Short info:
The idea of creating a submarine came from K.A. Schilder while experimenting with galvanic bombs. In 1832, having developed a project, he began to build a submarine at his own expense. In addition, the government allocated him an amount of 14,000 rubles. In 1834, tests of a submarine armed with six missiles designed by A.D. Zasyadko. The missiles were intended to be launched from a submerged and surfaced position.
Date of invention: 1791 g.
Short info:
I.P. Kulibin owes its appearance to a medical prosthesis. Ivan Petrovich created it in 1791 for the hero of the Ochakov battle, artillery officer S.V. Nepeitsyn, who lost his leg on the battlefield. The brave warrant officer was forced to walk on a "piece of wood", leaning on a cane.
Date of invention: 1896 g.
Short info:
Overlap-shell - building structure of floors of buildings and structures. In architectural practice, convex, hanging, mesh and membrane shells made of reinforced concrete, metals, wood, polymer, woven and composite materials are used. A specially developed theory of shells is used to calculate such structures.
Mesh overlapping shells were first introduced into world practice by the Russian engineer and architect V.G. Shukhov in 1896.
Description:
In 1763 I.I. Polzunov developed a detailed project of a steam engine with a capacity of 1.8 hp, and in 1764, together with his students, began to create a "fire-acting machine." In the spring of 1766 it was almost ready. Due to fleeting consumption, the inventor himself was unable to see his brainchild in action. Tests of the steam engine began a week after the death of Polzunov.
The Polzunov machine differed from the steam engines known at that time, first of all, in that it was intended not only for lifting water, but also for driving factory machines - blowing bellows. It was a continuous-action machine, which was achieved by using two cylinders instead of one: the pistons of the cylinders moved towards each other and alternately acted on a common shaft. In his project, Polzunov indicated all the materials from which the machine should be made, and also indicated the technological processes that will be required during its construction (soldering, casting, polishing). Experts say that the memorandum outlining the project was distinguished by the extraordinary clarity of thought and the filigree accuracy of the calculations carried out.
As conceived by the inventor, steam from the boiler of the machine was supplied to one of the two cylinders and raised the piston to the extreme upper position. After that, chilled water was injected into the cylinder from the reservoir, which led to condensation of steam. Under the pressure of the external atmosphere, the piston descended, while in the other cylinder, as a result of steam pressure, the piston rose. With the help of a special device, two operations were carried out - automatic admission of steam from the boiler to the cylinders and automatic supply of cold water. A system of pulleys (special wheels) transferred the movement from the pistons to the pumps that pumped water into the reservoir and to the blower bellows.
Polzunov's project was submitted for review to the President of the Berg Collegium I.A. Schlatter, who noted its originality. But the high official did not appreciate the main advantage of the project, which consisted in the elimination of the water wheel, which played the role of a transmission link in similar European installations. Large factories were built, as a rule, on the banks of rivers, so that the power of the water could be used to propel the blowing bellows and hammers for metal shovels. Schlatter recommended Polzunov to return to the old schemes - a combination of a steam boiler with water wheels. But this meant that production was again made dependent on the whims of nature: the river could become shallow and in this case stop serving people. Therefore, Polzunov did not accept Schlatter's remarks and designed a new installation with a capacity of 32 liters. That is, that for that time was an unsurpassed result. The engine proposed by Polzunov could power huge 'Mechs.
In parallel with the main machine, the inventor developed many new parts, fixtures and devices that greatly simplified the production process. An example is the direct-acting regulator designed by him to maintain a constant water level in the boiler. During the tests, serious engine defects were discovered: inaccurate surface treatment of the cylinders used, loose air bellows, shells in metal parts, etc. These flaws were explained by the fact that the level of machine-building production at the Barnaul plant was still not high enough. And the scientific advances of that time did not make it possible to accurately calculate the required amount of cooling water. Nevertheless, all the shortcomings were resolved, and in June 1766 the installation with bellows was successfully tested, after which the construction of furnaces began.
In August 1766, a few days after the death of I.I. Polzunov, the installation was started. The machine fully paid for itself in the shortest possible time: for 43 days of work, a profit of 12,418 rubles was received (and this was when using only three ovens!). But soon the boiler, built only for a test run, gave a leak, the machine was stopped. Funds were required to order a new boiler. Moreover, despite successful tests. the heads of the office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensk factories still doubted the performance of the steam engine. They also had no confidence in the readiness of the Barnaul plant to build powerful steam power units. The car was again left for an indefinite period of time, in 1780 it was dismantled into separate parts for "future need". The name of the talented Russian mechanic was forgotten for a long time. After his death, the model of the steam engine he created was transferred to the Academy of Sciences, but was not preserved for posterity.
