Scientists and their inventions. Great Russian scientists and their discoveries (1 photo)

Russia is rich in great scientists and inventors who have made a significant contribution not only to Russian progress, but also to the world. We invite you to get acquainted with the brilliant fruits of the engineering thought of our compatriots, which you can rightfully be proud of!

1. Galvanoplasty

We so often come across products that look like metal, but are actually made of plastic and only covered with a layer of metal, that we have stopped noticing them. There are also metal products coated with a layer of another metal - for example, nickel. And there are metal products that are actually a copy of a non-metallic base. We owe all these miracles to the genius of physics Boris Jacobi - by the way, the older brother of the great German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacobi.

Jacobi's passion for physics resulted in the creation of the world's first electric motor with direct shaft rotation, but one of his most important discoveries was electroplating - the process of depositing metal on a mold, allowing the creation of perfect copies of the original object. In this way, for example, sculptures were created on the naves of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Galvanoplasty can be used even at home.

The electroforming method and its derivatives have found numerous applications. With its help, everything has not been done and is still not being done, right down to the cliché of state banks. Jacobi received the Demidov Prize for this discovery in Russia, and a large gold medal in Paris. Possibly also made using this same method.

2. Electric car

In the last third of the 19th century, the world was gripped by a form of electrical fever. That's why electric cars were made by everyone. This was the golden age of electric cars. The cities were smaller, and a range of 60 km on a single charge was quite acceptable. One of the enthusiasts was engineer Ippolit Romanov, who by 1899 had created several models of electric cabs.

But that’s not even the main thing. Romanov invented and created in metal an electric omnibus for 17 passengers, developed a scheme of city routes for these progenitors of modern trolleybuses and received permission to work. True, at your own personal commercial peril and risk.

The inventor was unable to find the required amount, to the great joy of his competitors - owners of horse-drawn horses and numerous cab drivers. However, the working electric omnibus aroused great interest among other inventors and remained in the history of technology as an invention killed by the municipal bureaucracy.

3. Pipeline transport

It is difficult to say what is considered the first real pipeline. One can recall the proposal of Dmitry Mendeleev, dating back to 1863, when he proposed to deliver oil from the production sites to the seaport at the Baku oil fields not in barrels, but through pipes. Mendeleev's proposal was not accepted, and two years later the first pipeline was built by the Americans in Pennsylvania. As always, when something is done abroad, they begin to do it in Russia. Or at least allocate money.

In 1877, Alexander Bari and his assistant Vladimir Shukhov again came up with the idea of pipeline transport, already relying on American experience and again on the authority of Mendeleev. As a result, Shukhov built the first oil pipeline in Russia in 1878, proving the convenience and practicality of pipeline transport. The example of Baku, which was then one of the two leaders in world oil production, became infectious, and “getting on the pipe” became the dream of any enterprising person. In the photo: a view of a three-furnace cube. Baku, 1887.

4. Electric arc welding

Benardos's method spread across the planet like wildfire. Instead of fiddling with rivets and bolts, it was enough to simply weld pieces of metal. However, it took about half a century for welding to finally take a dominant position among installation methods. A seemingly simple method is to create an electric arc between a consumable electrode in the welder’s hands and the pieces of metal that need to be welded. But the solution is elegant. True, it did not help the inventor meet old age with dignity; he died in poverty in 1905 in an almshouse.

5. Multi-engine aircraft “Ilya Muromets”

On February 12, 1914, the four-engine Ilya Muromets took off at the Russian-Baltic Plant training ground in Riga. There were 16 passengers on board the four-engine plane - an absolute record at that time. The plane had a comfortable cabin, heating, a bath with toilet and... a promenade deck. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft, in the summer of 1914, Igor Sikorsky flew on the Ilya Muromets from St. Petersburg to Kyiv and back, setting a world record. During World War I, these aircraft became the world's first heavy bombers.

6. ATV and helicopter

However, it is unlikely that the US military department would have allowed Igor Sikorsky to boldly experiment with helicopter technology if not for the amazing rotary-wing machine of George Botezat, who in 1922 began testing his helicopter, which the American military ordered him. The helicopter was the first to actually take off from the ground and be able to stay in the air. The possibility of vertical flight was thus proven.

Botezat's helicopter was called the "flying octopus" because of its interesting design. It was a quadcopter: four propellers were placed at the ends of metal trusses, and the control system was located in the center - exactly like modern radio-controlled drones.

7. Color photo

Color photography appeared in late XIX century, however, photographs of that time were characterized by a shift to one or another part of the spectrum. The Russian photographer was one of the best in Russia and, like many of his colleagues around the world, dreamed of achieving the most natural color rendition.

In 1902, Prokudin-Gorsky studied color photography in Germany with Adolf Miethe, who by that time was a worldwide star of color photography. Returning home, Prokudin-Gorsky began to improve the chemistry of the process and in 1905 he patented his own sensitizer, that is, a substance that increases the sensitivity of photographic plates. As a result, he was able to produce negatives of exceptional quality.

Prokudin-Gorsky organized a number of expeditions across the territory of the Russian Empire, photographing famous people (for example, Leo Tolstoy), and peasants, temples, landscapes, factories, thus creating an amazing collection of colorful Russia. Prokudin-Gorsky's demonstrations aroused great interest in the world and pushed other specialists to develop new principles of color printing.

8. Parachute

The problem was solved in every possible way. For example, the American Stefan Banich made a parachute in the form of an umbrella with telescopic spokes that were attached around the pilot’s torso. This design worked, although it was still not very convenient. But engineer Gleb Kotelnikov decided that it was all about the material, and made his parachute from silk, packing it in a compact backpack. Kotelnikov patented his invention in France on the eve of the First World War.

But besides the backpack parachute, he came up with another interesting thing. He tested the opening ability of the parachute by opening it while the car was moving, which literally stood rooted to the spot. So Kotelnikov came up with a braking parachute as an emergency braking system for aircraft.

9. Theremin

The history of this musical instrument, which produces strange “cosmic” sounds, began with the development of alarm systems. It was then that the descendant of the French Huguenots, Lev Theremin, in 1919, drew attention to the fact that changing the position of the body near the antennas of the oscillatory circuits affects the volume and tonality of the sound in the control speaker.

Everything else was a matter of technique. And marketing: Theremin showed his musical instrument to the leader of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin, an enthusiast of the cultural revolution, and then demonstrated it in the States.

The life of Lev Theremin was difficult; he knew ups, glory, and camps. His musical instrument still lives today. The coolest version is the Moog Etherwave. The theremin can be heard among the most advanced and quite pop performers. This is truly an invention for all times.

10. Color television

Vladimir Zvorykin was born into a merchant family in the city of Murom. Since childhood, the boy had the opportunity to read a lot and carry out all sorts of experiments - his father encouraged this passion for science in every possible way. Having started studying in St. Petersburg, he learned about cathode ray tubes and came to the conclusion that the future of television lay in electronic circuits.

Zvorykin was lucky; he left Russia on time in 1919. He worked for many years and in the early 30s he patented a transmitting television tube - an iconoscope. Even earlier, he designed one of the variants of the receiving tube - a kinescope. And then, already in the 1940s, he split the light beam into blue, red and green colors and got color TV.

In addition, Zvorykin developed a night vision device, an electron microscope and many other interesting things. He invented all his long life and even in retirement he continued to surprise with his new solutions.

11. VCR

By that time, there had already been experiments in recording television images, but they required a huge amount of tape. Ponyatov and colleagues proposed recording the signal across the tape using a block of rotating heads. On November 30, 1956, the first previously recorded CBS News aired. And in 1960, the company, represented by its leader and founder, received an Oscar for its outstanding contribution to the technical equipment of the film and television industry.

Fate brought Alexander Ponyatov together with interesting people. He was a competitor of Zvorykin, Ray Dolby, the creator of the famous noise reduction system, worked with him, and one of the first clients and investors was the famous Bing Crosby. And one more thing: by order of Ponyatov, birch trees were necessarily planted near any office - in memory of the Motherland.

12. Tetris

From a mathematical point of view, such a puzzle was an excellent test for a computer. And so Alexey Pajitnov, a researcher at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, wrote such a program for his computer “Electronics 60”. But there wasn’t enough power, and Alexey removed one cube from the figures, that is, he made a “tetromino”. Well, then the idea came to have the figures fall into the “glass”. This is how Tetris was born.

This was the first computer game from behind the Iron Curtain, and for many, the first computer game. And although many new toys have already appeared, Tetris still attracts with its apparent simplicity and real complexity.

Our country is rich in talented scientists and inventors, whose work has made a huge contribution not only to the development of their own country, but also has become the property of world science and culture. Many of the brilliant scientists, whose inventions are used by the whole world, are unfairly forgotten or even unknown in their homeland.

We invite you to get acquainted with the best inventions and the most significant scientists, engineers and discoverers from Russia who deserve recognition.

01. VCR

Alexander Ponyatov

The first working prototype and production model of the VCR was developed by the American company AMPEX, which was founded in 1944 by a Russian emigrant, Kazan engineer Alexander Matveevich Ponyatov.

The company name Ampex is an acronym formed from the first letters of the creator’s name and the word “experimental” - Alexander M. Poniatoff EXperimental.

At the beginning of its journey, the company was engaged in the production and development of sound recording equipment, but in the first half of the 50s it reoriented itself to the development of video recording devices and media for them.

At that time, there was already experience in recording images from a television screen, but the recording devices required an incredibly large amount of tape. AMPEX invented a way to record images perpendicular to tape using rotating head units. The invention received quick recognition, and already in November 1956, a news broadcast was broadcast on the CBS television channel, which was recorded on Alexander Ponyatov’s VCR.

In 1960, the company and its founder received an Oscar for their invention, which made enormous contributions to the film and television industries.

The name of Alexander Ponyatov was little known to the general public in the USSR, however, in the USA, after the death of the engineer in 1982, the American Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, noting his outstanding contribution to the development of television technology, established the “Gold Medal named after. Poniatoff" (SMPTE Poniatoff Gold Medal), awarded for achievements in the field of magnetic recording of electrical signals.

Being and living far from his homeland, Alexander Ponyatov never ceased to miss his native land, how else can one explain the massive planting of birch trees at the main entrance of all AMPEX company offices. Alexander Matveevich personally ordered this.

02. Tetris

Alexey Pajitnov with his son

About 30 years ago in the Soviet Union, a certain puzzle called “Pentamino” was very popular. Its essence was to construct figures on lined fields. The popularity of the puzzle reached such a level that special collections with problems were created and published, where some of the pages were devoted to solving problems from previous issues of the collections.

This game, from a mathematical point of view, was an excellent test for a computer system. In this regard, a researcher at the USSR Academy of Sciences, Alexey Pajitnov, developed computer program by analogy with the puzzle for your “Electronics 60”. There was not enough capacity to create the classic version of the puzzle, where the field consisted of 5 cubes, so the field was reduced to 4 cells and a system for falling pieces was created. This is how one of the most popular computer games in the world appeared - Tetris.

