Livchak, Osyp [Лівчак, Осип; Livčak] (Lyvchak, Yosyp; Ливчак, Йосип), b 1839 in Tysova, Peremyshl county, Galicia, d 1914 in Petrograd. Inventor and writer. He obtained his education at Lviv University and Vienna University and in Vienna was editor of the journals Strakhopud (1863), Zolotaia hramota (1864–7), and Slavianskaia zaria (1867–8). From 1869 he lived in Vilnius and Saint Petersburg. He designed a prototype of a linotype (1881, years before a similar construction was presented by O. Morgentaller in the United States), a diascope (type of periscope), and an all-purpose sighting mechanism that was awarded a gold medal by the Paris Académie des Sciences (1886). His automatic meter indicating the speed and distance traveled by a locomotive was awarded a gold medal by the Russian Technical Society (1900). Livchak was the author of several books on technical topics as well as some original literary works..

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]