The pistol was a legend cherished during the war and, especially during the post-war period. It was a very good Polish design (based on the structure of the Colt M1911 pistol) delivered by the engineer Piotr Wilniewszczyc and Jan Skrzypiński. Work on the pistol began as early as 1930...
National HRO Senior is an American shortwave receiver, used both in civilian and military radio-communication service. The HRO was made in 1934 for the National Radio Company in the USA. The receivers were produced in many versions: HRO Senior (prod. 1935–1943), HRO-Jr (prod. 1936–1943), RAS (prod. 1939–1945), HRO-M and HRO–5 (prod. 1944–1945).
The Majestic radio receiver is an example of the production of one of the largest pre-war Polish radio companies — Towarzystwo Radiotechniczne Elektrit. This model was awarded the gold medal at the Radio Exhibition in Paris in 1936. Little wonder that a press advertisement from the 1930s described it as “the receiver for the most demanding”.
It is a small, movable typewriter, one of the most classic typewriters of the 1st half of the 20th century. Its production, on the basis of the patent purchased from the Paillard company of Switzerland, was commenced by Fabryka Karabinów (FK) [Warsaw Rifle Factory] in 1938.
The Coronet Midget is a miniature 16 mm film camera, with frame format of 13 x 18 cm, produced in 1935 by the Coronet Camera Company from Birmingham (Great Britain). The camera is equipped with a Taylor Hobson lens...
Brunsviga 13 is a manual mechanical calculating machine (arithmometer) with a 13-position counter. Arithmometers were patented in the 19th century in France and were designed to perform addition and subtraction, whereas multiplication and division could be conducted by several operations of adding and subtracting. They were driven manually (with a crank or a lever).
This 7–39 radio set was produced by Polskie Zakłady Philips in the penultimate season of its production (1938/39) that was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Polskie Zakłady Philips was the largest radio manufacturing plant in Poland between World War I and World War II. It was established by a Dutch company of Philips in 1922 as Polsko–Holenderska Fabryka Lampek Elektrycznych S.A. (The Polish-Dutch Plant of Electric Lamps). It was renamed to Philips in 1928.
The history of ski jumping in Poland dates back to the early 20th century. The first world records were beaten by Sondre Norheim from Norway (30.5 m in 1860). These days, jumps have lengths of more than 240 metres (Adam Małysz has jumped 225 m; in the 2012/2013 season, Piotr Żyła and Kamil Stoch reached lengths of 232.5 m).
“Children at their desk” from Umarła klasa [The Dead Class] is an art work (installation) by Tadeusz Kantor created in the spring of 1989 in the Cricoteka facilities on Kanonicza Street. It is one of several examples of works by this artist, drawing upon the idea of the Umarła klasa [The Dead Class] performance (version of “A boy at his desk from The Dead Class”, “School Class — Closed Work”, various kinds of drawings, sketches and paintings from the years 1975–1990) that was specially prepared for the future Museum of the Cricot 2 Theatre.
Following the Wisła TV set, the black and white Belweder TV set was the second TV set to be produced in Poland and the first one entirely designed in our country. Laboratory works commenced in 1955 with the assumption that its production would be based on technologies available in Poland, on the contrary the Wisła TV set was produced on the basis of Soviet license and parts.
The round pouncet-box is made of cardboard with pressed decorations on the whole surface. The side walls are decorated with a kind of cymatium.
The phonograph has a spring drive mechanism and is designed to play discs that have a diameter of 10 to 25 cm at 33 rpm. It is sometimes described as the walkman of the Victorian era and the great-grandfather of the iPod. It is an example of one of the first pocket-size and movable devices for playing music.
The Osa M50 and M52 scooters are the only Polish mopeds designed for batch production. Works on the design and production of the Polish scooter started in the Progress and Sports Department of the Warsaw Motorcycle Factory (WFM — Warszawska Fabryka Motocykli) by engineers Krzysztof Brun, Jerzy Jankowski and Tadeusz Mathia in 1951. From the group of discussed designs based on already manufactured elements of motorcycles that were produced in Poland, the OSA model was eventually selected.
Bike is an exhibit from Tadeusz Kantor’s performance Umarła klasa [The Dead Class].The premiere took place in the Krzysztofory Gallery in Kraków in November 1975. In the play was a prop of an “old man with a bicycle” going round and round, saying goodbye and leaving in step to the François waltz. The old man was played by Andrzej Wełmiński.
