Polish Genius : Lucjan Lagiewka

For years, the brilliant Polish inventor Lucjan Łągiewka has been fighting for his own patent. It is a fantastic kinetic energy absorber that can be used, for example, in all types of bumpers. Lucjan Łągiewka is a seventy-year-old from Kowary with no higher education. He achieved excellent results at school, but the death of his father from radiation sickness (he mined uranium in a nearby mine) meant that instead of further education, he had to work to support the family. He started a sawmill in the 1970s and did quite well. So much so that he could devote himself to his passion, invention. He improved sawmill equipment, but none of his inventions could be patented because at that time only people with higher education and after working for a certain period of time in a given industry could receive such an honor. The situation changed slightly after 1989. Then Lucjan Łągiewka came up with an incredible idea that even contradicted the laws of physics. He created a bumper in which he installed a rotary motor that eliminates the kinetic force of impact. In 1998, at the Kowary stadium, in front of a thousand spectators, he conducted an experiment. The driver of the Fiat 126p hit a steel obstacle at a speed of 40 km/h in which the Łągiewka mechanism was installed and... the car was left intact. It would seem that this invention will revolutionize both the automotive industry and many others. And this probably could have happened a long time ago if bureaucratic brainlessness hadn't gotten in the way. In 1996, Łągiewka's invention was submitted to the patent office, which, however, refused to patent it. It was found that the device did not meet all statutory criteria. Three years later, a scientist from the University of Cambirdge, Malcolm Smith, patented an identical mechanism that is currently used in Formula 1.