Damiaen Joan van Doorninck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Damiaen J. van Doorninck (born August 29, 1902, Vught), was a Dutch officer (Lt.ter Zee, 1 Class), and, in World War II, a prisoner of War of the Nazis. He was conversant in cosmography and advanced mathematics, and he lectured interested Dutch and British prisoners at Colditz Castle on both, in particular he taught Patrick Reid geodesy.
While in Colditz, he invented a device which, when attached to a micrometer, could obtain measurements accurate to within a tenth of a millimetre of any lock. He was therefore able to manufacture a key to fit any such lock in Colditz. He lectured other prisoners on how to use this device correctly, a course that lasted six months.
On 9 September 1942 van Doorninck and British Lieutenant H. N. Fowler became one of the lucky few who escaped Colditz. Slipping with four others through a guard office and a storeroom dressed as German officers and Polish orderlies, they managed to make it out of the Castle. Sadly, the others were recaptured, and only van Doorninck and Fowler reached Switzerland.
 |
This article about a European mathematician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
