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AN ALCHEMIST OR SWINDLER ? THE CASE OF ZBIGNIEW DUNIKOWSKI (Alchemik czy oszust? Sprawa Zbigniewa Dunikowskiego)

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Lotysz S.
Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki
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2009
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vol. 54
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issue 1
63-82
EN
In early 1930s the newspapers and street journals in Europe and the United States were frequently reporting on a case of Zbigniew Dunikowski, a Polish engineer, who claimed to be in possession of a secret formula allowing production of gold from ordinary sand and rocks. He believed that most of those materials contain some particles of gold. For the precious metal however, it takes millions of years to precipitate into the ledges that could be mined. His method was based on a conviction, that the process can be accelerated. Although he was nicknamed 'Polish alchemist' very soon, his vain promises attracted attention of financiers and even some European political leaders. After few years of futile experiments, he was sued by his impatient financial backers, and arrested. While in detention, he was allowed to make the last attempt to produce gold and regain his repute and freedom. When this attempt failed, the judge sentenced him for two years in prison and ordered him to repay some 3 million francs ($100,000) to his investors. He was also fined with ... 100 francs fine (some 4 dollars). It can not be definitively stated, whether Dunikowski was truly convicted that his formula for making gold could have been working or he acted as a swindler from the very beginning. He exclaimed that the accusation of fraud was caused by bankers, who would never let his method to undermine the status quo of world's economy. The experiments conducted in Ecole Centrale in Paris during his trial, were assisted by several eminent French scientist. But although the judge sentenced, that Dunikowki's 'secret process for turning sand into gold is an impracticable combination of absurdities and contradictions', Polish engineer was still able to find other backers after being released from French prison. We find the traces of his further activity in Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Philippines. Finally, in early 1950s he ended his journey in the United States as a political refugee.
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THE HISTORY OF A DISPUTE ABOUT AN INVENTION: JAN SZCZEPANIK, KAZIMIERZ ZEGLEN AND THE BULLETPROOF VEST (Historia sporu o pewien wynalazek: Jan Szczepanik, Kazimierz Zeglen i kamizelka kuloodporna)

100%
Lotysz S.
Analecta. Studia i Materiały z Dziejów Nauki
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2009
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vol. 18
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issue 1-2(35-36)
349-366
EN
The aim of the paper is to investigate the origins of the concept of a silk bulletproof vest, and above all to clarify the controversies surrounding the authorship of the concept. The correspondence, obtained through an archival inquiry, of the true inventor of the silk armour, Kazimierz (Casimir) Zeglen, a Polish monk from Chicago, has made clear his relationship to Jan Szczepanik, a renowned inventor of the early 20th century, sometimes referred to as a 'Polish Edison'. It is to Szczepanik that most contemporary authors attributed the invention. However, there are sources from the period confirming that it was Zeglen who first devised and made the first fully functional, flexible silk armour in 1897. Among these sources are reports in technical and daily press, including Polish dailies that appeared in Chicago. The primacy of Zeglen to claim authorship of the innovation is confirmed also by patent documentation. Zeglen obtained several patents for the invention in the world's leading industrialised countries, and in spite of requests by Szczepanik, never agreed to cede his rights. The current paper also explains the terms of the collaboration on improving the soft armour that the two Poles took up in 1898, and stresses the unquestionably important role played by Szczepanik in the process. On Zeglen's commission he developed an industrial method of producing a bulletproof fabric, which not only made it possible to lower its price, but also improved the parameters of its endurance. The paper also makes an attempt to explain why the promising partnership was broken off, and presents the background for the subsequent disputes between Zeglen and Szczepanik, with the latter presenting himself as the sole inventor of the soft armour since ca. 1901. In the face of the rapid development of modern ammunition, the idea of using silk for making soft armour had to be almost altogether abandoned in the 1910s. However, the techniques devised by Zeglen and Szczepanik were later successfully applied in other areas of technology, such as the tyre industry, carpet-making , in the manufacture of steel armoured plates , and finally also in the manufacture of bulletproof fabrics using modern synthetic materials.
3
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CONTROVERSIES OVER THE ROLE OF THE 'POLISH FORMULA' IN THE AMERICAN SYNTHETIC RUBBER PROGRAMME OF 1942-1945

100%
Lotysz S.
Analecta. Studia i Materiały z Dziejów Nauki
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2010
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vol. 19
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issue 1-2(36-37)
331-344
EN
The author presents the history of the so-called 'Polish formula' for producing synthetic rubber and describes the role that it played in the American synthetic rubber programme of 1942-1945. The paper is based on an analysis of U.S. Senate documents and reports from the period of World War II that deal with the issue, as well as of American publications from the 1940s until the present day. The Polish formula for producing synthetic rubber was developed in the mid-1930s at the National Chemical Institute in Warsaw by a team headed by Waclaw Szukiewicz, Chem.Eng. At that time, Poland was the third country in the world to have introduced the production of synthetic rubber on an industrial scale, with ethyl alcohol being used as the material for the synthesis. A research programme aimed at launching production of synthetic rubber was started in the USA, when - after the outbreak of World War II - the country found itself cut off from supplies of natural rubber. The Polish formula was one of the several options taken into account. The idea of using that method was actively supported in the U.S. Senate by the farming lobby. The Senate's original decision to adopt ways of producing synthetic rubber using alcohol-based methods (including the method devised by Szukiewicz), and thus to base the American rubber industry on renewable agricultural resources, was vetoed by the President, who acted on pressure from the oil lobby. A special Senate committee recommended instead that methods basing on oil products be used for the synthesis of rubber. This change in approach was accompanied by a campaign of disparaging the value and importance of methods based on alcohol, including the Polish method. The effects of the campaign can still be seen in publications that demean not only the Polish formula, but also its author. The current paper is an attempt to given an objective account of the controversies surrounding the Polish formula and the role that it really played in the American synthetic rubber programme.
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