Descended from Ruthenian aristocracy, his family had been integrated into the Polish Szlachta and converted from OrthodoxytoRoman Catholicism during the Republic of Two Nations. Edward was the eldest son of Wacław Jełowicki and his wife Franciszka née Izdebska. He had two younger brothers, the publisher, writer and priest, Aleksander and Eustachy and a sister, Hortensja, who married Piotr Sobański.
An alumnus of the Vienna Theresian Military Academy, he was elected Marshal of the Haisyn district. He took a leading part in the November Uprising in Ukraine, with his father and two brothers, until its undoing in 1831 when with his younger brother, Aleksander, he evaded capture by escaping into Austria-Hungary. After much travel across Europe and Algeria, he pursued further studies at the postgraduate École d’état-major in Paris and the Ecole Centrale Paris. In 1836 during a quiet spell in London, he designed and took out two British Patents on his Steam turbine, one being in England.[2] The other patent was granted in Edinburgh for "certain improvements to his steam engine", on 16 July 1836.[3]
Back in Paris he frequented Adam Mickiewicz, whose Paris publisher was Edward's brother, Aleksander Jełowicki. Like his brother, he was also a friend of Frederic Chopin.
Joseph Straszewicz (1839). Les Polonais et les Polonaises de la révolution du 29 novembre 1830 - biographie, Paris: chez l'Editeur, rue des Colombiers, 12, pp.1-10. (in French).
Polytechnisches Journal. 63. Band, Jahrgang 1837, N.F. 13. Band, Hefte 1-6 komplett. (= 18. Jahrgang, 1.-6. Heft ). Eine Zeitschrift zur Verbreitung gemeinnüziger Kenntnisse im Gebiete der Naturwissenschaft, der Chemie, der Pharmacie, der Mechanik, der Manufakturen, Fabriken, Künste, Gewerbe, der Handlung, der Haus- und Landwirthschaft etc. Herausgegeben von Johann Gottfried und Emil Maximilian Dingler.
Polytechnisches Journal. Hrsg. v. Johann Gottfried Dingler, Emil Maximilian Dingler und Julius Hermann Schultes:
Published by Stuttgart in der J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung (1837)., 1837 (in German)
Austria-Hungary
France
Congress Poland
November Uprising, Algeria