This fate was typical for many Russian inventions of this time. This was due not only (and not so much) to the heartlessness of officials. And the shortsightedness of the authorities. Historians explain the lack of need for a steam engine at that time by the socio-economic structure of Russian society in the 18th century. The labor of serfs assigned to factories was so cheap that it made no sense for their owners to spend money on the purchase and maintenance of a steam engine. Even the fact that the car paid for these costs and made a profit did not look attractive to them. (Things were different in Western Europe. There, for the labor of free workers, the owners of enterprises had to pay a significant price, which reduced the size of profits. The steam engine, invented by James Watt, immediately found application in developed countries. And in this case, a simple calculation worked: the machine replaced the labor of many workers. Factory owners made a profit by saving labor.)
Although none of Polzunov's contemporaries appreciated the importance of his ideas and the practical results he received, the launch of factory units from heat engines (without the help of the power of water) was an unsurpassed innovation for that time. And yet the honor of inventing the world's first two-cylinder engine and the first continuous steam engine in Russia belongs to Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov. His superiority in this area is not disputed by anyone. And the operation of modern multi-cylinder engines is based on the principle applied by Polzunov (the action of several cylinders on one shaft).
100 Great Russian Inventions, Veche 2008
05/16/1766 (05/29). - Died Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov, inventor of the world's first two-cylinder steam engine for universal use
Portrait of Polzunov by Ivan Mamontov
Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov (14.3.1728-16.5.1766) was born in Yekaterinburg in the family of a soldier, a native of the peasants of the Turin district of the Tobolsk province. In 1738-1742. studied at the founded Mining School at the Yekaterinburg Metallurgical Plant, after which he was assigned as an apprentice to the chief mechanic of the Ural factories N. Bakharev. Polzunov underwent a full cycle of educational work with him: mechanics, calculations, drawings, acquaintance with the work of factory machines and metallurgical production. In 1742, after graduating from school, he was assigned a "mechanical apprentice" at the factory. In 1748 he was taken to Barnaul to work at the Kolyvano-Voskresensk copper-smelting plant as a technician for accounting of smelted metal. In 1750, for his ingenuity and organizational skills, he was promoted to non-commissioned master of staff.
In 1754, his design work began, when Polzunov built a sawmill at the Zmeinogorsk mine with a drive from a water wheel installed on the dam. In 1759 he was promoted to the first chief officer rank of shikhtmeister.
In the library of the Barnaul plant, Polzunov got acquainted with the works, studied the device of steam pumping units. Polzunov was occupied with the idea of improving the machines available at the plant using thermal energy. In 1763, he developed a project for a 1.8 hp steam engine. (1.3 kW) - the world's first two-cylinder engine combining the work of the cylinders on one common shaft, universal in its technical application (this project was not immediately implemented). He was transferred to the "mechanics" with the rank and salary of an engineering lieutenant captain. In 1764-1766. made the first steam power plant in Russia for driving bellows with a record power of 32 hp. (24 kw). The originality of the Polzunov installation was appreciated by the Russian natural scientist E.G. Laxman, who wrote that Polzunov is “a husband who does honor to his fatherland. He is now building a fiery machine, completely different from the Hungarian and English ones. "
However, the inventor, falling ill with consumption, died a week before testing his new machine. Her model was taken to the Kunstkamera, but later disappeared. The very same steam power plant, tested by Polzunov's students, not only paid for itself, but also made a profit. Nevertheless, after a breakdown, it was dismantled and forgotten - river water wheels were more familiar at the plant and easier to operate for untrained workers.
In all the bureaucratic correspondence with the higher authorities, Polzunov appears as a highly gifted person who cares about the domestic industry and the public good. He was encouraged, promoted, but, unfortunately, did not provide serious assistance.
In England, with the invention of the same (two-cylinder) steam engine, made two decades later (in the 1780s) by James Watt, the industrial revolution began, which then swept through Europe. The name Watt (Watt) has been assigned to the power unit.
Where Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov is buried is unknown. His portrait was not found. The name of I.I. Polzunova is now worn by the Altai State Technical University, near the main building of which there is a monument to the inventor.
