Pavel Yablochkov: brief biography, photos, inventions. Discoveries of Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov

Nowadays it's hard to imagine that the word "electrical engineering" was not known only about 100 years ago. In experimental science it is not so easy to find a pioneer, as in the theoretical. In the textbooks it is written: Archimedes' law, Pythagoras theorem, Newton's binomial system, Copernicus system, Einstein's theory, Mendeleyev's table ... But not everyone knows the name of the person who invented the electric light.

Who created a glass cone with metal hairs inside - an electric bulb? It is not easy to answer this question. After all, this invention is associated with dozens of scientists. In their ranks - Pavel Yablochkov, a brief biography of which is presented in our article. This Russian inventor stands out not only in height (198 cm), but also in labor. His work started lighting with electricity. It is not for nothing that the figure of such a researcher, as Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov, still enjoys authority in the scientific community. What did he invent? The answer to this question, as well as many other interesting information about Pavle Nikolaevich you will find in our article.

Origin, years of study

When Pavel Yablochkov (his photo is presented above) was born, in the Volga region there was cholera. His parents were frightened by the great sea, so they did not take the child to church for baptism. In vain, historians tried to find the name Yablochkov in church records. His parents were small landowners, and Paul Yablochkov's childhood passed quietly, in a large landed house with half-empty rooms, a mezzanine and fruit gardens.

When Pavel was 11 years old, he went to study at the Saratov Gymnasium. It should be noted that four years earlier, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, a freelance educator, had left this educational institution for the St. Petersburg Cadet Corps. Pavel Yablochkov studied for a while in the gymnasium. After a while his family was much impoverished. The only way out of this situation was military career, which became a real family tradition. And Pavel Yablochkov went to the Pavlovsky Tsar's Palace of Petersburg, which was called the Engineering Castle by the name of its tenants.

Yablochkov is a military engineer

The Sevastopol campaign at this time was still in the recent past (ten years have not passed yet). It showed the sailor's prowess, as well as the high art of domestic fortificators. Military engineering in those years was in high esteem. General EI Totleben, who became famous during the Crimean War, personally fostered the engineering school, where Pavel Yablochkov was now studying.

His biography of these years was marked by his residence in the board of Caesar Antonovich Cui, the engineer general who taught at this school. He was a talented specialist and an even more gifted composer and music critic. His romances and operas live today. Perhaps, it was these years spent in the capital that were the happiest for Pavel Nikolayevich. No one drove him, there were no patrons and creditors yet. Great insights have not yet come to him, but there have not yet been any disappointments that later filled his entire life.

The first failure was suffered by Yablochkov when, after graduation, he was promoted to lieutenant, sending to the service in the Fifth Sapern Regiment, which belonged to the Kiev fortress. The battalion reality, which Pavel Nikolayevich met, turned out to be a bit like the creative, interesting life of an engineer who dreamed of him in Petersburg. The military man from Yablochkov did not work: a year later he resigned "for illness".

The first acquaintance with electricity

After this, the most unsettled period began in the life of Pavel Nikolaevich. However, it opens with one event, which turned out to be very important in his later destiny. A year after his resignation Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov suddenly appears in the army again. His biography after that went quite a different way ...

The future inventor is trained at the Technical Electroplant. Here his knowledge in the field of "galvanism and magnetism" (the words "electrical engineering" while we already said, did not yet exist) expand and deepen. A lot of famous engineers and young scientists in their youth, like our hero, circled around in life, trying on, looking narrowly, looking for something, until they suddenly found what they were looking for. Then no temptation could knock them out of the way. Similarly, the 22-year-old Pavel Nikolayevich found his vocation - electricity. All his life he dedicated Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov. The inventions made by him are all connected with electricity.

Work in Moscow, new acquaintances

Pavel Nikolayevich finally leaves the army. He goes to Moscow and soon he heads the management of the telegraph service of the railway (Moscow-Kursk). Here at his disposal is a laboratory, here one can already test some, if still timid, ideas. Pavel Nikolaevich also finds a strong scientific society uniting naturalists. In Moscow, he learns about the Polytechnic Exhibition, which has just opened. It shows the latest achievements of domestic technology. Yablochkov has like-minded people, friends who, like him, are carried away by electric sparks - tiny man-made lightning! With one of them, Glukhov Nikolai Gavrilovich, Pavel Nikolaevich decides to open his "case". This is a universal electrical workshop.

