MOŚCICKI, Ignacy

After finishing a private secondary modern school in Warsaw, M. began studying at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Technical College in Riga, where he defended his diploma before D. Bischoff in 1891. During his study in Riga, he became politically active in the group »II Proletariat«. In 1892, the political situation forced him to emigrate to London. There he began studying at the Technical College in Finsbury. In 1897, Józef Wierusz-Kowalski, professor of physics at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, made him his assistant. Here, in 1901, M. discovered a method of extracting nitrous acid from the atmosphere. This discovery had great economic significance at the time, since by then the reserves of the Chile saltpetre were almost depleted. M. designed glass condensers, which were connected to the voltage of ten thousand volts and to a furnace for air deflagration in the arc lamp. M. also developed devices for manufacturing condensers and their batteries. In 1905, he modernised his procedure, in which the air deflagration process was carried out by a rotating arc lamp. In the following year, he developed a new method of absorbing highly condensed gases, and was developing an absorption system for the continuous flow of gases. His field of research also included the syntheses of hydrocyanic acids from nitrogen and hydrocarbon. M.'s important contribution was also the discovery of a new method of condensing nitrous acid. Immediately after this procedure was patented, a factory was opened in Chippis in Wallis canton, where this method was also exploited industrially. As early as 1910, the first cistern of electrochemically concentrated nitrous acid in the world was manufactured here. In the subsequent years, this procedure was substantially perfected and nitrous acid could be supplied not only to Switzerland, but also to neighbouring countries. In 1912, M. became a holder of a subject at the Chair of Physical Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry at the Swiss Technical College, and was appointed full professor. Between 1915 and 1917, he occupied the office of the dean of the Faculty of Chemistry. During World War I, he founded the »Azot« nitrogen factory near Jaworzno and later also expanded it. In 1916, he opened the »Metan« Institute of Scientific and Technical Research (Instytut Badań Naukowych i Technicznych) in Lwow. Until 1922, he developed several research methods and improvements to the oil refining device. Many of these inventions were used in oil companies at the foot of the Carpathians, such as »Karpaty« and »Nafta«. In addition, he also held patents for new methods of renewing machine oil. At that time, M. also developed a new method of condensing fractional oil, which was used at the Jedlicze refinery, however, it had to be abandoned due to financial problems. Later on, this method was widespread in the refining industry in the United States.
In 1918, M. prepared an absorption method for producing spirit from natural gas, which had a decisive effect on the development of the gas industry. Afterwards, he also received patents for the method of chlorinating methane to reduce its explosive properties, for the method of the pyrogenic disintegration of hydrocarbons, and for the method of obtaining oil from oil sand, seeds, and pitch. From 1922 onwards, he was the director of a factory for producing calcium cyanamide and carbide in Chorzow. He founded these factories in a short time and increased the range of their products, thus significantly contributing to Poland's independence of the import of raw materials for calcium cyanamide. In 1925, he was elected chancellor of the Technical College in Lwow. After a few months, he resigned this position and took over the Chair of Technical Electrochemistry at the Warsaw Technical College. In 1926, upon the proposal of Józef Piłsudski, the People's Assembly elected him president of the Republic of Poland. He remained in this post until 1939. In 1930, as soon as he was elected president, he began the construction of a large industrial complex near Tarnow, where nitrous acid was produced from ammonia. The complex was named „Mościce” in his honour. M. published over sixty scientific treatises in the Polish, French, and German languages, and held the rights to about forty Polish and foreign patents. He was an honorary member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, of the Warsaw Scientific Society, and of the Polish Chemical Society.