The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

The motif of death and the maiden, so popular in literature and painting, is referred to directly in Samuel Beckett’s All that Fall, when Franz Schubert’s piece of music, under such a title, is heard at the end of this radio drama. When discussing the vision of human existence, as consistently presented in this great Irishman’s oeuvre, it is advisable to become acquainted with the basic concepts of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy, and also with Beckett’s essay Proust in which he discusses human life, characterised by suffering as “the expiation for the eternal sin of having been born.” This article discusses death in the Beckettland of suffering. Death hardly ever comes to young characters, the majority of Beckett’s characters being either old or, at least, middle-aged, are all still longing for their end to come. Despite finding different kinds of pastimes to make their waiting less oppressive, time seems to be, as it were, at a standstill, and, to use Vladimir’s words from Waiting for Godot, they “have time to grow old.”