A Scholar in His Study, Michał Stachowicz, (Cracow 1768 – Cracow  1825), 1815, signed in the middle, on the circle of the globe: Michael Stachowicz 1815, National Museum in Cracow.

The portrait depicts Andrzej Auer (ca. 1761 – 1836), a well-known Cracow physician from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Side by side with scientific instruments such as a globe and astrolabe, can be seen some musical instruments and objects frequently appearing in the portraits of men of learning to emphasize their transient nature, these being a skull, an hourglass, and a crucifix.

Michał Stachowicz learned painting in the Cracow painters’ guild, qualifying as a master in 1787.

Professor Rafał Józef  Czerwiakowski, Józef Brodowski (Warsaw ca. 1789 – Cracow 1853), 1817, Jagiellonian University Museum

In 1779 Rafał Czerwiakowski (1743–1816) became a professor in the Department of Surgery and Obstetrics, the first in Poland, at the Crown Main School. He was the first to lecture on medicine in Polish. He is called the father of Polish surgery. He devised methods of surgical treatment which were new in Poland and invented numerous surgical instruments.

Józef Brodowski was a professor in the School of Fine Arts in Cracow.

Portrait of Abraham Stern, Antoni Blank (Olsztyn 1785 – Warsaw 1844), 1823, National Museum in Poznań

This is a typical portrait of the time, following those by Rembrand.  Abraham Stern (1768?/1769 – 1842) was a scholar and constructor. His most important invention was a “calculating machine” In recognition of his merit in the field of science Stern was admitted as a member of the Warsaw Society of the Friends of Science. He was its first member of Jewish descent.

Antoni Blank – in 1815 he taught drawing in the Department of Fine Arts of the Royal University of Warsaw, in 1819 being appointed to a professorship. He mainly painted portraits, also in miniature versions, mythological and religious scenes, and ceiling paintings.

Professor Ludwik Rydygier with His Assistants, Leon Wyczółkowski (Huta Miastkowska n. Garwolin 1852 – Warsaw 1936), 1897, Signed and dated at bottom left: L Wyczołkowski / 1897, I Department of Surgery and Clinic of Gastroenterological Surgery in Cracow

The surgeon is  depicted together with his doctoral students and assistants in the clinic’s laboratory. In iconographic terms the composition follows the pattern established by 19th century West European realistic painting in which scholars, philosophers, writers, musicians, painters, etc. were portrayed in places defining their profession and achievements. The “commemorative” character of the picture encourages the supposition that it was commissioned and presented to the professor by his collaborators in 1897 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of his work in Cracow and his move to Lvov. Ludwik Rydygier (1850–1920), a world-famous Polish surgeon, a professor at the Jagiellonian University and Lvov University, was the inventor of many new surgical methods, a pioneer in the application of aseptic methods and a precursor in diagnosing by means of X-rays in Poland. In 1897 he moved to Lvov, where he took the newly-opened Chair of Surgery.

Leon Wyczółkowski studied painting in the Warsaw Class of Drawing under Wojciech Gerson and Rafał Hadziewicz. He continued his education in Munich and then in the Cracow School of Fine Arts under Jan Matejko. In addition to portraits he painted historical, genre, and landscape pieces.

Professor Karol Olszewski in His Laboratory, Leon Wyczółkowski (Huta Miastkowska near Garwolin 1852 – Warsaw 1936), 1905, Signed at top right: LWyczół 1905

Jagiellonian University Museum

Karol Olszewski (1846–1915) was an eminent chemist and cryogenist. In 1876 he became a professor of inorganic chemistry at the Jagiellonian University. He conducted investigations in the field of low temperatures. In 1883 he started research into the liquefaction of the so-called permanent gases. In the same year Olszewski, in collaboration with Wróblewski, was the first in the world to liquefy in a static state the components of the air: oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

Ignacy Łukasiewicz  in a Still-Room, unknown painter, Early 20th century, Signature at bottom right: illegible, Ignacy Łukasiewicz Open-Air Museum of Oil and Gas Industry at Bóbrka

Ignacy Łukasiewicz (1822–1882) a chemist by education. In 1852 constructed a paraffin lamp; the founder of the Polish oil industry. He introduced paraffin lighting into the hospital in Lvov. Lukasiewicz is shown at work. The scene conveys the atmosphere of effort and daily work.

