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Nom
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Abdank-Abakanowicz (sometimes without either name) Bruno
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Date de naissance
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6 October 1852
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Date de mort
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29 August 1900
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Lieu de naissance
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Wilkomierz/ Ukmerge (Poland -Lithuania)
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Lieu de mort
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St Maur-des-Fossés
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Couverture temporelle
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2/2 19th century
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Biographie
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Born in a region subject to the Russian empire, Abdank is variously described as Polish, Lithuanian or, more dubiously, Russian. After studying engineering at Riga Technical University he became a lecturer at the Lvov Technical University (Lviv, now in the western Ukraine). Here he probably encountered Warzynice Zmurko, professor of mathematics and a pioneer of research into mechanical integrators. This was a subject that would preoccupy Abdank throughout his life and he describes Zmurko's work in Les Intégraphes.
In 1881, Abdank moved to Paris, purchasing a villa at St Maur. He set up a manufactory of electro-mechanical apparatus and also worked as an electrical engineer and consultant in civic electrification, most notably that of Lyon. In 1883 or 84, he effected an official mission to the USA, to encourage participation in the forthcoming International Exhibition of 1887, and also published several papers on the exploitation of electricity in the country. Presumably on its foundation in 1893, Abdank took on the direction of one of the constituent factories of the Compagnie Française de Houston-Thomson, but two years later formed a partnership with Georges Gaiffe, son and successor to Adolphe Ladislas Gaiffe (1832-1887) under the name of G. Gaiffe & Cie. The association lasted until Abdank's death when Gaiffe became sole proprietor.1 For the exhibition of 1900, Abdank was a member of the jury for Group 5, Electricity, class 23.
Abdank developed his integration machine over several years, making the first practical model in 1878 and obtaining a patent for it in 1880. He would continue to develope it until his death, when five instruments exemplary of his production were presented to the museum of the CNAM, by his daughter Sophie.2 Other inventions, the parabolagraph, a spirograph, an electric bell for use in trains, and an electric arc lamp were also the subject of patents. Successful and so, prosperous, in late summer 1892, Abdank acquired property on the island of Coz-Scheres, near Trégastel (Brittany), where he constructed a neo-gothic house. Habitable from 1896, it was not entirely finished at the time of his death and was later enlarged by his daughter. Here, as at St Maur, an élite of cultivated Polish émigrés congregated, among them Vladimir Mickiewicz and the Nobel prize-winning author of Quo vadis? (entirely written on the island), Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916). The latter was Abdank's closest friend, named as his daughter Sophie's guardian in her father's will.3
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Notes biographiques
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1 IFIP 106-7..
2 CNAM, Catalogue A, 128-9.
3 Tomash, 866.
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Bibliographie
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Zarys statyki wykresnej. Cz. 1, Przeglad Techniczny, Lwów, 1876
'Teorya astronomiczna gwiazd spadajacych wedlug Schiaparelliego', Polskie Towarzystwo Przyrodników im. Kopernika, Lwów, 1876
'Integrator: krzywa calkowa i jej zastosowania w mechanice budowniczej', Red. Inzynierji i Budownictwa, Warszawa, 1880
'Sur un integrateur, instrument servant a l’integration graphique', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l’Academie des sciences, xcii 1881, 402-405,
'Sur un integrateur', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l’Academie des Sciences, cxii, 1881, 515-519. 'Sur l’integration mecanique', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l’Academie des sciences, xciv 1882, 783-785.
'Sur un nouvel integrometre', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l’Academie des sciences, xcv, 1882, 1047-48.'Nouvel appel magnéto-électrique', La Nature, Revue des sciences et de leurs applications aux arts et à l'industrie, viii, No. 2, 1883, 176.
Avec D. Napoli, 'Sur un nouveau modele d’integraphe', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Academie des sciences, ci, 1885, 592-595. 'L'Electricité en Amérique: l'Eclairage électrique', La Lumière électrique…, xvii 1885,
Les intégraphes, la courbe intégrale et ses applications. Étude nouveau d'un système d’intégrateurs mècaniques. Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1886.
'Nouvelles études sur les intégraphes', La Lumière électrique…, xxiv 1887, 54-6. 'Exposition Internationale d'Electricité: la Lampe différentielle de MM. Piettte et Krizik', La Lumière électrique…, xxv 1887,
Die Integraphen. Die Integralkurven und ihre Anwendung, Leipzig, 1889 (slightly extended translation of Les Intégraphes by Emil. Bitterli).
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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5, Place du Panthéon, Paris
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25, r de la Montagne Sainte Geneviève, Paris Bull de la Soc. Int des Electriciens
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Relation
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Gaiffe , G
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Identifiant
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174
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ark:/18469/1s7fm