This isn’t the first Polish scientist stamp I have covered. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/17/poland-1983-remembers-an-astronomer-mathemacian-from-a-time-with-so-many-changes-that-it-was-hard-to-develop-the-polish-academic-tradition/ . They all seem to have faced dramatic obstacles related to the plight of the Poles at the time, yet still moved mankind’s knowledge forward. With relative peace and prosperity not just in Poland, am I the only one to notice that progress has slowed. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This stamp issue from 1982 shows four prominent mathematicians. They are displayed on graph paper in a fun 80s Max Headroom style. Sierpinski died in 1969 making him the most modern figure on the stamp issue, although most of his important work was 50+ years before that. Could Poland have come up with 4 living mathematicians in 1982 or 2019 that were advancing the field enough to be worthy of being remembered? I wonder.
Todays stamp is issue A799, a 6 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on November 23rd, 1982. It was a four stamp issue displaying 4 Polish mathematicians. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.
Waclaw Sierpinski was born in Warsaw in 1882. At the time the city was under Czarist Russian occupation. The city’s University taught in Russian and had a largely Russian staff. As such, it was sort of a colonial operation and Poles were reticent to attend and thereby support the Russian occupation. Sierpinski did not honor the boycott as he desired to learn from a prominent Russian mathematician on staff there. He did withhold his first major academic work from publication until it could be published in Polish instead of Russian. World War I saw him in Moscow working with Russians. Sierpinski was back in Poland for the 1919 war with the Soviet Union and worked for the Poles decoding Soviet cyphers. Bet the Soviets were glad the Czarists had invested so much in Sierpinski’s success.
Sierpinski main mathematical contribution was in the field or numbers theory and set theory. In numbers theory, Sierpinski built upon the work of Russian mathematician Vorony. His later set theory work was built on the work of German mathematician Cantor. Below is a fractal that is named for him. It is one of those visual distotions.
Sierpinski continued working at the University or Warsaw through 1967. Or course his later years were more about receiving rewards for work he had done many years before. In a way, I wonder if this is the most interesting part. Is the adversity faced by people like Sierpinski necessary to challenge him to be his best? An alternative theory is that of course the older fellows seem to do more than the moderns because people just did not know anything back then.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Poland. It is a short list of countries that could put together a list of prominent mathematicians and Poland is one of the smaller and newer countries on that list. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.