Chaim Aronson (July 30, 1825 – April 22, 1893) was a

Lithuanian Jewish Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent area ...

inventor and

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

ist. Aronson is remembered today for his memoirs, which were published long after his death in a book titled ''A Jewish Life under the Tsars'', which he wrote in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Early life

Aronson was born in the town of Serednik (now

Seredžius Seredžius is a town in Lithuania on the right bank of the Nemunas River near its confluence with the Dubysa River. According to the 2011 census, it had a population of 590. Names The Yiddish name for the city was סרעדניק (''Srednik''), co ...

) in the province of Lithuania, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, to a poor, rural family. He showed unusual intelligence at a very early age and reportedly had learned to read Hebrew by the age of two. Before his twenties, he was an accomplished (but not certified) Jewish scholar. He also learned

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and achieved a high level of fluency in these languages.

Inventions

Aronson was a talented engineer, although he had had no formal education in this field. He first became a

clockmaker A clockmaker is an artisan who makes and/or repairs clocks. Since almost all clocks are now factory-made, most modern clockmakers only repair clocks. Modern clockmakers may be employed by jewellers, antique shops, and places devoted strictly to ...

and, later, an inventor. His early successes were such that he soon moved his business to the Russian capital,

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, where factory owners and investors might be interested in his inventions. However, despite several revolutionary inventions, he never achieved commercial success, due to an unfriendly business climate and the antisemitic practices of the Tsarist government. His inventions included several machines for mass-producing cigarettes, a clockwork calculator, a prototype for a movie camera, and the microdiorama.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aronson, Chaim 19th-century Lithuanian Jews 1825 births 1893 deaths People from Tauragė County