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An unusual sewerage system in Olsztyn

We encourage our friends and readers to make a short holiday trip to Olsztyn. After being saturated with the beauty of old tenement houses, monuments and beautifully restored secular buildings, it is a must to visit the Center of Technology and Regional Development of the "Museum of Modernity" in that city. One of his sections is devoted to Welsh engineer Isaac Shone (Isaac Shone, 1836-1918), who built in Olsztyn a unique sewage system on the European continent, draining waste ... using compressed air and gravity! Such a pneumatic sewage system functioned in Olsztyn from 1899 and its individual elements were used until the 1990s.

During standard renovation and expansion of Wojska Polskiego and Artyleryjska streets in 2010 an old sewage well was found and a historical "investigation" began by the passionate amateur historian of the city, Rafał Bętkowski. Today, in the "Modern Museum", one can not only read about Isaac Shone, but also view various artifacts, photographs and plans of the city recalling the course of this unusual installation.

Model of ejectory station

We will only add that the advocate of this type of sewage system was the long-time chief-engineer of water supply and sewage system in Warsaw, Alfons Grotowski. Although he preferred the competitive concept of the Dutch engineer Charles Liernur, but eventually Warsaw decided on a general sewerage system designed by the Lindleys. Interesting is that in 1906 a delegation from Warsaw under the leadership of eng. Emil Sokal visited Olsztyn and inspected the installations.

In the United Kingdom Isaac Shone has made this type of sewage system for the Houses of Parliament, Royal Courts of Justice, Hampton Court Palace, Eastbourne, Rangoon, & c. and in Russian Kiev.

We do not know if Isaac Shone had a chance to meet William H. Lindley, but it is intriguing to learn that the Welshman died in 1918 in Putney, a small suburb of London, where William Heerlein ended his life a year earlier ...

Engineer Hamish Douglas pleasantly surprised!

British Civil Engineer Hamish Douglas works in Munich since 1979 for an international engineering consortium. He is also Fellow in the Institution the Civil Engineering. On the occasion of its 200th anniversary in a short filmed interview entitled “William Lindley & Hamburg City” he comments on works of William Lindley in Hamburg and Warsaw.

In this short, less than 9-minute film, he complements Warsaw in these words: “Perhaps the best example of  [his achievements] is in Warsaw. So well preserved and so important…This is a biography of William Lindley in Polish [laughing affirmatilvely] You see the importance of the man)”.

View the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LctQLKiPop8

Pleasantly surprised with the Polish book engineer Hamish Douglas is full of admiration for William Lindley's European achievements. It makes us particularly happy because he complements also our city and the book of our author. Thank you Mr. Douglas!

Hamish Douglas, BSc(Eng) Hons, CEng, FICE, FIEI, Member of Bavarian Chamber of Civil Engineers, München, Germany is also member of Editorial Panel for Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering History and Heritage of ICE Virtual Library).

An Azeri artist on William H. Lindley in Baku

William Lindley on the Isle of Wight

The picture below shows William Lindley sitting on the Boulevard bench with his daughter-in-law, Marie Ladenburg, wife of Robert Searles.

Ryszard Żelichowski, the President of the Societas Lindleyana, was not that lucky. It was cold and rainy day when he sat on the Sandown Boulevard bench at the end of April this year. The bench was almost in the same place, but the old buildings were covered by the new the 20th century additions. However, the charm of the place was still there.

Sandown Boulevard, April 2016. Phot. Hanna Żelichowska

Sandown is a seaside resort town on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England.

Sandown has been a seaside resort town since the Victorian age thanks to its sands and the sunny weather on the Isle of Wight compared to other parts of the United Kingdom. Its success, along with that of other neighbouring Isle of Wight resorts led to the building of a railway connecting Sandown with Ventnor at the south and Ryde on the north coast of the island. Sandown railway station (since 1864)  is still on the one remaining operational railway on the island, which now goes from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandown

The 19th century charm:

Encounters during holiday travel. What do the dwarfs from Wrocław and Zielona Góra have in common?

Wodziarz (Waterman, (phot. Hanna Żelichowska)

Wrocław dwarfs - where do they come from?

Wrocław dwarfs already are so deeply blended in with the local landscape, that few people only today are asking themselves the question: where do they come from? The answer is not simple and straightforward, the truth probably only know Papa Dwarf, but there are some very plausible theories ...

Ancestors in Wroclaw

Dwarf (Skrzat in Polish) genealogy researchers quote the Chronicle Dwarfs, where they found a surprising note: the first dwarf, which saw the world just appeared in Wrocław! He decided to settle in the Lower Silesia. Over the years the family of Papa Dwarf (under this name is known today that senior of the dwarf family) began to grow. It was not until many years later, in the village there were people. Fortunately, there were no conflicts of power and influence. Young and old immediately fell to liking to each other and the combined forces to build a city where they live together. Years later, in honor of the dwarves living in the past in all the main sights of the Old Town of Wrocław, people have given tem names. So, the one from Biskupin is called Biskupika, from Sępolno - Sepik, Szczepin - Szczepika, Oporów - Resistor, etc ...

So if ever someone asks you who is the oldest of Wroclaw, respond without hesitation: Papa Dwarf! 

More about dwarfs see the page:  http://krasnale.pl/wszystko-o-krasnoludkach/

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Zielona Góra

Gnome Palmix (phot. Hanna Żelichowska)

“Bachusiki (little Bacchus gnomes)” from Zielona Góra have a very short history. The idea was born on the occasion of the revitalization of the pedestrian area in 2009, when it was known that distinctive plates arranged in a zigzag are going to disappear. The initiative to decorate the city with figures connected with the feast of Bacchus (in the vicinity of Zielona Góra the great wine is grown), came from the writer and city-historian Thomas Czyżniewski. In the beginning the figures were residents of the old town. The idea picked up on the city. For a good start the city authorities financed four sculptures. Next they decided to invite private investors. Today in Zielona Góra there are about 30 bachusiks and they have become a symbol of our city.

"He stood in front of Palm House, grabbed a palm tree and stayed there. The free hand is holding a glass that is sometimes filled with water. Palmix obviously wished it was the wine. "Finally some good soul pour me some wine ..." - thinks bachusik -  “I do not lose good spirit”.

Palmix favorit saying is: "In life there are three important things: wine, women, and palm to grab".

Interestingly, Palmix wears a thong of grape. This is unusual clothing for men, but Palmix says that it does not bother him. He has good fun…  

Dwarf Wodziarz and gnome Palmixa are associated with the water. The founder of the first one is Wrocław Water Company (MPWiK), the Palm House of Zielona Góra of the other one.

More you can find here: http://www.bachusiki.cba.pl/bachusik/Palmix