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Air engine “Antoinette” V8 The French Antoinette V-8 made between 1908 and 1909 is the oldest aircraft engine from the collection at the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków. It was designed by Léon Levasseur, who previously engineered engines for motor boats... |
Flandrian heavy embankment crossbow This is a Flemish heavy rampant crossbow with the pull of a so-called English elevator. The crossbow represents a type of western European heavy infantry crossbow, used for sieges or the defence of the cities. It is a late variant in which structural improvements were applied — a movable viewfinder was introduced and the trigger lever was modified. According to the sixteenth-century chronicles, the effectiveness of this type of crossbow was tremendous. A good crossbowman could strike an unarmoured opponent at a distance of 650 steps, with a speed of one shot per minute. |
Small typewriter FK (“efka”) 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. |
Typewriter “Hammond” James Hammond obtained a patent for the construction of the machine in 1881, and its serial production began in 1884. The presented model 12 was created in the early 20th century in two versions; one was characterized by an arched two-row keyboard, typical of the early Hammonds; and the second, with a three-row keyboard, was typical for three-register machines. The final version, seen in the presented object, was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century along with the growing competition of lever-typing machines, with a typical arrangement of keys in straight rows. |
Typewriter “Picht” The “Picht” machine is a Braille typewriter adapted for the blind, invented by Oskar Picht in 1899. Its production began three years later. The first single copies of typewriters for the blind had beene created earlier (since the 18th century), but they allowed correspondence only with the sighted. The development of the journal for the blind by Louis Braille in 1825, disseminated in the 2nd half of the 19th century, created new opportunities that were used by the inventor—and later the director ꟷ of the centre for the blind in Bydgoszcz, Oskar Picht. |
Did you know that "The present is theirs; the future […] is mine"— Nikola Tesla An eccentric and a visionary. A genius and discoverer. But, above all, Nikola Tesla was an inventor, holding almost 300 patents, patents which protected his 125 inventions in several dozen countries around the world. His inventions have completely changed human civilisation. It is also worth remembering that he was almost forgotten, deceived and ridiculed in his own lifetime. Others stole his ideas and he was unable to turn them into a financial success. |
Did you know that How was the three-dimensional effect obtained in the 19th century? Stereoscopic photography was the first three-dimensional photography in history. It developed after 1851. Then, it was demonstrated for the first time at the London World Exposition, where spatial photographs aroused the delight of Queen Victoria. From that time on, stereoscopic photography became the entertainment of the bourgeoisie, and it was not until the 1930s — when fascination with film and radio began — that stereoscopy was reduced to the role of a children’s toy. |
Typewriter “Columbia Bar-Lock” The Bar-Lock typewriter is a patented design by the inventor and lawyer Charles Spiro in 1888. The presented model 10, was produced from 1900, under the brand Columbia Bar-Lock (in the United States) and Royal Bar-Lock in the British market. The keyboard used in the presented model is full, provided with 78 typing keys and one function key. The keyboard, constructed in this way, was adapted to English characters. For the needs of the non-English market, machines were produced with a set of 86 keys and only under the Royal Bar-Lock brand. |
Krokus enlarger In 1954, with the launch of production of a twin-lens reflex camera Start, the production of photo processing accessories commenced in the Warsaw Photo-Optical Works. One such device was an enlarger named Krokus. This name was given to subsequent models of enlargers produced until the 1990s. Enlargers of this family bore additional digital marking, e.g. Krokus 3, 4 N Color, 44, 69S, and were produced for various negative formats. Enlargers from Warsaw Photo-Optical Works satisfied the needs of amateur photographers in Poland and many other countries, being a perfect export product for years. |
“Brunsviga 13” calculating machine 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). |
Fruit squeezer Presented device was used for juicing fruit. Its effect was to crushing the fruit in a wooden barrel with a large knob located above it, combined with a screw placed inside the device. In this way a fluid, which presumably used not only for food but also for the preparation of various, often health potions. |
A workbench for mural painting designed by Wacław Taranczewski A wooden table on metal wheels, doubling as a palette for mural painting, designed by Wacław Taranczewski. In the years1948–1970, the artist held the post of a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, managing the faculty of decorative painting. |
Polyphon The presented exhibit is a musical instrument in the form of a music box made of wood. It is carved and has a glazed door. Inside the box is a playing mechanism with a metal disc. |
Did you know that About Skinny Emma — Andrzej Stasiuk What is this medal made of? It seems as if it was made of brass, from some artillery shell? From that distant war? And what beautiful curves Skinny Emma has: a heavy 305 millimetres howitzer from the Škoda factory. It’s a bit like a clockwork mechanism and a steam machine to boot. Because, in those days, even killing machines incorporated beauty and grace. So much that you wanted to touch them. Hence the female names: Fat Bertha or our Emma. |
Did you know that The magic of the lantern and the magic of the cinema While the camera obscura was the prototype of a camera, the magic lantern had the same function, i.e. a that of a cinematographic projector. A dark room and a blank wall. If necessary, a white sheet can be hung on it. |
Did you know that On the beginnings of photography technique In the history of photography technique, there are many solutions enabling an improvement to photographic techniques. The first methods of obtaining photographic negatives (from the 1850s) required the use of glass plates coated with a layer of collodion, which, at the time of shooting, was still wet. After the plate had been covered with a layer of collodion and sensitized in a proper bath, the photographer had only a few minutes to slide it into a cassette placed on the back of the camera and expose it. |
Did you know that Reflex cameras — how do they work? The idea of placing a movable mirror in the camera, allowing for the projection of the image from the lens onto the horizontally mounted focusing screen, was first attempted at the turn of the 1850s and 1860s. At the end of the 19th century, many companies began to manufacture cameras that used a mirror which allowed... |
Stereoscope viewer from Austro-Hungary The stereoscopic viewer of Brewster’s system for stereoscopic photos (slides), in the single 7 x 7 cm image format, was manufactured in Austria-Hungary in the early twentieth century... |
Laura Pawela, “we.jpg 17%” The convention of computer commands and terms transferred to an existential area. A clash of computer language with real-world problems. An amusing, but at the same time unpleasant, discrepancy between the two worlds. |
The “Mercury” Stereoscope viewer by Underwood & Underwood The “Mercury” Stereoscope is a Holmes system stereoscopic viewer for stereoscopic photographs, with a single 7 x 7 cm image, produced in 1900–1920 by Underwood & Underwood from New York (USA). One of the simplest designs of stereoscopic viewers was the “open” viewer system, invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1861. This was an extremely simple design, equipped with an eyepiece with lenses, including an appropriately curved wooden or metal sun visor. The Underwood & Underwood Company sold millions of stereoscopic photos, thanks to this very cheap production model of the viewer. |