Bruno Abakanowicz

Bruno Abdank-Abakanowicz (6 October 1852 – 29 August 1900) was a Polish mathematician, inventor, and electrical engineer. He is best known for inventing the integraph and contributing to the development of mathematical instruments and early electrification systems in France.

Life Abakanowicz was born in 1852 in Ukmergė, then part of the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Lithuania).

After graduating from the Riga Technical University, he completed his habilitation and began working as an assistant at the Technical University of Lwów. In 1881, he moved to France, It was later produced commercially by the Swiss firm Coradi. Among his other inventions were the parabolagraph, the spirograph, an electric bell used in trains, and a form of electric arc lamp.

He also published several works on statistics, mathematical instruments, and practical applications of integration, including Les intégraphes (1886). Although the construction was not completed during his lifetime, the castle became a meeting place for the Polish émigré community in France. Frequent guests included Aleksander Gierymski, Władysław Mickiewicz, Leon Wyczółkowski, and Henryk Sienkiewicz. Sienkiewicz completed The Teutonic Knights and The Polaniecki Family at Abakanowicz's villa in Saint-Maur and wrote Quo Vadis at the Château de Costaérès.

Works Les intégraphes. La courbe intégrale et ses applications, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1886. Translated into German as Die Integraphen. Die Integralkurve und ihre Anwendungen, Leipzig, Teubner, 1889.