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Karola Olszewski Room

The room features the equipment from the laboratory of Prof. Karol Olszewski (1846–1915), an extraordinary chemist who in 1883, in collaboration with the professor of physics Zygmunt Wróblewski (1845–1888), carried out the first successful liquefaction of air components. This achievement was a substantial contribution to the development of cryogenics. Therefore, Kraków became one of the few scientific centres in Europe where scientists managed to reach temperatures below 100 degree Celsius (-100° C).

In the centre of the room stands the liquefying apparatus made in 1884 and designed by Prof. Olszewski. The device enabled observation of the experiment and measurement of pressure and temperature. Right next to it stand elements of Cailletet’s cascade device brought down from Paris by Wróblewski and used to perform the first successful experiments with liquefaction.