Fire protection in Old Warsaw

Abstract

The article presents methods of active and passive fire protection in Warsaw in the 17th and 18th c., based on written sources that were previously not explored in research on this topic. The first issue discussed is the development of the major extinguishing device of the time, the fi re pump. With reference to the solutions proposed by Vitruvius, and by French and German engi-neers, the oldest Polish texts on the construction and operation of fi re pumps are presented: a 1690 description by Stanisław Solecki, a seventeenth-century populariser of technological developments, and a 1777 description by Józef Osiński, a naturalist and scientist. Then, the relevant surviving regulations concerning Warsaw are analysed, from “Porządek na sejm elekcyjny w roku 1632” [The rules of the election seym in 1632] to the crucial “Porządek Ogniowy” [The rules of fi re-protection] compiled by Stanisław Lubomirski in 1779. Derivatives of the latter regulation are also listed, as they mentioned fire protection tools, their numbers and placement in the city, and the obligation to keep them in good repair.Then, the installation of lightning conductors is discussed, stressing the unquestionable role of Józef Osiński, the pioneer of research on electricity and lightning in Poland in the 18th c., sometimes called “the fi rst Polish electrician”, and of Józef Rogaliński, later the rector of the Greater-Poland Academy, in popularizing this device. The discussion includes the 1783 installation of lightning conductors in the Royal Castle, which was the fi rst building in Warsaw to be protected in this way. The article also quotes poems by Franciszek Karpiński and Adam Naruszewicz devoted to the phenomenon of lightning.