What did Yablochkin invent. The great inventions of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov. Workshop of Physical Instruments

Inventors

Place of Birth: Serdobsky district of the Saratov province

Family status: married twice. First wife - Lyubov Ilyinichna Nikitina. Second wife - Maria Nikolaevna Albova

Activities and Interests: electrical engineering, invention, entrepreneurship

Yablochkov was the first to try to change the color of electric light by adding various metallic salts to the evaporating partition between the coals. More facts

Education, degrees and titles

1858-1862, Saratov, 1st male gymnasium, Saratov, st. Gimnasicheskaya (now Nekrasova st.), 17: unfinished course

1869, Technical electroplating establishment, Kronstadt. Faculty: Physics: Head of Galvanic Team

Work

1872-1874, Moscow-Kursk railway: head of the telegraph service

1874-1875, Workshop of Physical Instruments, Moscow

Discoveries

Before Yablochkov, only one method was known to include light sources in a circuit, but it was inconvenient and almost never used. Each light source was powered by a separate dynamo, which was expensive. Yablochkov came up with a switching scheme reminiscent of the modern parallel switching on of lamps: it was possible to turn on 4-5 lamps in one circuit.

In the early spring of 1876, Yablochkov completed the design of an electric candle and on March 23 received French patent No. 112024 for it.

In March 1876 - October 1877, the first alternating current generator was designed, an electromagnet with a flat winding was invented.

Biography

P.N. Yablochkov is a Russian inventor of electrical engineering, a military engineer and an entrepreneur. His main invention - an arc lamp without a regulator (an electric candle or "Yablochkov's candle") - in 1876 laid the foundation for the first practically applicable electric lighting system.

Yablochkov was the first in the world to create a power supply system for a large number of candles from a single current generator, based on the use of alternating current, transformers and capacitors. Not a single invention in the field of electrical engineering has received such rapid and widespread distribution as the "Yablochkov candles".

On April 14, 1879, Yablochkov was awarded the nominal medal of the Imperial Russian Technical Society, and in 1947 the Yablochkov Prize was established for the best work in electrical engineering, which is awarded once every three years.

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov- Russian electrical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He invented (patent 1876) an arc lamp without a regulator - an electric candle ("Yablochkov's candle"), which laid the foundation for the first practically applicable electric lighting system. He worked on the creation of electrical machines and chemical current sources.

Childhood and primary education of Pavlik Yablochkov

Pavel Yablochkov was born on September 14 (September 2, according to the old style), 1847, in the village of Zhadovka, Serdobsky district of the Saratov province, in the family of an impoverished nobleman, who came from an old Russian family. From childhood, Pavlik loved to design, he came up with a goniometer for land surveying, a device for counting the path traveled by a cart. Parents, trying to give their son a good education, in 1859 assigned him to the 2nd grade of the Saratov gymnasium. But at the end of 1862, Yablochkov left the gymnasium, studied for several months at the Preparatory Boarding School, and in the fall of 1863 entered the Nikolaev Engineering School in St. Petersburg, which had a good education system and produced educated military engineers.

Military service. Further studies

After graduating from college in 1866, Pavel Yablochkov was sent to serve as an officer in the Kyiv garrison. In the first year of his service, he was forced to retire due to illness. Returning to active service in 1868, he entered the Technical Electroplating Institute in Kronstadt, from which he graduated in 1869. At that time, it was the only school in Russia that trained military specialists in the field of electrical engineering.

Moscow period

In July 1871, having finally left military service, Yablochkov moved to Moscow and entered the position of assistant head of the telegraph service of the Moscow-Kursk railway. At the Moscow Polytechnic Museum, a circle of electricians-inventors and lovers of electrical engineering was created, who shared their experience in this new area at that time. Here, in particular, Yablochkov learned about the experiments of Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin in lighting streets and premises with electric lamps, after which he decided to improve the then existing arc lamps.

