Information about the scientific achievements of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov. The great inventions of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov. Moving to Paris, patent for a candle

Pavel Yablochkov was born in 1847 on a family estate in the Serdobsky district of the Saratov province. The family was not very rich, but they were able to give their children a good upbringing and education.

There is little information about childhood and adolescence in the biography of Yablochkov, but it is known that he was distinguished by an inquiring mind, good abilities, he loved to build and design.

After education at home, Pavel entered the Saratov gymnasium in 1862, where he was considered a capable student. His studies at the gymnasium did not last long, since he left for St. Petersburg. Here he entered the preparatory boarding school, which was led by the military engineer and composer Caesar Antonovich Cui. The preparatory boarding school helped Pavel Nikolaevich enter the Military Engineering School in 1863.

Unfortunately, the military school did not fully satisfy the future engineer, with his varied technical interests. In 1866, having received the rank of second lieutenant, he was sent to the 5th engineer battalion of the engineering team of the Kiev fortress. The new position and work did not provide any opportunities for the development of creative forces, and at the end of 1867 Yablochkov resigned.

The engineer Yablochkov was greatly interested in the use of electricity in practice. But in Russia at that time there were no special opportunities to replenish knowledge in this direction. The only place in Russia where electrical engineering was studied was the Officer's galvanic classes. For a year, Pavel Yablochkov, again in an officer's uniform, mastered the course of the school. Here he studied mine warfare, subversive technology, the device and application of galvanic cells, military telegraphy.

Yablochkov perfectly understood the prospects for the development of electricity in military affairs and in ordinary life. Unfortunately, the conservatism of the military environment constrained his capabilities and interests. At the end of his compulsory annual service, he resigns again and begins his civilian work as an electrical engineer.

Electricity was most actively used in the telegraph, and Pyotr Nikolaevich immediately got a job as the head of the telegraph service of the Moscow-Kursk railway. It was here that he had to face various questions of practical electrical engineering that worried him very much.

Other engineers also showed interest in electrical engineering. The Moscow Polytechnic Museum became the place where the enthusiasts of this business gathered. In the museum, Pavel Nikolaevich was able to engage in practical experiments. Here he met with the outstanding Russian electrical engineer V. N. Chikolev, from whom he learned about A. N. Lodygin's experiments in the design of incandescent lamps. This direction of work so captivated Pavel Nikolaevich that he abandoned his work on the railroad.

Yablochkov set up a workshop for physical instruments in Moscow. His first invention was an electromagnet of an original design. However, the workshop could not provide material well-being. Things were going badly.

Pavel Nikolayevich rescued an order for the installation of electric lighting of the railway track from a steam locomotive - for the safety of the passage of the royal family to the Crimea. The work was completed successfully and, in fact, became the world's first electric lighting project on the railways.

Nevertheless, the lack of funds forced Yablochkov to suspend work on the use of arc lamps, and he decided to go to America to the Philadelphia Exhibition, where he was going to present his electromagnet to the public. Means were enough to get only to Paris. Here the inventor met with the famous design mechanic Academician Breguet. Yablochkov began working in his workshop, which was engaged in the design of telegraph devices and electrical machines. In parallel, he continued experiments related to the arc lamp project.

His arc lamp, published under the name "electric candle", or "Yablochkov's candle", completely changed the approach to the technique of electric lighting. There was a possibility of widespread use electric current, in particular for practical needs.

On March 23, 1876, the engineer's invention was officially registered in France and later in other countries. The Yablochkov candle was easy to manufacture and was an arc lamp without a regulator. In the same year, at the exhibition of physical devices in London, the Yablochkov candle became "the highlight of the program." The whole world believed that this invention of a Russian scientist opens a new era in the development of electrical engineering.

In 1877, Yablochkov came to Russia and invited the Russian Ministry of War to take his invention into operation. He did not meet any interest from military officials and was forced to sell the invention to the French.

Time has shown that electric lighting has beaten gas. At the same time, Yablochkov continued to work on improving electric lighting. New projects appeared, in particular a "kaolin" light bulb, the glow of which came from refractory bodies.

In 1878 Yablochkov returned to his homeland. This time, various circles of society showed interest in his work. Sources of funding were also found. Pavel Nikolaevich had to re-create workshops and engage in commercial activities. The first installation illuminated the Liteiny Bridge, and in a short time similar installations appeared everywhere in St. Petersburg.

He also put a lot of work into the creation of the first Russian electrotechnical magazine "Electricity". The Russian Technical Society awarded him its medal. Nevertheless, external signs of attention were not enough. There was still not enough money for experiments and projects, Yablochkov again left for Paris. There he completed and sold his dynamo project and began to prepare for the first world electrical engineering exhibition in Paris in 1881. At this exhibition, Yablochkov's inventions received the highest award, they were recognized out of competition.

In subsequent years, Pavel Nikolaevich received a number of patents for electrical machines: magneto-electric, magneto-dynamo-electric, for an electric motor and others. In his work in the field of galvanic cells and accumulators, all the depth and progressiveness of the engineer's ideas was reflected.

Everything that Yablochkov has done is a revolutionary path for modern technology.

In 1893 he returned to Russia once again. Upon arrival, he became very ill. Arriving home, in Saratov, he settled in a hotel, as his estate had fallen into disrepair. No material improvements were foreseen. On March 31, 1894, Pavel Nikolaevich died.

YABLOCHKOV PAVEL NIKOLAEVICH

Yablochkov (Pavel Nikolaevich) - Russian electrical engineer (1847 - 1894), studied at the Saratov gymnasium, and then at the Nikolaev Engineering School. At the end of the latter, Yablochkov entered the Kiev sapper brigade as second lieutenant, but soon left military service and took the place of the head of the telegraph on the Moscow-Kursk railway. Around this time Yablochkov became very interested in electrical engineering, and struck up relations with the society of natural science lovers in Moscow. In 1874, he undertook to illuminate the path of the Imperial train with electric light and actually got acquainted with the inconveniences of the voltage arc regulators that existed at that time. In 1875 Yablochkov went to Paris, where the main works of Yablochkov were carried out and all his discoveries were made. The first question that Yablochkov cleverly and simply resolved was the question of electric lighting. Apparently not hoping for the possibility of constructing a correctly operating mechanical regulator of the voltaic arc, Yablochkov decided to do without it. Instead of placing the coals of the arc on top of each other, he placed them side by side and separated them with a layer of insulating material - kaolin, which evaporated as the coals burned. This device, which has found widespread use and has not yet completely disappeared, has received the name "Yablochkov's candles". Yablochkov had to work a lot on the choice of a suitable insulating substance and on methods for obtaining suitable coals. However, already in 1876, Yablochkov's candles appeared on sale and began to disperse in huge quantities. They are mainly used for street lighting. Each candle cost about 20 kopecks and burned for 1 1/2 hours; after this time, a new candle had to be inserted into the lantern. Subsequently, lanterns with automatic replacement of candles were invented - Yablochkov was the first to try to change the color of electric light, adding various metal salts to the evaporating partition between the coals. Yablochkov's candle could not, of course, hold out for a long time due to its significant inconveniences: fragility and lowering of the luminous point as it burned. But nevertheless, it was the first that made it possible to use electric lighting on a wider scale in streets, squares, theaters, shops, etc. of which he was elected a member of this society. Yablochkov's candles are closely related to his work on the distribution of electrical energy. Before Yablochkov, only one way of including light sources in a circuit was known. But it was almost never used due to significant inconveniences associated with them, and usually each light source was powered by a separate dynamo. With this method of switching on, lighting, of course, was prohibitively expensive. Yablochkov came up with a connection scheme reminiscent of the modern parallel connection of lamps: one pole of the dynamo was connected to the ground, and from the second there was a wire to which in different places capacitor plates were attached. The lamps were placed between the second plates and the ground. Thus, Yablochkov managed to include from 4 to 5 lamps in one circuit. Of course, to implement such a scheme, it was impossible to use direct current, and so Yablochkov tried to build an alternating current dynamo, using direct switching for this. Gram's alternators that appeared soon stopped Yablochkov's work, but as early as 1881 he invented a new type of alternator with a specially arranged anchor. Yablochkov was the first to use transformers for lighting, which, in the above-described scheme, were switched on instead of capacitors. Of the other inventions of Yablochkov, an element in which atmospheric air played the main role and which has not yet received a proper assessment is also remarkable.

