"The hyperboloid of engineer Garin", known to everyone thanks to the famous work of Alexei Tolstoy, had its own real prototype.
According to some sources, at 37 Zhukovskogo Street he lived, was engaged in scientific activities and died a scientist, who was later made immortal by Alexei Tolstoy. The hyperboloid was invented over twenty years before the novel was written.
This was done by the scientist Mikhail Mikhailovich Filippov, who defended his doctoral dissertation on "Invariants of linear homogeneous differential equations" at the University of Heidelberg.
The device he designed made it possible to produce explosions at considerable distances using (he discovered) coherent radiation.
On the night of June 11-12, 1903, a tragedy occurred. Filippov was going to carry out the final series of experiments in his home laboratory. He asked not to disturb him until morning … but … the next morning he was found dead … the window in his laboratory was wide open.
The most amazing thing is that on the same night, for some unknown reason, a house exploded, which was visible from the windows of his apartment. The cook and the janitor were killed.
Police and security agents arrived at the apartment. During the search, all instruments and documents of the deceased were requisitioned. Medical experts were unable to determine the cause of death. One concluded that Filippov died of a heart attack, the other that from poisoning with hydrocyanic acid vapor.
A freelance doctor, Polyansky, invited by the deceased's family as an independent expert, wrote in Latin: “Mors ex causa ignota” (“death from an unknown cause”).
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The city was filled with rumors and speculation, fables were written. The scientist's scientific works were confiscated and for some reason disappeared in the bowels of the security department. There is a version that they burned down during a fire in 1917. The scientist sympathized with the revolutionaries, and his possible death was not an accident during the experiment.
Professor Trachevsky gave a very interesting interview to Petersburg Vedomosti. Three days before the tragic death of the scientist, they saw each other and talked.
“As a historian,” Trachevsky said, “M. M. (Mikhail Mikhailovich Filippov) could tell about his plan only in the most general terms. When I reminded him of the difference between theory and practice, he firmly said: "It has been checked, there have been experiments, and I will do it."
The essence of the secret of M. M. told me approximately, as in a letter to the editor. And more than once he said, banging his hand on the table: “It's so simple, moreover, it's cheap! It's amazing how they still haven't thought of it … I remember, MM added that this was approached a little in America, but in a completely different and unsuccessful way."
In 1913, important new details appeared. For example, the Moscow newspaper "Russkoe Slovo" found out that Filippov went to Riga in 1900, where he carried out experiments on blasting at a distance in the presence of some experts. Returning to St. Petersburg, "he said that he was extremely pleased with the results of the experiments." Until now, scientists argue and do not find an answer … whether Filippov managed to create a powerful weapon, ahead of scientific and technical thought for centuries, and what is the reason for the scientist's death … All this remained a mystical mystery …