Professor Józef Kallenbach, Stanisław Lentz (Warsaw 1861 – Warsaw 1920), ca. 1900, Signed in the middle of the right edge: St Lentz, Jagiellonian University Museum

Józef Kallenbach (1861–1929) was an eminent historian of Polish literature, professor at the universities in Freiburg, Lvov, and Warsaw. From 1920 he was a professor of Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University, and from 1928 to 1929 its rector. Stanisław Lentz studied at the Cracow Academy of Fine Arts, in the Warsaw Class of Drawing, in Munich, and at the Académie Julien in Paris. He mainly painted male portraits, often inspired by 17th Dutch portraiture.

Pressure cylinder for compressed gas, Berlin, 1890, Signed: Actien Gesellschaft für Köhlen Säure Industrie, Jagiellonian University Museum

This is an analytical apparatus of the visual comparator type, using, according to Lambert-Beer’s law, the dependence of the absorption of the light passing through a liquid on, among other factors, a change in the density of the column of this liquid, which permits the concentration of the substance analysed to be assessed. The apparatus was made in 1870 from a design by a Paris scientific-instrument maker, Jules Dubosq (1817–1886).

Pyrometer, F.H. Pixii, Paris, France, ca. 1830, Signed: Pixii a Paris, Jagiellonian University Museum, purchased for the Cabinet of Chemistry of the Jagiellonian University by Prof. Józef Markowski in 1832.

This type of a pyrometer, in modern terminology a dilatometer, an instrument for investigating and demonstrating dilatation, that is, longitudinal thermal expansion of metals. The instrument was very popular from the second half of the 18th to mid-19th centuries and was made by numerous mechanicians.

Antoine Hippolyte Pixii (1808–1835), a French maker of a wide variety of scientific instruments, is mainly known as the inventor of a magnetoelectric machine (1832).

Arithmometer, Thomas de Colmar, Paris, ca. 1870, signature engraved inside the ellipse: THOMAS de Colmar A PARIS INVENTEUR N° 1335, Jagiellonian University Museum

The mechanism of this instrument is based on a “stepped drum” calculating machine invented by G. Wilhelm Leibniz in 1674.

 Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785–1870) patented his first model of an arithmometer in 1820. In successive models (1844, 1850, 1852, 1865) he introduced important changes that improved ease of operation and reliability of the device, while they did not disturb its main mechanism.

Brunsviga Model M II arithmometer, Grimme Natalis & Co., Brunswick, 1930–1940

signed: BRUNSVIGA M II and the trademark as below , Jagiellonian University Museum

The arithmometer, in its construction following the 1878 patent of Willgodt Theophil Odhner (1845–1905), consists of sets of gears. This mechanical calculator, in the 8 × 9 × 13 system, is designed for four operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

In 1892 Grimme Natalis & Co. A.G. bought W.T. Odhner’s patent rights and started the manufacture of a series of calculators under the name Brunsviga.

Arithmometer, Izrael Abraham Staffel (1814–1884), Warsaw, 1842, sygnowany: Maszyna rachunkowa wynaleziona i wykonana przez starozakon. Izraela Abrahama Staffela zegarmistrza w Warszawie roku 1842, Muzeum Techniki w Warszawie.

The machine performs four mathematical operations: multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. This is the type of a drum calculating machine, consisting of seven identical sets of steel drums in parallel arrangement and engaged with one another. A.I. Staffel (1814–1884), a Warsaw watch-maker, mechanician and inventor, probably made at least two models of an arithmometer. The arithmometer on display here is the only surviving specimen in Poland.

