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Kazimierz Prószyński (4 April 1875 – 13 March 1945) was a
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
inventor active in the field of
cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of Film, motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (o ...
. He patented his first film camera, called Pleograph, before the Lumière brothers, and later went on to improve the cinema projector for the Gaumont company. He was also the inventor of the widely used first hand-held
Aeroscope Aeroscope was a type of compressed air camera for making films, constructed by Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński in 1909 (French patent from 10 April 1909) and built in England since 1911, at first by Newman & Sinclair, and from 1912 by ...
camera.


Biography

Born 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 official ...
, Prószyński was educated in both Poland and
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
, and was also active in France, England and the United States. He was the grandson of the photographer Stanisław Antoni Prószyński, who had been accused and sentenced by
Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It ...
's Imperial
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 ...
authorities of placing Polish patriotic symbols in the background of photographs. He was also the son of Konrad Prószyński, an active Polish educator, writer and publisher. In 1894, Kazimierz Prószyński built one of the first
movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie s ...
s. This Pleograph, or apparatus for taking photographs and projecting pictures, was built before the
Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: *Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, a ...
lodged their
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling disclo ...
. Prószyński also produced several films in Poland at the beginning of the 20th century as well as creating an improved film projector shutter, the first hand held film camera and devised a method of synchronizing sound and film tracks. Kazimierz Prószyński spent a large part of his active life abroad. At the beginning of the 20th century, he was active in France and England as an inventor and producer of the
Aeroscope Aeroscope was a type of compressed air camera for making films, constructed by Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński in 1909 (French patent from 10 April 1909) and built in England since 1911, at first by Newman & Sinclair, and from 1912 by ...
(1909) camera, powered by compressed air. Filming with
Aeroscope Aeroscope was a type of compressed air camera for making films, constructed by Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński in 1909 (French patent from 10 April 1909) and built in England since 1911, at first by Newman & Sinclair, and from 1912 by ...
the cameraman did not have to turn the crank, as in all cameras of that time, so he had both hands on the camera to operate. This made it possible to film with a hand-held camera in most difficult circumstances and from airplanes. Compressed air was pumped into the camera system, before filming, with a simple special pump similar to the ones still used to pump bicycle tires. Hundreds of light and relatively compact
Aeroscope Aeroscope was a type of compressed air camera for making films, constructed by Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński in 1909 (French patent from 10 April 1909) and built in England since 1911, at first by Newman & Sinclair, and from 1912 by ...
cameras were used by British Army combat cameramen on the battlefields of World War I and later by newsreel cameramen until the late 1920s, when more modern spring cameras like
Eyemo The Eyemo is a 35mm movie film, 35 mm Movie camera, motion picture film camera which was manufactured by the Bell & Howell Co. of Chicago. Background Designed and first manufactured in 1925, it was for many years the most compact 35  ...
and later Bolex took over. Still, there are archival photographs of Aeroscope cameras being pumped by British combat cameramen as late as in 1940, at the beginning of
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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. As soon as Poland regained its independence in November 1918, Prószyński returned with his English wife, Dorothy, and children Kazimierz junior and Irena. From the start it was difficult to find business partners for his invention. In 1922, he managed to establish a company Oko (Polish for: eye) to promote a simple amateur camera of his construction with the same name, which Prószyński intended to mass-produce for schools and the public. The economic crisis of the 1920s interrupted Kazimierz Prószyński's plans. He was busy with other inventions, such as simple home film projectors and reading machines for the blind, but did not manage to mass-produce any of them. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and the German occupation of Poland, German
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...
police discovered his workshop. They arrested Prószyński and his co-worker under the accusation of conspiracy. Released after 10 days, Prószyński did not manage to remove all suspicion. He was chased by
Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...
and had to move often to avoid arrest. On 25 August 1944, during the
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
, he was arrested. Kazimierz Prószyński died in the
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 **Ger ...
concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...
of Mauthausen in spring of 1945, as the prisoner number 129957, shortly before liberation. Kazimierz Prószyński is regarded along with
Bolesław Matuszewski Bolesław Matuszewski (August 19, 1856 Pińczów, – c.1943 or 1944; in French texts Boleslas Matuszewski) - Polish businessman, photographer and cameraman, pioneer of cinematography and documentary film. Biography He was born in 1856 in Piń ...
and Jan Szczepanik as one of the most important pioneers of Polish cinema and cinematography.


See also

*
List of Poles This is a partial list of notable Polish or Polish-speaking or -writing people. People of partial Polish heritage have their respective ancestries credited. Science Physics * Czesław Białobrzeski * Andrzej Buras * Georges Charp ...
* Timeline of Polish science and technology


Further reading

*Władysław Jewsiewicki, ''Kazimierz Prószyński'', Interpress, Warsaw 1974, (in Polish) *Alfred Liebfeld "Polacy na szlakach techniki" WKŁ, Warszawa 1966 (in Polish)


External links

* Kazimierz Prószyński on Who is Who of Victorian Cinem

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Proszynski, Kazimierz 1875 births 1945 deaths Polish inventors People who died in Mauthausen concentration camp Cinema pioneers Polish civilians killed in World War II Film people from Warsaw Engineers from Warsaw Polish people who died in Nazi concentration camps