The One Who Has Left a Distinctive Imprint. 120th Anniversary of Assoc. Prof. Vincas Babilius

7 January marks the 120^th anniversary of the birth of the famous Lithuanian engineer and foundry specialist Assoc. Prof. Vincas Babilius who initiated the training of foundry engineers in Lithuania. On this occasion, KTU Museum prepared a virtual exhibition “The One Who Has Left a Distinctive Imprint. 120^th Anniversary of Assoc. Prof. Vincas Babilius”. The exhibition consists of 2 parts: the first one is “Studies in Paris and Work in the Research Laboratory”, the second one is “Pedagogical and Research Activities”. The exhibition uses documents from the associate professor’s personal file stored at KTU Archive, photographs and documents donated by the daughter of Assoc. Prof. Vincas Babilius, KPI graduate Danielė Balaišienė. The exhibition was prepared by the Head of KTU Museum Dr. Audronė Veilentienė.

Studies in Paris and Work in the Research Laboratory

Vincas Babilius was born on 7 January 1903 in Kalnėnai Village, Jurbarkas Volost. As written in his biography, he was born into the family of a poor farmer who had 7 children. He was inclined to education, but due to lack of funds, he was forced to terminate his studies at the gymnasium after the sixth grade. Nevertheless, the young man continued his education at home and graduated from Rygiškės Jonas Gymnasium in Marijampolė in 1925. In the same year, he was admitted to the Technical Department at the Faculty of Technology of the University of Lithuania and graduated in 1932. He earned part of the money for his tuition fee and the other part was covered by a state scholarship. After becoming an electrical engineer, he did not get a job in his field of specialisation because the energy sector in Kaunas was monopolised by the Belgians who wanted to keep the jobs for their nationals. The young engineer got a job at the Armament Board under the Ministry of National Defence. At that time, a Research Laboratory was being built and needed qualified employees. The Ministry of Defence granted a scholarship to V. Babilius and sent him to study at the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris. After graduating in 1936 with his 2^nd diploma in engineering, he had to serve in the Lithuanian army for 10 years and 3 months in return for the scholarship. He worked at the Artillery Workshop of the Armament Board under the Ministry of National Defence as a design engineer in the Project Bureau, and later as the head of the Second Artillery Depot. In 1939, he was appointed as the head of Section V of the Research Laboratory as an assistant to the regiment commander. On 15 February 1939, he was awarded the 4^th Class Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas by an act of the President of the Republic of Lithuania. In 1936, he married Eliza Šapkaitė and had 3 children – a son and two daughters.

7th grade exercise book of Vincas Babilius, in which he learned to solve trigonometry problems independently, 1923 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Vincas Babilius, 1935 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Recommendation of Prof. K. Vasiliauskas, Dean of the Technical Faculty of VDU, to grant a scholarship of the Ministry of National Defence for in-depth studies to engineer V. Babilius, 1932 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Workshop at the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1932–1933 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Students of the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris after their practical classes, 1933 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Publication about the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1932 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

The metal manufacturing process at the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

At the classroom of the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Students at the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Workshop at the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius (4th from the left) at the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius with Lithuanian students in Paris, 1933–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius with his student friends, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius with his wife Eliza in Paris, 1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius with friends in Paris, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Travel around Switzerland, 1933–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius at a tunnel in Switzerland, 1933–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius with a friend in Paris, 1933–1934 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Students visit to the Lithuanian Embassy in Paris, 1934. In the centre sits Bronius Blaveščiūnas, head of the consular department, above him – V. Babilius, 2nd from the right in the 2nd row – Juozas Miltinis. (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius with his student friends in Paris, 1932–1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

V. Babilius with a friend in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, 1933 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Student life in Paris, 1933–1936 1st from the left is V. Babilius (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Diploma of V. Babilius of the Higher School of Foundry Engineering in Paris, 1936. (The original document is in the KTU museum)

V. Babilius with his friends and future wife in Paris, 1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Wedding of Vincas Babilius and Eliza Šapkaitė, 1936 (the original photograph is at KTU Museum)

Magazine “Technology and Economy” with an article by V. Babilius, 1937 (the original magazine is at KTU Museum)

A service sheet of the civil servant of the Armament Board, Engineer V. Babilius, 1940 (the original document is at KTU Museum)

Pedagogical and Research Activities

When Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian army was destroyed and the Research Laboratory of the Armament Board was attached to Kaunas University. From 1 September 1940, he started working as a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Technology of Kaunas University, where he worked until August 1946, when he was dismissed without any justification. This was a big blow for the family of V. Babilius because in the post-war period, losing one’s job not only meant losing one’s livelihood; it could also mean that one’s family was included in the lists of exiles. After his dismissal from the university, V. Babilius worked for 2 years as a teacher at Kaunas Paper Technical College and as a technologist at “Lietstatprojektas” in a secondary position. From 1948 to 1953, he worked as a senior research fellow at the Institute of Physical Technology of the Lithuanian SSR Academy of Sciences as head of the Metals Sector. From 1953 to 1955, he was a senior engineer at Kaunas factory “Neris”, and from 1955 to 1957, he was an associate professor at the Agricultural Academy of Lithuania. In 1954, he defended his dissertation “Influence of Physical and Chemical Properties of Moulding Mixtures, Cast Iron and Mould Filling Conditions on Gas Shock”. From 1957 to 1960, he was the head of the Department of Machinery Repair and Metals Technology at the Agricultural Academy of Lithuania.

In 1957, V. Babilius began working in a secondary position at the Faculty of Mechanics of Kaunas Polytechnic Institute. In 1961, he became an associate professor at the Department of Metals Technology of the Mechanical Faculty of KPI. In 1962, when the Faculty of Machinery Production was established at KPI, the Department of Metals Technology was assigned to this Faculty. In 1961, Assoc. Prof. V. Babilius organised a departmental KPI Foundry Laboratory in the cast iron foundry “Centrolitas” in Petrašiūnai and headed it until 1976. The laboratory was established by the efforts and work of V. Babilius and his students. “Expensive cast iron melting furnaces from Sweden were bought for “Centrolitas” factory, but no refractory lining was bought to save money. V. Babilius offered a lining made of quartz sand from Anykščiai, which turned out to be better than the Swedish lining, and later the sand was replaced by waste from the glass factory in Radviliškis. Other important work included finding a new method to produce good quality and cheaper cast iron, recovering waste from the metal industry and designing a method to produce modified synthetic cast iron. The most important books by Assoc. Prof. V. Babilius include “Metalworker’s Handbook” (et al., 1961), “Production and Heat Treatment of Resistant Cast Iron with Spheroidal Graphite” (with Borisas Liaudis, 1962), “How to Save Metal” (1963). V. Babilius trained a generation of metal casting engineers. The students were impressed by the tact of the pre-war intellectual, tolerance, broad view, extraordinary diligence and integrity of the associate professor. In 1977, Assoc. Prof. V. Babilius retired and died on 25 April 1986.

On 22 February 1998, a memorial plaque with a bas-relief (sculptor Vladas Žuklys) was unveiled at the Foundry Science Laboratory of the Department of Metal Technology, Faculty of Mechanics, KTU, located at the joint-stock company “Kauno ketaus liejykla” (R. Kalantos St. 49). In 2009, the foundry stopped its operations and the laboratory was closed.