The Commodore C64 is one of the most popular designs in the history of computers. The device was launched in 1982 and was manufactured until 1994. In Poland it enjoyed peak popularity in the first half of the 1990s. During the period of economic transformation, Polish society was not wealthy, so the computer was an attractive alternative to more advanced designs such as a PC or the Amiga computer.
The C64 was manufactured by Commodore Business Machines, which was established in 1954 in Toronto and then moved to New York. It was founded by Jack Trzmiel – a Polish emigrant of Jewish descent who was saved from the Holocaust. Initially the company manufactured typewriters, but its production profile and scope of services was gradually changed in response to market conditions and the actions of the competition (especially the Japanese manufacturers, who first dominated the market of typewriters and then that of summators and calculators). Influenced by Irving Gould – Commodore’s lead investor – the company started manufacturing electronic calculators. Later, it acquired MOS Technology, Inc., which supplied its components. This is how Commodore was joined by engineer Chuck Peddle, previously employed by MOS Technology and nominated head of the design department. Under his influence the company started producing home computers. Trzmiel left the company in the early 1980s due to a conflict. In the 1980s the company was the leader on the home computers market, but it went bankrupt in 1994 due to a lack of innovation and competition from the strongly growing PC market.
In line with the standards of the 1980s, the computer was integrated with the keyboard and placed in the same housing. A TV set could be used as the monitor, and the basic medium for data was a special version of a cassette tape recorder. It was also possible to purchase an additional disk drive.
The Commodore C64 stood out from the competition with its advanced sound capabilities thanks to the integrated circuit, named SID. This option was used not only by the authors of computer games, but also by musicians. Nowadays, the C64 is used on the demo scene (a programming and computer subculture) for creating works that are styled on the 1980s.

Authors: Marek Więcek, Filip Wróblewski

The launch of mass production of the first television receiver manufactured in Poland, i.e. the Wisła TV set, was the greatest production project of the first five-year economic plan in Poland, which covered the years 1956-1960. The design of the Wisła was based on a purchased license for the Soviet Awangard TL-1 television receiver of 1953. Overall, 16,000 Wisła units were built in 1956-1957. Two versions were built: the first made of parts and components from the USSR, the second – the upgraded Wisła-B – designed with partial use of Polish vacuum tubes. The Wisła television set was designed to receive black-and-white television broadcasts. The device was turned on by lifting the top cover, below which there were two built-in speakers and control knobs. The Wisła was equipped with a round cathode-ray tube, covered with a pane of protective glass. In the front wall of the housing there is an oblong cutout for the CRT screen with a size of 18 x 24 cm. The television was designed to receive only one channel, because Poland transmitted only one program at the time so a channel switch was unnecessary.
At the time when it was manufactured, the Wisła television set was a luxury item. When the country became fascinated by television in the 1950s, buying one was not easy. Production could not catch up with demand as only several dozen units left the factory every day. The TV set was purchased on the basis of coupons granted to work leaders, as well as people who had made a contribution to national culture, science, defence, or security.

Authors: Piotr Turowski, Filip Wróblewski

The Polonez ambulance/van is a light delivery vehicle based on the design and components of the FSO Polonez passenger car. Developed between 1985 and 1990 by the Zakład Samochodów Dostawczych in Nysa, the vehicle was intended to be mainly used for sanitary transportation. Over time it was to replace the outdated Nysa 522.
The prototype had a mixed structure: the body front was monocoque, the cargo space was based on a frame. The roof of both parts of the vehicle had a flexible connection with a stress and vibration damper – a solution that was patented.
Despite the favourable results of the prototype testing it was never launched into mass production. This was because of a conflict between the Management Boards of Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych and its subsidiary, the Zakład Samochodów Dostawczych. The vehicle designed in Nysa was considered as competition to the Polonez Truck that was under development in FSO, and as a result, the Zakład Samochodów Dostawczych was not allocated funds for the construction of the new production facility.
The car presented here is probably the only remaining example of the 10 units built. It is the fifth prototype in the series and was used for tensometric testing. The tests resulted in major stress and deformation of the vehicle’s structure, including the body panels. Nevertheless, after the tests were completed the vehicle was purchased by a private individual and was used at a horse stud near Ozimek until the early 21st century. In 2012 it was purchased by the Museum and then rebuilt.

