Dochlemann impressed him greatly and imbued him with an aesthetic interest in art and with a desire to understand works of art in a precise, mathematical manner.

... for calm, hard work and dedication to the country. At the same time he promised to remove incompetent and corrupt people from positions of public and political life.

The first of two volumes on the art of graphical or applied perspective deals mainly with linear perspective. But perspective, as known to geometers, is a comparatively recent development in the history of art. Then are the paintings which survive at Pompeii, is early Christian art to be considered as non-perspective, or can there be two or more different species of perspective? Within what province does the artist's perspective lie - that of the geometer, that of the physiologist or that of the psychologist? These are among the many questions which the author proposes to answer by studying the development of perspective in graphical art from the earliest ages down to the present day. Circumstances have unfortunately delayed the production of the second volume, and judgment on the full value of the work must be reserved. The first volume is largely a gathering together of evidence; the reasoning out of the case will follow in the second. But judged on its own merits, the present volume deserves the highest praise. The very fact that it is designed to fit into a larger scheme lends it a fascination in striking contrast to the aridity of the usual self-contained treatises on perspective. The reader will find a geometrical diagram, complete with lines, planes and vanishing point, facing the reproduction of a Dürer engraving. He will see the elliptic projection of a circle illustrated by a photograph of the circus at Warsaw with its ring and tiers of seats. He will realise that everything that is artistically best, and most evidently a manifestation of genius, whether best by reason of its pleasing the eye, or best by reason of its suitability to its purpose, in short the essence of pictorial or constructive art, depends in some essential point upon a strict and perhaps toilsome obedience to geometrical laws. Conversely, he will deplore the modern demand for results without effort, for "stunts", for short cuts, and its cult of brilliance without basis. That particularly stupid protest: "But what can Science, what in particular can Mathematics, have to do with Art", is countered by the words of Leonardo da Vinci: "Those who devote themselves to Practice without Theory are as mariners who go to sea in ships without rudder or compass".

Here is an excellent introduction to a most attractive branch of descriptive geometry. Except in its applications to civil and mining engineering it has been so neglected in this country that little of its terminology has been standardised. The Figured Plan and Topographical Projection are our nearest equivalents to the title. Because of this lack of training in the principles and methods of topographical projection, practical men find it necessary, in dealing with problems properly belonging to this field. to convert them into problems in biorthoconal projection, and thus to surrender them to the other main branch of descriptive geometry. There is no advantage in doing this; it may introduce unnecessary complications, and certainly means the loss of much of the beauty and simplicity which are peculiar to the topographical method. In fact, at least one great continental school places the topographical method, both in time and in importance, ahead of the method of Monge. This text of Bartel's is admirably straightforward in its methods.

The book is a comprehensive course in descriptive geometry, including what is called engineering drawing and concluding with the theory of shadows (pp.382-422). The introductory chapter reminds the reader of the basic theorems (and their proofs) of solid geometry that will be made use of in the text. Throughout the book care is taken to present the theoretical foundations on which are based the solutions of the problems considered. The methods follow the classical Mongean lines. ... The book includes more than five hundred and fifty drawings, opens with a very detailed table of contents and ends with a good five page index.

On 2nd of July Bartel was unexpectedly arrested whilst at a discussion meeting with his co-workers at the University. During the following night 36 other professors, Bartel's colleagues, were likewise arrested. This group ... included several internationally acclaimed academics such as the surgeon Tadeusz Ostrowski and a petroleum specialist Pillat. ... Of those arrested only Franciszek Groer was released after being brutally treated, perhaps because he was an internationally known specialist in children's diseases and was especially highly regarded in the USA, and the USA were still precariously neutral. The remaining 35 were summarily and immediately shot. Bartel was not murdered with them. He was kept in prison without any explanation being given for his imprisonment and his wife was permitted to bring him his mathematical books and papers and was required daily to deliver his food.

I assume from talks with officers that I may be in danger because of my former position as Poland's Prime Minister. In Moscow I conferred with Stalin, here I held certain positions, we heard about it even here in Churchill's and Sikorski's speeches. They told me directly, that their aim was to organize co-operation with the Bolsheviks, and who would be better suited for it than me.

... a Polish professor and prime-minister had to polish boots of a Ukrainian stable-boy.

... on the 26th July however, her delivery of food was not accepted and she was debarred from entering the prison office to find out why. The 26th July, being Saturday, she had to wait till Monday before she could see the officer in charge of the prison. She was then told that her husband had been shot two days ago.