The Great Unification of the Romanian Principalities And

Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of the Institute of Solid Mechanics and Session of the Commission of Acoustics, SISOM 2018 Bucharest 24-25 May

THE GREAT UNIFICATION OF THE ROMANIAN PRINCIPALITIES AND THE BEGINNING OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ROMANIAN STUDIES IN MECHANICS AND APPLIED MECHANICS (mainly concerning the airplanes)

Dan-Alexandru IORDACHE1

1Emeritus Professor, Section of Information Science and Technologies, Academy of Romanian Scientists, Bucharest, Romania

As it is well known, we celebrate this year the centenary of the Great Unification of the Romanian principalities. The history of a people is an extremely complex matter. That is why this work tries to identify the dominant features corresponding to the Romanian people evolution.

1. HISTORICAL ELEMENTS CONCERNING THE ANTIQUITY

In conditions when Romania belongs to the Euro-Atlantic Civilization [1], we have to remark that – even from antiquity - Dacia (and later) Romania had some singular positions in the frame of the European countries, at the Eastern border of this civilization. The map from fig. 1 (middle of the second century C. E., see [2]), indicates that our ancestors from Dacia have chosen – with their lives sacrifice – their belonging to the classical (Latin) Europe. Additionally, the border between the classical (Latin) populations and the migrating (German and Slavic ones, etc) starting from Scotland (the book [3] (a shepherd’s life and of his dogs) of the British James Rebanks from the border between Scotland and England tells about the activities of some English shepherds, extremely similar to the Romanian ones), continuing along the great rivers of Rhine and Danube and ending to the present territory of Romania, indicates the “Romania’s European high way”.

Figure 1 - Romania’s European high way (middle of the second century C. E., see [2])

ACTA ELECTROTECHNICA, Volume 60, Number 1-2, 2019, Special Issue, ISSN 2344-5637, ISSN-L 1841-3323 24 Dan-Alexandru IORDACHE

2. ESSENTIAL HISTORICAL ELEMENTS FROM THE 19TH CENTURY

We have to underline that not only the most learned of the Romanian people had the conscience of their origin, but even the leaders of the most advanced European countries (UK, France, Piedmont, etc) had this knowledge, that determined them to sacrifice [4] approximately 100,000 France troops, along with 25,000 British soldiers, and approx. 2,000 Piedmont ones, along with approx. half million Turkish troops, in comparison with approx. half million Russian soldiers, in order to determine the Russian empire to totally retire their army from the Romanian principalities [4], p. 27 and “resuscitate” these principalities and finally … Romania! We consider this war as a unique example when 5 countries - world powers, confront in a bloodiest war (with losses comparable with those of a world war) without practically any material benefit, excepting the blockage of the Russian advance towards Constantinople and … the subsequent appearance of the new state – that of the United Romanian principalities (see Fig. 2, that didn’t lose in this confrontation absolutely any troops!).

Figure 2 - Enlarged Map of Crimea’s War (see [4], p. 23)

3. AN ENIGMA AND A HISTORICAL MIRACLE – THE ROMANIAN PEOPLE (GHEORGHE BRĂTIANU, HISTORIAN, 1898-1953 [10], P. 55)

A Huge self-solving puzzle. We will indicate below the main stages [11] of the appearance of the basic components of the Romanian state: 3.1. Beginning of the return (after approx. 1600 years and from about 1000 km, see fig. 1) of some outstanding Macedonian-Romanian people (as the families of Spiru Haret, Eugeniu Carada, Nicolae Iorga,

ACTA ELECTROTECHNICA, Volume 60, Number 1-2, 2019, Special Issue, ISSN 2344-5637, ISSN-L 1841-3323 The Great Unification of the Romanian Principalities and the Beginning of the Most Important Romanian Studies in Mechanics 25

etc. up to those of G. Hagi, Simona Halep, her colleague – the ex-European feminine champion at table tennis, etc), 3.2. Declaration of the independence of the Democratic Moldavian Republic (January 24/February 6, 1918) and of its Union with Romania (March 27, 1918), 3.3. Decision of the National Council of Bucovina (15/28 November 1918) concerning its Union with Romania, 3.4. Decision of the Great National Assembly (November 18/December 1, 1918) concerning the Union of Transylvania, of Banat and of the “Hungarian” country (the momentary denomination of Crişana) with Romania.

