The message considered the first Polish email read: “Dear Andrzej, I am sending greetings from Copenhagen. Give my regards to all at CIUW” (IT Centre at the University of Warsaw). The greetings were sent on 17 July 1990 at 02:01:20 p.m. by Tadeusz Węgrzynowski, the then Director of IT Centre at the University of Warsaw. The email was addressed to Andrzej Smereczyński, a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology who was the administrator of PLEARN, the first Polish server of the European Academic and Research Network (EARN) at CIUW. The reply to the first Polish email read: “…never before, there have been so many people in the computer lab and so much joy at CIUW”. According to Tadeusz Węgrzynowski, “the joy was caused by the launch of a modern IT tool, which was indispensable for participation in modern global democracy.”

How was this window to the world opened? As part of telecom lines, Polish Mail planned launching a multi-pair cable line with Copenhagen, thanks to which Poland was to be connected to EARN. Using the opportunity, CIUW ordered two pairs of data transmission cables. On 16 July 1990 Tadeusz Węgrzynowski flew to Copenhagen with one of the two modems, which were to enable the connection between Poland and Denmark. The device was connected to a BASF 7/38 computer. Circuit end was in Lingby, at the University of Copenhagen’s computer centre, which was connected both to EARN and BITNET (its American equivalent), as well as the Internet. The latter was launched in Poland a year later, this is why 17 August 1991 is also quoted as the date of launching electronic mail with the use of Internet. However, at that point 22 nodes were connected to PLEARN and the number of email users reached nearly 10,000.

Tadeusz Węgrzynowski talks about the beginnings of electronic messaging at the Warsaw University of Technology: ”EARN node at the Warsaw University of Technology was connected to the network in October 1990. Tadeusz Rogowski, the then Director of Central IT Centre at WUT was personally involved in that. The node was named PLWATU21.

It is worth mentioning that the addressing and node naming system at EARN was a bit different from the one applied for the Internet. The first two letters, here PL, stood for the country. The next two letters were the abbreviation of the name of the city. The following two letters stood for the name of the university and the last two characters included a digit being the code for the node system platform and a digit standing for the node number within the system platform. Codes for the main national nodes were different. Such coding included two letters standing for a country, followed by EARN. This is why the national node located at the University of Warsaw was called PLEARN. Warsaw University of Technology based its node on an IBM computer with MVS system and was named PLWATU21.”

Tadeusz Węgrzynowski
Graduated from the Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology at the Warsaw University of Technology. In the years 1990-2000, the Director of IT Centre at the University of Warsaw. He was personally involved in the launch of the first connection as part of the European Academic and Research Network (EARN) in 1990 and as part of the Internet in 1991. He coordinated works aimed at maintaining operability of the main node within EARN, the launch of websites and the provision of services to the first Internet users in Poland. In 1995, in recognition of his accomplishments, Tadeusz Węgrzynowski was awarded by the Chapter of Representatives of Warsaw Universities’ Councils with Student’s Monument Statuette. He was one of the coordinators of computer networks implementations as part of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP (1996-1998)). Acting as an expert of the European Commission, he participated in the evaluation of projects relating to the growth of telematics infrastructure aiming at the development of Information Society in Europe (1998-2002). He coordinated design and development of a separate telecom network as part of comprehensive implementation of telecommunications network at the University of Warsaw and the modernisation of telecom network at the Warsaw University of Technology.

At present, he is the Head of Telecommunications Department at the Warsaw University of Technology. He specialises in the implementation of IT systems, computer and telecom networks. He gives lectures on the management of telecom service quality. He promotes active lifestyle among students and his colleagues. Tadeusz Węgrzynowski is a marathon runner and each year he participates in the Warsaw Marathon. He has also ran marathons in London, Rome, Athens, Cracow and Stockholm.

You can read more about Tadeusz Węgrzynowski and his achievements in archival issues of Warsaw University of Technology Monthly: 1/2010 (145), 7/2013 (187).

Source: The WUT Bulletin