Jan Szczepanik

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Jan Szczepanik

Jan Szczepanik (April 13, 1872 in Rudniki (near Mostyska), Ukraine - April 18, 1926 in Tarnów, Poland) was a Polish inventor.

Szczepanik held several hundred patents and made over 50 discoveries, many of which are still used today, especially in motion picture industry, photography and television.

Some of the ideas influenced the development of television, such as telectroscope (apparatus for tele-reproduction of images and sound using electricity) or the wireless telegraph, which greatly influenced the development of telecommunications.

Szczepanik was granted awards by royal courts. Spanish ruler Alfonso XIII awarded him an order for creating a bullet-proof fabric, whereas emperor Franz Josef I relieved him from the mandatory military service, and, fascinated with a photosculptor (apparatus for copying sculptures), gave him a pair of pistols as a souvenir.

Before World War I, Szczepanik carried out experiments with photography and image projection, as well as with small format color film. He holds patents for a new weaving method, a system of obtaining tri-color photography rasters and equipment for sound recording and playback.

Following the discoverer's idea, Agfa corporation produced its Agfacolor reversible paper; color films were also made for the first time, projecting 24 frames per second. Szczepanik's more significant discoveries include also colorimeter - a color control tool, an electric rifle and a color image weaving method, together with the automation of their production.

Szczepanik also worked on a moving wing aircraft, a duplex rotor helicopter, a dirigible and a submarine.

Mark Twain has met Szczepanik and described him in two of his articles: "The Austrian Edison keeping school again" (1898) and "From the London Times of 1904" (1898).