Before the division of Upper Silesia was completed, the German explosives manufacturer “Lignose” AG began adjusting its business operations to the new realities. Initially, the company leased its factories in Bieruń Stary, Krywałd, and Pniowce to “Lignose-Ost” AG, and subsequently decided to sell all assets to “Lignoza” SA. The primary buyers of the company’s products were the largest coal mining enterprises. By ceasing the production of military explosives, “Lignose” shifted its focus to the civilian market. In addition to the detonating agents produced before the Great War, the company began implementing newer, safer materials for users, as well as fuses, detonators, igniters, and caps. Explosives with compositions and properties different from those used in mining began to be employed across various sectors of economic activity. The decline in demand for explosive–grade nitrate, lignosites, barbarites, dynamites, and powders during the second wave of inflation led to a search for new markets abroad. Initial sales successes, mainly in Yugoslavia, Romania, and the Baltic states, involved explosives and equipment, and later expanded to complete technological lines. Alongside ongoing laboratory research on new generations of civilian–use detonating agents, an investigation into bakelite compounds was also commenced. The realization of these ideas was made possible by earlier advancements from the Chemical Research Institute. The success achieved resulted in the development of many other sectors of economic activity. In the late 1930s, under the direction of military authorities, armament programs were reintroduced in Bieruń Stary and Krywałd. The expansion of the product range was planned for new factories in Pustków, near Dębica.
This article explores the medieval understanding of diabetes, drawing on descriptions from the works Practica medicinalis and De iudiciis urine by Thomas of Wrocław (1297– 1378), a physician. It also examines how he interpreted this disease within the framework of Galenic theory. The article discusses how Thomas defined and classified diabetes, emphasizing the variety of terminology used. The starting point for refl ections on the causes of the disease’s onset was ancient and medieval medical theories about the functioning of the human body, especially Galen’s concept of the forces – capacities (virtutes) – responsible for digestion and urine formation. Using descriptions of diabetes from authors cited by Thomas – including Gilbert of England, Bernard de Gordon, and Guglielmo de Saliceto – it analyzes the medieval understanding of the disease’s mechanisms, particularly the link between digestive disorders and its progression. The article also features the characteristic traits of urine in individuals with diabetes as observed by medieval physicians. Furthermore, it compares the description of the disease with other urinary tract conditions, such as diampnes or stranguria, illustrating the diagnostic challenges faced by medieval doctors. Overall, the article aims to portray Thomas of Wrocław’s treatises as evidence of how ancient traditions were adopted and how medical knowledge was organized in the 14th c.
Radosław Skrycki, Johann Baptista Homann (1664–1724) – kartograf i jego światy. Katalog wystawy z okazji 300. rocznicy śmierci, Zespół Historii Kartografii przy Instytucie Historii Nauki PAN, Szczecin, Warszawa 2024, ss. 112, 46 opisów, 46 ilustracji The author examines and characterizes the existing literature on Johann Baptista Homann’s maps and work. She demonstrates, with examples, the complexities involved in distinguishing different editions or states of selected maps and addresses errors and omissions that have historically stemmed from researchers’ limited access to highquality images of cartographic materials. The discussion focuses on two significant older publications about Homann: Christian Sandler’s work, which focuses mainly on the content and intellectual aspects of Homann’s maps, and Wilhelm Eberle’s detailed, archival-based study of Homann’s life and work, which reveals many previously unknown facts. Lastly, the analysis covers the latest publication – Radosław Skrycki’s catalogue – which highlights the richness and diversity of Homann’s work.
The Polish orientalist Professor Tadeusz Kowalski (1889–1948) corresponded with scholars from nearly all parts of the world, including Russian scholars living both in the USSR and in exile after the October Revolution. This article is dedicated to analyzing the content of the letters from one of these scholars – Vladimir Minorsky – who was a former chargé d’affaires of the Russian diplomatic mission in Tehran and later a white émigré. The materials described are stored in the collections of the Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Krakow, and were sent during the years 1924–1948 from Paris, London, and Cambridge. Drawing on their content and the available literature, his life abroad, research interests, and details from his private life are discussed. All of this helps to better understand the situation of the scientist in exile during the interwar period and during and immediately after World War II.