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov (1847-1894)

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov - a remarkable inventor, designer and scientist - had a tremendous impact on the development of modern electrical engineering. His name still does not leave the pages of scientific electrical engineering literature. Its scientific and technical legacy is very significant, although it has not yet been systematically studied.

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov was born on September 14, 1847 on the family estate of his father in Khut. Tales near the village. Petropavlovsk Serdobsk district of Saratov province. His father was known as a very demanding and strict man. The small estate was in good condition, and the Yablochkov family, not being rich, lived in abundance; there were every opportunity for a good upbringing and education of children.

Very little information has been preserved about the childhood and adolescence of P.N. Yablochkov. It is only known that from childhood the boy was distinguished by an inquisitive mind, good abilities and loved to build and design. At the age of 12, he invented, for example, a special goniometric instrument, which turned out to be very simple and convenient for land surveying. Neighboring peasants willingly used it for land redistribution. Home schooling soon gave way to gymnasium studies in Saratov. Until 1862, P. N. Yablochkov studied at the Saratov gymnasium, where he was considered a capable student. However, three years later Pavel Nikolaevich was in St. Petersburg, in a preparatory boarding school, led by the later famous military engineer and composer Caesar Antonovich Cui. It can be assumed that Yablochkov's special love for design and, in general, the interest that he showed in technology from an early age, forced him to leave the gymnasium bench and prepare for admission to an educational institution in which there would be enough opportunities for the development of a young man's engineering inclinations. In 1863, Pavel Nikolayevich entered the Military Engineering School and, thus, chose the activity of an engineer.

But the military school, with its intensified drill training, with a general bias towards teaching fortification and the construction of various military engineering structures, was not able to satisfy an inquisitive young man full of various technical interests. Only the presence of such outstanding Russian scientists as Ostrogradsky, Pauker, Vyshnegradsky, and others among the teachers, smoothed out many of the shortcomings of teaching. Released in August 1866 as a second lieutenant in the 5th engineer battalion of the engineering team of the Kiev fortress, P.N. Yablochkov entered the engineering field, to which he was striving so much. However, his work did not give him almost any opportunities for the development of creative powers. For only 15 months he served as an officer and at the end of 1867 he was dismissed due to illness. The enormous interest, which at that time was shown by everyone in the use of electricity for practical purposes, could not but touch upon P. N. Yablochkov. By this time, both abroad and in Russia, many important works and inventions were made in the field of electrical engineering. Only recently, on the basis of the work of the Russian scientist P. L. Schilling, did the electromagnetic telegraph become widespread; few years have passed since the successful experiments of the St. Petersburg professor and academician BS Jacobi on the use of an electric motor for the movement of a ship and since the day he invented electroforming; the important work of Wheatstone and Siemens has just become known, who discovered the principle of self-induction and laid the practical foundation for the construction of dynamos. The only school in Russia where it was possible to study electrical engineering was at that time the Officer's galvanic classes. And in 1868 one could again see P. N. Yablochkov in an officer's uniform as a student of this school, which taught mine warfare, subversive technology, the device and application of galvanic cells, and military telegraphy for a year. At the beginning of 1869, P.N. Yablochkov, after graduating from the galvanic classes, was re-enlisted in his battalion, where he became the head of the galvanic team, at the same time serving as a battalion adjutant, whose duties were to manage office work and accountability.

Having studied the fundamentals of modern electrical engineering in galvanic classes, P.N. Yablochkov understood better than before what tremendous prospects electricity has in military affairs and in everyday life. But the atmosphere of conservatism, narrow-mindedness and stagnation in active military service made itself felt again. Hence the decisive step of Yablochkov - leaving military service after the expiry of the obligatory one-year period and at the same time leaving forever. In 1870 he retired; this ended his military career and began his activity as an electrical engineer, which lasted continuously until his death, a rich and versatile activity.

The only area in which electricity had already been firmly applied during these years was the telegraph, and P.N. Yablochkov, immediately upon retirement, entered the post of head of the telegraph service of the Moscow-Kursk railway, where he could come into direct contact with various questions of practical electrical engineering that deeply interested him.

In Moscow at this time there were already many people interested in electrical engineering. In the Society of Natural History Lovers, the most important issues related to the use of electricity were widely debated. Not long before that, the created Polytechnic Museum was a place where Moscow pioneers of electrical engineering gathered. Here, for Yablochkov, the opportunity opened up to engage in experiments. At the end of 1873 he managed to meet with the outstanding Russian electrical engineer V.N. Chikolev. From him, Pavel Nikolaevich learned about the successful work of A.N. Lodygin on the design and use of incandescent lamps. These meetings had a tremendous impact on P. N. Yablochkov. He decided to devote his experiments to the use of electric current for lighting purposes, and by the end of 1874 he was so immersed in his work that the service as chief of the telegraph of the Moscow-Kursk railway, with its petty daily worries, became of little interest and even shy for him. PN Yablochkov leaves her and completely devotes himself to his scientific pursuits and experiments.

He is equipping a workshop for physical devices in Moscow. Here he managed to build an electromagnet of an original design - his first invention, and here he also began his other works. However, the business of the workshop and the store with her went badly and could not provide the necessary funds either for Yablochkov himself or his work. On the contrary, the workshop absorbed significant personal funds of P.N. Yablochkov, and he was forced to interrupt his experiments for some time and take up some orders, such as the installation of electric lighting of the railway track from a steam locomotive to ensure the safe passage of the royal family to the Crimea. This work was successfully carried out by P.N. Yablochkov and was the first case in world practice of electric lighting on railways.

In his workshop, Pavel Nikolaevich did many experiments on blown lamps, studied their shortcomings, realized that the correct solution to the issue of regulating the distance between the coals, that is, the issue of regulators, would be of decisive importance for electric lighting.

However, Yablochkov's financial affairs were completely upset. His own workshop fell into decay, as Pavel Nikolayevich did little to do with it, but spent all his time on his experiments. Feeling the futility of his work in the technically backward Russia of the 70s, he decided to go to America to the opening Philadelphia exhibition, where he hoped to get acquainted with electrical innovations and at the same time exhibit his electromagnet. In the fall of 1875, P.N. interesting works on the use of electricity. Here he met with the famous design mechanic Academician Breguet.

Breguet immediately identified PN Yablochkov as having outstanding design skills and invited him to work in his workshops, which at that time were mainly designing telegraphs and electrical machines. Having started work in the Breguet workshops in October 1875, P.N. electric candle ", or" Yablochkov candle ", made a complete revolution in the technique of electric lighting. This revolution caused fundamental changes in electrical engineering, as it opened a wide path to the use of electric current, in particular alternating current, for essential practical needs.