4. OTHER ESSENTIAL STAGES FOR THE CREATION OF THE ROMANIAN STATE

4.1. The organization of the Romanian education at the beginning of the 20th century The most important results were obtained by the Macedonian-Romanian professor Spiru Haret (1851- 1912), who: a) completed his PhD studies at Paris, with the elaboration of a Scientific Dissertation concerning the planetary orbital axes (1878), b) organized the Romanian education in the frame of his 3 stages (1897-1899; 1901-1904; 1907-1910) at the leadership of the corresponding Romanian ministry.

4.2. Location of the most important components of the Romanian army at the end of the first World War (December 1918) Despite of the extremely difficult conditions of the Romanian army in the last months of the first World War (compressed by the German army in the Northern third of Moldova), the end of this war has found the Romanian army at the Western borders of the re-unified Romanian territory. For this reason, the communist rebellious Hungarian army led by Béla Kun (March 19 – August 1, 1919) - that attacked the Romanian troops in the central Transylvania - was promptly stopped and finally destroyed even at Budapest by the Romanian army, that installed instead the counter-admiral Miklós Horthy (1868 – 1957; [5]).

4.3. Location of some of the most important Romanian high-schools at the end of the first World War Besides the ethnic components of a certain people, its multi-layered structure is also very important. Given being some layers could be partially or even completely wiped out, in time, some existing layers - but located at beginning in the depth of the considered nation structure – could surge and change completely the ethnic image of the studied people. I’ll exemplify this matter with an example well-known by me, which is also instructive for the style of the education matters in the interval 1915-1940: in order to complete his high-school studies, my father was financially supported by his older brother – Dumitru (born on September 1899), who has completed already (1917) his secondary studies at the private high-school “Emanoil Gojdu” from Oradea Mare, becoming then (military) officer in the frame of the Oradea garnison. My father (born on February 1906) had a regular attendance at this high-school (“Emanoil Gojdu”) in classes VI-VII (the years 1922-1924), where he completed (in 1923-1924) the real section. In the frame of the school-leaving examination (September 1924), my father – who was oriented towards law and economic academic studies - presented successfully the dissertation “The Rolle’s theorem and some of its main applications”, obtaining so his graduation certificate with the special mention “cum laudae”.

ACTA ELECTROTECHNICA, Volume 60, Number 1-2, 2019, Special Issue, ISSN 2344-5637, ISSN-L 1841-3323 26 Dan-Alexandru IORDACHE

5. WHERE THE ROMANIAN SPECIALISTS WERE PREPARED FOR THEIR ACTIVITIES AT THE EUROPEAN LEVEL?

5.1. Scientific preparation Excepting Professor Eugen Bădărău (from the Bucharest University) who completed his PhD studies in Russia, all other Romanian academic professors from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century had their doctoral studies accomplished in the frame of some occidental Universities (mainly from France, UK, Germany, Italy).

5.2. Technical preparation A unique example – that of eng. Henri Coandă (1886-1972, his father was a Romanian general, and the mother – a French lady), who created the first turbojet airplane in 1912 at Paris [6], p. 107. One finds so that the best Romanian creators were permanently oriented for their preparation and applications towards the most advanced Western countries. This trend continued during the battles from the Summer of the year 1917, when e.g. the Romanian aeronautics was permanently supported by the French specialists (see V. Avram, S. Turturică “The war of biplanes: the Romanian aeronautics during the battles from the Summer of 1917” [10], pp. 48-53.

6. WHICH WERE THE SUPPORT BASES OF THE ROMANIAN ARMY FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT OF THE GREAT UNION OF ITS PRINCIPALITIES?

