Stefan Władysław Bryła (Polish pronunciation: ; born 17 August 1886 in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

– died 3 December 1943 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) was a Polish construction

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

and

welding Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as bra ...

pioneer. He designed and built the first welded road bridge in the world.

Biography

Bryła was a professor at the

Lwów University of Technology Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...

from 1927 and at the

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology ( pl, Politechnika Warszawska, lit=Varsovian Polytechnic) is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professor ...

from 1934. Bryła was the author of basic methods of welding steel structures. In 1927 he designed the

Maurzyce Bridge The Maurzyce Bridge ( Polish: ''Most w Maurzycach'') is a bridge over the Słudwia River (tributary of Bzura) in Central Poland. It is known as the first entirely welded road bridge and the second welded bridge of any category in the world. The b ...

, first

welded Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as braz ...

road bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

in the world. The bridge was erected across the Słudwia River in Maurzyce near Łowicz, Poland in 1929. It was still in use in 1977 at which point plans were undertaken to replace it with a wider structure. Consequently, the bridge was reinstalled as a historical monument at a site slightly upstream. In 1995, the

American Welding Society The American Welding Society (AWS) was founded in 1919 as a non-profit organization to advance the science, technology and application of welding and allied joining and cutting processes, including brazing, soldering and thermal spraying. Headq ...

presented a Historic Welded Structure Award for the bridge to Poland. He also designed high rise buildings:

Drapacz Chmur Drapacz Chmur ( en, Skyscraper) is a historical building in Katowice, Silesia, Poland. It was the second skyscraper built in post-World War I Poland. Finished in 1934 after five years of construction, it made pioneering Polish use of steel frame ...

in Katowice and the Prudential in Warsaw in 1932. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Bryła taught at the

Secret Universities World War II saw the cultivation of underground education in Poland ( pl, Tajne szkolnictwo, or '). Secretly conducted education prepared scholars and workers for the postwar reconstruction of Poland and countered German and Soviet threats to era ...

. His teaching there led to his arrest by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

on 16 November 1943, together with his family. After a brief incarceration in the

Pawiak prison Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation ...

, he was subsequently executed during the Action AB by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

on 3 December 1943 at 13 Puławska Street. His commemorative grave is located at the

Powązki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (; pl, Cmentarz Powązkowski), also known as Stare Powązki ( en, Old Powązki), is a historic necropolis located in Wola district, in the western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of t ...

in Warsaw.

Gallery

File:Prudential w Warszawie 2021.jpg, File:Dom Bez Kantów 2017.jpg, File:Maurzyce 2009 (0).jpg, File:Katowice - Drapacz Chmur 01.jpg, File:BibliotekaJagiellońska-AlejaAdamaMickiewicza22-POL, Kraków.jpg, File:Gmach PKO Warszawa.JPG,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryla, Stefan 1886 births 1943 deaths People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Polish Christian Democratic Party politicians Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1922–1927) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1928–1930) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1930–1935) Polish civil engineers Lviv Polytechnic alumni Academic staff of the Warsaw University of Technology Polish people executed by Nazi Germany Executed people from Lesser Poland Voivodeship Academic staff of Lviv Polytechnic Engineers from Kraków Polish civilians killed in World War II

Biography

Gallery

See also

References