Despite modern development technologies, Tetris is still very popular, and other games for smartphones and computers are being developed on its basis.

Read also:

03. Galvanoplasty

Moritz Hermann Jacobi is a German and Russian physicist and inventor. In Russian style - Boris Semenovich Jacobi.

Plastic products that have a thin metal coating have entered our lives so long ago that we no longer notice the difference. There are also metal products that are coated thin layers other metals, and exact metal copies of products with a non-metallic base.

This opportunity arose thanks to the brilliant physicist Boris Jacobi, who invented the “galvanoplasty” method. The electroforming method involves depositing metals onto molds to produce perfect copies of the original objects.

This method is widely used in many manufacturing areas around the world and is extremely popular due to its simplicity and high cost-effectiveness.

Boris Semenovich Jacobi became famous not only for the discovery of galvanoplasty. He also built the first electric motor, a telegraph machine that printed letters.

Until the summer of 2017, the grave of the great scientist Boris Semenovich Jacobi looked like this, despite the fact that it is under state protection!

The grave of Boris Semyonovich Jacobi

Restoration was planned by an initiative group from St. Petersburg, but there is still no exact information about the work carried out.

04. Electric cars

The end of the 19th century was characterized by a huge increase in popularity for electric transport and vehicles without internal combustion engines. In those days, every self-respecting engineer developed and designed an electric car. The cities were small in size, so a range of several tens of kilometers on a single charge was quite enough for comfortable use of cars.

One of the enthusiasts was Ippolit Romanov, who created several decent models of electric vehicles, which for many reasons were not commercially successful.

The first Russian electric car and its creator - Russian engineer-inventor - Ippolit Vladimirovich Romanov

Moreover, he designed an electric multi-passenger vehicle that was capable of carrying 17 passengers and developed a city route map. This project was supposed to become the progenitor of modern trams, but it was not destined to come to fruition due to the lack of the required number of investors.

However, Ippolit Romanov is considered one of the first inventors of electric vehicles, which at the moment enjoyed enormous popularity, and was the first inventor of the progenitor of the modern tram.

05. Electric arc welding

Nikolai Nikolaevich Benardos is a Russian engineer, inventor of electric arc welding, spot and seam contact welding.

An electric arc welding method that relies on the physical action of an electric arc that is created between an electrode and pieces of metal. This method was patented in 1888 by Nikolai Benardos, a native of Novorossiysk Greeks.

The invention of this method has significantly reduced the cost various types installation work, as well as increase the speed of their implementation and the level of reliability. After its invention, the method spread extremely quickly throughout the world and, in less than 50 years, took a leading position in many areas where fastening metal structures is necessary.

Despite hundreds of his inventions, including electric arc welding, the inventor did not gain fame and died in 1905 alone and in poverty.

06. Helicopter

The first person in the world to design and build a helicopter was Russian engineer Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky. The first production models, called R-4, were created in 1942.

Igor Sikorsky

In addition, Igor Sikorsky was one of the first inventors and testers of multi-engine aircraft, which at that time were considered too dangerous and uncontrollable.

In 1913, Sikorsky managed to lift into the air a four-engine Russian Knight aircraft, and in 1914 he set a record for flight duration, covering the distance between St. Petersburg and Kiev on an aircraft of this type.

07. Color photographs

Self-portrait of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky. January 1, 1912, Library of Congress

The first color printing was invented at the end of the 19th century, however, photographs of that time were distinguished by a colossal shift in spectra, which made the quality of the images far from ideal.

Domestic photographer for a long time studied the technology of color photography, he paid special attention to the chemical component of the process. Thanks to painstaking work in 1905, he managed to invent and patent unique substance to increase the sensitivity of the photographic plate. This chemical reagent significantly improved the quality of color photographs and stimulated the development of color photography throughout the world.

Article

When they tell you that Russia is the birthplace of bast shoes and balalaikas, grin in this person’s face and list at least 10 points from this list. I think it's a shame not to know such things.

And this is just a small part:

1. P.N. Yablochkov and A.N. Lodygin - the world's first electric light bulb
2. A.S. Popov - radio
3. V.K. Zvorykin (the world's first electron microscope, television and television broadcasting)
4. A.F. Mozhaisky - inventor of the world's first airplane
5. I.I. Sikorsky - a great aircraft designer, created the world's first helicopter, the world's first bomber

6. A.M. Ponyatov - the world's first video recorder
7. S.P. Korolev - the world's first ballistic missile, spacecraft, first Earth satellite
8. A.M.Prokhorov and N.G. Basov - the world's first quantum generator - maser
9. S. V. Kovalevskaya (the world’s first woman professor)
10. S.M. Prokudin-Gorsky - the world's first color photograph

11. A.A. Alekseev - creator of the needle screen
12. F.A. Pirotsky - the world's first electric tram

13. F.A. Blinov - the world's first crawler tractor
14. V.A. Starevich - three-dimensional animated film

15. E.M. Artamonov - invented the world's first bicycle with pedals, steering wheel, turning wheel

16. O.V. Losev - the world's first amplifying and generating semiconductor device
17. V.P. Mutilin - the world's first mounted construction combine
18. A. R. Vlasenko - the world's first grain harvesting machine
19. V.P. Demikhov was the first in the world to perform a lung transplant and the first to create a model of an artificial heart
20. A.P. Vinogradov - created a new direction in science - geochemistry of isotopes
21. I.I. Polzunov - the world's first heat engine
22. G. E. Kotelnikov - the first backpack rescue parachute
23. I.V. Kurchatov - the world's first nuclear power plant (Obninsk); also, under his leadership, the world's first hydrogen bomb with a power of 400 kt was developed, detonated on August 12, 1953. It was the Kurchatov team that developed the RDS-202 thermonuclear bomb (Tsar Bomb) with a record power of 52,000 kilotons.
24. M. O. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky - invented a three-phase current system, built a three-phase transformer, which put an end to the dispute between supporters of direct (Edison) and alternating current
25. V. P. Vologdin - the world's first high-voltage mercury rectifier with a liquid cathode, developed induction furnaces for the use of high-frequency currents in industry
26. S.O. Kostovich - created the world's first gasoline engine in 1879
27. V.P.Glushko - the world's first electric/thermal rocket engine
28. V. V. Petrov - discovered the phenomenon of arc discharge
29. N. G. Slavyanov - electric arc welding
30. I. F. Aleksandrovsky - invented the stereo camera
31. D.P. Grigorovich - creator of the seaplane
32. V.G. Fedorov - the world's first machine gun

33. A.K. Nartov - built the world's first lathe with a movable support
34. M.V. Lomonosov - for the first time in science formulated the principle of conservation of matter and motion, for the first time in the world began to teach a course in physical chemistry, for the first time discovered the existence of an atmosphere on Venus
35. I.P. Kulibin - mechanic, developed the design of the world's first wooden arched single-span bridge, inventor of the searchlight

36. V.V. Petrov - physicist, developed the world's largest galvanic battery; opened an electric arc
37. P.I. Prokopovich - for the first time in the world, he invented a frame hive, in which he used a magazine with frames
38. N.I. Lobachevsky - Mathematician, creator of “non-Euclidean geometry”
39. D.A. Zagryazhsky - invented the caterpillar track
40. B.O. Jacobi - invented electroplating and the world's first electric motor with direct rotation of the working shaft
41. P.P. Anosov - metallurgist, revealed the secret of making ancient damask steel
42. D.I.Zhuravsky - first developed the theory of calculations of bridge trusses, which is currently used throughout the world
43. N.I. Pirogov - for the first time in the world, compiled the atlas “Topographic Anatomy”, which has no analogues, invented anesthesia, plaster and much more
44. I.R. Hermann - for the first time in the world compiled a summary of uranium minerals
45. A.M. Butlerov - first formulated the basic principles of the theory of the structure of organic compounds
46. I.M. Sechenov - the creator of evolutionary and other schools of physiology, published his main work “Reflexes of the Brain”
47. D.I. Mendeleev - discovered the periodic law of chemical elements, creator of the table of the same name

48. M.A. Novinsky - veterinarian, laid the foundations of experimental oncology
49. G.G. Ignatiev - for the first time in the world, developed a system of simultaneous telephone and telegraphy over one cable
50. K.S. Dzhevetsky - built the world's first submarine with an electric motor
51. N.I. Kibalchich - for the first time in the world, he developed a design for a rocket aircraft
52. N.N.Benardos - invented electric welding
53. V.V. Dokuchaev - laid the foundations of genetic soil science
54. V.I. Sreznevsky - Engineer, invented the world's first aerial camera
55. A.G. Stoletov - physicist, for the first time in the world he created a photocell based on the external photoelectric effect
56. P.D. Kuzminsky - built the world's first radial gas turbine
57. I.V. Boldyrev - the first flexible photosensitive non-flammable film, formed the basis for the creation of cinematography
58. I.A. Timchenko - developed the world's first movie camera

59. S.M. Apostolov-Berdichevsky and M.F. Freidenberg - created the world's first automatic telephone exchange
60. N.D. Pilchikov - physicist, for the first time in the world he created and successfully demonstrated a wireless control system
61. V.A. Gassiev - engineer, built the world's first phototypesetting machine
62. K.E. Tsiolkovsky - founder of astronautics
63. P.N. Lebedev - physicist, for the first time in science experimentally proved the existence of light pressure on solids
64. I.P. Pavlov - creator of the science of higher nervous activity
65. V.I. Vernadsky - naturalist, creator of many scientific schools
66. A.N. Scriabin - composer, was the first in the world to use lighting effects in the symphonic poem “Prometheus”
67. N.E. Zhukovsky - creator of aerodynamics
68. S.V. Lebedev - first obtained artificial rubber
69. G.A. Tikhov - astronomer, for the first time in the world, established that the Earth, when observed from space, should have a blue color. Later, as we know, this was confirmed when filming our planet from space.
70. N.D. Zelinsky - developed the world's first highly effective coal gas mask
71. N.P. Dubinin - geneticist, discovered the divisibility of the gene
72. M.A. Kapelyushnikov - invented the turbodrill in 1922
73. E.K. Zawoisky discovered electrical paramagnetic resonance
74. N.I. Lunin - proved that there are vitamins in the body of living beings
75. N.P. Wagner - discovered the pedogenesis of insects
76. Svyatoslav Fedorov - the first in the world to perform surgery to treat glaucoma