March 23, 1876 is the formal date of birth of the Yablochkov candle: on this day he was given the first privilege in France, followed by a number of other privileges in France and in other countries for a new light source and its improvement. The Yablochkov candle was distinguished by its exceptional simplicity and was an arc lamp without a regulator. Two parallel coal rods had a kaolin gasket between them along the entire height (in the first candle designs, one of the coal was enclosed in a kaolin tube); each of the coals was clamped with its lower end into a separate lamp terminal; these terminals were connected to the battery poles or connected to the network. Between the upper ends of the coal rods, a plate made of a badly conducting material ("fuse") was fixed, connecting the two coals. When the current passed, the fuse burned out, and an arc appeared between the ends of the carbon electrodes, the flame of which created illumination and, gradually melting kaolin during the combustion of coals, the base of the rods also decreased. When the arc lamp is supplied with direct current, the combustion of positive coal is twice as fast; in order to avoid extinction of the Yablochkov candle when powered by direct current, it was required to make the positive coal twice as thick as the negative one. P.N. Yablochkov immediately established that feeding his candle with alternating current is more rational, since both coals can be exactly the same and will burn evenly. Therefore, the use of the Yablochkov candle led to the widespread use of alternating current.

The success of the Yablochkov candle has surpassed the wildest expectations. In April 1876, at the exhibition of physical devices in London, the Yablochkov candle was the "highlight" of the exhibition. Literally the entire world technical and general press was full of information about a new light source and confidence that a new era in the development of electrical engineering was beginning. But for the practical use of the candle, many more issues had to be resolved, without which it was impossible to conduct an economically profitable and rational exploitation of the new invention. It was necessary to provide the lighting installations with alternators. It was necessary to create the possibility of simultaneous burning of an arbitrary number of candles in one circuit (until that time, each individual arc lamp was powered by an independent generator). It was necessary to create the possibility of long and continuous lighting with candles (each candle burned out within 1 1/2 hours).

The great merit of P. N. Yablochkov is that all these extremely important technical issues received the fastest resolution with the direct participation of the inventor himself. P. N. Yablochkov achieved that the famous designer Zinovy Gramm began to produce alternating current machines. Alternating current soon gained a decisive predominance in electrical engineering. The designers of electrical machines for the first time seriously set about building alternating current machines, and P.N. Yablochkov was responsible for the development of current distribution systems using induction devices (1876), which were the predecessors of modern transformers. PN Yablochkov was the first in the world to face the issue of power factor: in experiments with capacitors (1877), he first discovered that the sum of the currents in the branching of the circuit was greater than the current in the circuit before branching. The Yablochkov candle had a decisive influence on many other works in the field of electric lighting, giving, in particular, an impetus to the development of scientific photometry. P. N. Yablochkov himself turned to the construction of electrical machines.

At the end of 1876, P. N. Yablochkov made an attempt to apply his inventions at home and went to Russia. This was on the eve of the Turkish war. PN Yablochkov was not a practical businessman. He was greeted with absolutely indifference, and he, in essence, did not succeed in doing anything in Russia. True, he received permission to install an experimental electric lighting at the Birzula railway station, where he made successful lighting experiments in December 1876.But these experiments did not attract attention, and P.N. Yablochkov was forced to leave for Paris again, severely shaken by such attitude to his inventions. However, as a true patriot of his homeland, he was never abandoned by the thought of seeing his inventions implemented in Russia.

Since 1878, the widespread use of Yablochkov candles began abroad. A syndicate was created, which in January 1878 turned into a society for the exploitation of Yablochkov's patents. For 1 1/2-2 years, Yablochkov's inventions went around the world. After the first installations in 1876 in Paris (the Louvre department store, the Châtelet theater, the Place de l'Opera, etc.), Yablochkov's candle lighting devices appeared literally in all countries of the world. Pavel Nikolaevich wrote to one of his friends at the time: "From Paris, electric lighting spread throughout the world, reaching the palaces of the Persian Shah and the King of Cambodia." It is difficult to convey the enthusiasm with which the lighting with electric candles was received all over the world. Pavel Nikolaevich became one of the most popular faces of industrial France and the whole world. The new method of illumination was called "Russian light", "northern light". The society for the exploitation of Yablochkov's patents received colossal profits and could not cope with the influx of orders.

Having achieved brilliant success abroad, P.N.Yablochkov again returned to the idea of becoming useful to his homeland, but he did not succeed in achieving war department Alexander II took over from him the Russian privilege he had declared in 1877. He was forced to sell it to the French society.

The merits of P. N. Yablochkov and the enormous significance of his candle were recognized by the most authoritative scientific institutions. A number of reports were devoted to her at the French Academy and in the largest scientific societies.

Years of sparkling success for the candle solidified the victory of electric over gas lighting. Therefore, the design thought continued to work continuously to improve electric lighting. PN Yablochkov himself built an electric bulb of a different type, the so-called "kaolin" bulb, the glow of which came from refractory bodies heated by an electric current. This principle was new and promising for its time; however, P. N. Yablochkov did not go deep into work on the kaolin lamp. As you know, this principle was applied a quarter of a century later in the Nernst lamp. Work also intensified on arc lamps with regulators, since an electric candle was not very suitable for floodlights and similar installations of intense lighting. At the same time, Lodygin in Russia, and a little later Lane-Fox and Swann in England, Maxim and Edison in America managed to complete the development of incandescent lamps, which became not only a serious competitor to the candle, but also supplanted it in a fairly short time.

In 1878, when the candle was still in the brilliant period of its use, P.N. Yablochkov decided to once again go home to exploit his invention. Returning to his homeland was associated with great sacrifices for the inventor: he had to redeem the Russian privilege from French society and for this he had to pay about a million francs. He decided on this and came to Russia without funds, but full of energy and hope.

Arriving in Russia, Pavel Nikolaevich was faced with great interest in his work from various circles. Funds were found to finance the enterprise. He had to re-create workshops, conduct numerous financial and commercial affairs. Since 1879, many installations with Yablochkov's candles have appeared in the capital, of which the first illuminated the Liteiny Bridge. Paying tribute to the times, P. N. Yablochkov also began a small production of incandescent lamps in his workshops. The commercial direction, which this time mainly received the work of P. N. Yablochkov in St. Petersburg, did not bring him satisfaction. His heavy mood was not facilitated by the fact that his work on the design of an electric machine and his work on the organization of the electrical department at the Russian Technical Society, whose vice-chairman Pavel Nikolaevich was elected, was progressing successfully.

He put a lot of work on the foundation of the first Russian electrotechnical journal "Electricity", which began to appear in 1880. On March 21, 1879, he read a report on electric lighting at the Russian Technical Society. The Russian technical community honored him with the award of the Society's medal for the fact that "he was the first to achieve a satisfactory solution in practice of the issue of electric lighting." However, these external signs of attention were not enough to create P.N. Yablochkova good conditions work. Pavel Nikolaevich saw that in backward Russia at the beginning of the 80s there were too few opportunities for the implementation of his technical ideas, in particular for the production of electric machines built by him. He was again drawn to Paris, where so recently happiness smiled at him. Returning to Paris in 1880, P.N. Yablochkov re-entered the service of the Society for the Exploitation of His Inventions, sold his patent for a dynamo to the Society and began to prepare for participation in the first World Electrotechnical Exhibition, scheduled to open in Paris in 1881. At the beginning of 1881, P. N. Yablochkov left his service in the Society and devoted himself entirely to design work.