This article focuses on Bolesław Ulanowski, arguably the most inventive fi gure among his contemporaries in the Krakow circle of historians, who specialized in Polish and canon law. It examines his life and work at the Jagiellonian University, drawing on previously untapped sources from various archives and libraries in Krakow. The article also outlines the main areas of Ulanowski’s scholarship, including his signifi cant contributions to the study of 13th-c. history. Finally, it considers his role as secretary-general of the Academy of Learning in Krakow.
The article examines the activities of the Starnberg Group, founded in 1970 under the leadership of physicist and philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, as an underappreciated yet groundbreaking formation in the history of science studies. Its key conceptual frameworks were: alternatives in science, the finalization of science, and social natural science. Refl ection on alternatives in science challenged linear models of scientific progress, highlighting the social conditioning and potential contingency of knowledge development. The concept of finalization assumed that, under conditions of paradigmatic maturity, further development of scientific research requires explicitly defined social and political priorities. In turn, the proposal for a social natural science sought to transcend the opposition between the natural and the social sciences by integrating a normative dimension into the analysis of natural phenomena – particularly in the context of environmental transformations and the metabolic relations between society and nature. Despite its limited international reception, the intellectual legacy of the Starnberg Group retains considerable heuristic value and may serve as an important source of inspiration for contemporary research on the relationship between science, technology, and sustainability.
The article compares the academic advancement of the married couple of historians, Wanda and Bogumił Zwolski, who during the period of the People’s Polish Republic (PRL) were affiliated with the Institute of History at the University of Łódź. Both arrived in Łódź from Vilnius in 1945. Bogumił already held a doctoral degree and had prior university teaching experience (before the war he had served as an assistant at Stefan Batory University in Vilnius). Wanda, who in the interwar period had worked as a secondary school history teacher, took up positions as a lecturer in the methodology of teaching history at Łódź institutions of higher education, including the State Higher School of Education (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Pedagogiczna, PWSP) and the University of Łódź. The author focuses on the time required for the two scholars to reach comparable stages of their academic careers and on how their scholarly output was assessed, including the criteria used in these evaluations. The study examines whether career advancement was shaped by subdiscipline, research interests, or political attitudes, as well as by support (or the lack thereof) from colleagues and university authorities. It also addresses the question of whether gender influenced the functions and positions entrusted to the protagonists. This case study of the Zwolskis goes beyond a narrowly defined biographical framework, allowing broader patterns of academic advancement in the PRL to be identified. It also contributes to the discussion of whether gender determines career progression and whether academic couples working within the same discipline find it easier to advance professionally.
Benedykt Dybowski (1833–1930) – one of the most important European zoologists of the second half of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th c. – was a man extraordinarily active both in science and society. Perceived primarily as a pioneer of Darwinism in Poland, he achieved his greatest professional success through his study of the ichthyofauna of Lake Baikal and the East Siberian rivers Angara, Yenisei, and Selenga. This work examines the Siberian period of Dybowski’s life in the context of his faunistic research on the world’s deepest lake.
Walter Szrek donated a collection of over 600 historical aids and mechanical calculating devices to the Jagiellonian University. This donation, together with a focused archival set, significantly enhanced the University Museum’s collection of scientific instruments, which has been steadily expanding. The article aims to (1) highlight the most valuable pieces in the donated collection and (2) analyse Polish collections of historical calculating devices in comparison with the world’s leading collections. The donation is a classic collector’s set of high historical and museum value, comprising mainly mechanical calculating devices from the second half of the 19th c. These machines reflect typical designs of their era and include models from all major manufacturers. Most private collections of such devices date from the 19th and 20th centuries. Early objects from the 17th c. are rare and are held by a few science and technology museums, as noted in the article for comparison.
The article focuses on psychology as practised within the Lvov-Warsaw school. One of the two psychologists who shaped the school’s program, based on Kazimierz Twardowski’s thought, was his doctoral student, Stefan Baley. He led the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Warsaw from 1928 to 1939. The article examines the department’s research focus and presents profiles of fourteen women students and doctoral candidates of Stefan Baley.