77. S.S. Yudin - first used blood transfusions of suddenly deceased people in the clinic
78. A.V. Shubnikov - predicted the existence and first created piezoelectric textures
79. L.V. Shubnikov - Shubnikov-de Haas effect ( magnetic properties superconductors)
80. N.A. Izgaryshev - discovered the phenomenon of passivity of metals in non-aqueous electrolytes
81. P.P. Lazarev - creator of the ion excitation theory
82. P.A. Molchanov - meteorologist, created the world's first radiosonde
83. N.A. Umov - physicist, equation of energy motion, concept of energy flow; By the way, he was the first to explain, practically and without ether, the misconceptions of the theory of relativity
84. E.S. Fedorov - founder of crystallography
85. G.S. Petrov - chemist, world's first synthetic detergent
86. V.F. Petrushevsky - scientist and general, invented a rangefinder for artillerymen
87. I.I. Orlov - invented a method for making woven credit cards and a method of single-pass multiple printing (Orlov printing)
88. Mikhail Ostrogradsky - mathematician, O. formula (multiple integral)
89. P.L. Chebyshev - mathematician, Ch. polynomials (orthogonal system of functions), parallelogram
90. P.A. Cherenkov - physicist, Ch. radiation (new optical effect), Ch. counter (nuclear radiation detector in nuclear physics)
91. D.K. Chernov - Ch points (critical points of phase transformations of steel)
92. V.I. Kalashnikov is not the same Kalashnikov, but another one, who was the first in the world to equip river ships with a steam engine with multiple steam expansion
93. A.V. Kirsanov - organic chemist, reaction K. (phosphoreaction)
94. A.M. Lyapunov - mathematician, created the theory of stability, equilibrium and motion of mechanical systems with a finite number of parameters, as well as L.'s theorem (one of the limit theorems of probability theory)
95. Dmitry Konovalov - chemist, Konovalov’s laws (elasticity of parasolutions)
96. S.N. Reformatsky - organic chemist, Reformatsky reaction
97. V.A. Semennikov - metallurgist, the first in the world to carry out bessemerization of copper matte and obtain blister copper
98. I.R. Prigogine - physicist, P.'s theorem (thermodynamics of nonequilibrium processes)
99. M.M. Protodyakonov is a scientist who developed a scale of rock strength generally accepted in the world
100. M.F. Shostakovsky - organic chemist, balsam Sh. (vinyline)
101. M.S. Color - Color method (chromatography of plant pigments)
102. A.N. Tupolev - designed the world's first jet passenger aircraft and the first supersonic passenger aircraft
103. A.S. Famintsyn - plant physiologist, first developed a method for carrying out photosynthetic processes under artificial light
104. B.S. Stechkin - created two great theories - thermal calculation of aircraft engines and air-breathing engines
105. A.I. Leypunsky - physicist, discovered the phenomenon of energy transfer by excited atoms and molecules to free electrons during collisions
106. D.D. Maksutov - optician, telescope M. (meniscus system of optical instruments)
107. N.A. Menshutkin - chemist, discovered the effect of a solvent on the rate of a chemical reaction
108. I.I. Mechnikov - the founders of evolutionary embryology

109. S.N. Winogradsky - discovered chemosynthesis
110. V.S. Pyatov - metallurgist, invented a method for producing armor plates using the rolling method
111. A.I. Bakhmutsky - invented the world's first coal miner (for coal mining)
112. A.N. Belozersky - discovered DNA in higher plants
113. S.S. Bryukhonenko - physiologist, created the first artificial blood circulation apparatus in the world (autojector)
114. G.P. Georgiev - biochemist, discovered RNA in the nuclei of animal cells
115. E. A. Murzin - invented the world's first optical-electronic synthesizer "ANS"
116. P.M. Golubitsky - Russian inventor in the field of telephony
117. V. F. Mitkevich - for the first time in the world, he proposed the use of a three-phase arc for welding metals
118. L.N. Gobyato - Colonel, the world's first mortar was invented in Russia in 1904
119. V.G. Shukhov is an inventor, the first in the world to use steel mesh shells for the construction of buildings and towers
120. I.F. Kruzenshtern and Yu.F. Lisyansky - made the first Russian trip around the world, studied the islands Pacific Ocean, described the life of Kamchatka and Fr. Sakhalin
121. F.F. Bellingshausen and M.P. Lazarev - discovered Antarctica
122. The world’s first icebreaker of a modern type is the steamship of the Russian fleet “Pilot” (1864), the first Arctic icebreaker is “Ermak”, built in 1899 under the leadership of S.O. Makarova.

123. V.N. Sukachev (1880-1967) He defined the basic principles of biogeocenology. Founder of biogeocenology, one of the founders of the doctrine of phytocenosis, its structure, classification, dynamics, relationships with the environment and its animal population
124. Alexander Nesmeyanov, Alexander Arbuzov, Grigory Razuvaev - creation of the chemistry of organoelement compounds.
125. V.I. Levkov - under his leadership, hovercraft were created for the first time in the world
126. G.N. Babakin - Russian designer, creator of Soviet lunar rovers

127. P.N. Nesterov was the first in the world to perform a closed curve in a vertical plane on an airplane, a “dead loop”, later called the “Nesterov loop”
128. B. B. Golitsyn - became the founder of the new science of seismology
And all this is only a small part of the Russian contribution to world science and culture. At the same time, here I am not talking about the contribution to art, to most of the social sciences, and this contribution is far from small.

And besides everything else, there is a contribution in the form of phenomena and objects that I do not take into account in this study.

Such as “Kalashnikov assault rifle”, “First Cosmonaut”, “First Ekranoplan” and many others. Of course, it is impossible to list everything. But even such a cursory glance allows us to draw the necessary conclusions...

Russia is a rich country. And we are not talking only about natural resources and not about financial ones. Russia is rich in talents, because it was Russia that gave the whole world great scientists, without whose inventions and discoveries we cannot imagine our life today, it is our country that is the Motherland of inventors who have made a significant contribution not only to Russian progress, but also to the world. And if they tell you that Russia is the birthplace of bast shoes and balalaikas, grin in this person’s face and list at least 10 points from this list. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the brilliant fruits of our compatriots, which you can rightfully be proud of! I think it's a shame not to know such things.

First printed book

Ivan Fedorov (circa 1520 - December 5, 1583) is the creator of the first accurately dated printed book "Apostle" in the Russian Kingdom, as well as the founder of a printing house in the Russian Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland.

Ivan Fedorov is traditionally called “the first Russian book printer”

In 1563, by order of John IV, a house was built in Moscow - the Printing House, which the tsar generously provided from his treasury. The Apostle (book, 1564) was printed in it. First printed book, in which the name of Ivan Fedorov (and Peter Mstislavets, who helped him) is indicated, it was “Apostle”, work on which was carried out, as indicated in the afterword to it, from April 19, 1563 to March 1, 1564. This is the first accurately dated printed Russian book. The following year, Fedorov’s printing house published his second book, “The Book of Hours.” After some time, attacks began on printers from professional scribes, whose traditions and income were threatened by the printing house. After the arson that destroyed their workshop, Fedorov and Mstislavets left for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Ivan Fedorov and the first printing press in Russia

Ivan Fedorov himself writes that in Moscow he had to endure very strong and frequent bitterness towards himself, not from the tsar, but from state leaders, clergy and teachers who envied him, hated him, accused Ivan of many heresies and wanted to destroy God’s work (i.e. printing). These people drove Ivan Fedorov out of his native Fatherland, and Ivan had to move to another country, which he had never been to. In this country, Ivan, as he himself writes, was kindly received by the pious King Sigismund II Augustus along with his army.

Screw-cutting lathe

Andrei Konstantinovich Nartov (1693-1756) - inventor of the world's first screw-cutting lathe with a mechanized support and a set of replaceable gears. Nartov developed the design of the world's first screw-cutting lathe with a mechanized slide and a set of replaceable gears (1738). Subsequently, this invention was forgotten and the screw-cutting lathe with a mechanical slide and a set of replaceable gears was reinvented around 1800 by Henry Models.

In 1754, A. Nartov was promoted to the rank of general, state councilor

While working in the Artillery Department, Nartov created new machines, original fuses, proposed new methods for casting guns and sealing shells in the gun channel, etc. He invented an original optical sight. The significance of Nartov’s inventions was so great that on May 2, 1746, a decree was issued to reward A.K. Nartov with five thousand rubles for artillery inventions. In addition, several villages in the Novgorod district were assigned to him.

Bike

Artamonov Efim Mikheevich (1776 - 1841), was a serf and worked as a mechanic at the Nizhny Tagil Demidov plant, where metal fasteners were prepared. There he got hold of metal for his invention. Since childhood, helping his father, who built barges for alloying cast iron, iron and all kinds of metal, he learned a lot. At twenty-five, he built the first two-wheeled all-metal bicycle. Efim often had to walk from Nizhny Tagil to the Staro-Utkinskaya pier, covering only eighty miles one way. Perhaps it was during these transitions that the idea of building a scooter appeared.

Monument to the inventor of the bicycle Efim ARTAMONOV in Yekaterinburg

Artamonov’s scooter, built at the Nizhny Tagil plant, was made of iron. It had two wheels located one behind the other. The front wheel was almost three times larger than the rear. The wheels were held together by a curved metal frame. The scooter was driven by the feet by alternately pressing the pedals, which sat on the axle of the front wheel. Later it will be called a bicycle.

In 1801, Artamonov decided to ride his bicycle from the Ural village of Verkhoturye to Moscow (about two thousand versts). The scooter was heavy when moving. Due to the large front wheel, it was easy to tip over your head when going downhill. And when going uphill, you had to “press” your legs as hard as you could so that the bike wouldn’t go backwards. This was the world's first bicycle race. According to legend, the serf Artamonov was sent on this journey by his owner, the owner of the factory, who wanted to surprise Tsar Alexander I with an “outlandish scooter.” He left St. Petersburg for Moscow. Artamonov was awarded 25 rubles and given freedom to him and his family.

Unfortunately, further traces of Efim Artamonov, along with his invention, are lost. It is believed that the bicycle was invented by the German baron Karl Dries, who received a patent in 1818. Although he created just a wooden scooter, which you had to move around by pushing off the ground with your feet. Without any pedals!

Underwater vessel

A nobleman from the Igumen district of the Minsk province, Kazimir Gavrilovich Charnovsky (1791–09.27.1847), imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for his connection with the Decembrists, on July 1, 1829, submitted a letter to the highest name: “In 1825, I invented an underwater vessel... The hull is made of iron (at that time all ships were wooden), cylindrical in shape - the bow was pointed, the stern was blunt. In the upper part there is a retractable deckhouse with portholes. The immersion system consists of 28 leather bellows into which sea water flows; When ascending, the water is squeezed out of the bellows using special levers. On the boat there are firearms and a self-igniting mine that can be placed under the bottom of an enemy ship...” On July 19, this letter was read and recognized as a document of national importance. The invention was not implemented then, because the talented engineer General Bazin, who gave a positive opinion on it, learned that the inventor was a state criminal, and did not dare to continue the implementation work. It has not yet been established how, without complex tools, books and reference books, Chernovsky was able to create a voluminous and completely scientifically reasoned description of the first submarine project in the Russian Empire in three weeks. He provided for almost everything - a system for moving under water, oxygen cylinders, special mines with a chemical fuse for arming the submarine, a shock absorber for bottom diving, and even a spacesuit. For the first time in world practice, Kazimir Chernovsky substantiated the need to use metal for the construction of a submarine and give the ship a streamlined cylindrical shape.