Kirchhoff-Bunsen spectrograph, Optische und Mechanische Werkstatten Franz Schmidt & Haensch, Berlin, ca. 1916, Jagiellonian University Museum

An analytical instrument for examining emission spectra, with the possibility of recording the spectrum on photographic material. The spectroscope, one of the fundamental analytical tools for examining spectra, was constructed in 1860 by Robert W. Bunsen and Gustav R. Kirchhoff, who thereby laid the foundations of one of the most important research methods – spectroscopy.

Pulfrich refraktometer, Carl Zeiss, Jena, early 20th century, Signed on the dial: Carl Zeiss, Jena, No 1534, Jagiellonian University Museum

An analytical apparatus for measuring the refractive index of light in solutions and solids at a given temperature. Dr Carl Pulfrich (1858–1927) is known for his investigations concerned refractometry, stereoscopy, and photometry.

Janssen-Hoffmann spectroskope, Germany, 1876, Jagiellonian University Museum

An instrument for examining the spectrum of light. It is provided with a trapezium-shaped prism a’ vision directe in which the course of the ray is not deflected.

Mitscherlich’s polarimeter, Carl Reichert, Vienna, ca. 1920, Signed on the graduated dial: C. REICHERT WIEN N° 2397, Jagiellonian University Museum

An apparatus for measuring the angle of rotation of the plane of polarization by optically active solutions.

Glass sterilizer Poland, ca. 1890, Museum of the Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University

This type of sterilizer, a glass container with a metal cover, was one of the first to be used in the Cracow surgical clinic of the Jagiellonian University. This exhibit probably served to keep sterilized dressings during operations.

Jeannette  – a syringe-like piston instrument used for cleansing wounds, Sans & Peschka, Vienna, ca. 1890–1900, Signed: Ocalart. Patent Aesculap, Museum of the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University

This instrument was in fairly general use in surgery as early as the 18th century and remains one of surgical and otolaryngological instruments to this day. In the past it was used for cleansing wounds and their immediate proximity. This particular instrument was used in the Surgical Clinic of the Jagiellonian University, when Ludwik Rydygier was its ward head.

Instrument kit for preparation, early 20th century, Jagiellonian University Museum, the property of Henryk Hoyer Jr., professor at the Jagiellonian University

A set of instruments for preparation, used for the dissection of animals and making preparations. Henryk Fryderyk Hoyer Jr. (1864–1947), physician, anatomist, and histologist, was a professor at the Jagiellonian University between 1894 and 1947; he specialized in comparative anatomy and was the founder of the Cracow school of zoology. He wrote numerous papers on embryology and the anatomy of the lymphatic and blood systems in vertebrates. He proved that the lymphatic vessels had evolved from veins and not from tissue interstices.

Biological specimens Zoological Museum of the Jagiellonian University

The prepared specimens are documentary in character, permitting scientists to study the variability of species and to describe them. They also serve as teaching aids and many a time are made to order. In order to demonstrate details of the anatomy of specimens, their blood-vascular and lymphatic systems are frequently injected with coloured, usually gelatin-based substances.

Anatomy of a red squirrel Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus 1758, 19th/20th century, Signed: Zoologisches Lehrmittel-Institut/ Wilh[elm] Schüttel/Halle a. Sale/Ludwig Wühererstrasse 9, Female fire salamander, Salamandra salamandra (Linnaeus 1758), 19th/20th century, sygnowana: Zakład Anatomji Porównawczej, ; Green lizard, Lacerta viridis Laurenti 1758,19th/20th century, signed: V. Fricv Prag, Lion cub, skeleton, (Linnaeus 1758), early 20th century, signed: Zakład Anatomji Porównawczej, Blood system of a common toad,  Bufo bufo (Linnaeus 1758), early 20th century., ; Head of a pike, , Esox lucius Linnaeus 1758, early 20th century, signed: Naturalien Handlung/V. Fricv in Prag /1544-II,  Commaon frog Rana temporaria Linnaeus 1758 i Moor frog Rana arvalis Nilsson 1842, 20th century

electrical instruments

cryogenical instruments

ï  Room IV

up ñ

  Room VI   ð

Description È