Polzunov Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov Ivan Ivanovich
(1728-1766), Russian heating engineer. In 1763, he developed a project for a universal steam engine - the world's first two-cylinder continuous-action machine, which he failed to implement. In 1765, according to another project, he built the first steam-power plant in Russia for industrial needs, which worked for 43 days; died a week before its test run.
POLZUNOV Ivan IvanovichPOLZUNOV Ivan Ivanovich (1728, Yekaterinburg - May 16 (27), 1766, Barnaul), an outstanding Russian heating engineer. In 1763 he developed a project for a universal steam engine - the world's first two-cylinder continuous machine, which he failed to implement. In 1765, according to another project, he built the first steam-power plant in Russia for industrial needs, which worked for 43 days; Polzunov died a week before its test launch.
* * *
Childhood, study
Polzunov was born far from the capital, near Yekaterinburg, his father is a soldier, but not military service, but state construction work. Polzunov's father was illiterate, but he sent his son to a word school. From September 1738 Polzunov studied at the arithmetic school and graduated from it very early for those times, at the age of 14. In 1742 he was appointed a disciple of the master N. Bakhorev. Mechanic Bakhorev studied at the St. Petersburg Maritime Academy, studied mechanical engineering in Sweden, then at the Krasnoselsky Copper Plant. Polzunov went through a full cycle of student work: mechanics, calculations, drawings, acquaintance with the work of factory machines and metallurgical production.
Applying for a job
At the end of 1747, Polzunov was assigned to the Barnaul Copper Smelter as a Hittenschreiber - supervisor and accountant at smelting furnaces. Polzunov turned out to be a good organizer and a capable manager. Therefore, in addition to the main work, the plant bosses in every possible way loaded him with various organizational concerns of the plant. This greatly interfered with him: even when Polzunov was promoted to the officer rank of shikhtmeister (1759) after fulfilling the most important state assignment - escorting a convoy with gold and silver to St. Petersburg, he had extremely limited opportunities to improve his education, which he passionately sought.
Self-education from books
Books remained the source of education for him. But in the Barnaul library one could find only the "Course of Mathematics" 1739 and "Mechanics with Drawings", albeit in 8 volumes, but in German, which Polzunov did not speak. One might think that he was already reading the drawings easily then. It was only in 1760 in St. Petersburg that I. Schlatter's book "Comprehensive instructions on the mining business" was published in Russian, with drawings of many steam engines, including the Newcomen machine type. Apparently, at this time, Polzunov had thoughts about improving labor in ore mines with the help of machines that act not by the power of water, as it was in Altai, but by fire.
Fire-fighting machine project
In April 1763 Polzunov sent to the Kolyvan-Voskresensk Chancellery a project of his invention, which described the world's first two-cylinder engine combining the work of the cylinders on one common shaft. It was the result of long work done in fits and starts. The project was sent to St. Petersburg to the Cabinet of Her Majesty with a request to encourage the inventor - to be awarded the rank of mechanic and money over an annual salary of up to 200 rubles. Polzunov's papers did not go to an ordinary Russian official, but to a European educated specialist, President of the Berg Collegium Schlatter (cm. SHLATTER Ivan Andreevich), who highly appreciated the invention of Polzunov: "this invention of his for a new invention should be honored ...". Having received a letter with a high appraisal from Schlatter, the Chancellery ordered "to build such a machine and put it into operation."
Highly gifted personality
Throughout the bureaucratic correspondence, Polzunov appears to the reader as a highly gifted person, focused on the needs of industry and the public good. He is encouraged, promoted, he even gets an officer's rank, but he is not given serious assistance in his most important business. The objective reasons for this (apart from the “cultural” context of Russian society of that era) are the cheap labor of serfs and the abundance of water energy of fast rivers in Altai, where everything happened.
Machine building
To carry out the work, according to the calculations of Polzunov, 76 people were needed, including 19 highly qualified workers, whom he intended to invite from the Ural factories. The office gave orders in its own way: it was allowed to take only three, and students. The construction of the installation (completely iron, in a house with a height of more than 20 m), begun in January 1764 at the Barnaul plant, proceeded in difficult conditions. Polzunov had to simultaneously act as a designer, constructor, technologist, builder and educator.
