It has long been known that Soviet science was full of not only smart people, but also creative people. This trend has not spared the developers in the field of information and computing technologies. Of course, there is nothing out of the ordinary in the fact that it was in the USSR that the first device in the world was invented that solved partial differential equations. Another thing is striking in this discovery: all the computing operations in this machine were carried out … by water.
The history of such an impressive invention dates back to the distant 1920s, when a young specialist, a graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Vladimir Lukyanov, was sent to a large-scale construction project - the construction of the Troitsk-Orsk and Kartaly-Magnitnaya railway tracks (today - Magnitogorsk). There, he faced the problem of slow and insufficient quality of work: the builders received only shovels, picks and wheelbarrows as tools, that is, no serious equipment was provided. In addition, all work with concrete was carried out exclusively in the summer, but this did not save from the regular appearance of cracks.
The construction of railways was accompanied by many problems.
In search of a solution to the problem of cracks in concrete, Lukyanov put forward the assumption that their origin is associated with the temperature regime in the masonry. The scientific community reacted without enthusiasm to this hypothesis, but this did not stop the young scientist. He soon realized that the distribution of heat fluxes is calculated using complex relationships between temperature and concrete properties, which undergo transformations over time. In turn, these relations are expressed in the form of so-called partial differential equations.
But at the time of their searches, at the end of the 1920s, there were no sufficiently fast and high-quality methods to perform calculations of this kind. Then Lukyanov himself takes up the solution of the problem posed to himself. To do this, he turns to the works of outstanding scientists of past years: Academicians A. N. Krylov, the creator of an integrator for solving ordinary differential equations of the 4th order., N. N. Pavlovsky, a specialist in hydraulics, and M. V. Kirpichev, a specialist in heat engineering. Having managed to correctly synthesize individual ideas of his predecessors, Lukyanov finally finds a likely mechanism for solving this complex problem.
Vladimir Lukyanov is a civil engineer. invented the computer.
Only in 1936, the scientist managed to assemble a device that went down in history as "Lukyanov's Hydraulic Integrator". In fact, this invention is the world's first computing machine for solving partial differential equations. But the integrator is impressed not so much by this superiority, but by the fact that she performs all mathematical calculations using … the flow of water.
In total, three models of these machines were designed, each of which was adapted to solving one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional problems, respectively. Gradually, the Lukyanov integrator gained popularity and began to be supplied not only to the Union republics, but also to the Warsaw Pact countries - Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria and even China.
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Unique Soviet invention.
The device has proven to be not only effective but also simple to use and relatively inexpensive to manufacture. Therefore, Lukyanov's integrators were used quite widely - in mine construction, geology, construction thermal physics, metallurgy, and rocketry. In particular, they resorted to their help during scientific research in the settlement of "Mirny", calculations during the design of the Karakum Canal and the Baikal-Amur Mainline.
Even the computers that appeared after some time were far from immediately able to squeeze out the hydraulic integrator. The first and second generations of Soviet computers were inferior to Lukyanov's inventions in terms of efficiency, since they had a small amount of memory and were distinguished by low performance, a limited set of peripheral equipment, and poorly developed software. It was only in the early 1980s that integrators began to feel embarrassed about the new generation of computers, which have smaller dimensions, more memory and high speed.
Lukyanov's integrator has faithfully served Soviet science for many years.
