In which country was radio invented? And the helicopter? Russia's contribution to world progress is greater than it seems. We have chosen a dozen ingenious technological solutions from our country
Electrotype
We so often come across products that look like metal, but in fact are made of plastic and are only covered with a layer of metal that we no longer notice 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 the Russian physicist Boris Jacobi - by the way, the elder 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 rotation of the shaft, but one of his most important discoveries was electroforming - the process of metal deposition on a form that allows you to create perfect copies of the original object. In this way, for example, sculptures on the naves of St. Isaac's Cathedral were created. Electroforming can be used even at home.
Electroforming and its derivatives have found numerous applications. With its help, what has not been done and is still not doing, right down to the clichés of state banks. Jacobi received the Demidov Prize for this discovery in Russia, and in Paris - a large gold medal. Perhaps made by this very method too.
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Electric car
In the last third of the 19th century, the world was engulfed in a uniform electric fever. Therefore, electric cars were made by all and sundry. It was the "golden age" of electric cars. The cities were smaller and the 60 km mileage on a single charge was perfectly acceptable. One of the enthusiasts was the engineer Ippolit Romanov, who by 1899 had created several models of electric cabs.
But even this is not the main thing. Romanov invented and created an electric omnibus in metal for 17 passengers, developed a scheme for city routes for these progenitors of modern trolleybuses and received a work permit. True, at your own personal commercial risk.
The inventor could not find the required amount, much to the delight of competitors - horse-drawn car owners and numerous cabbies. However, the working electromnibus aroused great interest among other inventors and remained in the history of technology as an invention killed by the municipal bureaucracy.
Pipeline transport
It is difficult to say what is considered the first real pipeline. You can recall the proposal of Dmitry Mendeleev, dated back to 1863, when he proposed to deliver oil from 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, it is started in Russia as well. 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 the 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 the world oil production, became contagious, and “getting on the pipe” became the dream of any enterprising person. In the photo: a view of a three-fuel cube. Baku, 1887
Arc welding
Nikolai Benardos comes from the Novorossiysk Greeks who lived on the Black Sea coast. He is the author of more than a hundred inventions, but went down in history thanks to electric arc welding of metals, which he patented in 1882 in Germany, France, Russia, Italy, England, USA and other countries, calling his method "electrohephaestus".
Benardos' method spread across the planet like wildfire. Instead of fiddling with rivets-bolts, it was enough to just weld pieces of metal. However, it took about half a century for welding to finally take the leading position among assembly methods. A seemingly simple method is to create an electric arc between the consumable electrode in the hands of the welder and the pieces of metal that need to be welded. But the solution is elegant. True, it did not help the inventor to meet his old age with dignity; he died in poverty in 1905 in an almshouse.
Multi-engine aircraft
It's hard to believe now, but a little 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 flew into the air a twin-engine aircraft called Le Grand, and then its four-engine version - "Russian Knight".
Multi-engine aircraft Ilya Muromets.
On February 12, 1914, the four-engine "Ilya Muromets" took off in the air at the test range of the Russian-Baltic plant in Riga. There were 16 passengers on board the four-engine aircraft - an absolute record at that time. The plane had a comfortable cabin, heating, a bath with a toilet and … a promenade deck. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the aircraft, in the summer of 1914, Igor Sikorsky flew from St. Petersburg to Kiev and back on the Ilya Muromets, setting a world record. During the First World War, these aircraft became the world's first heavy bombers.
Helicopter and quad
Igor Sikorsky also created the first serial helicopter, the R-4, or S-47, which Vought-Sikorsky began producing in 1942. It was the first and only helicopter to take part in World War II, in the Pacific theater of operations, as a staff transport and for the evacuation of the wounded.
However, it is unlikely that the US military department would have given Igor Sikorsky the courage to experiment with helicopter technology, if it were not for the amazing rotary-wing aircraft of Georgy 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 could stay in the air. The possibility of vertical flight has thus been proven.
