Franciszek Rychnowski was a Polish engineer and an inventor, who also lectured at the Lwów Politechnic. In addition to mundane projects (he was involved with electrification

Electrification

Electrification originally referred to the build out of the electrical generating and distribution systems which occurred in the United States, England and other countries from the mid 1880's until around 1940 and is in progress in developing countries. This also included the change over from line...

, central heating

Central heating

A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be a HVAC system.Central heating differs from local heating in that the heat generation...

 and the tram

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

 system in Lwów, which is now Lviv, Ukraine), he also gained fame for his pseudoscientific theories on eteroid, similar to the concepts of élan vital

Élan vital

Élan vital was coined by French philosopher Henri Bergson in his 1907 book Creative Evolution, in which he addresses the question of self-organisation and spontaneous morphogenesis of things in an increasingly complex manner. Elan vital was translated in the English edition as "vital impetus", but...

or orgone

Orgone

Orgone energy is a theory originally proposed in the 1930s by Wilhelm Reich. Reich, originally part of Sigmund Freud's Vienna circle, extrapolated the Freudian concept of libido first as a biophysical and later as a universal life force...

; involvement with such pseudoscientific theories eventually ruined his career.

He is also a minor character in a series of books by the modern Polish author, Andrzej Pilipiuk

Andrzej Pilipiuk

Andrzej Pilipiuk , Polish humoristic science-fiction and fantasy author. He debuted in 1996 with short story "Hiena", which featured the first appearance of Jakub Wędrowycz, an alcoholic exorcist. Since that time, Pilipiuk has written several dozen other short stories about that character.Nine...

.

Further reading

• Andrzej Pilipiuk, Inżynier Rychnowski, PORTAL, 2/99 (http://www.rpg-portal.pl/portal2/spistresci.html)
• Bolesław Prus, Zygmunt Szweykowski, Z prac Instytutu Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1970
• Historia kultury materialnej Polski w zarysie: opracowanie zbiorowe, Zakład Narodwoy im. Ossolińskich, 1979

External links

• Wikimedia Commons: :Image:Rychnbion pic1.JPG; :Image:Rychnmach pic2.JPG Krystyna Ryczaj-Marchewczyk Zapomniany wynalazca Franciszek Rychnowski i Eteroid Franciszek Rychnowski de Welehrad - odkrywca eteroidu/orgonu ETEROID I ORGON