NARUTOWICZ, Gabriel Józef

Between 1873 and 1883, N. attended the German gymnasium in Lipawa; in 1884 he began studying at the Laboratory of Physics and Mathematics at St. Petersburg State University. Since he contracted tuberculosis in 1886, he had to suspend his studies and spend two years recuperating in Switzerland. After his recovery, in the autumn of 1888, he chose to study at the Faculty of Engineering at the Swiss Technical College in Zürich, finishing his studies in 1891. During his study, N. developed loose contact with a group of emigrants that named themselves "Proletariat", and supported the revolutionary Aleksander Dębski, thus falling into disfavour with the Russian authorities and was forced to return to his homeland. In 1891, he began working in St. Gallen, more precisely at the »St. Gallen-Zug« bureau for building railways. Between 1892 and 1895, he worked as an engineer at the town bureau's Department of Water Works and Drainage. In 1895, he was given Swiss citizenship and became the head of the Department for the Regulation of the Rhine River. After a few months, he left this post and became employed at a known engineering bureau of L. Kürsteiner in St. Gallen, where they specialised in building railways, water works construction and drainage. His first hydrotechnical works already received numerous praises among experts, and N. received awards at the world exhibitions in Paris in 1896 and 1900. L. Kürsteiner handed over the management of the company to him and offered him a partnership share. N. executed numerous projects and led the construction of hydroelectric power plants with several thousand HP of power, among others in Kubel near St. Gallen on the Urnäch River, in Andelsbuch in Vorarlberg (1905 -1908), in Refrain on the Doubs River (1906–1908), and in Monthey (1908–1910). In 1907, he took over the Chair of Water Works Construction at the Swiss Technical College in Zürich. After receiving this employment, he withdrew from Kürsteiner's bureau and in 1908 opened his own engineering bureau, where numerous hydroelectric power plants were built in Switzerland, Italy, Austria, and Spain under his leadership. His most important project was the Mühleberg hydroelectric power plant, built between 1917 and 1920, on the Aare River, with the power of 65,000 HP. The Aare Valley, dammed up with concrete, automatically regulated the flow of the river. The accumulated lake had a surface of 3 km2 and contained about 10 million m3 of water. Water propelled 6 turbines with a total power of 48,600 HP. In 1923, the full propelling power of the hydroelectric power plant amounted to 64,800 HP. N.'s is also the first project for the hydroelectric power plant in Oberhasli, between the glacier and the lake in the Bernese Alps, with a planned capacity of 210,000 HP. This revolutionary project was realised in Switzerland as late as 1955. Numerous technical descriptions of his works can be found in the Swiss Construction Journal (Schweizerischen Bauzeitung). As an expert in devices for hydroelectric power plants, he received invitations to travel to Finland, Portugal, Germany, France, Algeria, and Turkey. Between 1913 in 1920, he was elected dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the Technical College in Zürich. From 1915 to 1919, he presided over the International Commission for the Regulation of the Rhine River. In 1920, he resigned from all posts and became the minister for public works in the government of Władysław Grabski. On 9th December 1922, he was chosen as the first president of the Republic of Poland, but was murdered on 16th December, during a visit to an exhibition in the „Zachęta” gallery, by the political fanatic Eligiusz Niewiadomski, a member of the People's National Association.