Philippe Henri de Girard (1775-1845)

Born February 1, 1775 in Lourmarin. He came from a wealthy Calvinist family. Since childhood, he has shown outstanding mechanical abilities, as well as extraordinary ingenuity. At the age of 14, he designed a turbine that enabled the extraction of energy from sea waves (it was patented in 1799), and soon, in 1791, a sculpture copying machine and an electric capacitor. 

He trained to become a doctor in Montpellier but abandoned these plans to devote himself to studying chemistry and natural sciences. In the following years of his life, he was engaged in pedagogical activity, teaching chemistry and Natural History in Nice, in Marseille, and from 1806 to 1907 in Paris.

However, his work did not distract him from the creation of inventions to which he devoted all his free time. When he moved to Paris, he demonstrated his inventive ideas at an industrial exhibition. An upgraded Argand-type oil lamp, equipped with a matte lampshade with a design improved by him and his brother Frederick, was even found in the Imperial rooms. However, this did not bring any benefit to the inventors, except for temporary prestige. Girard also constructed a powerful achromatic telescope and also introduced a new way of preparing canned meat. He also introduced ingenious improvements to the design of the steam engine.

After the introduction of the continental blockade that Napoleon appointed on October 12, 1810, a million francs reward was offered for the invention of an efficient flax spinning machine. Taking the challenge head-on, Girard locked himself in a room with a ball of thread, flaxen stalks, water, and magnifying glass, and continually studied the process of hand-spinning thoroughly. He then devised a machine that could do this mechanically. 

On June 12, 1810, Girard applied for a patent for his spinning machine, but such a quick application aroused the suspicion of the authorities, who set a three-year deadline for the competition and therefore tightened its conditions. Not giving up, however, Girard constructed a spinning machine that produced threads so thin that 1 kg of flax fiber produced a thread 150 km long, and sent another application to the emperor, who was too absorbed in politics to pay attention to it. Girard, therefore, decided to present the whole spinning-mill to the authorities, and founded in Paris, with the remains of his family fortune, a spinning-mill with two thousand spindles, and soon after, with other people’s Capital, another in 1812. The production went well and Napoleon was going to settle the competition, but then came the war with Russia and the fall of the Empire. The reward was never given out, and the spinning mill facilities almost went bankrupt due to economic stagnation after the fall of the Empire

Forced by the creditors, Filip Girard went to Austria, where in 1818 he invented a flax comb and a machine for making yarn from twigs. At the same time, Girard’s company went completely bankrupt in France, which caused Filip to take up the well-paid position of chief mechanic of the mining department in the Kingdom of Poland, where he also moved in 1825.

He began his work within the Congress Kingdom of Poland two years later. At that time, he assembled machines imported from England in metal-works, as well as, provided technical assistance providing hydropower for plants in Sielpi. He carried out the purification and sedimentation of the Kamienna River. 

With the outbreak of the November Uprising, he wanted to help Poles in distress. He worked on a machine for the production of rifle stocks, which was to serve the insurgents. The invention in question became the only one that gave Philippe great financial success, but only in 1842, after he was exploited by the Petersburg Arsenal. 

In 1829, a company for the production of linen products was established in Warsaw, to which Girard made available his inventions in this field. In 1831, with his help, the country’s first mechanical flax spinning mill was founded in Marymont, and in 1833 a steam weaving plant in Ruda Guzewska, which since 1834 began to be called Żyrardów in honour of the inventor. In the same year, a spinning mill was also moved there.

In 1833 Girard became a technical consultant to the Bank of Poland. In 1837 he also made a significant contribution to the establishment of the first sugar factory in Guzów. In 1840, he built an instrument for automatic meteorological data recording for the astronomical observatory in Warsaw, and three years later also a water turbine with a capacity of 4 HP. He also tried to improve the piano, which he had been thinking about since 1803.

Girard returned to Paris in 1844, where he exhibited his technical achievements throughout his life. However, he gained recognition in his homeland only after his death. He died in Paris on 26 August 1845. The French authorities then awarded a salary to his family, and in credit for his achievements, the inventor began to erect monuments.