Sendzimir, Tadeusz

Sendzimir, Tadeusz -- (1894 - 1989) inventor-engineer
Dr. Tadeusz Sendzimir was born in Lwow, Poland in 1894. He lived and was educated in Lwow, then a part of partitioned Poland. He studied at the Technical University in Lwow. After the outbreak of World War I he worked in Kiev and then in Vladivostok and Shanghai. In Shanghai he founded a wire and nail works which was the first of its kind in China.
In 1930 he went back to Poland. There he worked on his inventions and the galvanizing process and a new mill for the cold reduction of steel. The first Sendzimir Cold Strip Mill and a Galvanizing plant were installed in Poland in 1931. His method of rolling continuously cast steel slabs in a so-called planetary mill and the cold-rolling system are known worldwide to this day under the name of Sendzimir.
From: Wally West
STEEL WILL: The Life of Tad Sendzimir
by: Vanda Sendzimir
One of the last great independent inventors and entrepreneurs, Tad Sendzimir developed many of the inventions and discoveries in steel making which lie behind technological advancements of the past sixty years. Starting from a ramshackle Shanghai nail factory in the 1920s, Tad Sendzimir went on to revolutionize the process of making steel. This is the story of a Polish nobleman who led an adventurous life and played a major role in the revolution propelling the steel industry into the modern age.
Sendzimir was one of the top five inventors in the history of steel. His invention opened new horizons for the use of galvanized and stainless steels -- he made radar light enough to mount on airplanes in World War II, and steel from his mill formed the shell of the Apollo spacecraft.
His unpublished notebooks and unfinished projects will likely inspire many more innovations for decades to come.
An American by choice, Sendzimir remained passionately Polish as well. He supported many Polish-American cultural activities and his generosity to them and to Poland was legendary. No wonder that free Poland named its largest steel works after him. His name is among the most revered in his native land.
But Sendzimir was much more than an inventor. He was a successful businessman, a gracious and witty raconteur -- a true "Renaissance Man" -- and a mercurial, tyrannical boss and father. This story, told by his daughter, is of both his successes and his failures. Meticulously researched, this biography also reflects a deep love of a talented daughter whose journey through her father's past brings deeper understanding of the genius, Tad Sendzimir.
Tadeusz Sendzimir, holder of over 120 patents throughout the world, 73 in the United States, has been honored by many countries and professional societies including the Association of Iron and Steel of Pittsburgh (President's Award, 1987) and the Iron and Steel Institute of London (Bessemer Gold Medal, 1965). He also received New York City's Liberty Award in 1986.
Vanda Sendzimir graduated from McGill University with a degree in Sociology. She has worked as a political activist on local, national and international issues before turning to writing. Her articles have appeared in Boston Globe, Portland Oregonian, Hartford Courant, Chicago Sun Times, and Cleveland Plain Dealer. STEEL WILL, her first book, began as a collaboration with her father and was completed after his death in 1989. Sendzimir resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a member of the National Writers Union.