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Wawrzyniec Żmurko

Quick Info

Born
10 July 1824
Jaworów, Galicia, Austrian Empire (now Yavoriv, Ukraine)
Died
3 April 1889
Lemberg, Galicia, Austrian Empire (later Lwów, Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine)
Summary
Wawrzyniec Żmurko was an important figure in beginning to build the University of Lwów into a leading mathematics centre. He was an early worker in what later became known as the vector calculus and developed the theory and practical use of mathematical instruments.
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Biography

Wawrzyniec Żmurko was also known by the German version of his name, Lorenz Zmurko. He was born into a family of poor middle-class people who were able to send their son to the gymnasium in Przemyśl for his secondary education. The gymnasium in Przemyśl, now named after the Polish Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki, has a long history dating back to 1628 when it was founded by the Jesuits who taught there until 1787. The town had become part of the Austrian Empire in 1772 in the First Partition of Poland and teaching at the Gymnasium was in German from 1788. In 1820, a two-year philosophy department was established at the school, the completion of which allowed students to start university studies. Żmurko grew up completely bilingual speaking Polish at home but having his school education in German.

At this Gymnasium, Żmurko was taught mathematics by Franz Chlebeczek who was a priest in the Piarist Order and professor of pure elementary mathematics at the Przemyśl Philosophical Institute. Żmurko also studied philosophy at Przemyśl for two years after graduating from the Przemyśl Gymnasium and, taking advice from Chlebeczek, he then went to Vienna in 1846 for further studies in mathematics.

In Vienna, Żmurko attended lectures at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute given by Leopold Karl Schulz von Strassnitzki. He also attended lectures at the University of Vienna given by Józeph Miksa Petzval. At this stage Żmurko had to support himself financially and he did so by giving private tuition. Both Schulz von Strassnitzki and Petzval were very impressed by the rapid progress that Żmurko made. Schulz von Strassnitzki took a special interest in Żmurko's career and soon after 1848 he offered him the position as his assistant at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute. In 1849 Żmurko submitted the thesis Beitrag zum Integralcalcul Ⓣ and was appointed as an assistant professor at the Vienna Polytechnic Institute.

In 1851 Żmurko left Vienna and returned to Galicia when he was appointed as an assistant professor on mathematics at Lwów Technical Academy. Let us note that Lwów was in the Austrian Empire at this time and, although it was known as Lwów by Polish people, officially it was known by its German name of Lemberg. Poland had been partitioned in 1772 with Lwów as the capital of Galicia which became a part of the Austrian Empire. The Lemberg Technical Academy had been founded as a technical school in 1817 and upgraded to a Technical Academy in 1844. Ever since the partition of Poland there had been attempts by the Poles to re-establish an independent country. Some attempts were less ambitious and only sought for more autonomy and recognition for Polish as the language in educational establishments. There had been a revolution in 1848 during which Austrian troops shelled the Lwów town centre. The Technical Academy buildings were destroyed by fire and until 1850 lectures had to be held in temporary accommodation. Work to restore the original building was completed in December 1850, and it was in this newly restored building that Żmurko began teaching in 1851.

Given the difficult political situation, it is interesting to look at the ethnic mix of the students in the Technical Academy in the year Żmurko was appointed. There were 220 students, 98 of whom were Polish, 50 were Jewish, 48 were German, 19 were Ukrainian/Ruthenian, 4 were Czech and 2 were Hungarian. Josef Weiser (1810-1881) had been the professor of physics at the Technical Academy and he had proposed that the Academy be reorganised along the lines of the École Polytechnique in Paris. In 1852, the year the reorganisation began, Żmurko was appointed as a full professor of mathematics and head of the Department of Mathematics at the Technical Academy. This marked a major change for the Technical Academy since he was the first Pole to become a professor there. We note that in his 1861 book, Żmurko gives his affiliation as 'Royal Professor of Mathematics at the Technical Faculty in Lwów and active member of the Galician Economic Society'.

Wawrzyniec Żmurko married Henryka Zofalów (born 31 January 1828, died 30 November 1894). They had a daughter Eugenia Żmurków (1854-1922) who married the mathematician Oskar Fabian (born 28 February 1846 in Nowy Dwór, died 28 October 1899 in Lwów). They also had a son Franciszek Żmurko (1859-1910) born in Lwów on 18 July 1859 who became a famous painter. We will say a little more about Franciszek Żmurko below.

We assume that Żmurko taught both in Polish and in German in his early years in Lwów. Certainly his 2-volume book Matematyka Ⓣ (1861) about his method of teaching, reprinted as Wykład matematyki na podstawie ilości o dowolnych kierunkach w przestrzeni Ⓣ (1864), was written in Polish while some other works like Drei Aufsätze aus dem Gebiete der höheren Mathematik Ⓣ (1858) are written in German. As far as teaching was concerned, there was a major change beginning in 1871 when a Decree of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria established Polish as an official language for all teaching in Galicia. This produced some problems at both the Technical Academy and the University of Lwów since some of the staff could not teach in Polish and left. This, however, was excellent as far as Żmurko was concerned. In that year, in addition to his position in the Technical Academy, he was appointed as a full professor of mathematics at the University of Lwów. He continued to hold both positions until 1884. Let us note that Lwów Technical Academy became the Lwów Polytechnic in 1877. In 1884 he resigned his professorship at Lwów Polytechnic but continued to hold the chair of mathematics at the University of Lwów.

