Design of engineering systems in Polish mines in the third quarter of the 20th century

TL;DR

This paper examines the collaboration between mathematicians and engineers in Polish mines during the late 20th century, highlighting the development of mathematical modeling for engineering system design and its social implications.

Contribution

It analyzes the effectiveness of engineering systems in Polish mines and discusses the role of mathematical modeling in improving design and understanding social aspects.

Findings

Mathematical modeling improved engineering system design.

Development of stochastic processes and graph theory applications.

Social factors influenced engineering practices.

Abstract

Participation of mathematicians in the implementation of economic projects in Poland, in which mathematics-based methods played an important role, happened sporadically in the past. Usually methods known from publications and verified were adapted to solving related problems. The subject of this paper is the cooperation between mathematicians and engineers in Wroc{\l}aw in the second half of the twentieth century established in the form of an analysis of the effectiveness of engineering systems used in mining. The results of this cooperation showed that at the design stage of technical systems it is necessary to take into account factors that could not have been rationally controlled before. The need to explain various aspects of future exploitation was a strong motivation for the development of mathematical modeling methods. These methods also opened research topics in the theory of stochastic processes and graph theory. The social aspects of this cooperation are also interesting.