In Pomerania as early as in 1880 some efforts were made to install lighting and electric engines (motors). The real beginning of the power industry took place when the first power station was started in Szczecin (German: Stettin) in 1889. Electrification of the region came under the administration of the local government and private investors. The special hydrological conditions in Pomerania were the reason why up to the 1930s the main source for the power industry were hydroelectric power stations. A significant increase in demand for electric energy came after the first world war. A general electrification involved a need to build power stations of a bigger capacity and a bigger network of transmission lines, which required overcoming technical difficulties and creating new legal regulations. At the end of 1930s the growth of the power industry in Pomerania was subordinated to the military demands of Germany.
The article presents an idea to build a district big power station in Łódź. A big modern electric power station was supposed to supply electric energy to the whole region and to become an element of the national network. What is more, all those plans had had been devised before the first world war, when Łódź was part of the Russian Empire. They were made in the offices of the 1886 Electric Lighting Association, a tycoon in the Russian electric industry, connected with the Concern of Siemens & Halske, Deutsche Bank and some Swiss holding companies. The idea was expected to be realised after regaining independence, yet it was later rejected because the municipal authorities of Łódź wanted to take over the property of the existing power station by virtue of a concession contract with the above-mentioned company. Even later no power station was built because of the increasing statism of the Second Republic and the idea of electrification prepared by the American Company Harriman et co was also killed. The text has been based on archive documents and specialised literature concerning the subject in question.
History of electrification in Wadowice began as early as in 1906. This source of energy was appreciated instantly. Neighbouring factories started to install their own power plants. Yet such installations were very costly. The solution to the problem would be electrification of the entire region supplied by one big power plant generating cheap electrical energy. In order to win the marker, various electrical centers started their “fight” offering different sale conditions.
The article presents the problems of building and maintaining urban transport infrastructure in Warsaw at the turn of the 20th century. The text concerns Kajetan Mościcki (1855–1933), engineer, who was appointed by the acting Mayor of Warsaw, General Sokrates Starynkiewicz, to the position of senior city engineer and head of the municipal construction department, where he worked from 1889 to 1909. During this period, he paved the streets which were worn or damaged by sewerage works with wooden blocks and covered the sidewalks with concrete slabs. He designed the first slip road in the Kingdom of Poland in the form of a spiral, and he also participated in the construction of the oldest road engineering structures made of reinforced concrete, located in Ujazdowski Park and on Karowa street in Warsaw, the first Warsaw power plant and the second city bridge across the Vistula. In addition to his professional activity, Kajetan Mościcki was an inventor in the fields of mechanics and electrical engineering. At the end of his life, he founded an award that the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences was to grant to Polish scientists for outstanding achievements.
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