices essential in today’s photography.
Reinforced concrete railway sleeper
Poland never made much of a contribution to the development of the railways, but it made its mark with the very making of the first reinforced concrete sleepers. The inventor of this type of beam was Wladyslaw Trylinski, who worked extensively with concrete pavements and related materials.
The Czochralski method – obtaining crystals of semimetals
Developed as early as 1916, the Czochralski method for producing single crystals has proved highly successful in the world of silicon technology. Chemist Jan Czochralski’s idea is still one of the most widely used techniques for creating large homogeneous silicon crystals with the help of – usually – induction furnaces. The crystals, which are up to 30 cm thick, are then cut into slices used as a substrate during the manufacture of semiconductor components.
Cyclometer
This is another work of Polish scientists that influenced the course of World War II. However, its history began much earlier, in the 1930s, when Marian Rejewski developed a device to automate calculations to assist in breaking the Enigma code.
For the first time, a message encoded with the help of Enigma was successfully decoded in 1932. Over time, both the reading and coding methodologies were improved. When the Germans changed the Enigma coding cylinder, it took more than a year to prepare the necessary catalogue of characteristics for decoding. After this time, it was possible to decode the information in under 20 minutes.
Elements of the Lunar Vehicle
Although Poland is not an automotive powerhouse, the ideas of our compatriots have always been treated with appreciation. Professor Mieczysław Bekker, who was commissioned by General Motors to develop the running and propulsion system for the Lunar Roving Vehicle, has gone down in the history of space exploration. To date, it is the only vehicle to have driven a man on the moon. Mieczyslaw Bekker also led the team that built the lunar car.
Gallium nitride-based blue laser
The blue laser, today used in Blu-ray drives in every PlayStation 4, among others, is a tool based on the work of Polish scientists. Unfortunately, this shows that Poles very often fail to take care of and develop their idea, making the world, when observing the work, simply outdo our scientists.
A blue laser with known contemporary properties was developed at the Warsaw Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2001. This was achieved by producing extremely high quality gallium nitride crystals. The technology was subsequently perfected by the Japanese, who had been almost at a standstill with their work on the blue laser since the 1990s.
Hand-held mine detector
The achievements of Polish soldiers during the Second World War are known to everyone. However, it was not only their enthusiasm that came in handy on the battlefield, but also Polish technical thought. Thanks to the work of engineer Józef Kosacki, who made use of the work started even before the war at the AVA Radiotechnical Plant, it was possible to construct a mine detector.
The detector prototype created by Kosacki won recognition from the British and became part of the equipment of the British army. The device contributed to victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein, in North Africa. During the war, more than 100,000 detectors based on the first version of the Polish design were produced. In the following years, several hundred thousand improved models with the symbols Mk. II, Mk. III and Mk. IV were made. They were used during Operation Husky (invasion of Sicily) or the Normandy landings.
Detectors based directly on Józef Kosacki’s designs were used by the British Army until 1995 (it was used during Desert Storm, among other things). The prototype of Kosacki’s hand-held mine detector is located at the Military Institute of Engineering Technology (WITI) in Wrocław.