Chernovsky was one of the first to propose building a cylindrical ship with a metal hull equipped with a movable periscope. There is an opinion that the Russian general Karl Andreevich Schilder, who built the first metal submarine in 1834, was familiar with Chernovsky’s project and borrowed some technical ideas from it. Based on Schilder’s designs, the world’s first all-metal submarine was built, from which, under his command, the world’s first missile launch from an underwater position was carried out, and the steamship “Courage” (1846), armed with artillery and missiles, was the prototype of the destroyer.

The Cherepanov brothers (actually father and son) in 1833-1834. They created the first steam locomotive in Russia, and then in 1835 - a second, more powerful one.

In 1834, at the Vyisky plant, which was part of Demidov’s Nizhny Tagil factories, Russian mechanic Miron Efimovich Cherepanov, with the help of his father Efim Alekseevich, built the first steam locomotive in Russia entirely from domestic materials. This word did not yet exist in everyday life, and the locomotive was called a “land steamer.” Today, a model of the first Russian steam locomotive of type 1−1−0, built by the Cherepanovs, is kept in the Central Museum railway transport in St. Petersburg.

the first Russian steam locomotive of the Cherepanov brothers (1834)

The first locomotive had a working weight of 2.4 tons. Its experimental trips began in August 1834. The production of the second locomotive was completed in March 1835. The second locomotive could transport cargo already weighing 1000 pounds (16.4 tons) at a speed of up to 16 km /h.

Cherepanov was denied a patent for a steam locomotive because it was “very smelly”

Unfortunately, unlike stationary steam engines, which were in demand by Russian industry at that time, the first Russian railway of the Cherepanovs was not given the attention it deserved. The now found drawings and documents characterizing the activities of the Cherepanovs indicate that they were true innovators and highly gifted masters of technology. They created not only the Nizhny Tagil railway and its rolling stock, but also designed many steam engines, metalworking machines, and built a steam turbine.

Electric car

In the last third of the 19th century, the world was gripped by a form of electrical fever. That’s why electric cars were made by everyone who wasn’t too lazy. This was the golden age of electric cars. One of the enthusiasts was engineer Ippolit Vladimirovich Romanov. In 1899, in St. Petersburg, with the participation of Romanov and according to his designs, the first domestic electric car was built, designed to transport two people and became known as the “cuckoo”. Its mass was 750 kg, of which 370 kg was occupied by the battery, which was enough for 60 km at a speed of 35 versts per hour (about 39 km/h). An omnibus was also created, transporting 17 people at a speed of 20 km/h over a distance of the same 60 km.

The first electric omnibus of Ippolit Romanov in Gatchina

Romanov developed a scheme of city routes for these progenitors of modern trolleybuses and received permission to work. True, at your own personal commercial peril and risk. The inventor was unable to find the required amount, much to the joy of his competitors - owners of horse-drawn horses and numerous cab drivers. However, the working electric omnibus aroused great interest among other inventors and remained in the history of technology as an invention killed by the municipal bureaucracy.

Mozhaisky's plane

The talented Russian inventor Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky (1825-1890) was the first in the world to create a life-size airplane capable of lifting a person into the air. In 1876, he developed a model airplane that flew a considerable distance indoors with an officer's dagger as cargo. Mozhaisky desperately lacked money for research: the military department did not consider it necessary to spend money on what they considered dubious projects. But, in spite of everything, in 1885, the plane, built at his own expense, accelerated and barely took off from the ground. But the air currents threw the plane to the side, as a result of which it tilted, touched the surface of the ground with its wing, the wing broke off and the plane fell. The plane flew about 100 fathoms (213 meters).

Mozhaisky’s plane - illustration in the book “Aeronautics for 100 Years” (1884)

When designing the aircraft, Mozhaisky initially expected to install one of the first examples of internal combustion engines, but they proved to be untenable due to too much mass and low power, therefore, the design used a lightweight model of a 21 hp steam engine. The weight characteristics of the steam power unit of Mozhaisky's aircraft were extremely high for its time. Despite the unsuccessful flight, the fact of the creation of the first aircraft in the world remains a fact: a heavy machine with a person on board was lifted into the air by a Russian engineer, and not by the Wright brothers. Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky died in poverty, having spent all his savings on improving his brainchild, without ever seeing its second flight. It was a creative feat that forever glorified our Motherland. Unfortunately, the surviving documentary materials do not allow us to describe in the necessary detail the aircraft of A.F. Mozhaisky and its tests.

Aerodynamics

Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky developed the theoretical foundations of aviation and methods for calculating aircraft - and this was at a time when the builders of the first aircraft argued that “an airplane is not a machine, it cannot be calculated,” and most of all relied on experience, practice and their intuition. In 1904, Zhukovsky discovered the law that determines the lifting force of an airplane wing, determined the main profiles of the wings and blades of an airplane propeller; developed the vortex theory of the propeller.

Electric tram

In St. Petersburg, on August 22, 1880, the world's first electric tram was tested. The first tram was created by an artillery officer and engineer Fyodor Apollonovich Pirotsky (02/17/1845, Lokhvitsky district of Poltava province - 02/28/1898, Aleshki), born into a family of military doctors from the Cossacks. Pirotsky moved an ordinary two-tier horse-drawn carriage using electricity supplied along the rails. St. Petersburg newspapers reported that for the first time in Russia, a carriage was “propelled by electric traction” and that the public greeted the unusual innovation with delight.

First electric tram

Due to the resistance of the horse-drawn owners, regular tram service began almost 30 years later (September 29, 1907). Since Pirotsky did not have the funds to improve the design of the tram, his ideas were taken up by others abroad and in Russia. So, Karl Siemens carefully studied Pirotsky’s works, redrew the diagrams and asked him many questions; six months later, in Berlin, his older brother Werner Siemens gave a report “Dynamo-electric machine and its use on railways” (since 1881, their company began to manufacture cars, the design of which coincided with Pirotsky’s project). This is not Pirotsky’s only invention. He laid the first underground electrical cable in St. Petersburg to transmit electricity from the cannon foundry to the Artillery School in 1881. He was also the author of the project for a centralized underground city electrical network, and proposed a new design for blast furnaces and bakery furnaces. When the retired colonel died, he had no money: his furniture was pawned to pay for the funeral.

Monorail

The first monorail (on wooden beam and with horse traction - “road on poles”) was built in 1820 in the village near Moscow. Myachkovo (in limestone quarries) by Ivan Kirillovich Elmanov. The horse-drawn trolley moved along a beam that was mounted on small supports. To Elmanov’s great regret, there was no philanthropist who was interested in the invention, which is why he had to abandon the idea. Two years later, the monorail track was patented on November 22, 1821 in England by Palmer. However, the monorail received serious development after 1898, almost simultaneously in England, America, France and Russia. Only 70 years later, a monorail was built in Gatchina, St. Petersburg province. Built according to the design of the engineer and hereditary nobleman Ippolit Vladimirovich Romanov, the experimental section of the suspended (monorail) electric railway has been in operation since 1899 in Gatchina. On January 19, 1901, the City Duma of St. Petersburg received a request from Romanov for permission to organize ten “electric omnibus” routes. Romanov created batteries that were perfect for his time, which made it possible to technically solve the issue of building a monorail with electric cars, but the project was not in demand by the authorities.

Crawler tractor

Russian peasant Fyodor Blinov (07/25/1831 (32), Nikolskoye village, Volsky district, Saratov province - 06/24/1902) was a barge hauler, fireman, and steamboat driver. On March 27, 1878, he applied for a patent for the “car with endless rails” he invented - a prototype of a caterpillar tractor. He received privilege (patent) No. 2245 in the fall of 1879. He made the world's first caterpillar tractor (steam-powered) in the late 1880s. In 1889 and 1896 As the inventor of the tractor, he was awarded medals at the Saratov and Nizhny Novgorod exhibitions. He refused to the Germans who asked Blinov to sell the “self-propelled gun” to organize mass production, and in his own country he was not supported. The Volgar newspaper wrote about the story of Blinov’s self-propelled gun: “The whole problem is that Russian inventors are Russian. We have no confidence in our own creative powers.”

Internal combustion engine

In 1887, Boris Grigorievich Lutskoy (Lutsk; 1865 in the village of Andreevka near Berdyansk, Tauride province - 1920). patented the internal combustion engine. He is responsible for the creation of the world's first automobile engine with vertical cylinder placement. He studied at the gymnasium in Sevastopol, after graduating in 1882 he entered the Munich Polytechnic Institute. The author of gasoline engines for Daimler cars (Daimler-Lutskoy), built engines for Russian warships. A stamped steel frame, pull-out magneto ignition, a T-shaped cylinder head, a 4-cylinder vertical engine block, a foot accelerator instead of a manual one, a radiator placed in front of the engine - this is just a small list of Boris Lutsky’s inventions. Lutskoy invented an armored car with a gasoline engine in 1900 (before that there were armored steam cars). Participated in organizing the production and supply of Daimler-Lutsk cars for Russia. In 1912, the magazine “Aeronaut” informed readers: “On February 24 in the afternoon at the airfield in Johannisthal... aviator Girt made very successful test flights with a passenger on the greatest airplane in the world, built by the Russian inventor Boris Lutsky... The device reaches a speed of up to 150 km/ h and resembles a huge bird in flight. Girt today overtook all the other airplanes participating in the flights with this device, which seemed motionless in comparison with the new device.”

Arc welding

Nikolai Benardos comes from Novorossiysk Greeks who lived on the Black Sea coast. He is the author of more than a hundred inventions, but he went down in history thanks to the electric arc welding of metals, which he patented in 1882 in Germany, France, Russia, Italy, England, the USA and other countries, calling his method “electrohephaestus”.
Benardos's method spread across the planet like wildfire. Instead of fiddling with rivets and bolts, it was enough to simply weld pieces of metal. However, it took about half a century for welding to finally take a dominant position among installation methods. A seemingly simple method is to create an electric arc between a consumable electrode in the welder’s hands and the pieces of metal that need to be welded. But the solution is elegant. True, it did not help the inventor meet old age with dignity; he died in poverty in 1905 in an almshouse.