Workshop of Physical Instruments

After leaving the service on the telegraph, P. Yablochkov in 1874 opened a workshop for physical instruments in Moscow. “It was the center of bold and witty electrotechnical events, shining with novelty and ahead of time by 20 years,” recalled one of his contemporaries. In 1875, when P.N. Yablochkov conducted experiments on the electrolysis of table salt using carbon electrodes, he had the idea of ​​​​a more advanced device for an arc lamp (without a regulator of the interelectrode distance) - the future “Yablochkov candle”.

Work in France. electric candle

At the end of 1875, the financial affairs of the workshop were finally upset and Yablochkov left for Paris, where he went to work in the workshops of Academician L. Breguet, a well-known French specialist in the field of telegraphy. Dealing with the problems of electric lighting, by the beginning of 1876 Yablochkov completed the design of an electric candle and in March received a patent for it.

The candle of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov consisted of two rods separated by an insulating gasket. Each of the rods was clamped in a separate terminal of the candlestick. An arc discharge was ignited at the upper ends, and the arc flame shone brightly, gradually burning the coals and evaporating the insulating material.

Creation of an electric lighting system

The success of Yablochkov's candle exceeded all expectations. Reports of her appearance went around the world press. During 1876, Pavel Nikolaevich developed and implemented a system of electric lighting on single-phase alternating current, which, unlike direct current, ensured uniform burnout of carbon rods in the absence of a regulator. In addition, Yablochkov developed a method for "crushing" electric light (that is, powering a large number of candles from one current generator), offering three solutions at once, including the first practical use of a transformer and a capacitor.

Yablochkov's lighting system ("Russian light"), demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878, enjoyed exceptional success; in many countries of the world, including France, companies were founded for its commercial exploitation. Having ceded the right to use his inventions to the owners of the French General Electricity Company with Yablochkov's patents, Pavel Nikolaevich, as the head of its technical department, continued to work on further improving the lighting system, being content with more than a modest share of the company's huge profits.

Return to Russia. commercial activity

In 1878, Pavel Yablochkov decided to return to Russia to deal with the problem of spreading electric lighting. At home, he was enthusiastically received as an inventor and innovator.

In 1879, Pavel Nikolayevich organized the P. N. Yablochkov-Inventor and Co. Electric Lighting Association and an electrical plant in St. Petersburg, which manufactured lighting installations on a number of military ships, the Okhta plant, etc. satisfaction. He clearly saw that there were too few opportunities in Russia for the implementation of new technical ideas, in particular, for the production of electric machines built by him. In addition, by 1879, an electrical engineer, inventor, founder of large electrical enterprises and companies, Thomas Edison in America, brought the incandescent lamp to practical perfection, which completely replaced arc lamps.

Back in France

Having moved to Paris in 1880, Yablochkov began to prepare for participation in the first World Electrical Exhibition, which was to be held in 1881 in Paris. At this exhibition, Yablochkov's inventions were highly appreciated and were recognized by the decision of the International Jury out of competition, but the exhibition itself was a triumph of the incandescent lamp. Since that time, Yablochkov was mainly concerned with the generation of electrical energy - the creation of dynamos and galvanic cells.

The last period of the inventor's life

At the end of 1893, feeling ill, Pavel Yablochkov returned to Russia after 13 years of absence, but a few months later, on March 31 (March 19 according to the old style), 1894, he died of a heart disease in Saratov. She was buried in a family crypt in the village of Sapozhok, Saratov Region.

On September 14, 1847, Pyotr Yablochkov was born, who made many inventions, but went down in history only as the creator of the "Yablochkov candle".

The greatest reward for any inventor is if his name, by which one of his inventions is named, is forever included in the history of mankind. In Russia, many scientists and engineers have managed to earn such an award: just remember Dmitri Mendeleev and his table, Mikhail Kalashnikov and his machine gun, Georgy Kotelnikov and his backpack parachute ... Among them is one of the pioneers of world electrical engineering, the most talented Russian engineer Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov . After all, the phrase "Yablochkov's candle" has been known in the world for almost a century and a half!

