POLLAK, Karol Franciszek
* 15. 11. 1859, Sanok, Poland
† 17. 12. 1928, Bielsko-Biała, Poland
electrotechnician, inventor (accumulator), entrepreneur
From 1883 onwards, P. was employed in a laboratory of the London company „The Patent Utilisation Co“, where he developed and patented an automatic switch for the Yablochkov electric candle, a microphone, and a colour printing machine. From 1885 onwards, he studied electrotechnics at the Technical College in Berlin-Charlottenburg. At that time, he was working on galvanic cells and designed a self-recharging element and the first dry element. In addition, he ran „G. Wehr Telegraphen-Bau-Anstalt“ in Berlin. He also worked on an electric tramcar drive.
After 1886, P. was the director of a company for electric tramways in Paris. At the Paris Sorbonne, he started developing the accumulator. His accumulator with rolled sheets received a silver medal at the world exhibition in Paris in 1889. Later on P., in Frankfurt am Main and in Vienna's Liesing, founded two accumulator factories, and in 1899 opened a laboratory in southern France.
P's inventions include: lead cores with ribs and wedges for lead accumulator plates; a method for the electrolytic transfer of mass to such plates; a method for faster production of lead cores by rolling lead strips into smooth and indented cylinders; different constructions of securing lead plates and of joining individual elements; portable accumulators in different versions; current rectifier for commutators with synchronous engines for changing alternating current to single-phase current, and an aluminium rectifier with a hydrogen or alkaline electrolyte. Together, P. held the rights to 98 patents.
In 1922, he founded „Polnische Akkugesellschaft“, which he ran until it was changed to today's accumulator factory in Bielsko-Białi. The company manufactured accumulators and batteries for: the television industry, motorisation, radio, aircraft industry, and railways.
