AKAT-1 was an analog computer made in Poland. Eng. Jacek Karpinski and Eng. Janusz Tomaszewski constructed this first in the world transistor-based differential analyzer as early as 1959 at the Polish Academy of Science’s Institute of Automatics (IPPT PAN). It was designed to solve complex differential equations in real time and simulate dynamic objects, for instance: thermal flow, aerodynamics, etc.
This retro computer was never mass produced due to the country’s policies at that time.
It now resides in the Museum of Technology (Muzeum Techniki) in Warsaw, Poland
The Polish car industry began in 1948, when National Economic Planning Commission (PKPG) signed a contract to build a car factory Fabryka Samochodow Osobowych (FSO) in Warsaw and negotiated a licence to build Fiat 1400. The progress went well until the cold war intensified and the pressure from the “East” forced the Polish authorities to break the contract with the West. They were offered a free license to build “Pobieda M20”, so in autumn 1949 the agreement with Fiat was called off and in 1950 the proposal from the USSR approved. The building of the car factory finished in autumn 1951 and later that year the first licensed passenger car, called Warszawa M20 was build.
Syrena Sport
In 1953 the decision to design first polish car was made, prototypes constructed and FSO received an official order to develop the vehicle into production. The car was given the name SYRENA (Mermaid) and first official model (100) was released in 1957. Some of the specifications included two-stroke engine of a small capacity, 4-speed manual gearbox, metal body, etc.
There would be nothing exciting about it so far, if there wouldn’t be a Syrena Sport model. This was indeed a spectacular car which was designed and constructed between 1957 and 1960.
A group of FSO engineers fascinated in sport cars from the West spent their spare time to develop a prototype two-seat car on a Syrena chassis. Cezary Nawrot designed a light and stylish low profile fibreglass body. Other parts came from the FSO inventory or were fabricated by the engineers themselves.
Wladyslaw Skoczynski built a completely new four-stroke engine taking a block of a French Panhard Dyna’s two-cylinder boxer engine and combined it with Polish Junak motorcycle cylinders, cylinder liners and pistons. The result was 750cc with 25HP - called S-16. The tested maximum speed reached 110 km/h.
On 1st May 1960 Syrena Sport was unveiled to the public. The reactions were astonishing. Photos were taken and reached the West. Syrena Sport was voted the most beautiful car from behind the iron curtain.
Communistic government decided that Syrena Sport was too extravagant and imperialistic and needed to be hidden from the public. The only prototype was locked away for more than ten years. In the early seventies the government rediscovered the car and sent a special commission to destroy it.
Sources: Wikipedia Syrena - samochod, (http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSO_Syrena#Syrena_Sport), Wikipedia Fabryka Samochodow Osobowych, (http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabryka_Samochod%C3%B3w_Osobowych), Photos and some of the information: AutoGEN.pl (2007-2010) FSO Syrena Sport, (http://www.autogen.pl/car-521-FSO-Syrena-Sport.html) Although all the content is translated, corrected and written by Poland here, AD
This place is worth a visit. It is the greatest concentration of stone circles in Poland, located in Tuchola forrest (Bory Tucholskie) between the Brda and Wda rivers, about 2.5 km from the kashebe village Odry.
It contains ten completely preserved and two partially damaged stone circles from the 1st and 2nd century.
Today the archaeological and natural reserve is open to the public. Some people believe in bioenergy or source of cosmic energy surrounding this charismatic place.
Paul Stephan (a geodesist from Poznan, 1915) discovered that some of the stone circles were designed to establish a precise calender and others where part of a huge cementary. Jozef Kostrzewski (Poznan University, 1926) correctly dated the stone circles to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
"The Odry site is associated with the cultural activities of the peoples who created the Wielbark Culture (German Willenberg-Wielbark Kultur). This archaeological culture, which is attributed to the appearance of Goths and Gepids from Southern Scandinavia, emerged during the early years of the 1st century AD in what are now Eastern Pomerania and the Lower Vistula. They also created several other stone circle sites, including Wesiory, Grzybnica, and Lesno. In the first half of the 3rd century, the people of the Wielbark culture abandoned their settlements in Eastern Pomerania and migrated or expanded eastwards and southwards." (www.astronomicalheritage.org)
The first official jazz festival in Sopot was held in August 1956 and welcomed around 50 thousand people. At that time Poland was under communist rule and in many ways cut off from the rest of the world. The public television was controlled by the government and it was rare to hear of see forieign culture from behind the iron curtain. Sopot was known as the window to the world because of its close proximaty to sea ports where the sailors and tourists brought music like jazz on vinyls, magazines and newspapers from abraod.
People were tired of the Russian music promoted by the state and played on any radio station most of the time. The festival brought a party to the town which was going on 24 hours a day. People felt free, were everywhere on the streets, on the pier and by the thousends on the beaches. Jazz music become a symbol of freedom and joy.
"It is hard not to recognize the meaning of the first jazz festivals, which shaped the culture in the years to come in Poland. Taking jazz music from private places to the public is the main achievement of the Sopot Jazz Festivals. After jazz, there were other events which followed. Although the years of euphoria are long gone, jazz festivals are still one of the attractions Sopot has to offer, and consistently attract a lot of artists and spectators." (sopot.net)
The lineup of the first Sopot Jazz festival included Melomani, Andrzej Kurylewicz Band, Zygmunt Wichary Band, Drazek i Pieciu, Jerzy Grzewinski Band, Kamil Hala Band (Czechoslovakia), Pawel Gruenspan Band, Pinokio, The Dave Burman Jazz Group (England) and first Polish modern Jazz band - Komeda Sextet with Krzysztof Komeda on piano, Jerzy Milian - vibes, Stanislaw Pludra - alto sax, Jan 'Ptaszyn ' Wroblewski - baritone sax, Jozef Stolarz - bass, and Jan Zylber on drums.
Mikołaj Kopernik - Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543), was a Polish astronomer and mathematician who set out scientifically based theory of a universe with the sun at its centre and that the earth and the moon were shaped round. Before nearly everyone thought that the earth was flat and wheels drove the sun, stars and the moon.
He was born in Torun, Poland. His father Niklas Koppernigk, was a merchant and baker from Cracow, who migrated to Torun. Mikolaj Kopernik studied astronomy and astrology in the University of Cracow, later canon and civil low in Bologna, Italy and medicine at the University of Padua, where he received a license to practice medicine.
Maria Sklodowska-Curie
Maria Skłodowska - Marie Sklodowska-Curie
(1867 - 1934), Polish physicist and chemistwho was unable to get accepted into any Russian universities (Poland was already partitioned) (due to her gender and anti-Polish repercussions of the January Uprising). In the age of 24 Maria moved from Warsaw to Paris where she obtained and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She married Pierre Curie, French physicist.
Maria Sklodowska was a pioneer in field of radioactivity, discvovered polonium and radium and was first female professor at the University of Paris as well as first person honored with two Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry. She founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw.
Fryderyk Chopin
Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin - Frederic Francois Chopin (1810 - 1849), was a Polish composer, virtuoso pianist and music teacher of French-Polish parentage. He was born in Zelazowa Wola, Duchy of Warsaw, grew up and completed his musical education in Warsaw and later settled in Paris as part of the Polish Great Emigration.
Chopin composed more than 200 works during his short lifetime. Most of them dedicated to his friends and students.