The death of the inventor, the fate of the installation
Excessive stress undermined Polzunov's health. In the spring of 1766 he fell ill with transient consumption and died on May 16 (27). In June, already without it, a successful test of the "fire engine" was carried out, and in August it was put into operation. But in November it was shut down due to a boiler leak. Despite the obvious efficiency (profit of 12,418 rubles for 43 days of work), it was abandoned, and destroyed in 1780. The model of the installation, transferred to the Academy of Sciences, disappeared without a trace.
Significance of the invention
In England, with the invention of the same (two-cylinder) steam engine, made a little later by J. Watt (cm. WATT James), the industrial revolution began, which then swept through Europe. Where our brilliant compatriot Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov is buried, no one can say. His portrait was not found.
encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .
See what "Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov" is in other dictionaries:
Russian heat engineer, one of the inventors of the heat engine, the creator of the first steam power plant in Russia. Born into the family of a soldier from the peasants of Turinsk, In 1742 after ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (1728 66) Russian heating engineer. In 1763, he developed a project for a universal steam engine for the world's first two-cylinder continuous-action machine, which he failed to implement. In 1765 he built the first in Russia according to another project ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Polzunov (Ivan Ivanovich), a Russian mechanic, built the first steam engine in Russia, operating in 1766 at the Barnaul plant. Its model is kept in the Barnaul Mining Museum (XXII, 864). See Brandt History of Steam Engines (St. Petersburg, 1892) ... Biographical Dictionary
Polzunov, Ivan Ivanovich- POLZUNOV Ivan Ivanovich (1728 66), Russian heat engineer, one of the inventors of the heat engine. In 1763 he designed a steam engine for the world's first continuous two-cylinder machine. In 1765 he built the first one according to a different project ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
The mechanic who set up the first steam engine in Russia; the son of a soldier of the Yekaterinburg mountain companies, he entered the Yekaterinburg arithmetic school ten years old, where he graduated from the course with the rank of a mechanical student. Among several young people ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia
Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov Date of birth: March 14, 1728 Place of birth: Yekaterinburg Date of death: May 27, 1766 Place of death: Barnaul Citizenship ... Wikipedia
The Central Bank announced a vote for the symbols of Russia, which will be depicted on the new banknotes in denominations of 200 and 2000 rubles. Siberian Media Group (SMG) invited readers, viewers and listeners of their media to vote for the monument to Polzunov in Barnaul. As a result, the symbol received the required 5,000 votes and Barnaul passed to the second stage of voting.
The choice is not accidental. 250 years ago, in 1766, Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov created the first steam engine in Russia in Barnaul and surpassed contemporary English heat engineers by making the engine a two-cylinder. Streets in many cities of Russia are named after Polzunov, the name of the inventor was included in the encyclopedia, and there is simply no one more famous than Barnaul.
1. Ivan Polzunov was born in Yekaterinburg in the first half of 1729 in the family of a recruit.
2. The future inventor graduated from elementary school and drawing (drawing) school.
3. In 1747, at the age of 17, Ivan Polzunov was sent to the Barnaul plant as a smelter clerk. He arrived in the city on February 3, 1747. His job was to record what was loaded into the furnace and what came out as a result of the smelting.
4. On April 4, 1752, Poluznov requested permission to build a house in the village of the Barnaul Plant on Irkutskaya Street (today Pushkin Street) and release the forest for this. The house has not survived, it is only known that it was located at the present address, st. Pushkin, 78.
5. In January 1758, non-commissioned officer Polzunov was sent to St. Petersburg with a wagon train of silver. The wagon train, consisting of 21 carts, left Barnaul on January 1. The caravan arrived in St. Petersburg on March 6. Silver Polzunov handed over to the head of the Mint Ivan Shlatter.
6. Returning to Barnaul in the summer of 1758, Polzunov entered into a civil marriage in Moscow with the 22-year-old widow of a soldier of the Pskov infantry regiment Pelageya Ivanovna Povalyaeva. Pelageya bore him two children, but they died in infancy.
7. Long before his trip to St. Petersburg Polzunov asked to be allowed to study mining and assay business. In the spring of 1753, he wrote in a petition submitted to his superiors: "Moreover, the youth of my years without science will be lost in vain." I wanted to go through all the stages of production at the Barnaul plant. But this request was not satisfied.
8. In February 1759, Polzunov was promoted to the officer rank of Shikhtmeister, which gave him more freedom and opportunities in the development of mining. The external circumstances also changed: in November 1761, the Chancellery of the Kolyvano-Voskresensk mining authorities obliged officers to study books on mining.