At the electrical exhibition in 1881, Yablochkov's inventions received the highest award: they were recognized out of competition. Scientific, technical official spheres highly rated his authority, and Pavel Nikolayevich was appointed a member of the international jury for examining exhibits and awarding awards. The very same exhibition in 1881 was a triumph of the incandescent lamp: the electric candle began to decline.

Since that time, P. N. Yablochkov devoted himself to work on generators of electric current - dynamos and galvanic cells; he never returned to light sources.

PN Yablochkov received in subsequent years a number of patents for electrical machines: for an alternating current magneto-electric machine without rotational motion (later, the famous electrical engineer Nikola Tesla built the machine on this principle); on a magneto-dynamo-electric machine built on the principle of unipolar machines; on an alternating current machine with a rotating inductor, the poles of which were located on a helical line; on an electric motor that can operate on both alternating and direct current and can also serve as a generator. PN Yablochkov also designed a machine for direct and alternating currents, operating on the principle of electrostatic induction. Absolutely original design is the so-called "Yablochkov's clip-on dynamo".

Pavel Nikolaevich's works in the field of galvanic cells and accumulators and the patents taken by him reveal the exceptional depth and progressiveness of his ideas. In these works, he deeply studied the essence of the processes occurring in galvanic cells and batteries. He built: elements of combustion, in which the combustion reaction was used as a source of current; elements with alkali metals (sodium); three-electrode cell (auto-accumulator) and many others. These his works show that he carried out work with persistent consistency to find the possibility of direct application of chemical energy for the purposes of electrical engineering of high currents. The path taken by Yablochkov in these works is a revolutionary path not only for his time, but also for modern technology. Advances along this path could usher in a new era in electrical engineering.

In continuous work, in difficult material conditions, P.N. Yablochkov conducted his experiments in the period 1881-1893. He lived in Paris as a private person, completely devoting himself to scientific problems, skillfully experimenting and contributing a lot to the work. original ideas, heading in bold and unexpected ways, ahead of the current state of science, technology and industry. The explosion that took place in his laboratory during the experiments almost cost him his life. The continuous deterioration of the financial situation, progressive severe heart disease - all this undermined the strength of P.N. Yablochkov. He decided to go home again after a 13-year absence. In July 1893 he left for Russia, but immediately upon his arrival he fell seriously ill. On the estate, he found such a neglected economy that he did not have any hopes for an improvement in material conditions. Pavel Nikolaevich with his wife and son settled in a hotel in Saratov. The patient, chained to the sofa with severe dropsy, deprived of almost any means of subsistence, he continued to conduct experiments.

On March 31, 1894, the heart of a talented Russian scientist and designer, one of the brilliant pioneers of electrical engineering, whose work and ideas is proud of our country, stopped beating.

The main works of P. N. Yablochkov: On a new battery called an auto-accumulator, "Comptes Rendues de l'Ac. Des Sciences", Paris, 1885, t. one hundred; About electric lighting. Public lecture of the Russian tech. Society, read on April 4, 1879, St. Petersburg, 1879 (also featured in the book: PN Yablochkov. On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, M.-L., 1944).

About P. N. Yablochkov: Perskiy KD, Life and Works of P. N. Yablochkov, "Proceedings of the 1st All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress in St. Petersburg in 1899-1900", St. Petersburg, 1901, vol. 1; Zabarinsky P., Yablochkov, ed. "Young Guard", M., 1938; Shatelen M.A.,. Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov (biographical sketch), "Electricity", 1926, no. 12; P. N. Yablochkov. On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, ed. prof. L. D. Belkind; M.-L., 1944; Kaptsov N, A., Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov, M.-L., 1944,

The great Russian electrical engineer was born on September 26, 1847 in the Saratov province. He was the first child in the family, later the Yablochkovs had four more children - one boy and three girls. The father of the future inventor, Nikolai Pavlovich, was a local nobleman, after the reform of 1861 he worked as a conciliator, and later as a justice of the peace in Serdobsky district. Mother, Elizaveta Petrovna, was engaged in the economy of a rather large family and, according to contemporaries, was distinguished by an imperious character.

Pavel Nikolayevich received his primary education in the parental home, he was taught literacy, numeracy, writing and French. He developed a penchant for technical work and design from an early age. Oral legends say that as a teenager, Yablochkov independently built a land-measuring device, which the peasants actively used during land redistribution. At the same time, Pavel came up with a device attached to the wheel of the carriage, allowing you to count the distance traveled. Unfortunately, none of these devices have survived to this day.

In 1859, Pavel Nikolaevich was sent to a civil educational institution - the Saratov gymnasium. This, by the way, was sharply at odds with the traditions of the Yablochkov family, in which all the men were military. Obviously, the reason was the physical condition of the boy, by the age of twelve he was very thin and tall with weak lungs. Only children of noblemen, clergy, merchants and officials studied in the Saratov men's gymnasium. Students from the lower strata were denied access. In the gymnasium, corporal punishment and ill-treatment were widespread, and the educational process instilled in adolescents only a persistent aversion to the sciences. As a result, academic performance was low, students preferred to skip classes. Chernyshevsky, who worked within the walls of this institution from 1851 to 1853, gave a colorful description of the teachers of the gymnasium: “There are quite developed pupils. Teachers - laughter and grief. They have not heard of anything except the Code of Laws, the Filaretov Catechism and the Moscow Gazette - autocracy, Orthodoxy, nationality ... ".

Under these conditions, some parents preferred to take their children back, in November 1862 Yablochkov also went home. For some time he lived in the village of Petropavlovka in his parents' house, and when the question arose about continuing his education, he went to a military school - the Nikolaev Engineering School. Those wishing to get into this institution had to pass a special exam, which included chemistry, physics, drawing and a foreign language. In just six months, Pavel Nikolayevich managed to fill all the gaps in knowledge and successfully passed the entrance tests.

The engineering school at that time was an excellent educational institution, to which quite a lot of attention was paid. The domestic military engineering art developed independently of any foreign views and was rich in advanced technical ideas. Only eminent scientists were involved in teaching at the school. Yablochkov did not find the outstanding mathematician M.V. Ostrogradsky, however, his influence on the teaching of exact sciences was still felt to the full. Pavel Nikolaevich's teachers were: professor of structural mechanics G.E. Pauker, professor of fortification F.F. Laskovsky, professor of mechanics I.A. Vyshnegradskiy and other scientific luminaries. At the Engineering School, cadet Yablochkov received basic information on magnetism and electricity, in addition, he studied fortification, attack and defense of fortresses, mine art, military communications, artillery, topography, tactics, construction art, mathematics, physics, chemistry, drawing, Russian and foreign languages.

In the summer of 1866, he graduated from college in the first category, was promoted to the rank of second-lieutenant engineer and assigned to Kiev in the fifth engineer battalion.
Life in the sapper battalion turned out to be completely unbearable for Yablochkov. By that time, he had a lot of technical ideas, but there was not a single opportunity to turn to their developments, since military service interfered with this. It should be noted that at the same time (1867) the first practically suitable self-excited generator was created, which gave rise to a real explosion of research in the field of electrical engineering. Various jobs in this area were carried out by technicians, scientists and just amateurs in all major world powers. Pavel Nikolaevich, who had only basic information about electromagnetism, limited by the practice of blasting mines, among others, turned all his attention to questions practical application electricity.

