Rola Wacława Moszyńskiego w rozwoju polskiej szkoły teorii maszyn i mechanizmów

The end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries saw the emergence and intensive development of many disciplines in the technical sciences, and the laying of a groundwork for those disciplines in their current form. In Poland, a country deprived of independent statehood until 1918, this was additionally a period when native research centres and scientific schools came into being, and when Polish-language specialist literatures emerged as well. Many of the eminent personages whose activities contributed to those trends have already been described in biographical notes and articles. There are still, however, not enough studies dealing with the substance of their scientific and professional achievements. One of the personages in question was Wacław Moszyński, professor of the Warsaw Technical University, a pioneer of machine construction and mechanism theory, author of the first academic textbook in the field to be published in Poland. The current article discusses Moszyński’s contribution to the development of mechanism and machine theory. The first part of the article gives an outline of the history of the discipline until 1945,presents the context of the after-war activities of the author, and evaluates his influence on the development of machine and mechanism theory in Poland; it also carries a short biography of Moszyński. The rest of the article is devoted to Moszyhski’s scientific achievements, and describes his approach to matters of structure, kinematics and dynamics, with special focus on those of his fonnulations and solution to problems that appear particularly innovative and original. The article also points out those proposals by Moszyński which made him a precursor of other disciplines, such as vibroacoustics, biomechanics and ergonomics. The paper also presents the role of Moszyński’s work as a foundation for the development of the Warsaw research-and-teching centre in the field. The achievements and methods of the Warsaw school combined with the those of other centres in Poland, which based on the earlier Lwow tradition, thus leading to very significant research and educational accomplishments.