The article recalls the figure of Edward Koziorowicz, born in exile in France to a father who was an insurgent in the 1830 uprising. Educated at both the Polish school in Batignolles and the prestigious École des Ponts et Chaussées, he became one of France’s most outstanding engineers. He worked in Corsica, Savoy, and Melun. However, his true passion was entomology. He became particularly renowned for his research on beetles with a subterranean lifestyle. A member of the French Entomological Society, he developed new methods for catching insects. Thanks to his research, several new species were described. Koziorowicz also organized research trips and stays in Corsica for other naturalists, including Simon and Marshall. He exchanged specimens with many European entomologists, and several new species were dedicated to him. For his achievements, he received numerous distinctions, including the Legion of Honour.
The article provides a comparative analysis of the biographies of three prominent figures in Polish scholarship at the turn of the 20th c.: Władysław Witwicki, Stefan Baley, and Stanisław Kobyłecki. By examining their individual careers–such as their efforts to secure professorships at the University of Warsaw and Kobyłecki’s habilitation process at the Jagiellonian University–the text highlights the social science changes in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. Based on archival materials and relevant literature, the analysis emphasizes the University of Warsaw’s role in fostering new, empirical trends in psychology, while also acknowledging the unique traditions of other academic centres, such as Kraków and Lviv.
Geological studies are a continuous learning process that many individuals pursue throughout their careers. One such researcher was Franciszek Bartonec, a miner and geologist who dedicated his professional life to exploring the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. The main objective of this article is to present Bartonec’s professional contributions. A thorough search of archival sources and journal publications was conducted, resulting in the first comprehensive compilation of his publications and geological maps. Bartonec was an expert in both geology and mining, and his work deserves greater recognition. To date, however, only a commemorative stone with a plaque has been erected in his home village of Budziszowice. Notably, 2024 marked the 100th anniversary of Bartonec’s death and the 130th anniversary of the publication of his geological map of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin.
This article aims to examine the conservation techniques of animal specimens in the Cabinet of Natural History of Duchess Anna Jabłonowska, née Sapieha, in the context of the history of European preparation and exhibition techniques. The 18th c. saw a breakthrough in the development of preparation techniques used in cabinets of natural history. The need to ‘preserve’ animals and plants brought by overseas expeditions led to the search for new conservation techniques and methods, which had long been the subject of scientific research. René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1683–1757) was considered the father of modern taxidermy techniques, who proposed preserving birds in jars with alcohol and mummifying them, trying to make the prepared specimens as close to their living forms as possible. The next very important stage was the use of arsenic by Louis Dufresne (1752–1832), a naturalist and curator of the zoological collections of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. In the inventory of the collection of natural specimens in Anna Jabłonowska’s Cabinet of Natural History in Siemiatycze, discovered in the St. Petersburg archive, the information on the conservation of specimens is very modest. It should be emphasized that despite this, it constitutes an important contribution to the history of the conservation of Polish natural collections in the 18th c. Jabłonowska had certainly mastered the knowledge of nature exhibitions and 18th-c. systematics of the natural world, which only confirms that she belonged to the group of women who made extraordinary contributions to the development of natural history during the Polish Enlightenment.
The article aims to provide insight into the price lists and catalogs of tree and shrub nurseries and other horticultural and agricultural companies which operated before 1939 in Poland and neighboring countries. It examines the prints collected today in the professional library with a historical and archival focus, which is part of the family-owned ‘Szmit’ nursery company in Pęchcin near Ciechanów, Poland. The selection of the companies presented here is limited to the former Eastern Borderlands, in tribute to the beloved area of research exploration of Prof. Wanda Grębecka (1932–2023). Briefly introduced are the firms of Ruben Abramovich and Vasyl Gromov of Święciany, Brunickis of Podhorce near Stryi, Mitrofan Dechtiarev of Zaleszczyki, Wilhelm Jelski of Ignatycze near Minsk, Stefan Makowiecki of Michalovka near Kamieniec Podolski, F. Szyk and Sons from Vilnius, Andriy Terpylak from Zalukev near Halych, as well as the only known surviving commercial plant price list from a contemporary Polish collection, printed at the Kremenets Lyceum in the early 1820s. The selection was guided by the rarity of the prints still preserved today, sometimes extant in a single copy, or by their aesthetic and/or editorial qualities.