The Fenomen Mz 744 is a tabletop vacuum-tube radio, with a mains AC power supply. It was launched on the market in the 1937/1938 season by Krajowe Towarzystwo Telefunken sp. z o.o. – the Polish branch of the German radio technology corporation. The Warsaw branch of Telefunken manufactured radios under a foreign licence, but they were designed in Poland and adapted to local technical conditions. The Fenomen is a four-circuit superheterodyne receiver built on iron cores, equipped with four vacuum tubes and a reaction detector. Such a configuration was not widely used, and it is a trademark of Telefunken’s models. The manufacturer used a range of interchangeable lamps of its own manufacture. In order to limit the use of vacuum tubes made by competitors, a warning is placed on the back of the receiver that reads: “Caution! The TELEFUNKEN vacuum tube types used in the receiver must not be replaced with others; even if other tubes work well initially, the performance of the radio will decrease over time”. The receiver allows the reception of radio stations in short, medium, and long wave bands. The electrical system and design solutions of the Fenomen receiver were based on the Lord model. The Fenomen was marketed in three versions; apart from the Mz 744, they were the Mu 744 with DC power supply and the battery-powered Mb 713. After 1935, a horizontal layout of radio receivers became popular and the Fenomen was designed in accordance with that trend. The chassis was enclosed in a wooden cuboid box covered with a walnut veneer, and its two front side edges were rounded. At the base of the front wall there is a flat, elongated trapezium cut-out, giving the shape of the radio an impression of lightness. In the front wall there is a rectangular cut-out finished with a glossy aluminium bezel. Inside it is a dark walnut panel, symmetrically divided into two narrower rectangular fields of identical sizes, with rounded corners. On the left, behind a glass pane, there is a flat tuning scale with a sliding arrow, while on the right, behind a fabric cover, a Telefunken Navi dynamic speaker is placed, with – as the promotional materials claim – “a broad-ribbon membrane with a melodious and strong tone”. Below the scale there are three Bakelite rotary switches with metal caps. The knob on the left, which is decorated with three linear symbols, is responsible for changing the band, the middle one is for tuning, and the one on the right – controls volume.

Author: Filip Wróblewski

The power isolator is an object used in power engineering for supporting and insulating electrical conductors, in this case power transmission lines. Traditionally, products of this kind are made of glass or electrical engineering porcelain, but now silicone rubber isolators are used more and more frequently as they are about 20% cheaper than their classic counterparts, weigh less, and are more resistant to mechanical damage. The item presented here was produced by the most famous Polish utility and decorative glass factory in the inter-war period – Huty Szklane Juliusza Stolle Niemen SA. The glassworks were established by Wilhelm Krajewski and Juliusz Stolle in 1891, near Novogrudok (Nowogródek). They exist to this day but are now in the territory of Belarus. The factory supplied around 3% of the glass products on the domestic market and was present on many foreign markets, e.g., in Canada, Argentina, and Syria. The company’s catalogue included almost 2000 designs, including in the art déco style, and it also carried out individual commissions for bespoke glass products. In 1912 and 1922 the company received some large orders for deliveries of glass isolators from the Ministry of the Postal and Telegraph Service. During World War II, the Niemen glassworks were nationalised and went under Soviet administration. The isolator presented here is a model produced until the early 1930s, with a very characteristic shape with a slanted top part. The isolators were produced in three sizes – 8 cm, 10 cm, and 14 cm – and in different colours of glass.
Interesting fact: The Niemen glassworks’ products included the urn for the heart of Marshall Pilsudski, which was made in 1935. The factory also provided tableware for the residence of the President of Poland.

References:
Huta Szkła J. Stolle „Niemen”, “Polskie Zielone Szkło” blog 6.01.2018, https://polskiezieloneszklo.pl/huta-szkla-j-stolle-niemen/ (Accessed: 9.05.2021).