Incandescent lamp

Physics professor Vasily Petrov discovered an amazing phenomenon - an electric arc in 1802 (the Englishman Humphry Davy did this six years later). Many scientists have tried to make this discharge burn long time. But only the engineer Alexander Lodygin (1847 - 1923) came up with the idea to pump out the air from the flask, and a little later replace the carbon wicks with tungsten ones, which are still used today. He even received a patent, including in the USA. But Thomas Edison turned out to be a more successful marketer.

Lodygin is the creator of the autonomous diving suit project

He improved Lodygin's light bulb, patented it as his own in 1879, and discovered industrial production and trumpeted his success around the world. Lodygin had no time to challenge the championship. He was too passionate about science, and then a revolution happened in Russia, and Alexander Nikolaevich, a White Guard officer, had to go abroad. He couldn’t find a job in the States and was forced to accept General Electric’s offer to buy the patent from him. Note that the American company bought the rights from the Russian, and not from its fellow countryman Edison. But for some reason he is considered the author of the incandescent light bulb.

The first Russian assault rifle

Vladimir Grigorievich Fedorov is the author of the first Russian automatic rifle, which can safely be called an “automatic”, since the rifle could fire bursts. The machine was created before the outbreak of the First World War. Beginning in 1916, the Fedorov rifle began to be used in combat.

As you know, the idea of a parachute was proposed by Leonardo da Vinci, and several centuries later, with the advent of aeronautics, regular jumps from balloons began: parachutes were suspended under them in a partially opened state. In 1912, the American Barry was able to leave the plane with such a parachute and, importantly, landed on the ground alive.
The problem was solved in every possible way. For example, the American Stefan Banich made a parachute in the form of an umbrella with telescopic spokes that were attached around the pilot’s torso. This design worked, although it was still not very convenient.

In 1911, the Russian military man Kotelnikov, impressed by the death of the Russian pilot Captain L. Matsievich at the All-Russian Aeronautics Festival in 1910, invented a fundamentally new parachute RK-1. Kotelnikov's parachute was compact. Its dome is made of silk, the slings were divided into 2 groups and attached to the shoulder girths of the suspension system. The canopy and lines were placed in a wooden, and later aluminum, backpack. Kotelnikov patented his invention in France on the eve of the First World War. Later, in 1923, Kotelnikov proposed a backpack for stowing a parachute, made in the form of an envelope with honeycombs for lines. During 1917, 65 parachute descents were registered in the Russian army, 36 for rescue and 29 voluntary.

Mask

The first hose gas masks in the Russian Empire were used when gilding the domes of St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1838-1841. They were glass bells with a hose through which air was supplied, but they did not save them from poisoning; 60 craftsmen died. Apparently, there was no skin protection through which high concentrations of mercury vapor could be absorbed.

Mask with carbon filter N. D. Zelinsky

In 1915, chemist Nikolai Dmitrievich Zelinsky worked at the Petrograd Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Finance, where he was struck by the idea of using coal to protect the lungs of soldiers from gases. His activity was related to the production of alcohol, in which coal was used to purify fusel oils. During testing, it was found that this breed has the ability to absorb volatile toxic compounds. The world's first filtering coal gas mask, invented in the Russian Empire by the Russian scientist Zelinsky, was adopted by the Entente army in 1916. The main sorbent material in it was activated carbon.

Periodic Table of Chemical Elements

The periodic table of chemical elements (Mendeleev's table) is a classification of chemical elements that establishes the dependence of various properties of elements on charge atomic nucleus. The system is a graphic expression of the periodic law established by the Russian chemist D.I. Mendeleev in 1869. Its original version was developed by D.I. Mendeleev in 1869-1871 and established the dependence of the properties of elements on their atomic weight (in modern terms, on atomic mass).

Contrary to the prevailing legend, the scientist did not invent vodka; it was invented before him. The myth arose due to the fact that in 1865 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the study chemical effects combination of alcohol and water.

It happens: the discovery seems to be in the air. But nevertheless, Dmitry Mendeleev (1834 - 1907) ordered the chemical elements known at that time according to the growth of atomic masses and published the table before Lothar Meyer. This fact spurred the German on, and a few months later he published his version in the German magazine Liebigs Annalen. Dmitry Ivanovich replied: in December 1869, he presented the scientific community with an updated table, describing the probable properties of three still unknown elements. One of them, gallium, was discovered more than five years later, scandium and germanium even later.

“I am ready to admit that I do not have such courage to make predictions. No one was more happy about their coincidence with reality,” Lothar Meyer assured. But he zealously defended his right to authorship of the periodic table. To end the controversy, in 1882 the Royal Society of London awarded both the Davy Gold Medal “for extremely important discoveries in any field of chemistry.” But in Germany, of course, our primacy will never be recognized.

Electric motor

Boris Semenovich Jacobi, an architect by training, at the age of 33, while in Konigsberg, became interested in the physics of charged particles, and in 1834 he made a discovery - an electric motor operating on the principle of rotation of the working shaft. Jacobi instantly became famous in scientific circles, and among many invitations for further study and development, he chose St. Petersburg University. So, together with academician Emilius Christianovich Lentz, he continued work on the electric motor, creating two more options. The first was intended for a boat and rotated the paddle wheels. With the help of this engine, the ship easily stayed afloat, even moving against the current of the Neva River. And the second electric motor was the prototype of a modern tram and rolled a person in a cart along the rails. Among Jacobi's inventions, one can also note electroforming - a process that allows you to create perfect copies of the original object. This discovery was widely used to decorate interiors, houses and much more. The scientist’s achievements also include the creation of underground and underwater cables. Boris Jacobi became the author of about a dozen designs of telegraph apparatus, and in 1850 he invented the world's first direct-printing telegraph apparatus, which worked on the principle of synchronous movement. This device was recognized as one of the greatest achievements in electrical engineering of the mid-19th century.

Multi-engine aircraft "Ilya Muromets"

It’s hard to believe now, but just over a hundred years ago it was believed that a multi-engine aircraft would be extremely difficult and dangerous to fly. The absurdity of these statements was proved by Igor Sikorsky, who in the summer of 1913 took into the air a twin-engine aircraft called Le Grand, and then its four-engine version, the Russian Knight.
On February 12, 1914 in Riga, at the training ground of the Russian-Baltic plant, the four-engine Ilya Muromets took off. There were 16 passengers on board the four-engine plane - an absolute record for that time. The plane had a comfortable cabin, heating, a bath with toilet and... a promenade deck. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft, in the summer of 1914, Igor Sikorsky flew on the Ilya Muromets from St. Petersburg to Kyiv and back, setting a world record. During World War I, these aircraft became the world's first heavy bombers.

ATV and helicopter

Igor Sikorsky also created the first production helicopter, the R-4, or S-47, which the Vought-Sikorsky company began producing in 1942. It was the first and only helicopter to serve in World War II, in the Pacific theater of operations, as a staff transport and for casualty evacuation.
However, it is unlikely that the US military department would have allowed Igor Sikorsky to boldly experiment with helicopter technology if not for the amazing rotary-wing machine of George Botezat, who in 1922 began testing his helicopter, which the American military ordered him. The helicopter was the first to actually take off from the ground and be able to stay in the air. The possibility of vertical flight was thus proven.
Botezat's helicopter was called the "flying octopus" because of its interesting design. It was a quadcopter: four propellers were placed at the ends of metal trusses, and the control system was located in the center - exactly like modern radio-controlled drones.

The world's first tank

The world's first all-terrain vehicle tank was tested in Russia near Riga on May 18, 1915. More than 3 months remained before the tests of the English Lincoln No. 1 tank, described in encyclopedias as the world's first tank. The car was designed and built in the workshops of the Nizhny Novgorod Infantry Regiment stationed in Riga by the 23-year-old noble general engineer and inventor Alexander Aleksandrovich Porokhovshchikov (1893–1942). Vehicle weight 3.5–4 tons, crew – 1 person, machine gun armament, bulletproof armor. A 15 kW engine, planetary transmission, and combined wheel-track propulsion unit (one track and two steered wheels) provided a maximum speed of 25 km/h. In the documents, the car is referred to as a “self-propelled vehicle,” “an improved vehicle,” or a “self-propelled carriage.” In one of his articles, Porokhovshchikov wrote: “Every Russian person should have one concern - service to the Motherland!”

The great Russian physicist-electrical engineer Alexander Stepanovich Popov (03/04/1859, the village of Turinskie Rudniki, Perm province - 12/31/1905, St. Petersburg) at a meeting of the Russian Physical-Chemical Society on May 7, 1895, made a report on the wireless communication system he invented - radio - and demonstrated its work. Popov ended his message with the following words: “In conclusion, I can express the hope that my device, with further improvement, can be used to transmit signals over a distance using fast electrical oscillations, as soon as a source of such oscillations with sufficient energy is found.”

The activities of A. S. Popov, which preceded the discovery of radio, included research in the field of electrical engineering, magnetism and electromagnetic waves. Unfortunately, the discovery was not patented.

On March 24, 1896, Popov transmitted the world's first radiogram over a distance of 250 m, and in 1899 he designed a receiver for receiving signals by ear using a telephone handset. This made it possible to simplify the reception circuit and increase the radio communication range.

Radio A.S.Popov

For his next major invention - a detector receiver with headphones - Popov received a Russian privilege (Russian patent) No. 6066 in November 1901. The detector receiver with headphones was for a long time the most widespread due to its simplicity and low cost; Under the name “telephone dispatch receiver,” the device received a large gold medal at the 1900 international exhibition in Paris. Popov's receivers were widely used in Russia and France. In 1897, Popov discovered the phenomenon of radar and introduced radio into the navy.

The first radiogram transmitted by A. S. Popov to the island of Gogland on February 6, 1900, contained an order for the icebreaker Ermak to go to the aid of fishermen carried out to sea on an ice floe. The icebreaker complied with the order, and 27 fishermen were rescued. Popov established the world's first radio communication line at sea, created the first military and civilian radio stations, and successfully carried out work that proved the possibility of using radio in the ground forces and in aeronautics. In 1900, radio communication devices were successfully used to rescue the battleship Admiral General Apraksin, which was in distress near the island. Gogland. After saving the battleship, Admiral S. O. Makarov telegraphed Popov: “On behalf of all Kronstadt sailors, I greet you with brilliant success.” A year later, on June 2, 1896, in England, G. Marconi filed an application for the invention of equipment for wireless communication using electromagnetic waves. He was refused with reference to the publications of A. S. Popov.

Two days before his death, A.S. Popov was elected chairman of the physics department of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. With this election, Russian scientists emphasized the enormous merits of A. S. Popov to Russian science.

At the same time that in Munich the Bell telephone received a categorical verdict “unsuitable for long-distance communication, the limit is 10 km,” Pavel Golubitsky, a famous inventor and pioneer of domestic telephony, was testing a similar design in Russia. The distance that the device he developed covered was 353 km!

