MINT NEVER HINGED - DAY OF ISSUE 23 JUNE 1986.
5zl STAMP: Antoni Bolesaw Dobrowolski (June 6
1872 - April 27 1954) - Polish geophysicist, meteorologist and
explorer. Created a separate branch of knowledge - Polish:
"kriologie" (the study of natural ice). In Switzerland and
Belgium he studied physics and biological sciences.
He was director of the Polish National Meteorological Institute
(1927-1929). In the years 1929-1949 he led the Geophysical Society.
He was the initiator of the Seismological Observatory in Warsaw. He
led research work during the second year of a polar exporation
(1932-1933). He organized the scientific expedition to Bear
Island.
In addition to the geophysical surveys Dobrowolski was also
involved in pedagogy. From 1927 to 1938 he was professor of general
pedagogy at the Free Polish University. In the years 1946 to 1954
professor of education at the University of Warsaw. From 1952 he
was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was also an
author/writer.
40zl STAMP: Henryk Bronislaw
Arctowski (born July 15, 1871 as Henry Artzt in
Warsaw, died. February 21, 1958 in Washington, DC) - Polish
geographer, geophysicist, geologist, meteorologist, glaciologist
and traveller and related research in polar countries.
He was a
Polish scientist and explorer. Living in exile for a
large part of his life, he was one of the first persons to winter
in
Antarctica and became an internationally renowned
meteorologist. He was instrumental in restoring
Polish independence after the
First World War. Several geographical
features, the
Henryk Arctowski
Polish Antarctic Station and a medal of the
National Academy of Sciences are
named in his honor. He was a prolific writer/author.
After his return from the Antarctic he lived in Brussels, analyzing
the results of the expedition at the
Royal Observatory of Belgium, at
that time headed by
Lecointe, the
second-in-command of the expedition. Besides publishing, he
presented lectures on the expedition both in Belgium and abroad. On
a lecture tour in London he met the American actress and opera
singer Arian Jane Ady, whom he married in March 1909. During this
period he obtained the Belgian nationality.
In 1909 he moved with his wife to New York, where he headed the
science division of the
New York Public Library from 1911 to
1919. In 1915 he became an American citizen.
In 1920 he returned to newly independent Poland. Prime minister
Paderewski had offered him the
position of minister of education, but he refused and became
professor of geophysics and meteorology at
Jan Kazimierz University. He was very
active in research (144 papers were published by him and his
assistants) and involved in the
International
Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. In 1939 he travelled with his
wife to the United States to attend a conference of the
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, when the Soviet
Union and Nazi Germany invaded Poland. They never managed to return
to Poland and lost all their possessions.
Arctowski joined
The Explorers Club in New York in 1920. He
accepted a position as a research associate at the
Smithsonian and continued doing
research until his death, even when he was obliged to resign in
1950 due to an illness.
The
Antarctic Treaty and related
agreements, collectively called the
Antarctic Treaty
System or
ATS,
regulate international relations with respect
to Antarctica, Earth´s only continent without a native human
population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is
defined as all of the land and ice shelves south
of 60°S latitude. The treaty, entering into force in 1961 and
currently having 50 signatory nations, sets aside Antarctica as a
scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific
investigation and bans military activity on that continent.
The treaty was the first arms control agreement
established during the Cold War. The Antarctic
Treaty Secretariat headquarters have been located
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since September 2004.