The Menuet type 6204 vacuum tube radio was produced in 1961-1965 by Zakłady Radiowe Diora in Dzierżoniów. It is a middle-class, AC-powered, seven-circuit superheterodyne, equipped with five vacuum tubes and two germanium diodes, designed to receive radio stations and play back recordings from gramophone records. Thanks to the built-in ferrite antenna and sockets for plugging in an external aerial, regular and UHF, the tuner is designed to receive long, medium, short and ultra-high frequency wave bands. The name “menuet” relates to a French folk dance (Eng.: minuet) and the musical form based on its beat.
The oval housing made of wood, plywood and veneer chipboard contains two compartments of different volumes – the lower one houses the radio equipment, and the upper one, which is flat and closed with a cover on a spring-loaded support, contains the GE-56 electrical gramophone manufactured by Łódzkie Zakłady Radiowe T-4 (later renamed to Fonica). Thanks to the use of a two-needle cartridge, the gramophone accommodates 33⅓, 45 or 78 rpm, normal and micro-groove mono records. The housing is narrower than 30 cm, i.e., the diameter of long-play records, so in order to enable them to be played, the designers chose an untypical design solution. The gramophone drive was moved towards the back wall of the housing in which an especially profiled slit was cut to fit the record, as, after it was laid on the turntable, it would stick out beyond the outline of the housing. Additionally, the gramophone is mounted on a flexible suspension of plywood thanks to which the vibrations caused by the motor are largely damped, so as not to affect the quality of playback. At the front of the housing there is a gently profiled opening in the form of an inverse isosceles trapezium. A magic eye tube is located in its upper left corner, on a fabric membrane. Below it there is a panel with a centrally located scale, while on its side there are two symmetrically located rotary switches – the tone and volume adjustment on the right, and the tuning knob on the left. Under the scale is a rocker switch for turning on the gramophone and the selected radio bands. On the sidewalls there are two magnetic electrical speakers connected in series, covered by a grille. Finishing details, such as knobs, bezels, and buttons are made of butter-coloured plastic.

Author: Filip Wróblewski

The purpose of a television set is to reproduce images and sound, transmitted wirelessly over radio waves. The Tosca black-and-white television set presented here was produced by Zakłady Radiowe Diora w Dzierżoniowie, specialising in the production of radio receivers. The manufacturer’s name is an anagram of the word “radio”. In the late 1950s, having fulfilled the demand for radios by order of the central authorities, the enterprise undertook the manufacture of television receivers, which it was supposed to continue until the market was saturated with this product. In the mid-1960s, all Polish factories producing television sets and operating within the framework of Zjednoczenie Przemysłu Elektronicznego i Teletechnicznego Unitra launched production of unified receivers. The purpose of such a solution was to reduce production costs, as the same electronic components were used in different TV set models. The institution entrusted with the development of a homogeneous design platform for subsequent models of Polish television sets was the Research, Development and Unification Bureau of the Warszawskie Zakłady Telewizyjne. The Tosca was one of the four television set models produced in Dzierżoniów, the others being the Szeherezada, Aladyn, and the Tosca Lux. The application of a 17-inch CRT with a deflection angle of 110° and the use of printed circuits allowed the external dimensions of the housing and the weight of the device to be significantly reduced. The television set presented here was acquired for the Museum’s collection with the help of the Kraków Association for the Protection of Relics of Technology.
An interesting fact: the receiver employs a light sensor, enabling automatic adjustment of the contrast of the image displayed depending on the lighting conditions in the room.

Authors: Piotr Turowski, Piotr Żabicki

The vehicle presented here is a heavy motorcycle developed strictly for the purposes of the uniformed forces (military and police) and state administration (postal service). It was manufactured between 1934-1939. The design of the CWS M111 motorcycle was developed at the Centralne Warsztaty Samochodowe in Warsaw, part of the Państwowe Zakłady Inżynierii. The chief designer was inż. Zygmunt Okołów and the sidecar was designed by inż. Stanisław Panczakiewicz.
The design is typical of the 1930s, with the front wheel suspended on coil springs and friction dampers. The rear wheel is mounted on a rigid link. The driveline employs a two-cylinder four-stroke engine in a V arrangement, connected to a three-speed gearbox transmitting the torque to the rear wheel using a geared transaxle. The motorcycle’s design was clearly inspired by the machines of the American manufacturers Harley-Davidson and Indiana. The vehicle had an unorthodox control system comprising a throttle control on the left of the handlebar and a foot-operated clutch. This solution allowed the vehicle to be started without the need to mount it, which made it significantly easier to overcome obstacles in the terrain. From the very beginning the motorcycle was designed to run with a sidecar, which was added as standard. Solo driving required a lot of skill on the part of the rider as the machine has a tendency to veer to the left.
From 1935, the CWS M111 was offered to the civilian market under the commercial name “Sokół 1000”. Some 3,400 units had been built by the time World War II broke out, and the price was 4,200 zlotys (the same as a small car), which, in the 1930s, equalled 43 monthly salaries of a qualified worker. The CWS M111 still remains the largest motorcycle designed in Poland.