Pavel Mikhailovich Golubitsky was born on March 16 (28), 1845 in the Tver province. He graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University in 1870. On his estate Pochuevo, Golubitsky created the first telephone workshop in Russia, which even had a letterhead. The inventor also had a personal letterhead: “Pavel Mikhailovich Golubitsky – inventor of telephones.”

The workshop employed four people, who over several years produced more than 100 devices. It was Golubitsky’s team that developed the design of a microphone with carbon powder - this microphone is still alive in some devices. It's hard to believe, but thanks to Golubitsky we can hold the phone in one hand - in the form of a handset, and not in two, as before, applying two mechanisms to the ear and mouth. A lever for switching a telephone from call mode to conversation mode, a switch that makes it possible to connect several telephone lines in pairs, the introduction of a telephone network on the railway - all these are Pavel Mikhailovich’s inventions.

They repeatedly tried to buy up documentation and even an entire workshop from Golubitsky, but he, not receiving any income from his life’s passion, nevertheless invariably refused. In 1892, the workshop, probably as a result of arson, burned to the ground. At the same time, senior master Vasily Blinov, along with the drawings, fell through the ground. Only a few finished telephone sets survived, as well as technical documentation on patents and new developments.

TV

Boris Lvovich Rosing (1869-1933) - Russian physicist, scientist, teacher, inventor of television, author of the first experiments on television, for which the Russian Technical Society awarded him a gold medal and the K. G. Siemens Prize. He grew up lively and inquisitive, studied successfully, and was fond of literature and music. But his life turned out to be connected not with humanitarian areas of activity, but with the exact sciences. After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, B. L. Rosing became interested in the idea of transmitting images over a distance. By 1912, B. L. Rosing developed all the basic elements of modern black and white television tubes. His work became known in many countries at that time, and his patent for the invention was recognized in Germany, Great Britain and the USA.

Russian inventor B. L. Rosing is the inventor of television

In 1931, he was arrested in the “case of academicians” “for financial assistance to counter-revolutionaries” (he lent money to a friend who was subsequently arrested) and exiled to Kotlas for three years without the right to work. However, thanks to the intercession of the Soviet and foreign scientific community, in 1932 he was transferred to Arkhangelsk, where he entered the department of physics of the Arkhangelsk Forestry Engineering Institute. There he died on April 20, 1933 at the age of 63 from a cerebral hemorrhage. On November 15, 1957, B. L. Rosing was completely acquitted.

TV

The “information box”, which modern people sometimes cannot tear themselves away from, was invented by the Soviet physicist Vladimir Zvorykin. Vladimir was born into a merchant family in the city of Murom. Since childhood, the boy had the opportunity to read a lot and carry out all sorts of experiments - his father encouraged this passion for science in every possible way. Having started studying in St. Petersburg, he learned about cathode ray tubes and came to the conclusion that the future of television lay in electronic circuits. Zvorykin was lucky; he left Russia on time in 1919. He worked for many years and in 1931 the scientist announced his work. In the early 30s, he patented a transmitting television tube - an iconoscope. Even earlier, he designed one of the variants of the receiving tube - a kinescope. A year later, the first twenty Soviet televisions were released in Leningrad. A little later, television broadcasting appeared, and “information boxes” began to be produced in the thousands. And then, already in the 1940s, he split the light beam into blue, red and green colors and got color TV. It is noteworthy that until 1967, the Soviet people were content with only black and white broadcasting, although Zworykin proposed the idea of color television 35 years earlier. In memory of the great Soviet inventor, a monument to Vladimir Zvorykin and his invention - the first television - was erected near the capital's Ostankino television center.

In addition, Zvorykin developed a night vision device, an electron microscope and many other interesting things. He invented throughout his long life and even in retirement continued to amaze with his new solutions.

Microwave oven

On June 13, 1941, the Trud newspaper described a special installation that used ultra-high frequency currents to process meat products. It was developed in the magnetic wave laboratory of the All-Union Research Institute of the Meat Industry. Cooking the ham took only 15–20 minutes instead of 5–7 hours using the previous technology. The US patent for the microwave oven was issued in 1946.

Kalashnikov assault rifle

Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov

The AK-47 assault rifle, mass-produced by the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant, brought its creator fame such as no other designer on the planet had known. Russian designer, general, creator of machine guns and machine guns Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov (born November 10, 1919, Kurya village, Altai) was the 17th child in the family. His machine gun is distributed in 55 countries and is depicted on coats of arms. The list of foreign copies of the AK-47 contains no less than 28 items. It was produced under different names in Hungary, Germany, Israel, Romania, Finland, China, Poland, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Korea, Italy, Bulgaria, Egypt, India, Cuba, and the USA. The name of the American copy of the machine is typical: PolyTech Legend. The Swiss make Kalashnikov watches, Kalashnikov vodka is popular among the British, the Arabs consider the name Kalash magical and give it to boys.

Atomic and hydrogen bomb

Academician Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov occupies a special place in the science of the twentieth century and in the history of our country. He, an outstanding physicist, played an exceptional role in the development of scientific and scientific-technical problems of mastering nuclear energy in the Soviet Union. Solving this most difficult task, creating in a short time the nuclear shield of the Motherland in one of the most dramatic periods in the history of our country, developing problems for peaceful use nuclear energy was the main business of his life. It was under his leadership that the most terrible weapon of the post-war era was created and successfully tested in 1949. There is no room for error, otherwise - execution... And already in 1961, a group of nuclear physicists from Kurchatov’s laboratory created the most powerful explosive device in the entire history of mankind - the AN 602 hydrogen bomb, which was immediately assigned a completely appropriate historical name - “Tsar Bomb” " When testing this bomb, the seismic wave resulting from the explosion circled the globe three times.

First man in space

Soviet designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev worked on the creation of single-seat spacecraft from 1958 to 1963. The Vostok spacecraft, created under his leadership, became the first project in all history that made it possible to launch a man into outer space.

On March 25, 1961, a test launch of the Vostok spacecraft took place with the dog Zvezdochka on board, as well as a dummy astronaut, who was given the nickname “Ivan Ivanovich.” The tests were successful, the unit landed safely.

On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin carried out the world's first human flight into space on the Vostok spacecraft using the R-7 rocket (the first launch of the rocket was August 21, 1957). The whole world flew around the winged Gagarin: “Let’s go!” at the moment of launch from Earth. Gagarin made a revolution around the Earth on the ship in 1 hour 48 minutes. All radio and television stations in the world broadcast details of the flight. The whole world recognized the call signs of Gagarin - “Kedr” and S.P. Korolev, who led the flight - “Zarya”. Returning to Earth, Gagarin traveled to half the countries globe, and everywhere he was greeted as one of their own - with flowers, smiles and cheers. But, no matter how boundless his fame was, he remained a modest man: six years later in 1967, during the launch of the 9th Russian manned spacecraft with V. M. Komarov, Gagarin acted as a backup. In 1968, Gagarin’s hometown of Gzhatsk in the Smolensk region was renamed Gagarin.

Against the backdrop of this worldwide fame of the Russian man, the Americans experienced shock. After the epoch-making breakthrough into space by the Russians, who launched the first artificial Earth satellite (October 4, 1957), they set the goal of putting the first man into space. They had to catch up again. Almost a month after the Russians (May 5, 1961), they launched the first American into space. The second man in space after Gagarin was A. Shepard, who made a suborbital 15-minute flight. In fact, it was not a flight, but a “jump” into space without placing the ship into orbit of the Earth’s satellite. The first American (J. Glenn) made a real orbital space flight only the next year, on February 20, 1962. The Americans, proud of Shepard’s achievement, renamed the astronaut’s hometown Spacetown (Cosmograd). Unfortunately, Cosmograd never appeared on our map, although there were more reasons for this than the Americans. Since 1962, April 12 became a state holiday of the USSR - Cosmonautics Day. Since 1968, it has been celebrated as World Aviation and Space Day. In 2011, by decision of the UN, April 12 was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight.

The first artificial satellite of the Earth

The first artificial earth satellite

In 1955, designer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev turned to the CPSU Central Committee with the initiative to launch an artificial Earth satellite into outer space. The satellite was launched into low-Earth orbit on October 4, 1957. The spacecraft, called the simplest satellite-1 (PS-1), looked like a ball reaching a diameter of 58 centimeters. His weight was 83.6 kilograms. The design was supplemented by four antennas (2.9 and 2.4 meters), which were necessary for transmitting signals; their operation was carried out from transmitter batteries. After 295 seconds from the moment of launch, the artificial Earth satellite, together with the main rocket unit, weighing 7.5 tons, found itself in an orbit whose altitude at perigee was 288 kilometers, and at apogee - 947 kilometers. At 315 seconds, the satellite separated from the rocket, and immediately the whole world could hear its call signs.

3 facts about the invention:

The satellite flew for 92 days, until January 4, 1958. He managed to complete 1440 revolutions around our planet.

The launch date is marked on Russian Federation like Space Forces Day.

The United States managed to successfully launch its own satellite only a year and a half after a similar launch in Russia.

Launching a ship to another planet

On November 16, 1965, the automatic interplanetary station “Venera-3” was launched, and three and a half months later, for the first time in the world, it flew to another planet - Venus. The completion of the flight - another world achievement - the first landing on another planet on March 1, 1966. Scientific data were obtained about outer and near-planetary space in the year of the quiet Sun. The large volume of trajectory measurements was of great value for studying the problems of ultra-long-range communications and interplanetary flights. Magnetic fields, cosmic rays, flows of charged low-energy particles, solar plasma flows and their energy spectra, cosmic radio emissions and micrometeors were studied. For the first time on another planet there was a pennant depicting the coat of arms of the country - the Soviet Union.

Artificial satellite of Mars

Using the Proton launch vehicle, on July 12, 1998, the automatic interplanetary station Phobos-2 was launched, flew up to Mars and was placed into orbit of an artificial satellite of Mars. At the stage of orbital motion around Mars, the plasma environment of Mars, the interaction of its atmosphere with the solar wind were studied, studies of the satellite of Mars were carried out: unique scientific results were obtained on the thermal characteristics of Phobos.

Color photo

Color photography appeared at the end of the 19th century, but photographs of that time were characterized by a shift to one or another part of the spectrum. Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky was one of the best in Russia and, like many of his colleagues around the world, dreamed of achieving the most natural color rendition.
In 1902, Prokudin-Gorsky studied color photography in Germany with Adolf Miethe, who by that time was a worldwide star of color photography. Returning home, Prokudin-Gorsky began to improve the chemistry of the process and in 1905 he patented his own sensitizer, that is, a substance that increases the sensitivity of photographic plates. As a result, he was able to produce negatives of exceptional quality.
Prokudin-Gorsky organized a number of expeditions across the territory of the Russian Empire, photographing famous people (for example, Leo Tolstoy), and peasants, temples, landscapes, factories, thus creating an amazing collection of colorful Russia. Prokudin-Gorsky's demonstrations aroused great interest in the world and pushed other specialists to develop new principles of color printing.