At the end of 1867, Yablochkov submitted a report to the command with a request to release him from military service due to illness. For him, this was the only way to leave the combat service and do research. For thirteen months, Pavel Nikolaevich was engaged in work in the field of electrical engineering. Accurate information about this segment of his life has not been preserved, however, obviously, he greatly lacked knowledge. In December 1869, in the previous rank of second lieutenant, he again decided on military service and, using the rights granted by the military rank, entered a special educational institution for officers - the St. Petersburg Galvanic classes (by the way, the only place at that time where military electrical engineers were specially trained).

Here Pavel Nikolaevich got acquainted with the advanced achievements in the field of using electric current, and also seriously supplemented his own training. By the 60s of the nineteenth century, Russia was already the birthplace of deep theoretical studies of the laws and properties of electricity, the birthplace of the most important and largest inventions in this area. The course of study lasted eight months, the main lectures, accompanied by experiments and exercises, were read by Professor F.F. Petrushevsky, and in the summer, the listeners of the institution practiced blasting mines with the help of a galvanic current. At the end of the training, the officers underwent a "naval" practice in Kronstadt, where they mastered the techniques of equipping, installing, testing and monitoring the serviceability of mobile and stationary galvanic mines.

Every officer who attended the Electroplating classes was required to serve one year in the engineering corps without the right to leave or early dismissal. In this regard, Yablochkov returned to Kiev again in the fifth sapper battalion. Here he headed the galvanic team that was part of the garrison, he was entrusted with the duties of a battalion adjutant and head. All this further limited his ability to work on electrical engineering problems. After serving an obligatory term, in 1871 Pavel Nikolaevich resigned. After that, he never again returned to military service, appearing in the documents with the rank of "retired lieutenant".

The Kiev segment of Yablochkov's life also includes his acquaintance with the teacher of one of the local schools, Lyubov Ilyinichna Nikitina, his first wife, whom he married in 1871. Unfortunately, Lyubov Nikitichna was seriously ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 38. Three of Pavel Nikolaevich's four children from this marriage took over their mother's illness and died at a young age.

At the end of 1871, the future inventor began a new life stage: from Kiev he moved to Moscow. Where could a young engineer get a job wishing to devote himself to work in the field of electrical engineering? In Russia at that time there was still no electrotechnical industry as such, nor electrotechnical laboratories. Yablochkov was offered the post of chief of the telegraph office of the Moscow-Kursk railway under construction. This telegraph had a good workshop, created for the purpose of repairing equipment and apparatus. The inventor happily accepted this position, which gave him the opportunity to carry out his experiments and test his ideas.

In subsequent years, Pavel Nikolayevich talked a lot with the capital's electricians, assimilated and adopted their experience and knowledge. We can say that Moscow turned out to be a huge school for Yablochkov, in which his exceptional technical skill was finally crystallized. Pavel Nikolaevich's professional growth was greatly influenced by his acquaintance with the brilliant Russian electrician Vladimir Chikolev, who possessed remarkable inventive talent, supported by deep scientific training.

However, Yablochkov not only attended meetings of scientists and technicians. During his work on the railway, he managed to repair the damaged Truvets electric motor, develop a project to modify the Gramm machine and present two unique inventions - a burner for oxyhydrogen gas entering the combustion site through a layer of sand, and a device for capturing changes in air temperature in railway passenger cars. By the way, in the circuit of this device, two Geisler tubes were placed, which at that time were used exclusively as demonstration devices and had no practical applications. Working in fits and starts, since working on the telegraph took a lot of time, the young inventor investigated various types of existing arc lamps, tried to improve the regulators for them, made galvanic cells and compared their action, conducted experiments with the just invented incandescent lamp of A.N. Lodygin. And in the spring of 1874, Yablochkov succeeded in successfully completing the world's first installation of electric floodlights on a steam locomotive.

The experiments carried out by Lodygin in 1873 related to incandescent lamps, coupled with the solution proposed by Chikolev to create an arc lamp, aroused great interest in society in new methods of lighting. Restaurants, large shops, theaters began to strive to install electric lighting installations unprecedented before that time. Yablochkov, interested in the increased demand for electrical equipment, at the end of 1874 decided to organize his own laboratory-workshop for physical devices, capable of conducting experimental work and at the same time accepting orders from customers.

Business from the very beginning went without much success, on the contrary, the electrical workshop constantly required the investment of Pavel Nikolaevich's personal funds. Nevertheless, the inventor was able to implement the conceived designs. Since the work in the workshop took almost all of the experimenter's time, at the beginning of 1875 Yablochkov had to leave his service on the railway. His co-owner in the workshop of physical instruments was a good friend, an enthusiast of electrical engineering, Nikolai Glukhov, a retired artillery staff captain. Like Yablochkov, Glukhov invested all his funds in this institution, worked in it on issues of electrolysis and the construction of a dynamo. Pavel Nikolaevich made new regulators for arc lamps, improved Plante batteries. Yablochkov and Glukhov conducted experiments to illuminate the area with a large searchlight, which they installed on the roof of the house. And although the searchlight had to be removed at the request of the police, they became the pioneers of a separate area of lighting technology, which later received enormous practical importance (lighting of construction work, open workings, airfields). Yablochkov's workshop was the focus of witty and bold electrical engineering ventures, distinguished by originality and novelty. Many Moscow scientists and inventors loved to gather in it, unique experiments were performed here and new devices were developed. In this workshop, Pavel Nikolaevich built an electromagnet of a unique design.

The principle of operation of an electric candle or an arc light source without a regulator was invented by Yablochkov in October 1875. However, it took him a long time to bring the lamp design to a form suitable for practical use. Unfortunately, the position of the workshop for physical instruments had become very difficult by this time. Yablochkov and Glukhov had many overdue orders, bills from suppliers of equipment and materials were not paid. The workshop gave inventors the opportunity to do a lot in relation to their ideas, but as a commercial enterprise it went bankrupt. Pavel Nikolaevich's personal debts grew every day. Relatives denied him material support, and customers and creditors, having lost hope of getting what they owe, filed a lawsuit in a commercial court. In connection with the threat of ending up in a debt prison, Yablochkov made an extremely difficult decision for himself. In October 1875, the inventor went into hiding from creditors abroad. This act further tarnished his commercial reputation, but the invention was saved. After a fairly short time, Pavel Nikolaevich paid off all his debts in full.

The scientist chose Paris as the place of his stay abroad, which in the 70s of the nineteenth century was the focus of scientific and technical forces in the field of electrical engineering. France, together with Britain and Russia, occupied a leading position in this area, significantly ahead of the United States and Germany. The names of Gramm, du Montsel, Leblanc, Niode and other French electricians were known to the entire scientific world. Arriving in Paris, Yablochkov first of all met with an outstanding telegraph figure, a member of the Paris Academy, Louis Breg, who, among other things, was also the owner of a plant that produced various electrical devices, chronometers and telegraphs. With him abroad Pavel Nikolaevich took only one of his constructively completed product - an electromagnet. The Russian inventor showed it to Breguet, and also talked about some other technical ideas. Breguet immediately realized that he was a talented inventor with enormous abilities, curious ideas and excellent knowledge of magnetism and electricity. He offered him a job without hesitation, and Yablochkov, who was only twenty-eight years old, immediately got down to business. Pavel Nikolayevich worked mainly at a factory, but often experimented at home, in a modest room in the university part of Paris. Within a short time, he completed work on a whole series of devices he had invented earlier and patented them.

