Samuel Orgelbrand
Samuel Orgelbrand (1810–1868), bookseller, publisher and printer in Warsaw. Thanks to his passion, patriotism and persistence, Poles received the first universal encyclopedia, a symbol of modern society at a time when Poland did not exist on the map. In 1844 he bought a small printing house from Stefan Lasocki and started its systematic expansion. The printing of the 28-volume Universal Encyclopedia was started by Samuel Orgelbrand in 1859, almost simultaneously with the twenty-volume Babylonian Talmud in Hebrew. In 1861, he took over a small foundry of Lincel, and two years later he already had four casting machines producing nearly 15,000 fonts a day. Over time, the foundry became one of the most important branches of the company and the largest plant in the country. The Orgelbrand received a silver medal for his fonts in 1865 in Moscow, and in 1867 a bronze medal at an industrial exhibition in Paris. After his death, a thriving Stock Company Foundry and Printing House of Samuel Orgelbrand Sons' was established, existing until 1919. About the activities of Orgelbrand and the Joint Stock Society in: A. Tomaszewski, Odlewnia Czcionek Samuela Orgelbranda Synów, "Acta Poligraphica" 2013.