Ultrasound examinations (ultrasound)

The ability of ultrasound to penetrate metals without noticeable absorption was discovered in 1927 by Russian physicist, professor of the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Sergei Yakovlevich Sokolov (10/08/1897, village of Kryazhim, Saratov province - 05/20/1957, Leningrad). In 1928, he used this phenomenon to detect defects in metals. For the first time he developed the designs of ultrasonic flaw detectors. Winner of two Stalin Prizes for the invention of the ultrasonic flaw detection method and for the invention of the ultrasonic microscope, known to everyone from ultrasound. Founder of the science of acoustic holography.

Photosynthesis

Russian botanist, physiologist, professor Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev (05/22/1843, St. Petersburg - 04/28/1920, Moscow) described the process of photosynthesis in the green leaf of plants, discovered the role of chlorophyll in photosynthesis, the importance of photosynthesis in plants as the primary source of organic matter and energy necessary for life all organisms on Earth. In Moscow Nikitsky Gate there is a monument to Timiryazev. The Moscow Agricultural Academy, the Institute of Plant Physiology, streets in Russian cities, and an Academy of Sciences award are named after him.

Chromatography

Russian physiologist, biochemist, professor at Yurievsky (Tartu) and Voronezh universities Mikhail Semenovich Tsvet (05/14/1872, Asti - 06/26/1919, Voronezh) - the founder (1903) of chromatography - a method of separation and analysis of mixtures, widely used throughout the world. He died of hunger and was buried in Voronezh.

Theory of chemical chain reactions

Russian physical chemist, academician Nikolai Nikolaevich Semenov (04/15/1896, Saratov - 09/25/1986, Moscow) created the theory of thermal explosion gas mixtures and the general quantitative theory of chemical chain reactions, the theory of combustion of gas mixtures, and the thermal theory of ignition. For developing the theory chain reactions in 1956 Semenov was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry (together with Cyril Hinshelwood). N. N. Semenov is the author of the scientific discovery “The phenomenon of energy branching of chains in chemical reactions", listed in State Register discoveries of the USSR under No. 172 with priority from 1962. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery. His name was given to the Institute of Chemical Physics in 1988.

VCR

The AMPEX company was created in 1944 by Russian emigrant Alexander Matveevich Ponyatov, who took three letters of his initials for the name and added EX - short for “excellent”. At first, Ponyatov produced sound recording equipment, but in the early 50s he focused on developing video recording.
By that time, there had already been experiments in recording television images, but they required a huge amount of tape. Ponyatov and colleagues proposed recording the signal across the tape using a block of rotating heads.

By order of Ponyatov, birch trees were necessarily planted near any office - in memory of the Motherland

On November 30, 1956, the first previously recorded CBS News aired. And in 1960, the company, represented by its leader and founder, received an Oscar for its outstanding contribution to the technical equipment of the film and television industry.
Fate brought Alexander Ponyatov together with interesting people. He was a competitor of Zvorykin, Ray Dolby, the creator of the famous noise reduction system, worked with him, and one of the first clients and investors was the famous Bing Crosby.

Personal computer

Despite the fact that the USA is considered to be the country where electronic computing technology and other “smart” machines were invented, the first personal computer was invented precisely in the USSR - this historical fact. Long before the American Steve Jobs founded the legendary Apple Soviet scientist Isaac Brook, together with his young colleague Bashir Rameev, developed a unique project for a digital computer with rigid program control. In October of the same year, scientists submitted a corresponding project to the USSR Academy of Sciences, and then began programming.

The name "computer", adopted in Russian-language scientific literature, is synonymous with computer. This invention changed the life of all mankind. The USSR was one of the first to create such a machine.

After some time, the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the introduction of advanced technology in national economy issued by I.S. Brook and B.I. Rameev Copyright No. 10475 for the invention of a digital computer dated December 4, 1948. This was the first document in the history of our country concerning information technology. I.S. Brook was the first to put forward and implement the idea of creating small computers for use in scientific laboratories. Under his leadership in 1950-1951. the country's first small digital electronic computer with stored memory was created M-I program. The machine was equipped with 730 vacuum tubes. Launched into trial operation at the beginning of 1952, it turned out to be the only operating computer in Russia.
One of the first personal computers was made in Omsk. In 1968, Arseny Gorokhov, an Omsk designer at the Research Institute of Aviation Technologies, invented a device he called a “programmable device intellector.” Gorokhov's intellect was designed almost the same as modern computers. He had a typewriter keyboard, a processor (which he called a communicator), and a cathode ray tube (monitor). In 1968, Arseny Anatolyevich Gorokhov patented a personal computer in the USSR 8 years before Apple. In addition, Arseny Anatolyevich invented a plotter - a device that was supposed to create drawings and programs, and so quickly that there was nothing similar at that time in the design environment of those times!

A long time ago, 30 years ago, the “Pentamino” puzzle was popular in the USSR: you had to place various figures consisting of five squares on a lined field. Even collections of problems were published, and the results were discussed.
From a mathematical point of view, such a puzzle was an excellent test for a computer. And so Alexey Pajitnov, a researcher at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, wrote such a program for his computer “Electronics 60”. But there wasn’t enough power, and Alexey removed one cube from the figures, that is, he made a “tetromino”. Well, then the idea came to have the figures fall into the “glass”. This is how Tetris was born.
It was the first computer game from behind the Iron Curtain, and for many people the first computer game at all. And although many new toys have already appeared, Tetris still attracts with its apparent simplicity and real complexity.

White chocolate

White chocolate was first invented in Omsk! In 1942, professor at the Siberian Institute of Agriculture and Forestry (now Omsk State Agrarian University) Janusz Zaikovsky even received the Stalin Prize for this. However, at that time the sweet product that Janusz Stanislavovich invented was called differently - briquetting milk powder with sugar. The technology for preparing such milk was not developed for fun. This product was used to support the strength of wounded Red Army soldiers and soldiers who fought the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. That is why the Siberian scientist was given the highest government award of that time, which was awarded for exceptional services to the country.

It is interesting that as soon as the war ended, the production of white chocolate was curtailed in the USSR, because the entire economy of the country was aimed at ensuring defense capability, and the interests of ordinary people were not so relevant for the state, especially when it came to such “fun” as chocolate. In the West, on the contrary, the production of white chocolate was launched - in 1948 it was mastered by the Nestlé company. In our country, this delicacy, now imported, reappeared only in the 90s of the last century.

Nuclear power plant

Today, a huge percentage of energy production in the world comes from nuclear power plants. Few people know that nuclear power plants were also invented in the USSR. In 1951 soviet government gave Igor Kurchatov the task of doing research that would give humanity the opportunity to effectively use atomic energy. The scientist quickly completed his work, and within two years the world’s first nuclear power plant was operational in Obninsk, which was in operation for 48 years. April 29, 2002 at 11:31 a.m. Moscow time, the reactor of the Obninsk nuclear power plant was shut down forever, and for the last 13 years the nuclear power plant has been operating as a memorial industrial complex.

On October 17, 1898, the world's first icebreaker "Ermak" was launched in Russia, designed by S. O. Makarov (born 01/08/1849), shipbuilder - N. E. Kuteynikov (born 03/09/1845). Admiral Makarov made Arctic voyages on the icebreaker Ermak in 1899 and 1901. "Ermak" saved the Baltic squadron in 1918, ensuring its famous ice crossing from Helsingfors to Kronstadt. Since 1932 he has driven caravans along the Northern sea route, in 1938, he removed four Papaninites from a breaking ice floe. During the Great Patriotic War, he participated in the evacuation of a military base from the island. Hanko, under shelling and air raids, led warships and transports around the Baltic. "Ermak" was in service for an incredibly long time for an icebreaker - 65 years!

Mi series helicopters

During the Great Patriotic War, Academician Mil worked in evacuation in the village of Bilimbay, mainly working on improving combat aircraft, improving their stability and controllability. His work was recognized with five government awards. In 1943, Mil defended his Ph.D. thesis “Criteria for controllability and maneuverability of an aircraft”; in 1945 - doctoral dissertation: “Dynamics of a rotor with articulated blades and its application to problems of stability and controllability of a gyroplane and helicopter.” In December 1947, M. L. Mil became the chief designer of an experimental helicopter design bureau. After a series of tests at the beginning of 1950, a decree was issued on the creation of an experimental series of 15 GM-1 helicopters under the designation Mi-1.

Airplanes of Andrei Tupolev

The design bureau of Andrei Tupolev developed more than 100 types of aircraft, 70 of which were mass-produced over the years. With the participation of his aircraft, 78 world records were set, 28 unique flights were completed, including the rescue of the crew of the Chelyuskin steamship with the participation of the ANT-4 aircraft. Non-stop flights of the crews of Valery Chkalov and Mikhail Gromov to the USA through the North Pole were carried out on ANT-25 model aircraft. ANT-25 aircraft were also used in the North Pole scientific expeditions of Ivan Papanin. A large number of bomber aircraft, torpedo bombers, reconnaissance aircraft designed by Tupolev (TV-1, TV-3, SB, TV-7, MTB-2, TU-2) and torpedo boats G-4, G-5 were used in combat operations in the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War in 1941-1945. In peacetime, military and civilian aircraft developed under the leadership of Tupolev included the Tu-4 strategic bomber, the first Soviet jet bomber Tu-12, the Tu-95 turboprop strategic bomber, the Tu-16 long-range missile carrier-bomber, and the Tu-22 supersonic bomber; the first jet passenger aircraft Tu-104 (built on the basis of the Tu-16 bomber), the first turboprop intercontinental passenger airliner Tu-114, short- and medium-haul aircraft Tu-124, Tu-134, Tu-154. Together with Alexei Tupolev, the supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144 was developed. Tupolev aircraft became the basis of the Aeroflot airline fleet and were also operated in dozens of countries around the world.

Plaster casts

During the Caucasian War in 1847, Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov invented the world's first plaster casts. He used dressings soaked in starch, which proved very effective.

Artificial heart

In 1936, the great USSR transplant surgeon Vladimir Demikhov invented artificial heart. It was an electric plastic pump. Demikhov conducted an experiment on a dog, replacing its real heart with an electronic one, with which the animal lived for several hours.

Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov

This was the first such experiment in world practice, which gave hope that after some time doctors will be able to treat people with heart diseases in this way. Over the decades, the scientist improved his technique, thanks to which surgeons managed to save thousands of lives. Today, all over the world, this, although very complex, but already ordinary operation of implanting artificial devices into the heart helps save sick people a full life for many years.

