PRAŻMOWSKI, Adam

From 1839 to 1848, P. worked in an astronomical observatory in Warsaw, as an assistant in meteorological observations. Until 1863, he worked as an astronomical observer under the leadership of Jan Baronowski. For the needs of astronomical and meteorological observations, he made a thermometer, barometer, aerometer and magnetometer. He opened his own workshop for cutting lenses. He also made the first electric watch in Warsaw, and constructed a Foucault pendulum in an observatory.
From 1846 to 1849, P. took part in the triangulation of Poland and carried out the necessary astronomical observations. At that time, he determined the azimuth for Warsaw. His calculations were important, since, consequently, the Polish triangulation network could be connected to the Prussian and Austrian ones. In 1852, the director of the observatory in Pulkovo, W. Struve, authorised him to lead the measurements in the southern section of the meridian arc, from the outfall of the Danube to the Arctic Ocean.
He presented the results of his measurements in 1853 at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. In the subsequent years, within the scope of his research on the polarisation of light, he constructed a voltage indicator, which was used in the research of the Comet Donati and for the observation of the total solar eclipse on 18th July 1860 in Spain. With his voltage indicator, he proved the polarisation of the light of the Sun's corona. He thus corrected the theory, valid at the time, that the atmosphere, and not the Sun, was the source of light and heat.
Between 1860 and 1863, P. worked as an adjunct at the Academy of Medicine and Surgery (1862 college), where he lectured on physics and made apparatuses for the physics department.
In 1863, he left Poland and in 1865 became employed at the optical workshop of Friedrich Edmund Hartnack in Paris, which he also ran after 1870, because Hartnack had to leave France due to the Franco-German War. In 1879, he sold P. his workshop. His achievements were rewarded at world exhibitions in Paris in 1867 and 1878. In 1873, he placed a new saccharimeter on the market. He made two heliographs for the Paris Observatory, led by J. Janssen. P. published the descriptions of his devices in Comptes Rendus hebdomadaires des seánces de l’Academie des Sciences. He is one of the rare Polish precision mechanics to have achieved success in the second half of the 19th century on the European market of the production of scientific instruments.