| Spotlight
TABLE 1. Selected dams which designs resulted from the 1920 decision (Figure 1). Dam
Year of completion of construction
Porabka Roznow Solina
Czorsztyn
1936 1941 1968 1997
(2394.6m long; 12.54m high), built between 1848 and 1853 on the Brda River (Figure 1). However, the Brody Ilzeckie Dam on the Kamienna River was built earlier (Figure 1). The Brody Ilzeckie Dam history is linked to the expansion of the Old Polish District, in the first half of the 19th century. A dam and reservoir were built at Brody to supply water to the local puddling plant (a plant where pig iron is purified from coal and other admixtures), in 1840. However, a catastrophic flood in 1903 destroyed the dam and other associated hydraulic facilities. The reservoir was rebuilt from 1959 to 1964. The dam is situated in its original location, with the preserved stone spillway ntegrated into the downstream slope of the dam, serving as a commemorative monument (Figure 2). However, water engineering in Poland has its beginning much earlier. It can be especially visible in Silesia, where the Oder River marks the main axis with its numerous left-bank tributaries flowing out of the Sudetenland. About 20 weirs on the Oder River damming up water to drive the water wheels were already built in the 13th century. In 1343, 28 plants in Wroclaw used water power (waterwheel)– mills, paper mills, weaving mills, forges and timber mills [Winter, 2004]. The settlement increased on a massive scale, especially in the 15th-16th centuries. Hence, hydraulic facilities with many different kinds of water reservoirs
Dam height [m] 37.3
32.5 81.8 54.5
Dam length [m] 260
550 664 404
were built, for the use of water resources (primarily for crafts and agriculture), to acquire new land and fight floods. Not surprisingly, there was a growing need for water engineering professionals and subject-related books. The first work by the Olomouc bishop Jan Dubrawius was published in Wrocław in 1547 in Latin (in 1600, the priest Andrzej Proga published J. Dubrawius’ work in Polish, in Cracow) [Nyrek, 1997]. In contrast, the second book on pond-building was written in Polish, in the middle of the 16th century by Olbrycht Strumienski. In the introduction, he wrote that a pond management book had already been published in Latin in Wroclaw, but he could only read in Polish being a simple pond builder. His work, About Filling, Measuring and Fishery of Ponds, and about Canals, Water Weighing and Guiding. Books needed for all hosts was published in Cracow in 1573 (Figure 3) [Strumienski, reprint 1987, Taborska 2019]. It is the first civil and water engineering book in the Polish language to provide the expert knowledge necessary to construct small water reservoirs (ponds) and earth dams (dykes). As a practitioner, Strumienski devoted his work to levelling measurements by including drawings of simple instruments with instructions for their use. Figure 4 shows a simple device for checking the maintenance of the level, for example, the dam crest level.
Dam type
gravity concrete gravity concrete gravity concrete earthen
Below: Figure 2. The Brody Ilzeckie Dam on the Kamienna River from 1964 with the preserved stone overflow of the old dam from 1840, incorporated into the downstream slope of the current dam (photo: Piotr Kuzniar)
Far left: Figure 3. Title page of Olbrycht Strumienski’s work published in Cracow in 1573: About Filling, Measuring and Fishery of Ponds, and about Canals, Water Weighing and Guiding. Books needed for all hosts. Reprinted with a foreword by Aleksander Nyrka. Published by the Silesian Institute in Opole. Opole 1987
Left: Figure 4. One of the instruments for levelling in earthworks, included in the work by Olbrycht Strumienski
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