Żmurko published books and papers on a variety of mathematical topics. His published works include papers and books on the theory of differential equations, the theory of analytic and real functions, linear algebra and applications of mathematics. One interesting work is the book Matematyka Ⓣ (1861) which, in some respects, looks at ideas which later led to the vector calculus. He writes in the Preface to this work [7]:-
Several decades ago, several papers appeared showing an almost unanimous tendency to give the so-called imaginary quantities the meaning of reliability in terms of their position in space. For eight years I too had been constantly occupied with this subject; it was not until 1856 that I came into possession of a work of greater size and great importance ('Situationskalkül' Ⓣ by Hermann Scheffler, Braunschweig 1851), that I became convinced that as regards the first principles of mathematics no one had yet gone down the path I had outlined for myself, but that in the further development of the science, both in terms of newly introduced expressions and in terms of calculation in analytic geometry, I had been considerably surpassed.
The book Situationskalkül Ⓣ had been published in 1851 by Hermann Scheffler (1820-1903), a German engineer, mathematician and physicist. The book was an:-
Attempt at an arithmetic representation of lower and higher geometry based on an abstract conception of spatial sizes, forms and movements ...
August Christian Wilhelm Hermann Scheffler worked as a construction supervisor and surveyor from 1846, becoming a financial secretary in 1851 and then financial assessor in 1853 for the railway and postal directorate in Braunschweig. In 1854 Scheffler was appointed building inspector and in 1870 senior building inspector. In his time he was considered an important railway expert, developed construction and operating principles in the railway system and wrote numerous mathematical and physical works. From 1876 to 1885 he was railway director in Braunschweig. He was, therefore, an amateur mathematician and physicist with Situationskalkül Ⓣ being one of the first his many mathematical works. Żmurko was not discouraged by the fact that ideas that he had worked on had been developed much further. In fact this proved an incentive for him to continuing to undertake research on this topic and also to use the ideas he was developing in his teaching. He says in the Preface to Matematyka Ⓣ that he had used the ideas in his teaching from 1856.

For an English translation of Żmurko's Preface to Matematyka Ⓣ (1861), see THIS LINK.

Żmurko was supported in his work by having Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki (1825-1899) as a patron. Dzieduszycki, who was a member of the Austrian Council of State, lived on family estates in Poturzyca about 80 km north of Lwów. In 1847 he brought the famous Poturzyce-Zarzecka Library from Poturzyca to Lwów. Dzieduszycki gave Żmurko access to the library and he was able to consult many relevant books there. Dzieduszycki also financed the publication of Żmurko's works. He writes in the Preface of Matematyka Ⓣ [7]:-
I consider it a pleasant duty to express my heartfelt thanks to His Excellency Count Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki for facilitating the publication of this work. His constant zeal and readiness to make any sacrifices for the advancement of scientific literature ... encouraged me to accelerate this work, providing me with abundant means to publish it.
Mathematical instruments were one of Żmurko's interests and he submitted a communication to the Paris Académie des Sciences on an instrument intended to trace conic sections in a continuous movement. A report by Jean-Victor Poncelet on his communication was published in Comptes rendus of the Académie des Sciences in 1862.

Another work by Żmurko which we must mention is Beitrag zur Erweiterung der Operationslehre der constructiven Geometrie Ⓣ (1873) in which he presented the theory and description of a number of mathematical instruments. These include the cycloidograph, the ellipsograph and the parabolograph, These gained him international fame and he was awarded medals and prizes at the exhibition in Vienna in 1873, in Lwów in 1877, in Paris in 1878 and in London in 1878.

Żmurko was president of the Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists in 1879-81. During his time as president, he delivered the lecture "On some devices for plotting" to a meeting of the Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists in Lwów on 8 February 1880. You can read the introduction to this lecture at THIS LINK.

In 1879 he published the book Badania w dziedzinie nauki o równaniach oparte na poglądach analityczno-geometrycznych w przestrzeni Ⓣ which he dedicated to Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. Kraszewski was a writer and musician who worked all his life in the cause of Polish independence. The Austrian authorities, of course, tried to suppress the Polish independence movement and he was arrested and served time in prison. Kraszewski was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Lwów in 1879, the same year as Żmurko dedicated his book to him. Making such a dedication shows clearly Żmurko's views on Polish independence and even to dedicate a book to Kraszewski must have been a somewhat risky thing to do. Is it possible that the reason that the biography of Żmurko in the Biographical Lexicon of the Austrian Empire [3] fails to mention this book a result of this dedication? Certainly [3] was written before Polish independence was established. The 1879 book describes instruments that Żmurko spoke about in his lecture on 8 February 1880, and perhaps the most interesting instrument described in the book was his integrator, used for graphical solution of integral calculus problems.

