Timeline of Polish science and technology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Education has been of prime interest to Poland's rulers since as early as the 12th century. The catalog of the library of the cathedral chapter at Kraków, dating from 1110, shows that Polish scholars already then had access to western European literature. In 1364, King Kazimierz the Great founded the University of Kraków, one of the great universities of Europe. In 1773 King Stanisław August Poniatowski established the Commission of National Education, the world's first ministry of education.

Today Poland has over 100 institutions of post-secondary education — technical, medical, economic, as well as universities — which are located in most major cities such as Gdańsk, Kraków, Lublin, Poznań, Rzeszów and Warsaw. They employ over 61,000 scientists and scholars. Another 300 research and development institutes are home to some 10,000 researchers. There are, in addition, a number of smaller laboratories. All together, these institutions support some 91,000 scientists and scholars.


Contents

[edit] 1951-present

Image:EP-09.jpg
  • Blue laser - first blue laser in Poland (third in the world)
  • Artificial heart - an implant, program: "Polish Artificial Heart"
  • PSR 1257+12 - a pulsar located 2630 light years from Earth. It is believed to be orbited by at least four planets. These were the first extra solar planets ever discovered (1992)
  • PZL Kania - a helicopter, first prototype (1979), FAR-29 certificate (early 1980s)
  • EP-09 - 'B0B0' Polish electric locomotive class
  • PT-91 - a Polish main battle tank. Designed at the Research and Development Centre of Mechanical Systems OBRUM (Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Urządzeń Mechanicznych) in Gliwice
  • 206FM - class minesweeper (NATO: "Krogulec")
  • PZL TS-11 Iskra - a jet trainer aircraft, used by the air forces of Poland and India (1960)
  • Lim-6 - attack aircraft (1955)

[edit] 1901-1950

  • Czochralski process - a method of crystal growth used to obtain single crystals of semiconductors (e.g. silicon, germanium and gallium arsenide), metals (e.g. palladium, platinum, silver, gold) and salts (1916)
  • Polish notation - also known as prefix notation, is a method of mathematical expression (1920)
  • LWS-6 Żubr - initially a passenger plane. Since the Polish airline LOT bought Douglas DC-2 planes instead, the project was converted to a bomber aircraft (early-1930s)
  • Mieczysław Wolfke - "one of precursors in the development of holography" (said:Dennis Gabor)
  • LWS - an abbreviation name used by Polish aircraft manufacturer (1936-1939)
  • PZL - an abbreviation name used by Polish aerospace manufacturers (1928-present)
  • RWD - an abbreviation name used by Polish aircraft manufacturer (1920-1940)
  • TKS - a tankette (1931)
  • RWD-1 - sports plane of 1928, constructed by the RWD

[edit] 1851-1900

  • Zygmunt Florenty Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski - the first to liquefy oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in a stable state (not, as had been the case up to then, in a dynamic state in the transitional form as vapour) (1833)

[edit] 1801-1850

  • Ignacy Domeyko - geologist and mineralogist, a geological map of Chile, describing the Jurassic rock formations, and discovered deposits of a rare mineral (1846)


[edit] 1751-1800

...


[edit] 1601-1650

  • Jan Heweliusz was an outstanding astronomer who published the earliest exact maps of the moon and the most complete star catalog of his time, containing 1,564 stars. He was the first to conceive the possibility of a multiple-stage rocket and of rocket batteries. In 1641 he built an observatory in his house.
  • Jan Brożek contributed to a greater knowledge of Copernicus' (Mikołaj Kopernik's) theories. Brożek was the most prominent 17th-century Polish mathematician.

[edit] 1551-1600

  • Bartholomens Keckermann - A Short Commentary on Navigation (the first one written in Poland)
  • Józef Struś - publication in 1555 Sphygmicae artis iam mille ducentos perditae et desideratae libri V. in which he descripted: five types of pulse, diagnostic meaning of those types, influence of body temperature and nervous system on pulse. This was one of books used by William Harvey in his works


[edit] 1501-1550

  • De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres). Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) began writing De Revolutionibus in 1506, and finished in 1530.


  • Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikołaj Kopernik) was a true Renaissance man — an astronomer, mathematician, physician, lawyer, clergyman, governor, diplomat, military leader, classics scholar and economist, who developed the heliocentric theory in a form detailed enough to make it scientifically useful. He also described Gresham's Law in the year (1519) that Thomas Gresham was born.


[edit] 1351-1400



[edit] 1251-1300

  • Witelo (c. 1230 — c. 1314) was one of the outstanding European philosophers of the 13th century as well as a scientist who specialized in optics. His famous optical treatise, Perspectiva, which drew on the Arabic Book of Optics by Alhazen, was unique in Latin literature and helped give rise to Roger Bacon's best work. In addition to optics, Witelo's treatise also made important contributions to the psychology of visual perception.


[edit] See also

Poland: Did you know

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