On March 23, 1876 Yablochkov received a French patent for his most outstanding invention - an electric candle. The Russian scientist managed to create the first economical, convenient and simple mass light source. about a candle, in the shortest possible time, spread throughout Europe, marking the beginning new era in electrical engineering. The lightning-fast success of the electric candle (or, as they said at the time, "Russian light") was simply explained - electric lighting, previously presented only as a luxury item, suddenly became available to everyone. Yablochkov, who went to the London Exhibition of Physical Devices in the late spring of 1876 as an ordinary representative of the Breguet company, left England as a recognized and respected inventor. From the Russian scientists present at the exhibition - the former teacher of Yablochkov Professor Petrushevsky and Moscow Professor Vladimirsky - Russian scientific circles also learned about the electric candle.

Representatives of various commercial circles were already waiting for the inventor in Paris. Enterprising businessmen immediately realized what high profits can be derived from the invention of an unknown Russian genius, who, moreover, does not differ in entrepreneurial abilities. Louis Breguet, refusing to produce and sell Yablochkov's electric candles, introduced Pavel Nikolaevich to a certain Deneiruz, who took upon himself the issues of its further promotion.

Deneiruz was a native of the Paris Ecole Polytechnique, served in the navy, and was engaged in inventive activity. In particular, he was one of the developers of the Deneiruz-Rouqueirol apparatus, the predecessor of the Cousteau scuba gear. Deneiruz without any problems organized a joint-stock company for the study of electric lighting according to the methods of Yablochkov with a capital of seven million francs. Pavel Nikolaevich in this organization was engaged in scientific and technical leadership, oversaw the production of his candles and carried out their further improvements. Deneiruz and other shareholders retained the financial, commercial and organizational side. The company immediately secured monopoly rights for the production and sale of the electric candle and other inventions of Yablochkov around the world. Pavel Nikolaevich himself had no right to apply his invention even in Russia.

The period of time 1876-1878 was very tense and extremely productive in the life of Yablochkov. He wrote: “The first work was the installation of lighting on the Rue de Opéra, as well as in the shops of the Louvre, in the Grand Theater Châtelet and in some other places in Paris. In addition, the lighting of the bridge over the Thames, the port of Le Havre and the London Theater, in St. Petersburg of the Bolshoi Theater ... was carried out. It was from Paris that electricity spread throughout all countries of the world - up to the king of Cambodia and the palaces of the Shah of Persia, and it did not appear in Paris from America at all, as they now have the insolence to assert. " The Russian electrical engineer worked with enthusiasm, seeing every day the development of the work started, the attention to his work from scientific organizations. He made lectures at the Society of Physicists and at the Paris Academy. Outstanding French physicists Saint-Clair Deville and Becquerel specially got acquainted with his works. Yablochkov modified the design of an electric candle to make it possible to use it in large lighting devices, and received five amendments to the main patent. In addition, during his work abroad, Pavel Nikolaevich made a number of important discoveries - he invented induction coils for separating electric current (later this device was called a transformer), developed methods for separating current using Leyden cans (capacitors), and made a kaolin lamp. In addition, Yablochkov patented several magneto-dynamo-electric machines of his own design.

The Paris Exhibition of 1878 was a triumph for electricity in general and a triumph for Yablochkov in particular. The pavilion with its exhibits was completely independent, it was built in the park that surrounded the main building of the exhibition - the Palace of the Field of Mars. The pavilion was constantly filled with visitors, who were shown various experiments without interruption in order to popularize electrical engineering. The exhibition was also attended by many Russian scientists.

Pavel Nikolaevich always said that his departure from Russia was temporary and forced. He dreamed of returning home and continuing his work at home. All his debts on the old workshop had already been paid by that time, and his commercial reputation had been restored. The only serious obstacle to moving to Russia was Yablochkov's contract with the company, according to which he could not independently implement his inventions anywhere. In addition, he had a lot of unfinished work, which he was doing at the company's plant and which he attached quite a lot of importance. In the end, Yablochkov decided to buy out the license for the right to create electric lighting in our country according to his system. The possibilities of its spread in Russia seemed to him very great. The company's administration also took this into account and broke a huge amount - a million francs, almost the entire block of shares owned by Yablochkov. Pavel Nikolayevich agreed, having given up his shares, he received complete freedom of action at home.

At the end of 1878, the famous experimenter returned to St. Petersburg. Various strata of Russian society perceived his visit in different ways. Scientific and technical circles, seeing in Yablochkov the founder of a new era in electrical engineering, welcomed the return of the most talented inventor and expressed respect for his merits. The government of Alexander II, which had secret reports from foreign agents about Yablochkov's material support for political emigrants in need, made him a number of verbal reprimands. Most of all, Pavel Nikolayevich was surprised by domestic entrepreneurs, who were rather indifferent to his arrival. Of all the ministries, only Morskoye, which conducted only experiments with Yablochkov's electric candle, and the Ministry of the Imperial Court, which organized electric lighting of palaces and subordinate theaters, were concerned with the use of electricity by that time.

Soon, Yablochkov managed to organize a partnership on faith, engaged in the manufacture of electrical machines and electric lighting. To work in the partnership, Pavel Nikolaevich attracted experienced and well-known people in domestic electrical engineering, including Chikolev and Lodygin. A number of demonstration lighting installations were successfully completed in St. Petersburg. Yablochkov's candles began to spread throughout the country. Chikolev describes this time in his memoirs as follows: “Pavel Nikolaevich came to St. Petersburg with a reputation of world fame and a millionaire. Whoever has not been to him - Excellency, Grace, Excellency without number. Yablochkov was snapped up everywhere, his portraits were sold everywhere, and enthusiastic articles were devoted to magazines and newspapers.

Yablochkov's partnership performed the lighting of the square in front of the Alexandria Theater, Palace Bridge, Gostiny Dvor and smaller objects - restaurants, workshops, mansions. In addition to working in the new organization, the scientist conducted a huge social activity, contributing to the increase in the popularity of electrical engineering in Russia. In the spring of 1880, the world's first specialized exhibition on electrical engineering was held in St. Petersburg. Domestic scientists and designers, without attracting a single foreigner to participate, independently filled it with the works of their creative work and technical thought. All areas of electrical engineering were presented at the exhibition, and a temporary power station was built to demonstrate the exhibits. The exhibition opened in the Salt town, worked for twenty days, during which it was attended by over six thousand people - an impressive figure for that time. To a great extent, the exhibition owed such successes to the personal participation of Yablochkov. The received material income was used as a fund for the creation of the first domestic electrical engineering magazine "Electricity", which began to be published on July 1, 1880.

Meanwhile, Yablochkov's hopes for the emergence of demand for electric lighting in Russia did not materialize. During the two years of the partnership's operation (from 1879 to 1880), the business was limited to only a relatively small number of installations, among which there was not a single large installation of constant-type electric lighting. The financial side of the partnership suffered heavy losses, aggravated even more by the unsuccessful conduct of business by the persons at the head of the commercial part of the enterprise.

At the beginning of 1881, Yablochkov again went to Paris, where, together with other eminent electrical engineers, he took an active part in the preparation of the International Electrotechnical Exhibition and the holding of the first International Congress of Electricians. For his hard work in preparing the 1881 exhibition and in the work of the congress, Pavel Nikolaevich was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. However, it was after this exhibition that it became clear to most scientists and technicians, including Yablochkov, that "Russian light", which until recently was considered advanced and progressive, was beginning to lose its position as the best electric light source for the mass consumer. The leading position was gradually taken by new electric lighting with the help of incandescent lamps, in the invention of which the Russian scientist Alexander Lodygin played a significant role. It was his first models of incandescent lamps in the world that were brought to the United States and presented to Edison by the domestic electrical engineer Khotinsky in 1876 during a trip to receive ships built for the Russian fleet.