Since ancient times, humanity has dreamed of getting rid of pain. This was especially true for treatment, which was sometimes more painful than the illness itself. Herbs, strong drinks only dulled the symptoms, but did not allow serious actions accompanied by serious painful sensations. This significantly hampered the development of medicine. Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov is a great Russian surgeon, to whom the world owes many important discoveries, and made a huge contribution to anesthesiology. In 1847, he summarized his experiments in a monograph on anesthesia, which was published throughout the world. Three years later, for the first time in the history of medicine, he began to operate on the wounded with ether anesthesia in the field. In total, the great surgeon performed about 10,000 operations under ether anesthesia. Nikolai Ivanovich is also the author topographic anatomy, which has no analogues in the world.

Eye microsurgery

Millions of doctors, having received a diploma, are eager to help people and dream of future achievements. But most of them gradually lose their former passion: no aspirations, the same thing from year to year. Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov’s enthusiasm and interest in the profession only grew from year to year. Just six years after graduation, he defended his Ph.D. thesis, and in 1960, in Cheboksary, where he then worked, he performed a revolutionary operation to replace the lens of the eye with an artificial one. Similar operations were carried out abroad before, but in the USSR they were considered pure quackery, and Fedorov was fired from his job. After that, he became the head of the department of eye diseases at the Arkhangelsk Medical Institute.

Svyatoslav Nikolaevich Fedorov

It was here that the “Fedorov empire” began in his biography: a team of like-minded people gathered around the irrepressible surgeon, ready for revolutionary changes in eye microsurgery. People from all over the country flocked to Arkhangelsk with the hope of regaining their lost sight - and they really began to see. The innovative surgeon was also “officially” appreciated - together with his team he moved to Moscow. And he began to do absolutely fantastic things: correct vision using keratotomy (special incisions on the cornea of the eye), transplant donor corneas, developed a new method of operating for glaucoma, and became a pioneer of laser eye microsurgery.

When we hear the word “laser,” we immediately imagine a fantastic sword from Star Wars. In reality, lasers have long been used in everyday life, medicine and space. People first started talking about lasers thanks to the discoveries of Voronezh scientist Nikolai Basov and his teacher Alexander Prokhorov.

It was they who, in 1955, began researching a quantum generator (a microwave amplifier using stimulated radiation, the active medium of which is ammonia). This device was called a maser. But at the heart of this invention, American scientists Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow conducted similar experiments with light, and not with microwaves, which is why their development is called a laser.

In 1960, the American physicist Theodore Maiman, relying on the discoveries of Basov, Prokhorov and Townes, designed the first ruby laser. Later, gas lasers were created. It was a breakthrough in science and technology. After all, the uniqueness of a laser is that it is capable of emitting light in much shorter pulses than conventional light sources. In this case, a colossal energy density is achieved in the laser beam, comparable to the explosion of an aerial bomb. Laser beam You can easily cut a metal sheet. That is why the military relied on the laser high hopes, but in the end this invention found more application in medicine and space.

This is a truly unique invention, which scientists compare with the advent of radio and television. It is no coincidence that in 1964 Nikolai Basov, Alexander Prokhorov and Charles Townes became Nobel Prize laureates in physics.

The device is the progenitor of cellular communications

At the end of the 60s, on the basis of the Voronezh Scientific Research Institute of Communications, a device for mobile radiotelephone communication “Altai” was created, the predecessor of cellular communication. “Altai” was supposed to become a full-fledged telephone that could be used to talk in a car. To make a call, you just need to dial the desired number, bypassing the conversation with dispatchers. Today it seems primitive, but at that time “Altai” was real know-how. Scientists tried to make “Altai” look like a regular device with a tube and buttons. Automatic mobile communications were first used in Moscow in 1965. At first, Altai appeared only in party cars. Not many people knew about the invention. The list of subscribers was approved by the Soviet ministry.

A similar system in the United States was launched only a year later. Its commercial launch took place in 1969. And in the USSR, by 1970, “Altai” was already installed in about 30 cities. Over time, the device was modernized. “Altai” was especially widely used during the Moscow Olympics in 1980. For this sporting event, the Altai base station was installed on the Ostankino TV tower. All reports from sports journalists went through Altai. By 1994, Altai networks operated in 120 cities of the CIS. Since cellular communications became available, Altai has lost its authority, but even today in some cities and towns you can connect to the Altai network.

Soviet inventors can confidently be called one of the best in the world. And this is quite natural: development and support scientific school in the USSR was one of the most important strategic priorities of the Soviet state. We, the residents of the former USSR, can only be proud of our scientists, whose discoveries made it possible to bring world civilization to a qualitatively higher level. new level. Of course, in one article it is impossible to talk about all Soviet scientists, inventors, designers, whose scientific discoveries changed the world.

Where they talked about the inventions of Russian craftsmen. But the section has disappeared somewhere. Are there really no inventors?

G. Fokin, Taganrog

We didn’t die out, thank God. And there are enough letters from the Kulibins in our mail. We present another selection of scientific and technical ideas and proposals from Russian inventors.

Energy is provided by... bubbles

Pensioner Vasily Markelov from St. Petersburg designs and tests models of his patented power plants on his site. By installing such a generator in the basement of a house, its residents will not pay for heating or electricity.

What a hydraulic turbine is is well known: the flow of water presses on the rotor blades (impeller) and spins it. The mechanical energy of rotation is converted into electrical energy. But Vasily Foteevich invented and patented a pneumohydraulic turbine. “Pneumo” and “hydro” are air and water. Markelov added a stream of air to the water, or, more precisely, launched it using a “Whirlwind” vacuum cleaner into an experimental barrel of water, having previously placed a model of his turbine there.

“In a turbine there are two impellers on one shaft (axle). The flow of the water-air mixture rises and rotates them, explains V. Markelov. - But if in a conventional hydraulic turbine the installation of additional wheels is pointless (the total power will still be the same as with one wheel), then in the case of a pneumohydraulic turbine the power is added up. The force received on the shaft will be directly proportional to the number of impellers. Put two - and the shaft will rotate twice as fast. Put it at ten and increase the power by an order of magnitude! And it’s all about the properties of the air bubbles that make up the upward flow.”

The air comes out of the pipe in separate bubbles, and they, rising and passing through the turbine body, work like a piston, pressing on the wheel blades. Moreover, they press with constant force, regardless of which wheel on the shaft it is. Another secret is that the supplied air is much colder than water: when it enters a liquid medium, it instantly takes away its heat and converts it into mechanical energy. How? The air bubble simply increases its volume, and the buoyancy force that puts pressure on the blades also increases. “This is a feature of the interaction between water and air. Water has a number of properties due to which energy can be extracted from it,” the inventor shows calculations, and it follows from them: without violating , the output can be many times more energy than expended. In this case, energy was spent on the operation of the vacuum cleaner, but Markelov compares it with the work of a fireman when loading coal into the firebox of a steam locomotive: “The power consumption of the Vikhr vacuum cleaner is 0.27 kW. You can replace it with a more efficient compressor and place 10 impellers on the shaft. The water will be heated by the sun, and this is a source of inexhaustible energy. According to calculations, the power of the installation can be increased to 6.96 kW. That is, extract 25 times more energy than expended!”

The inventor emphasizes: this is not “”, but a converter of energy that nature has stored in air and water: “Such turbogenerators can be placed on pontoons in reservoirs - on ponds, streams, rivers. You can do without a reservoir by replacing a garden barrel with a container installed in a special room. Equipped with a source of compressed air (the same compressor), it will provide energy to a house and even a small village.”

Stove in 6 levels

The traditional Moskvich began in Russia Igor Fedotov fully prepared for it.

He invented and patented the RUENKA stove, the name of which is made up of the first letters of the words - manual, universal, economical, natural, comfortable, accumulating ash. It will find application both indoors (if there is an exhaust ceiling) and outdoors - in the yard, at the dacha, on a camping trip. The stove weighs only 11 kg, when disassembled it easily fits in the trunk of a car, and for its installation an area of less than 0.2 square meters is sufficient. m. You can cook both in dishes and on skewers, and at the same time the oven is a shelf with six levels of burners. “They fit any food container,” explains Igor Fedorovich. - For example, you can cook dumplings in a pan in a frying pan and use the burner above. Boil water for tea and fry The burner is extremely simple in design - it consists of movable rods. By moving them, you change the size of the burner. Heat loss in the combustion chamber is minimized, and the food container receives all the necessary thermal radiation. The stove produces different power levels depending on the “floor” of the burner.”

Firewood can be stored with three sides(due to the high efficiency, very few of them are needed), and there is no need to remove the ash at all. She herself falls into the storage device installed below. When it is full, you will receive ready-made fertilizer for your garden plot.

Super all-terrain vehicle

Name Evgeny Shemyakinsky included in the encyclopedia "Engineers of the Urals", he has 54 copyright certificates and patents.

The main one is that its characteristics are superior to all modern analogues.

Unfortunately, not a trace remains of the prototype that E. Shemyakinsky managed to create. The car, which was parked in the barn, burned down along with the dacha.

There is only one evidence that this miracle really existed - an old video recording. The capabilities of the all-terrain vehicle are amazing even from the screen. A car on huge wheels drives easily across a muddy field, without getting stuck in the mud. Then she smoothly descends into the water and swims. And then he easily climbs a steep, almost vertical slope. And he does it in reverse!

We met with Evgeniy Nikolaevich five years ago. The capabilities of the machine surprised even the inventor himself: “It takes on obstacles a meter high, and easily overcomes trenches of the same width. I have long been interested in the works of V. Grachev, who after the war headed the special design bureau of ZIL. There they were engaged in military developments for missile carriers. Grachev struggled with the phenomenon of wheel galloping, which caused body vibrations, which was dangerous when transporting missiles. He sought to reduce the pressure in the wheel, and he managed to bring it to 0.138 atmospheres. And I reached 0.04 atmospheres.”

At one time, Shemyakinsky was invited to give a report at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Here are excerpts from the review: “It is many times superior to its analogues in cross-country ability and has the right to be called a super all-terrain vehicle. Simplicity and manufacturability... Unprecedented. Never has there been so much theoretical support for so many conceptual innovations in automobile design.”

But this is where the story of the Shemyakinsky all-terrain vehicle ended. Wherever Kulibin applied with proposals to introduce the invention into production, he was always refused.

Only last year an invitation came from the Department of Automotive Industry of the Ministry of Industry of the Russian Federation. But it was too late.

Evgeny Shemyakinsky, desperate to promote his brainchild, died of a heart attack. He considered the invention of the all-terrain vehicle to be the main work of his life.

We are waiting for letters

If you have made something useful and unusual with your own hands and want to tell the whole country about it, the “New Kulibins” section is for you! Send the editor a description of your product and brief information about yourself. Attach photos. Who knows, maybe after publication in AiF you will be able to find interested investors and establish industrial production of your development?

Write to:

107996, Moscow,

st. Elektrozavodskaya, 27, building 4,

"Arguments and facts."