Friday 24 August 2018

Polish inventions

Maria Salomea Skłodowska and Mikołaj Kopernik, two big names in Poland's history. Across the globe they are known as Marie Curie (physicist/chemist) and Nicolaus Copernicus (mathematician/ astronomer). These extremely talented and intelligent persons did amazing discoveries and made revolutionary inventions.

However, less known to the general public, there are more inventions done by Poles. Inventions which were truly spectacular at that time.

Józef Stanisław Kosacki (born in Warsaw) invented the portable mine detector

Kazimierz Żegleń (born in Tarnopol) invented the bulletproof vest.

Henryk Magnuski (born in Warsaw)
invented the walkie-talkie.

Kazimierz Prószyński (born in Warsaw) invented the film projector. He also invented the first stabilization camera. By the way, the story goes that he tested his invention while riding a horse.

Warsaw
Nice to know that so many of these bright minds came from Warsaw. Another man from Warsaw, Leo Gerstenzang, invented "Baby Gays".

Say what?!


Baby gays, the original name of cotton swabs. Or Q-tips, how they are called in the US and Canada after Unilever trademarked it. Those things which clog up your ear canals when you are so tempted to use them after having a minor ear wax blockage.


Mr Gerstenzang watched his wife attach wads of cotton to toothpicks, which inspired him before we emigrated to the US. There the product became a massive success. Q-tips, which stands for "quality tips". 

The Q-tips brand of Unilever has over $200 million of sales in the US alone! Although doctors have said for years that it is not safe to use cotton swabs for ear cleaning, it remains the most common use.

You clearly do not need to be a mastermind to invent things like this, but surely it was a massive success on the market!

So if you end up with a nasty ear infection after using a cotton swab, blame the guy from Warsaw! Or yourself :-)

Wednesday 15 August 2018

Pablo Picasso

Picasso and Warsaw, I have seen several signs of a connection between the two, so I did some research on the link between them.

But before starting, I want to show you some of the street art which I photographed last year at the central metro station, or "Patelnia" (Pan) like they call it here. It shows a replica of drawings made by him, the symbol of Warsaw (a siren, mermaid).



 
 
In 1948, Pablo Picasso, a famous painter, was a member on the French communist party. As such, he was invited to Poland to some communist congress. He saw the rebuilding of Warsaw and was fascinated with it. He drew a picture of Warsaw Mermaid holding a hammer instead of a sword in one of newly constructed apartments. The tennants who lived there couldn`t bear the invasion of guests coming to see the drawing every day, so after a few years they washed the Mermaid from the wall.
 
It was just offensive to them that their "syrenka" was being shown as such. Like with many world famous artists, their art would only get popular later in their career or even after their death.
This was the particular drawing:
 
 
 
The tennant's story:

FRANCISZKA S., pensioner

...They took him (Picasso) to the still unfinished building. He liked it and went inside, asked for a ladder and took a black pencil from his pocket. He drew a mermaid . On the wall. Everyone was very happy and thanked him. And then they went away, and the mermaid stayed.

They assigned the flat to a railway worker. He looked around, and said that firstly it was inadequate and secondly he had small children, and she had bare breasts. So he didn’t take it, and they called me. I didn’t have any children or any points – the only thing I could have scored on was my activity in the food cooperative, but I wasn’t even a member of it, so when they said there was a flat, I rushed over there.

The building how it looks nowadays

They told me to sit down. You see – the director said – this isn’t an ordinary apartment, it’s one with a mermaid. Fine, I said. And you see, this apartment must be kept clean, because visitors might come by. I’ll keep it clean, I promised; got the keys, opened the door…


My dear madam, what can I say? It was a Picasso.
It was huge, my God was it huge. Her bosom was like two balloons, the eyes were triangular, at the end of her long, oddly long arm she held a hammer; and she had a short, tapering tail at the back.
We only had a sofa bed and a table. The table stood in the middle of the room and the sofa bed against the wall, with the hammer hanging over our heads. When we woke up, we saw her eyes, even more odd than her arm and the tail.

A group from China was the first to arrive. They were visiting Polish workers’ housing estates. After the Chinese came the miners, festive in their plumed hats. Then came the textile workers, they were labour heroes. I was polite – I knew I was representing our capital city – but inside I seethed. Especially when I looked at their boots and calculated how much muck I would have to take out that day.

The parliamentary speaker came to see us – tell me, comrades, aren’t you afraid to be with her, alone as it were? – he asked in the hallway. The president came and looked, but didn’t say a word. The gentlemen from the ministry came, took measurements and exchanged opinions. Maybe we could take it off together with the plaster? Aw, come on, it’s too delicate. Put it behind glass? Aw, come on, the frame wouldn’t hold up…

They got on our nerves. We hired a painter. The painter brought a bucket and soap.
It was only when he died and they started talking about the quarrels between his children that we thought: perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea…? We were motivated by public interest, for the mermaid was state owned, and we would have got nothing out of it. Like our tattered couch, for which were weren’t given a single cent in compensation.

The people from the ministry came again. They brought machines with them and x-rayed the wall. Gentlemen, don’t trouble yourselves, I said. It was a good, pre-war workman and good, ordinary soap.


Picasso stayed in the famous Bristol Hotel in Warsaw ('Varsovie'), if you look good you can see 'Bristol' written on the plate showing above. I took this photo in Muzeum Warszawy, but there was not mentioned much about his stay. If I can find more information about this I will definitely post it, because Picasso was not an ordinary man, I bet there are more adventures of him in the city.

Take care folks!

Street lanterns in Warsaw can save lives

In Warsaw there are over 100,000 lighting poles. On each of them there is a number that describes our location more accurately than providing an address or a characteristic point nearby. It is very valuable to the emergency services, because it allows a very precise location where they will need to come.

Below you can see a photo I took on Marszałkowsta street, lantern number 136.





If someone calls the emergency line 112 or the police and has difficulty determining which is the place, the phone operator can always ask callers to go to the nearest lantern to confirm its number.
These codes are visible on the maps which the emergency services use.
The head of the Warsaw security office stated the below:
This simple yet practical idea has not been implemented in any other European city. So Warsaw has something to boast about. The solution is particularly useful on the periphery of the city, where buildings are not always visible.
 
I have done some investigation and found out that a similar system is being used in Prague, Czech Republic. But anyway, I like this old school system which is a great help to the emergency services.
 

 

Statistics

Just some statistic I posted a couple of months ago: Pretty amazing isn't it? Lets go over some other ones, not necessa...