Pavel Nikolaevich took the reality absolutely soberly. It was clear to him that the electric candle had received a fatal blow and in a few years his invention would no longer be used anywhere. An electrical engineer has never been involved in the design of incandescent lamps, considering this direction of electric lighting less important than arc sources. Pavel Nikolayevich did not begin to work on further improving the "Russian light", considering that there are many other issues in life that need to be resolved. Never again did he return to the design of light sources. Believing quite rightly that successes in the field of obtaining simple and cheap electrical energy will entail a further increase in the use of electricity, Pavel Nikolaevich directed all his creative energy to the creation of generators operating on the principles of induction and electrochemical current generators.

From 1881 to 1893 Yablochkov worked in Paris, regularly making trips to Russia. It was an extremely difficult time for him. In Russia, in the eyes of the ruling and financial circles, he found himself in the position of a debunked hero. Abroad, he was a stranger, having lost his shares, he no longer had any weight in the company. His health was undermined by the backbreaking work of past years, the inventor could no longer work as hard and as hard as before. For most of 1883 he was ill, having suspended all his studies. In 1884 he resumed work on generators and electric motors. At the same time, the scientist took up the problems of alternating current transmission. The study of the processes taking place in fuel cells turned out to be associated with the proximity of sodium vapors and a number of other substances harmful to breathing. Yablochkov's private apartment was completely unsuitable for carrying out work of this kind. However, the brilliant inventor did not have the means to create the appropriate conditions and continued to work, undermining his already weakened body. In his autobiographical notes, Pavel Nikolayevich wrote: “All my life I have worked on industrial inventions, from which many people have profited. I did not strive for wealth, but hoped to have, at least, something to set up a laboratory in which I could work on purely scientific issues of interest to me .... However, my unsecured state makes me leave this thought ... ". During one experiment, the gases released exploded, almost killing Pavel Nikolaevich. In another experiment with chlorine, he burned the mucous membrane of his lungs and has suffered from shortness of breath ever since.

In the 90s of the nineteenth century, Yablochkov received several new patents, but none of them brought material benefits. The inventor lived very poorly, at the same time, the French company that exploited his inventions turned into a powerful international corporation, which quickly reorganized itself into electrical engineering work of a different kind.

In 1889, while preparing for the next International Exhibition, Yablochkov, putting aside all his scientific research, began to organize the Russian department. Yablochkov's lanterns in the amount of a hundred pieces shone at this exhibition for the last time. It is difficult to assess the colossal efforts that Pavel Nikolaevich put in to give our department a rich content and worthy form. In addition, he provided all-round assistance to the arriving Russian engineers, ensured the greatest efficiency of their stay in France. Hard work at the exhibition did not pass without consequences for him - Yablochkov had two seizures, accompanied by partial paralysis.

At the end of 1892, Yablochkov finally returned to his homeland. Petersburg greeted the scientist coldly, his friend and colleague Chikolev wrote: “He stayed in a simple room of an inexpensive hotel, only friends and acquaintances visited him - an invisible and poor people. And those who fawned on him at one time turned away from him. Even those who were put on their feet and ate bread at the expense of partnership kicked him with their hoofs. " In St. Petersburg, a brilliant inventor fell ill. Together with his second wife Maria Nikolaevna and their only son Plato, Yablochkov moved to Saratov. His health deteriorated every day, and the heart disease that Pavel Nikolayevich suffered from led to dropsy. The scientist's legs were swollen and he barely moved. At his request, a table was brought up to the sofa, at which Yablochkov worked until the last day of his life. On March 31, 1894, he was gone. An outstanding figure in world science, who made up an entire era in his works

Both Yablochkov and Lodygin were “temporary” emigrants. They were not going to leave their homeland forever and, having achieved success in Europe and America, returned back. It's just that Russia at all times "stopped", as it is fashionable to say today, innovative developments, and sometimes it was easier to go to France or the United States and "promote" your invention there, and then triumphantly return home by a well-known and sought-after specialist. This can be called technical emigration - not because of poverty or dislike of the native roads, but precisely with the aim of pushing away from abroad in order to interest both the homeland and the world.

The fates of these two talented people are very similar. Both were born in the fall of 1847, served in the army in engineering positions and almost simultaneously quit in close ranks (Yablochkov - lieutenant, Lodygin - second lieutenant). Both made important inventions in the field of lighting in the mid-1870s, developing them mainly abroad, in France and the USA. However, later their fates diverged.

So candles and lamps.

INCANDED THREADS

The first thing to note is that Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin did not invent the incandescent lamp. Nor did Thomas Edison, to whom Lodygin eventually sold a number of his patents. Formally, the Scottish inventor James Bowman Lindsay is considered the pioneer of the use of a red-hot spiral for lighting. In 1835, in the city of Dundee, he held a public demonstration of lighting up the space around him with a hot wire. He showed that such a light allows you to read books without using the usual candles. However, Lindsay was a man of many hobbies and was no longer involved in light - it was just one of his series of "tricks".

And the first lamp with a glass bulb in 1838 was patented by the Belgian photographer Marcellin Jobar. It was he who introduced a number of modern principles of an incandescent lamp - he pumped air out of the bulb, creating a vacuum there, used a carbon filament, and so on. After Jobard, there were many more electrical engineers who contributed to the development of the incandescent lamp - Warren de la Rue, Frederic Mullins (de Molaines), Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, John Wellington Starr and others. Robert-Houdin, by the way, was generally an illusionist, not a scientist - he designed and patented the lamp as one of the elements of his technical tricks. So everything was ready for Lodygin's appearance on the "lamp arena".

Alexander Nikolaevich was born in the Tambov province in a noble but not rich family, entered the cadet corps (first in preparatory classes in Tambov, then in the main unit in Voronezh), like many noble offspring of that time, he served in the 71st Belevsky regiment, studied at the Moscow cadet infantry school (now Alekseevskoe), and in 1870 he retired, because his heart was not in the army.

At the school, he was preparing for an engineering specialty, and this played an important role in his passion for electrical engineering. After 1870, Lodygin was closely engaged in work on improving the incandescent lamp, and at the same time he attended St. Petersburg University as a volunteer. In 1872 he applied for an invention called "Method and Apparatus for Electric Lighting" and two years later received a privilege. Subsequently, he patented his invention in other countries.

What did Lodygin invent?

Incandescent light bulb with carbon rod. You will say - after all, Jobar used a similar system! Yes, absolutely. But Lodygin, firstly, developed a much more perfect configuration, and secondly, he guessed that vacuum is not an ideal environment and it is possible to increase the efficiency and service life by filling the flask with inert gases, as is done in similar lamps today. This was the breakthrough of world significance.

He founded the company "Russian Association of Electric Lighting Lodygin and Co.", was successful, worked on many inventions, including, by the way, on diving equipment, but in 1884 he was forced to leave Russia for political reasons. They left at all times. The fact was that the death of Alexander II from the bomb of Grinevitsky led to massive round-ups and repressions among those sympathetic to the revolutionaries. It was mainly the creative and technical intelligentsia - that is, the society in which Lodygin moved. He did not leave. from accusations of any illegal actions, but rather away from sin.