9. In April 1763 Polzunov submitted a memorandum to the Office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensk mining authorities, in which he described the first project of his steam engine. Its drawings have been preserved in the regional archive.
10. Drawings and the report got to Ivan Shlatter. After reviewing the materials, he recognized the Polzunov machine as an invention, although he noted that the machine was built in the manner of the English. Schlatter decided that it was necessary to award Polzunov the rank of mechanic (captain) and build a car. This decision came to Barnaul at the beginning of 1764.
11. In January 1764, the Chancellery decided to build a machine. For construction, a temporarily closed building of a glass factory was used (on modern Mamontov Street, now the Barnaul Yeast Factory is located next to this place). Parts for the machine - a boiler, cylinders - were made at the Barnaul silver smelting plant and lifted up the Barnaulka on rafts. The cylinder diameter was 81 cm, the piston stroke was 2 m 56 cm, the volume of the boiler was 7 tons of water.
12. December 16, 1765 Polzunov reported in a report that the car was built. In the presence of the authorities, she was tested on lifting logs. The tests were successful.
13. After testing, it was decided to install bellows on the machine and build temporary melting furnaces.
14. On April 18, 1766, Polzunov began to have fleeting consumption, coughing up blood. Doctor Keesing wrote that the previous illness had worsened, but there are no documents confirming that Polzunov had consumption earlier.
15. On May 16, 1766 at 6 o'clock in the evening, Polzunov died (death was recorded in Keesing's report), not having lived a week before the start of the machine. Polzunov was buried in the only then Barnaul cemetery next to the Peter and Paul Church on the current Freedom Square.
17. On 7 August, the vehicle was put into regular operation. Contemporaries noted that, thanks to the very strong blast, the smelting went well.
18. On November 10, 1766, the brick vaults of the furnaces burned out, and because of this a copper boiler flowed, water flooded the fire, the car stopped. They did not restore it.
19. No images of Polzunov, no portraits remained - there were no artists in Barnaul at that time. Therefore, now we can see completely different images of the inventor: on Freedom Square - one, at a technical university - another.
There are several reasons why, after the death of Polzunov, his car did not work for a very long time. Firstly, there was no inventor himself and there was no one to “supervise” her. Secondly, the car turned out to be cumbersome. Third, it was uneconomical. They say: she made a profit of 11 thousand rubles. But this is when melting silver. And if cast iron were melted, the profit would be much lower. But the most important thing is that the feudal economy did not need this machine. Water-filled wheels, which required only minor repairs, and cheap labor made it possible to obtain silver using the old technology.
The significance of Ivan Polzunov's invention is very great. Our story is often simplified and they say: "Polzunov is the world's first inventor of the steam engine." To this, any Englishman will say that at that time they already had a steam-atmospheric machine in every mine. But Polzunov surpassed contemporary English heating engineers and was certainly the first in Russia to make a steam engine. Moreover, he created not just a machine, but a production independent of the presence of a reservoir.
Photo by Oleg Ukladov.
Technological progress is to some extent predetermined: it is difficult to imagine a civilization that would enter space without mastering the use of electricity or without knowing what jet propulsion is. Many laws of nature are formulated almost simultaneously by two scientists who lived in different countries - recall the well-known Boyle-Marriott law thanks to the school curriculum. In science, this happens so often that a special term has even been coined for this - “multiple discovery”. It is used when it comes to independently made and more or less simultaneous discoveries.
The discovery of the two-cylinder steam engine, which is usually attributed to the Englishman James Watt, can hardly be called multiple - if only because the Russian master Ivan Polzunov created it almost twenty years earlier. However, in the world, Watt is considered the discoverer, and the reasons for this are of a very different nature. Firstly, it was his steam engine that found commercial application and was replicated first in Great Britain, and then around the world - in other words, it, and not Polzunov's "fiery machine", became the progenitor and trendsetter in the world of steam. Secondly, Russia for Europe remained an exotic periphery for quite a long time - because of cultural barriers and undeveloped Russian scientific journalism at that time, the world learned about Polzunov's car with a delay and now perceives it as a funny curiosity.