6.1. Despite of its unimaginable Romania’s losses at the beginning of the 1st World War [7a], namely an army who lost 60% from its troops and ⅔ of its territory, the Romanian population didn’t capitulate: (i) a large part of its people took the refuge in the Northern part of Moldova, and the remaining population at their houses oppose a passive but obvious resistance, 6.2. The support of the allied Western powers (of the France, mainly, that sent in Romania a true small army, coordinated by General Berthelot), as well as – in the first part of the 1st World War - of the Russian army, 6.3. The basic layers of the social structures (especially in Transylvania, see section 3.3 and [9]); we have to point out that inside the increasing Romania’s population (e.g. 15,950,000 citizens in 1920 and 18,252,900 in 1930), there were (1930) different nationalities that contributed to our country results: Romanian people 12,981,324 (71.9%), Hungarian 1,425,507 (7.2 %) up to 21% in Transylvania, Germans 745,421 (4.1 %), but up to 29% in Banat and 8% in Transylvania, Jews 728,115 (4.0%), but up to 10.8% in Bucovina, and 7% in Bessarabia, Ukrainian 582,115 (3.2%), Russian 49,150, Bulgarian 366,384, Gypsies 260,501 (1.5%), Turks 154,772, Gagauzi 105,750, etc – while the percentages of the different nationalities (indicated by [11a]) are approximate, the numbers of people correspond exactly to census from 1930 [11b]. 6.4. The specialists of Macedonian-Romanian origin (e.g. the finance specialist Eugeniu Carada, who founded and organized the Romanian National Bank), 6.5. The themselves Romanian king Ferdinand I and his wife – the queen Mary, as well as even some … special individualities, as the heroic young Romanian Ecaterina Teodoroiu (1894, Tg. Jiu – 22.08.1917, Muncelu, then under-lieutenant).

7. OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTS OF SOME ROMANIAN PEOPLE IN AVIATION AND PARACHUTE JUMPS

Long before the interest of the Romanian people for airplanes, their concern for air flights was shown by their attraction for the travels using the gas balloons [13a]. So, the lieutenant Eugeniu Asaki and the pilot Niculescu-Ianca became (at June 16, 1906) the first Romanian people flying – in a balloon filled with hydrogen (named “Romania”) - over the Carpathian mountains, while the prince George Valentin Bibescu - co-owner (with Asaki) of this balloon, became the first Romanian with an aviator brevet.

We have to underline that some Romanian women had also some absolutely outstanding achievements. Among these performers, a special place corresponds to Smaranda Brăescu (1896-1948), who succeeded to obtain: a) the obtainment in October 1932 (in USA) of the 3rd (after the princess Ioana Cantacuzino, 1930) brevet of Romanian woman aviator, b) the World absolute (for men, also) record for the height of a parachute jump (7,233 m, at November 5, 1935), c) the first crossing – as an airplane woman pilot – of the Mediterranean Sea (June 7th, 1936) [13b], [13c].

8. OUTSTANDING ROMANIAN STUDIES - FROM THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY - IN APPLIED MECHANICS (CONCERNING THE AIRPLANES, MAINLY)

The most important achievements in Applied Mechanics were due to Professor Anghel Saligny (1854- 1925), specialist in Civil Engineering, builder of the bridge from Cernavodă over Danube (1890-1895), the longest one dfrom Europe then, president of the Romanian Academy. Giving being the necessity of quick connections of Romania with other countries, a special focus was directed towards the airplane studies and the building of airports. Taking into account the easiness to find (by means of some Internet search motors, as Google, Wikipedia, etc) many specific details concerning the achievements of the most important Romanian inventors from the field of aviation, we will mention below only their names and main contributions: a) Traian Vuia (1872-1950) – who tested (1907) the tracking of a mono-plane airplane; b) Aurel Vlaicu (1882-1913) – mechanical engineer, with applications concerning the flight of some airplanes; c) George (Gogu) Constantinescu (1881-1965) – engineer in the field of thermo-mechanics, creator of the theory of sonicity (1916), with extremely important applications in the military aviation; d) Henri Coandă (1886-1972) – creator of the first turbojet planes (see above); e) Elie Carafoli (1901-1983) – engineer and professor at the Bucharest Technical University in the field of the design of airplanes.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks very much to Professors Paul E. Sterian (president of the section of Information Science and Technologies of AOSR) and Marian V. Iordache (Technical University of Eastern Texas) for their useful and important suggestions.

