Tadeusz Sendzimir
Tadeusz Sendzimir (originally Sędzimir¹, July 15, 1894, Lviv — September 1, 1989, Waterbury, Connecticut²) was an American and Polish engineer and inventor of international renown with 120 patents in mining and metallurgy, 73 of which were awarded to him in the United States³.
His name has been given to revolutionary methods of processing steel and metals used in every industrialized nation of the world. Sendzimir was a holder of the Polish Golden Cross of Merit (from 1938), the Bessemer Gold Medal (from 1965) and the Brinell Gold Medal from the Royal Academy of Technical Sciences in Stockholm (from 1974). On the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty he was one of those prominent immigrants honored for their contributions to America.
In 1990 Poland's largest steel plant in Kraków (formerly the Lenin Steelworks) was renamed to Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks. The AIST Tadeusz Sendzimir Memorial Medal has been established in the same year.
Early years
Sendzimir was the eldest son of Kazimierz Jaskółowski and Wanda Jaskółowska. Fascinated by machinery as a child, he built his own camera at the age of 13. After studying at the 4th Classical Gymnasium (Gimnazjum Klasyczne) in Lviv he entered the Polytechnic Institute (Politechnika Lwowska). During the upheavals of the World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917 he worked in the auto services in Kiev and in the Russian-American Chamber of commerce (authorities of Austro-Hungary ordered him to stay at home during the war) where he learned Russian and English.
At the end of the war Sendzimir moved across Vladivostok to Shanghai, where Sendzimir built the first factory in China which produced screws, nails and wire. Financial support was provided by the Russian-Asian Bank, headed by Poles at the time (Władysław Jezierski and Zygmunt Jastrzębski). However when Lviv was captured by Russian troops the Polytechnic Institute has been closed and Sendzimir stayed unemployed. He decided to work in Russian army, but after its retreat was forced to evacuate to Kiev.
Immigration and researches
In 1922 Sendzimir married Barbara Alferieff. His first son Michael was born two years later. Designing and making his own machines, Sendzimir began experimenting with a new way to galvanize steel. Despite galvanizing, the products still tended to oxidize. Sendzimir discovered that the problem involved the zinc bonding to a thin layer of iron hydroxide on the surface rather than the pure iron.
In 1929 Sendzimir tried to interest American industrialists in his method, but met the distrust at the start of the Great Depression. Sendzimir arrived to San Francisco, California in the next year. Returning to Poland in 1931, he obtained support for the construction of the first industrial-scale galvanizing unit and put into operation several cold strip mills. The idea has been explained by him as follows: "Let's imagine a piece of a hard pastry. We are rolling it on the molding-board to decrease its thickness. However it would be faster and easily if we ask any householder to stretch it by holding the edges".
A steel mills in Butler, Pennsylvania have been founded by Sendzimir in 1936. By 1938 Armco Steel was interested in his work and they formed a partnership, the Armzen Company, to oversee the worldwide expansion of his galvanizing and mill technology. In the spring of 1939 Sendzimir has left Paris and placed his residence in Middletown, Ohio. Sendzimir's patented rolling mill could roll very hard materials down to very light gauges. The US company, T. Sendzimir, Inc., was established by Sendzimir in the 1940s in Waterbury, Connecticut.
In 1945 Sendzimir married Bertha Bernoda and became a USA citizen the following year. After the war was over Sendzimir's achievements and his personality as a foreign immigrant have been ignored by the Socialist Poland and he even hasn't been mentioned in Encyklopedia Powszechna (Universal Encyclopedia). The situation changed when Edward Gierek, a new leader of the Communist Party of Poland, came to power. Sendzimir was awarded an Officer Cross of the Order of the Restoration of Poland (Krzyż Oficerski Orderu Odrodzenia Polski).
In 1975 Sendzimir gained a title of doctor honoris causa from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków. Sendzimir's successful methods of galvanizing steel eventually were implemented in the first Z-mill rolling silicon steel, making it pliable for aircraft radar. From 1953 until 1989, he introduced the first productive Z-mill to Great Britain and to Japan and Canada in the l950s and l960s. In 1974 Sendzimir invented a spiral steel looper used in the United States and Japan.
With companies in 3 countries 5 to 90 percent of the world's stainless steel passed through the Sendzimir process by the early 1980s. Poland, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada have purchased his steel mills and technologies over the years. Most notably, Sendzimir was a major financial and personal supporter of the Kościuszko Foundation, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences and Alliance College in Pennsylvania. Sendzimir died after a massive stroke and was buried by his family in a zinc-plated coffin made according to his technology.
Notes
- 1- As of the 17th century version. The surname was changed after the second arrival to the United States.
- 2- According to another version (e.g. Polski Słownik Biograficzny) he died in Jupiter, Florida.
- 3- Sarmatian Review XV.1.
Quote
- "I have been carrying family and the only my capital - a new method of zinc-plating to another coast of the Pacific"
See also
External links
Biblioraphy
- Vanda Sendzimir. Steel Will: The Life of Tad Sendzimir. New York, Hippocrene Books, 1994.
- M. Kalisz. Walcownia znaczy Sendzimir. "Przekrój", 1973, nr. 1468.
- O. Budrewicz. Ocynkowane życie. "Perspektywy", 1974, nr. 38.