Stefan Drzewiecki
Persons, originating from Poland

Stefan Drzewiecki

Born: July 26, 1844 in Kunka, Podolia, (today Ukraine)
Died: April 23, 1938 in Paris
His parents sent him for his education to France. In 1860 Drzewiecki was admitted to L'Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, however he postponed finishing his engineering studies to take part in January Uprising (1863-1864) against Russia. A few years later, he came back to Paris to finish his study. With a knack for creativity and invention, Stefan Drzewiecki invented such useful tools as the kilometric counter for taxicabs.
In 1873 at the age of 29. he moved to Saint Petersburg. In Russia Drzewiecki had a fruitful career as a mechanical engineer. Beginning in 1877, during the Russo-Turkish War, he developed several models of propeller-driven submarines that evolved from single-person vessels to a four-man model.
He developed the theory of gliding flight, developed a method for the manufacture of ship and plane propellers (1892). His work Theorie générale de l'hélice (1920), was honored by the French Academy of Science as fundamental in the development of modern propellers.

<-- Drzewiecki-designed submarine built in 1881
      in the Central Naval Museum, Saint Petersburg


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Polonica stamps:

Djibouti 2015, I