REFERENCES

1. D. Iordache “Romania – an Euro-Atlantic country in the Euro-Asiatic context, communication in the frame of the Information Science and Technologies section of the Academy of the Romanian scientists (AOSR), April 2018, submitted to the Annals of AOSR, the Information Science and Technologies section. 2. *** Atlas of the Ancient World, special publication of National Geographic (USA), pp. 86-87, 2016. 3. James Rebanks “The Shepherd Life: modern dispatches from an ancient landscape”, Flatiron Books, Sept. 2016, 304 pp. 4. Robert B. Edgerton “Death or Glory, the Legacy of the Crimean War”, 1999, West-view Press, Perseus Books Group, first published in USA by West-view Press; Romanian translation “Pe front în războiul Crimeei”, Meteor Publishing, 2017, 320 pp. 5. a) Adrian Cioroianu “Cea mai frumoasă poveste. Câteva adevăruri simple despre Istoria românilor”, Curtea Veche, Bucureşti, 2013, 287 pagini; b) *** “Le petit Larousse de l’histoire du monde: en 7650 grandes dates”, Paris, 1st edit. 2006, then 2011, Romanian translation, Rao Publishing House, Bucharest, 2017 6. R. G. LeTourneau “Mover of men and mountains” (technical autobiography), PrenticeHall, Inc. 1960, 1967, Moody Press, 1967, 1972. 7. a) Florin Cristescu “France comes in support” (in Romanian), pp. 62-68; b) Dorin Stănescu “Iaşii of the years 1916-1918: Despair and hope”, pp. 14-19 (in Romanian), c) *** Historia Special “Romania in refuge: 1916-1918”, nr.18, March 2017: (i) the paper of Radu Tudorancea “The exile from Iaşi and the success of the resistance” (in Romanian), pp. 30-41, (ii) Ştefania Dinu “Parents and royal children during the Great World War” (in Romanian), pp. 44-55, 8. *** “Larousse du XXe siècles en 6 volumes”, Paris, Librairie Larousse, 1928, volume 1, p. 673.

ACTA ELECTROTECHNICA, Volume 60, Number 1-2, 2019, Special Issue, ISSN 2344-5637, ISSN-L 1841-3323 28 Dan-Alexandru IORDACHE

9. George J. de Ferenczy “Transylvania, A Romanian Land”, 1st edition, Publishing House of the Romanian Publicists, 1941; 2nd edition, Edit. Nagard (Italy), mai 1982. 10. *** “The year when we were lions: Mărăşti, Mărăşeşti, Oituz” (in Romanian), Historia specială, anul VI, nr. 19, iunie 2017. 11. a) Keith Hitchins (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) “A concise History of Romania”, Cambridge University Press, 2014, USA and UK (in cooperation with professors Lucian Boia, from the Bucharest University, and Vasile Puşcaş, from the Cluj University); b) Petre Otu “Romania in the First World War. The Great Union” (in Romanian), Litera Printing House, Bucharest, 2017. 12. a) Valeriu Pasat “The Soviet Socialist Moldavian Republic in the Stalinist epoch (1940-1953)” (in Romanian), Chişinău, Cartier Publishing House, 2011; b) Керсновская Е. А. “Сколько стоит человек” (How much values the life of a man), Москва, РОССПЭН, Foreword of Valeriu Pasat, 2006, 856 pag. (see also [13d], p. 41). 13. a) Crenguţa-Elena and Sorin Turturică “With the balloon over the Carpathian mountains” (in Romanian), Historia, 15th year, no. 158, March 2015, pp. 46-47; b) Sorin Turturică “Smaranda Brăescu: I never returned from my way!” (in Romanian), Historia, 17th year, no. 185, June 2017, pp. 12-29; c) Neculai Staicu-Buciumeni “The glory years of Smaranda Brăescu” (in Romanian), Vasile Cârlova Printing House, Bucharest, 1998. 14. Dan Dungaciu “Bessarabia after the Union” (in Romanian), pp. 24-31, in the frame of the issue “Who and how has accomplished the Bessarabia Union with Romania?” (in Romanian), Historia, XVI-th year, issue 170, March 2016.

ACTA ELECTROTECHNICA, Volume 60, Number 1-2, 2019, Special Issue, ISSN 2344-5637, ISSN-L 1841-3323