Before that he had already worked in Paris, and now he has moved to the capital of France to live. True, the company he created abroad quickly went bankrupt (Lodygin was very dubious as a businessman), and in 1888 he moved to the United States, where he got a job at Westinghouse Electric (Westinghouse Electric). George Westinghouse attracted leading engineers from all over the world to his developments, sometimes buying them from competitors.

In American patents, Lodygin secured the primacy in the development of lamps with incandescent filaments of molybdenum, platinum, iridium, tungsten, osmium and palladium (not counting numerous inventions in other areas, in particular a patent for a new system of electric resistance furnaces). Tungsten filaments are still used in light bulbs today - in fact, Lodygin gave the incandescent lamp its final look in the late 1890s. The triumph of Lodygin's lamps came in 1893, when Westinghouse's company won a tender for the electrification of the World's Fair in Chicago. Ironically, later, before leaving for his homeland, Lodygin sold the patents obtained in the United States not to Westinghouse at all, but to Thomas Edison's General Electric.

In 1895 he moved to Paris again and there he married Alma Schmidt, the daughter of a German émigré, whom he had met in Pittsburgh. And 12 years later, Lodygin returned to Russia with his wife and two daughters - a world famous inventor and electrical engineer. He had no problems either with work (he taught at the Electrotechnical Institute, now St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University "LETI"), or with the promotion of his ideas. He was engaged in social and political activities, worked on the electrification of railways, and in 1917, with the advent of the new government, he again left for the United States, where he was received very cordially.

Perhaps Lodygin is a real man of the world. Living and working in Russia, France and the USA, he achieved his goal everywhere, received patents everywhere and put his developments into practice. When he died in Brooklyn in 1923, even the newspapers of the RSFSR wrote about it.

It is Lodygin who can be called the inventor of the modern light bulb, to a greater extent than any of his historical competitors. But the founder of street lighting was not at all he, but another great Russian electrical engineer - Pavel Yablochkov, who did not believe in the prospects of incandescent lamps. He went his own way.

CANDLE WITHOUT FIRE

As noted above, the life paths of the two inventors were initially similar. In fact, you can simply copy part of Lodygin's biography into this subsection, replacing the names and names of educational institutions. Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov was also born into the family of a small local nobleman, studied at the Saratov men's gymnasium, then at the Nikolaev Engineering School, from where he emerged as an engineer-second lieutenant and went to serve in the 5th engineer battalion of the Kiev fortress. He served, however, not for long and less than a year later he retired for health reasons. Another thing is that there was no sensible job in the civilian field, and two years later, in 1869, Yablochkov returned to the army and was sent to the Technical Electroplating Institution in Kronstadt (now the Officer Electrotechnical School) to improve his qualifications. It was there that he became seriously interested in electrical engineering - the institution trained military specialists for all electrical work in the army: the telegraph, mine detonation systems, and so on.

In 1872, 25-year-old Yablochkov finally retired and began work on his own project. He rightly considered incandescent lamps unpromising: indeed, at that time they were dull, energy-consuming and not too durable. Much more Yablochkov was interested in the technology of arc lamps, which in the very early XIX century independently of each other, two scientists began to develop - the Russian Vasily Petrov and the Englishman Humphrey Davy. Both of them in the same 1802 (although there are discrepancies regarding the date of Davy's "presentation") presented to the highest scientific organizations of their countries - the Royal Institute and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences - the effect of the glow of an arc passing between two electrodes. At that time, there was no practical application for this phenomenon, but already in the 1830s the first arc lamps with a carbon electrode began to appear. The most famous engineer who developed such systems was the Englishman William Edwards State, who received a number of patents for carbon lamps in 1834 - 1836 and, most importantly, developed the most important unit of such a device - the distance regulator between the electrodes. This was the main problem of the carbon lamp: as the electrodes burned out, the distance between them increased, and they had to be shifted so that the arc would not be extinguished. State's patents were used as reference by many electrical engineers around the world, and his lamps illuminated a number of pavilions at the 1851 World's Fair.

Yablochkov, on the other hand, set out to correct the main drawback of the arc lamp - the need for maintenance. A person should be constantly present near each lamp, turning the regulator. This negated the advantages of both bright light and the relative cheapness of manufacturing.

In 1875, Yablochkov, never finding an application for his skills in Russia, left for Paris, where he got a job as an engineer in the laboratory of the famous physicist Louis-Francois Breguet (his grandfather founded the Breguet watch brand) and became friends with his son Antoine. There, in 1876, Yablochkov received the first patent for an arc lamp without a regulator. The essence of the invention consisted in the fact that long electrodes were located not with their ends to each other, but side by side, in parallel. They were separated by a layer of kaolin, an inert material that does not allow an arc to occur along the entire length of the electrodes. The arc only appeared at their ends. As the visible part of the electrodes burned out, kaolin melted and light descended down the electrodes. Such a lamp burned for no more than two or three hours, but it was incredibly bright.

"Candles Yablochkov", as the journalists called the novelty, won a crazy success. After the demonstration of the lamps at the London exhibition, several companies at once bought out the patent from Yablochkov and organized mass production. In 1877, the first "candles" lit up on the streets of Los Angeles (the Americans bought the batch immediately after public demonstrations in London, even before mass production). On May 30, 1878, the first "candles" were lit in Paris - near the Opéra and on the Place de l'Azve. Subsequently, Yablochkov's lamps illuminated the streets of London and a number of American cities.

How so, you ask, they only burned for two hours! Yes, but it was comparable to the "life" of a conventional candle, and the arc lamps were incredibly bright and more reliable. And yes, a lot of lamplighters were required - but no more than to service the ubiquitous gas lanterns.

But incandescent lamps were approaching: in 1879, the Briton Joseph Swan (later his company would merge with Edison's company and become the largest lighting conglomerate in the world) installed the first ever street lamp with an incandescent lamp near his house. In a matter of years, Edison lamps have caught up in brightness with the "Yablochkov candles", while having a much lower cost and operating time of 1000 hours or more. The short era of arc lamps is over.

On the whole, it was logical: the insane, incredible rise of "Russian light", as the "Yablochkov candles" were called in the USA and Europe, could not last long. The decline became even more rapid - by the mid-1880s there was not a single factory left that would produce "candles". However, Yablochkov worked on various electrical systems and tried to maintain his former glory, went to congresses of electrical engineers, gave lectures, including in Russia.

He finally returned in 1892, spending his savings to buy out his own patents from European copyright holders. In Europe, no one needed his ideas, but at home he hoped to find support and interest. But it did not work out: by that time, due to many years of experiments with harmful substances, in particular with chlorine, Pavel Nikolaevich's health began to deteriorate rapidly. His heart failed, his lungs failed, he suffered two strokes and died on March 19 (31), 1894 in Saratov, where he lived for the last year, developing the electric lighting scheme for the city. He was 47 years old.

Perhaps, if Yablochkov had lived to see the revolution, he would have repeated the fate of Lodygin and left for the second time - now forever.

Arc lamps received today new life- Xenon lighting works according to this principle in flashes, car headlights, searchlights. But a much more important achievement of Yablochkov is that he was the first to prove that electric lighting of public spaces and even entire cities is possible.

Information about the scientific achievements of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov. The great inventions of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov. Moving to Paris, patent for a candle

See also the interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what YABLOCHKOV PAVEL NIKOLAEVICH is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov (1847-1894)