Quadrolet of Botezat.
The Botezat helicopter was called the "flying octopus" because of its interesting design. It was a quadrocopter: four propellers were placed at the ends of metal trusses, and the control system was located in the center - just like in modern radio-controlled drones.
Color photo
Color photography appeared at the end of the 19th century, but photographs of that time were characterized by a shift in 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 reproduction.
In 1902, Prokudin-Gorsky studied color photography in Germany with Adolf Mite, who by that time was the world 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 managed to obtain 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 colored Russia. Demonstrations by Prokudin-Gorsky aroused great interest in the world and prompted other specialists to develop new principles of color printing.
Parachute
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 under balloons began: parachutes were suspended under them in a partially open state. In 1912, American Barry was able to leave the plane with such a parachute and, importantly, he landed alive.
Gleb Kotelnikov with his invention.
The problem was solved by who in what way. For example, American Stefan Banich made a parachute in the form of an umbrella with telescopic needles that were attached around the pilot's torso. This design worked, although it was still not very convenient. But the engineer Gleb Kotelnikov decided that it was all about the material, and made his parachute from silk, packing it in a compact knapsack. Kotelnikov patented his invention in France on the eve of the First World War.
But besides the knapsack parachute, he came up with another interesting thing. He tested the deployment of the parachute, opening it while the car was moving, which literally stood rooted to the spot. So Kotelnikov invented a brake parachute as an emergency braking system for aircraft.
Thereminvox
The history of this musical instrument, which emits 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 a change in the position of the body near the antennas of oscillatory circuits affects the loudness and tonality of the sound in the control dynamics.
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.
Lev Termen's life was difficult, he knew both ups, fame, and camps. His musical instrument is still alive today. The coolest version is Moog Etherwave. Theremin can be heard from the most advanced and quite pop singers. This is truly an invention of all time.
Color television
Vladimir Zvorykin was born into a merchant family in the city of Murom. From childhood, the boy had the opportunity to read a lot and stage all sorts of experiments - this passion for science was encouraged by his father in every way. Having started his studies in St. Petersburg, he learned about cathode-ray tubes and came to the conclusion that the future of television lies in electronic circuits.
Zvorykin was lucky, he left Russia on time in 1919. He worked for many years and in the early 30s patented a transmitting television tube - an iconoscope. Even earlier, he designed one of the options for 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 more interesting things. He has been inventing all his long life and even in retirement continued to amaze with his new solutions.
Video recorder
The AMPEX company was founded in 1944 by the Russian emigrant Alexander Mikhailovich 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 the development of video recording.
By that time, there were already experiments in recording television images, but they required a huge amount of tape. Poniatov and colleagues suggested recording the signal across the tape using a rotating head assembly. On November 30, 1956, the first recorded CBS news was broadcast. And in 1960, the company, represented by its leader and founder, received an Oscar for outstanding contribution to the technical equipment of the film and television industry.
Fate brought Alexander Ponyatov together with interesting people. He was a competitor to Zworykin, Ray Dolby, the creator of the famous noise reduction system, worked with him, and the famous Bing Crosby was one of the first clients and investors. And one more thing: by order of Ponyatov, birches were necessarily planted near any office - in memory of the Motherland.
Tetris
A long time ago, 30 years ago, the Pentamino puzzle was popular in the USSR: it was necessary to place various figures consisting of five squares on a square lined field. Collections of problems were even published, and the results were discussed.
From a mathematical point of view, this puzzle was an excellent test for the computer. And so Alexey Pazhitnov, a researcher at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, wrote such a program for his computer "Electronics 60". But the power was not enough, and Alexey removed one cube from the figures, that is, made a "tetrimino". And then the idea came to make the figures fall into the "glass". This is how Tetris was born.
It was the first computer game because of the Iron Curtain, and for many people the first computer game in general. And although many new toys have already appeared, Tetris still attracts with its seeming simplicity and real complexity.