To be completely honest, the inventor who first made steam do the work was not James Watt or even Polzunov, but the ancient Greek Heron of Alexandria, who around 130 BC created the so-called eolipil - a primitive steam turbine. Steam entered the hollow sphere under pressure, then the mechanic opened two L-shaped tubes connected to the sphere, from which steam began to escape, forcing the sphere to spin at a breakneck speed - modern engineers who recreated the eolipil were convinced that the "turbine" could make up to 3600 revolutions per minute! However, eolipil remained a funny toy - Heron, known for many useful inventions, for example, devices for opening doors, did not come up with any practical application for it. The history of eolipil perfectly illustrates how the fate of the discovery depends on the development of society - for example, the demand for a new mechanism by the economy. This circumstance played an important role in the fate of the Polzunov machine.
Polzunov's steam engine. Source: Polytechnic Museum
Ferris wheel
Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov was born in 1729 into a soldier's family in Yekaterinburg, who was only 6 years older than his brilliant son. Yekaterinburg emerged as a city-plant: a dignitary and famous historian Vasily Tatishchev created the country's largest iron-making production here. The plant was advanced: in terms of technical equipment it had no equal in Europe. For several years, the Mint appeared next to it, which provided the state with a copper coin, and the Cutting Factory, whose products replenished the treasures of the royal court and the richest noblemen of St. Petersburg, decorated the toilets of the European wealthy.
Tsar Peter, of course, could not have known that by decree on the founding of an iron-making plant, he predetermined the fate of one of the most talented inventors of Russia. The plant needed working hands, and Vanya, having mastered the basics of mathematics in the arithmetic school, entered there as a "mechanical" apprentice to the master Nikita Bakhorev. The boy turned out to be a child prodigy - he mastered mining science so well that at the age of 20 he received an unusually responsible task. The young specialist was sent to the Kolyvano-Voskresensk factories of Altai, where they mined gold and silver for the treasury. A talented mining foreman was commissioned to explore ore deposits in the vicinity of the Charysh River in order to select a site for the construction of new factories. Polzunov successfully mapped the mines. However, it was not mining exploration that occupied his thoughts, but the work of the factories itself.
For most of the operations that were carried out at that time in factories, the physical strength of workers or horses was used as a source of energy (a modern person, who knows that the power of his car is measured in horsepower, usually does not think that this term was used precisely in industrial enterprises , where they measured the expenditure of forces for specific operations). Polzunov was looking for natural strength that could replace muscles. Only wind and water came to mind. The wind was unsuitable because it provided too little energy that could be usefully applied in factory work. The turbulent Altai and Ural rivers offered much more noticeable power - in many of the Russian factories, the water wheel was the source of energy for the operation of the blowing bellows and hammers that forged metal. Polzunov experimented with water engines for some time - so, in 1754, a young inventor built a "water-powered sawmill". Here he was not a pioneer - the first such sawmill in Russia was built back in 1720 by the creator of the Vyshnevolotsk water system, Mikhail Serdyukov. Most likely, Polzunov built it according to engineering books, which he subscribed in batches from St. Petersburg.
The water wheel has a long and well-deserved history: it was first used in Babylon, and in Russia it did not lose its popularity until the revolution itself - in 1917, 46 thousand water wheels “worked” in Russia, the total capacity of which was about 40% of the total capacity industrial energy sources (whatever one may say, but there is something to thank Lenin's grandfather for with his slogan about the electrification of the whole country). However, the shortcomings of this adaptation were obvious back in the 18th century: it was possible to build factories and factories only near large rivers, which imposed restrictions on the scale of production, in addition, creating additional costs for the transportation of materials - ore, firewood, etc.
However, water is able to move not only in the river bed - with the help of fire it could be made to run through pipes with great force. Polzunov's thoughts were taken up by a "fiery machine" that could replace a water wheel. “By folding the fiery machine, to suppress the water management and, for these cases, to completely destroy it, and instead of dams for the movable base of the plant, to establish it so that it would be able to all the burdens imposed on itself, which are usually necessary for fanning a fire, to wear and, according to our will, what will be needed, to correct "- this is how he will define his task in the" project ", which will crown his name with glory.
The construction of the colossus
Here clarification is required - the first Polzunov invented a two-cylinder continuous steam engine. The fact is that just steam engines were created from the very beginning of the 18th century, and Polzunov's invention did not arise out of nowhere. He, of course, could not have been unaware of the steam pump of the system of the Englishman Thomas Severi, which Peter I purchased in 1717 to supply water to the fountains of the Summer Garden. Severi's machine was pistonless - with the help of steam injection, it moved water through pipes, creating jets. But the steam-atmospheric machine of another Englishman (again, Thomas, by the way) - Newcomen - was already single-piston. The steam pressure in it was low, and it could only work as a pump, but it was she who determined the further development of steam engines. By the way, one of Newcomen's machines worked in the 1720s in mines near Königsberg. All these steam pumps, which were mainly used for pumping water from mines, were described in books about the ore business that were available in Russia - there were their drawings, which could understand the principle of their operation.