Moving to Paris, a candle patent

However, the "business" has burst. This was because the inventors of Gluhov and Yablochkov were not business people. In order to avoid a debt prison, Pavel Nikolayevich urgently travels abroad. In the spring of 1876, in Paris, receives a patent for an "electric candle" Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich. Inventions of this would not have been, had it not been for the previous achievements in science. Therefore, we will briefly describe them.

History of lamps before Yablochkov

Let's make a small historical digression devoted to the lamps to explain the essence of the most important invention of Yablochkov, while not getting into the technical jungle. The first lamp is a ray. It was known to mankind in prehistoric times. Then (before Yablochkov) first a torch was invented, then an oil lamp, then - a candle, after a while - a kerosene lamp and, finally, a gas lamp. All these fixtures, with all their diversity, are united by one common principle: inside of them, something is burning when combined with oxygen.

The invention of an electric arc

V.V. Petrov, a talented Russian scientist, in 1802 described the experience of using galvanic cells. This inventor received an electric arc, created the world's first electric artificial light. Lightning is a natural light. About him humanity was known for a long time, another thing is that people did not understand its nature.

Modest Petrov did not send out his work, written in Russian. About it was not known in Europe, so for a long time the honor of opening the arc was attributed to the chemist Davy, the famous English chemist. Naturally, he did not know anything about the achievement of Petrov. He repeated his experience in 12 years and named an arc in honor of Volta, the famous physicist from Italy. It is interesting that it has absolutely nothing to do with A. Volta itself.

Arc lamps and inconveniences associated with them

The discovery of the Russian and English scientist gave impetus to the appearance of radically new arc lamps, electric. Two electrodes approached them, an arc flashed, after which a bright light appeared. However, the inconvenience was that the carbon electrodes burned after a while, and the distance between them increased. In the end, the arc was extinguished. It was necessary to constantly bring the electrodes together. So there were various differential, hour, manual and other adjustment mechanisms, which, in turn, required vigilant observation. It is clear that every lamp of this kind was an extraordinary phenomenon.

The first incandescent lamp and its shortcomings

The French scientist Joubert proposed using an electric heated glow, not an arc, for lighting. Shangji, his compatriot, tried to create such a lamp. AN Lodygin, Russian inventor, brought her "to mind." He created the first incandescent light bulb, suitable for practice. However, the coke rod inside it was very fragile and tender. In addition, an insufficient vacuum was observed in the glass flask, so it quickly burned this rod. Because of this, in the middle of 1870, they decided to put a cross on the lamp of the pricking. The inventors again returned to the arc. And it was then that Pavel Yablochkov appeared.

Electric Candle

Unfortunately, we do not know how he invented the candle. Perhaps the thought of it appeared when Pavel Nikolayevich was tormented by the regulators of the arc lamp he had installed. For the first time in the history of railways, it was installed on a locomotive (a special train that followed the Tsar Alexander II in the Crimea). Perhaps the sight of the arc, suddenly flashed in his studio, sunk into his soul. There is a legend that in one of the cafes in Paris Yablochkov accidentally put two pencils next to the table. And then it dawned on him: do not bring anything together! Let the electrodes be side by side, because the fusible insulation burning in the arc will be installed between them. Thus, the electrodes will burn and shorten at the same time! As they say, all ingenious is simple.

How the candle Yablochkov conquered the world

The candle of Yablochkov in his device was really simple. And this was her huge advantage. The people who did not understand the technique could understand its meaning. That is why the candle Yablochkov with unheard-of speed won the world. The first demonstration took place in the spring of 1876 in London. Pavel Nikolayevich, who just recently ran away from creditors, returned to Paris already a well-known inventor. The campaign for the exploitation of his patents arose instantly.

A special plant was established, which produced 8,000 candles daily. They began to illuminate the famous shops and hotels of Paris, the covered racecourse and opera, the port in Le Havre. A garland of lanterns appeared on the Opera Street - an unprecedented sight, a real fairy tale. Everyone on the lips had a "Russian light". He admired PI Tchaikovsky in one of his letters. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev also wrote from Paris to his brother that Pavel Yablochkov invented something completely new in the matter of illumination. Pavel Nikolaevich not without pride noticed later that electricity spread throughout the world from the French capital and reached the courts of the king of Cambodia and the Persian shah, and not vice versa - from America to Paris, as they say.

