At a time when horse-drawn trams were still common in Polish city streets, Władysław Umiński, another author that Lem listed as a childhood favourite, was already a eulogist of technological advances and a precursor of science fiction.
Born in 1865, he was a true child of positivism, thanks to his rationalism and belief in progress. In his youth, he dreamed of becoming an inventor, studied natural sciences in St Petersburg, and his hobby was building model flying machines. He did laboratory experiments at the Museum of Industry and Agriculture in Warsaw, where he met Maria Skłodowska-Curie. However, his family’s financial hardships forced him to abandon his dreams of a scientific career, and he compensated for it with science-fantasy novels.
He was labelled the ‘Polish Jules Verne’. One need only look at the titles of his novels for young people to see why: Zwycięzcy Oceanu (‘Conquerors of the Ocean’, 1891), Balonem do Bieguna (‘By Balloon to the Pole’, 1894), W Nieznane Światy (‘To Unknown Worlds’, 1895, AKA Na Drugą Planetę [‘To Another Planet’]), and W Głębinach Oceanu (‘In the Ocean Depths’, 1920).
What were the main themes of his 30-odd novels? Genius inventions, bold expeditions, the taming of nature, discovering the unknown, mankind overcoming successive limitations, but he did not forget to include a strong dose of didacticism and patriotic sentiment. The balloon, whose crew makes a pioneering flight over the South Pole, was named ‘Polska’ (the book was written while Poland was still partitioned).
The titles above were an extension of his popular-scientific activities. He published a range of brochures, providing young people with the latest news on science and technology, and he had a wide spectrum of interests, ranging from electricity, industry and dinosaurs, to space and environmental protection. He was also particularly keen on aviation. As he stated:
At the dawn of the 20th century, we are witnessing perhaps mankind’s greatest ever triumph in its age-old battle with the forces of nature; finally we have conquered the air, that capricious element that has scoffed at all our endeavours for so long.
In fact, we have him to thank for the spread of the word ‘samolot’ (literally, ‘self-flyer’) in Polish, because flying machines used to be known as ‘aeroplany’. In one story from the late 19th century, he used the word to describe an airship, and then again in the modern sense in his novel Samolotem Dookoła Świata (‘Around the World by Aeroplane’, 1911).