It was these developments that served as the basis for Polzunov for his own drawings. In 1763 he presented them to the Kolyvan-Voskresensk Chancellery. The officials did not take responsibility for themselves and sent the papers to the capital. The steam engine project was considered by Her Majesty's Cabinet. Polzunov was lucky - the "project" fell into the hands of the president of the Berg Collegium, which was engaged in the mining industry, a very educated person, Ivan Shlatter. He gave the highest assessment to Polzunov's invention: “this invention of his for a new invention should be honored”, reporting it to Empress Catherine II. The resolution on the "project" was adopted a year later: the empress admired the solution found by Polzunov, ordered him to be promoted to a "mechanic with the rank and rank of an engineering captain-lieutenant", awarded 400 rubles, and most importantly, she blessed him for the construction of a machine, ordering "to give so many people, how much work will happen for him. "
By the spring of 1766, Ivan Polzunov with four students built a car at the Barnaul plant in Altai. It had truly cyclopean dimensions - it was as high as a three-story house, and some parts weighed 2.5 tons. It worked like this: water was heated in a boiler riveted from metal sheets, and, turning into steam, entered two three-meter cylinders. The pistons of the cylinders pressed on the rocker arms, which were connected to the bellows that fanned the flame in the ore-smelting furnaces, as well as to the water distribution pumps. The presence of two pistons made it possible to make the work process continuous. An automatic supply of heated water to the boiler was provided.
But Polzunov himself did not see his brainchild in action - for more than a year working on the drawings, and then on the machine itself, the inventor undermined his health and caught consumption, for which there was no cure at that time. He died suddenly on May 6 (27), 1766 at the age of only 38.
A steam engine from the Barnaul museum. Photo: Dr. Bernd gross
Watt is not to blame
The car was launched already without Polzunov, in August of the same year. She worked for 43 days, day and night, providing metal smelting in ore smelting furnaces. During this time, she not only recouped the costs of her construction - 7200 rubles, but also gave in addition 12 thousand rubles of profit.
However, the untimely death of the inventor affected the fate of his brainchild in the most deplorable way - when in November of the same year leaks appeared from the cylinders and the boiler of the machine itself, the engineers' apprentices unsuccessfully tried to fix the problem by wrapping the pistons with birch bark. If Polzunov were alive, he, of course, would understand that the first pancake came out lumpy and it was necessary not to repair the old one, but to build a new machine, the design of which could withstand prolonged heating. His disciples did not have authority, and they failed to convince the factory bosses to build a new steam engine. The stopped giant stood at the plant for 14 years, and then it was dismantled and taken away. The place where he stood was nicknamed by the factory people "creepers."
Disputes about who should be considered the discoverer of the two-cylinder steam engine - Polzunov or Watt - have been going on in our country for several decades. The "Wattists" insist that the brainchild of Polzunov, as well as the developments on which he relied, was not a universal steam engine: firstly, the features of the heat engineering cycle did not allow making it more compact in order to be used for more delicate operations; secondly, Polzunov, unlike Watt, did not develop a transmission mechanism that would convert reciprocating motion into rotary motion. Needless to say, the fourth of Watt's models, patented by him in 1782 and meeting all these requirements, was indeed more functional. However, these improvements were not something difficult - if Polzunov had not died so early, he would hardly have stopped at the model he originally invented.
The problem, of course, was not only this - unlike the UK, in those days the culture of invention was poorly developed in Russia. There was no one to continue the development of Polzunov. It should not be forgotten that scientific discoveries are made by researchers, but they become in demand due to economic development. Industrial capitalism developed rapidly in England, and competing factories quickly adopted the steam engine, seeing its prospects. In Russia, capitalism developed slowly and, moreover, extensively - natural resources and a huge undeveloped territory made it possible not to think too much about the efficiency of labor. That is why even Watt's steam engine, which did not cost much to copy and make in Russia, began to gain recognition in our country only in the middle of the next, XIX century. And Polzunov remained a lone talent, whose invention turned out to be needed no more than the eolipil of Heron of Alexandria.