Among other distinctions, we note that Żmurko was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Lwów in 1878. He was dean of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Lwów in the academic year 1878-79 and rector of the University of Lwów in 1885-86. He was elected a full member of the Kraków Academy of Sciences in 1872 and a full member of the French Academy of Agriculture, Crafts and Commerce in 1878.

We will now give a few details of Żmurko son Franciszek Żmurko. Franciszek Józef Jan Żmurko was born in Lwów on 18 July 1859. He attended schools in Lwów and took his first drawing lessons from the painter and ethnographer Franciszek Tepa. Now Tepa had been offered a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków in 1872, which he had rejected due to his attachment to Lwów. However, he advised Franciszek Żmurko to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and he went there in 1876. From 1880 he lived in Kraków but two years later he settled in Warsaw. He gained a worldwide reputation for his paintings, mainly inspired by women, which were dominated by Old Testament, oriental and antique themes.

It was Wawrzyniec Żmurko who created the beginnings of the important school of mathematics at Lwów, especially for teaching and advising Józef Puzyna. Puzyna attended lectures on mathematics from Żmurko and on applied mathematics by Oskar Fabian. He undertook research towards his doctorate advised by Żmurko and he submitted his thesis O pozornie dwuwartościowych określonych całkach podwójnych Ⓣ which was examined by Żmurko and Oskar Fabian. Puzyna's habilitation examination was held on 11 December 1884 and the questioning was led by Żmurko. Puzyna became Head of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Lwów following the death of Żmurko in 1889.

Puzyna was not the only person to be awarded a doctorate in mathematics by the University of Lwów while Żmurko was head of the Mathematics Department; Puzyna was one of five, the other four being Placyd Dziwinski in 1881, Mieczysław Łazarski in 1883, Jan Rajewski in 1886 and Michal Kozłowski in 1885.

Here are examples of courses that Żmurko taught in the 1880s:
Summer 1881-82: Principles of higher analysis (4 hours a week), and On the integration of partial differential equations and distinguishing the maxima and minima of definite integrals (2 hours a week).

Winter 1884-85: Analytical Geometry on the plane and space (3 hours a week); and On the determining certain integrals and solving differential equations (3 hours a week).

Winter 1888-89: The principles of integration of differential equations (3 hours a week); and The rules of commutative calculus (2 hours a week).
Following Żmurko's death, he was buried in the tomb of the family of Wawrzyniec Żmurko in Łyczakowski Cemetery in Lwów, now known as Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv.
Other Mathematicians born in Ukraine
A Poster of Wawrzyniec Żmurko

References (show)

  1. T Grębski, Żmurko Wawrzyniec, The Mathteacher (2022).
    https://www.tomaszgrebski.pl/blog/matematycy/zmurko-wawrzyniec
  2. A Rovenchak, Oskar Fabian, the First Head of the Department for Theoretical Physics at the University of Lviv, Acta Physica Polonica A 116 (2) 2009), 109-113.
  3. Zmurko, Lorenz, Biographischen Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich 60 (1891), 210-211.
    http://www.literature.at/viewer.alo?objid=12544&page=253&scale=3.33&viewmode=fullscreen
  4. Żmurko Wawrzyniec, Deutsche Biographie (2024).
    https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd1055491104.html?language=en
  5. Żmurko Wawrzyniec, 1st General Secondary School Juliusz Słowacki in Przemyśl (2024).
    http://slowak.edu.pl/%C5%BCmurko-wawrzyniec
  6. Żmurko Wawrzyniec family grave, Fundacja Dziedzictwa Kulturowego (2020).
    https://cmentarzlyczakowski.pl/karty-nagrobkow/wawrzyniec-zmurkohenryka-z-zofalow-zmurko-oskar-fabian-eugenia-ze-zmurkow-fabianowa/
  7. W Żmurko, Matematyka (Lwów, 1861).
    https://books.google.pl/books?id=Yv9gUQV5HpgC&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false
  8. W Żmurko, O niektórych przyrządach wykreślających, Kosmos 5 (1880), 44-52.
    http://hint.org.pl/kat/HID=BD0D6;r=4;p=eb4b0003.1
  9. S Domoradzki, The growth of mathematical culture in the Lvov area in the autonomy period (1870-1920) (Matfyzpress, Prague, 2011).
  10. Y Prytula, Mathematics in Lviv, in Leopolis Scientifica. Exact Sciences in Lviv until the middle of the 20th (Lviv, 2021), 145-234.

Additional Resources (show)

Other pages about Wawrzyniec Żmurko:

  1. Some Wawrzyniec Żmurko publications
  2. Preface to Matematyka
  3. On some devices for plotting

Other websites about Wawrzyniec Żmurko:

  1. Mathematical Genealogy Project
  2. zbMATH entry

Cross-references (show)

Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update November 2024