"Fading away" candles

The history of science is noted with astonishing things! All electrical lighting equipment of the world, headed by PN Yablochkov, for about five years triumphantly moved, in effect, along a futile, false path. The holiday of a candle did not last long, as well as the material independence of Yablochkov. The candle did not immediately "fade away," but it could not withstand competition with incandescent lamps. Contributed to this considerable inconvenience, which she had. This is a decrease in the luminous point in the combustion process, as well as fragility.

Of course, the works of Svan, Lodygin, Maxim, Edison, Nernst and other inventors of the incandescent lamp, in turn, did not immediately convince humanity of its advantages. Auer in 1891 installed his cap on the gas burner. This cap increased the brightness of the latter. Even then, there were cases when the authorities decided to replace the gas with installed electric lighting. However, even during the life of Pavel Nikolayevich, it was clear that the candle invented by him was unpromising. What is the reason that the name of the creator of the "Russian light" is firmly inscribed in the history of science to this day and has been surrounded by respect and honor for more than a hundred years?

Implications of the invention of Yablochkov

Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov was the first to establish the electric light in people's minds. The lamp, which only very rarely met yesterday, has already approached a person, ceased to be some kind of overseas miracle, convinced people of its happy future. The stormy and rather short history of this invention helped to solve a number of pressing problems that faced the technology of that time.

Further biography of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov

Pavel Nikolaevich lived a short life, which was not very happy. After Pavel Yablochkov invented his candle, he worked very hard both in our country and abroad. However, none of his subsequent achievements affected so much the progress of technology as his candle. Pavel Nikolaevich laid many works on the creation of the first in our country electrotechnical magazine called "Electricity." He began to leave since 1880. In addition, on March 21, 1879, Pavel Nikolayevich read a report on electric lighting in the Russian Technical Society. He was awarded the Society's medal for his achievements. However, these signs of attention were insufficient to ensure that Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov was provided with good working conditions. The inventor understood that in the backward Russia of the 1880s there were few opportunities for implementing his technical ideas. One of them was the production of electric machines, built by Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov. A brief biography of him again marked the move to Paris. Returning there in 1880, he sold the patent for a dynamo, and then began preparations for participation in the World Electrical Exhibition, held for the first time. Its opening was scheduled for 1881. At the beginning of this year, Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov fully devoted himself to the design work.

A brief biography of this scientist continues with the fact that Yablochkov's invention at the exhibition in 1881 received the highest award. They deserve recognition and out of competition. His authority was high, and Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov became a member of the international jury, whose tasks included reviewing exhibits and awarding awards. It should be said that this exhibition itself became the triumph of the incandescent lamp. From that time, the electric candle gradually began to decline toward the sunset.

In subsequent years, Yablochkov began working on galvanic cells and dynamos - electric current generators. The way in which Pavel Nikolayevich went in his works remains revolutionary in our time. Successes on it can lay the foundation for a new era in electrical engineering. Yablochkov no longer returned to the sources of light. In the following years, he invented several electric cars and received patents on them.

The last years of the inventor's life

In the period from 1881 to 1893 Yablochkov conducted his experiments in difficult material conditions, in continuous work. He lived in Paris, completely abandoning himself to the problems of science. The scientist skillfully experimented, applied a lot of original ideas in his work, walking in unexpected and very bold ways. Of course, he was ahead of the state of technology, science and industry of that time. The explosion that occurred during the experiments in his laboratory almost cost Pavel Nikolayevich life. The constant worsening of the financial situation, as well as the heart disease, which all progressed, all this undermined the strength of the inventor. After a thirteen-year absence, he decided to return to his homeland.

Pavel Nikolayevich left for Russia in July 1893, but fell seriously ill immediately upon his arrival. He found in his estate such a neglected farm, that he could not and hoped to improve his financial situation. Together with his wife and son Pavel Nikolaevich settled in the Saratov hotel. He continued his experiments even when he was sick and deprived of his livelihood.

Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov, whose discoveries are firmly embedded in the history of science, died of heart disease at the age of 47 (in 1894), in the city of Saratov. His homeland is proud of his ideas and works.