But in the same greatest reward - perpetuating the name in the invention - lies the greatest curse for the scientist. Because all his other developments and discoveries, even if there were more than a dozen of them against a single world-famous one, remain in his shadow. And in this sense, the biography of Pavel Yablochkov is a classic example. He, who was the first to illuminate the streets of Paris with electric light, confirmed with his whole life the validity of the French proverb “If you want to go unnoticed, stand under the lantern.” Because the first and only thing that comes to mind when mentioning the name of Yablochkov is his candle. Meanwhile, it is our countryman who, for example, owns the invention of the world's first electrical alternating current transformer. As contemporaries spoke of him, Yablochkov opened two eras in electrical engineering: the era of the direct application of electric current to lighting and the era of the use of transformed current. And if we judge his deeds according to the Hamburg account, then we must admit: it was Yablochkov who brought electric light from the cramped laboratory to the wide streets of the cities of the world.

From Saratov to Petersburg

By origin, the future genius of electrical engineering was the most well-born nobleman. The Yablochkov family, quite numerous and spread to three provinces - Kaluga, Saratov and Tula, traces its history from the second half of the 16th century from Moses Yablochkov and his son Daniel.

Most of the Yablochkovs, as befitted the Russian nobles, were classic representatives of the service class, showing themselves both in military affairs and in public administration, receiving well-deserved awards both in money and lands. But over time, the family became poorer, and the father of the future inventor of the electric candle could no longer boast of a large estate. Nikolai Pavlovich Yablochkov, according to family tradition, chose the military path, enrolling in the Naval Cadet Corps, but was forced to resign from service due to illness. Alas, poor health was one of the few legacies that the retired sailor passed on to his son...

However, the other part of the same inheritance was more than worthy. Despite the small wealth, the Yablochkov family, who lived on the estate of Petropavlovka, Serdobsky district, Saratov province, was distinguished by high culture and education. And the boy, who was born on September 14, 1847 to Nikolai and Elizaveta Yablochkov and baptized in honor of the confessor Paul of Nicaea, was surely waiting for a brilliant career.

Little Pavel did not deceive these expectations. A smart and receptive boy, like a sponge, he absorbed the knowledge that his parents and older brothers and sisters shared with him. Pavlik showed particular interest in technology and the exact sciences - his father's "legacy" also affected here: the Naval Cadet Corps has always been famous for teaching these particular disciplines.

In the summer of 1858, Pavel Yablochkov was enrolled in the Saratov Men's Gymnasium for less than 11 years. Like all other applicants, he was subjected to an entrance test - and according to the results, he was immediately enrolled in the second class, which was not too common. The teachers appreciated the high level of the boy's preparation and later on more than once drew attention to the fact that Yablochkov Jr. did better than most of his classmates, showing particular success in the same exact and technical disciplines.

Is it any wonder that the father's decision to take his son from the gymnasium in November 1862, almost at the beginning of the school year, caused painful bewilderment among the teachers. But the reason was obvious and understandable: it became too difficult for the family to pay for the boy's education. The way out that the Yablochkovs found was just as obvious: it was decided to send their son to a military school. The choice was also obvious: the 15-year-old Pavel's inclinations were best met by the Nikolaev Engineering School, which trained military engineers for the Russian army.

Officer youth

It was impossible for a fifth-grader who had not completed his studies to enter the school right away: he had to improve his knowledge in basic subjects and wait for the start of the next academic year. Pavel Yablochkov spent these few months in an amazing place - a private cadet corps created by the famous military engineer and composer Caesar Cui. Invented by Caesar Antonovich together with his brave wife Malvina Rafailovna Bamberg, the “preparatory engineering boarding house” was cheaper for Yablochkov’s parents than the Saratov gymnasium. And then to say: this boarding school, although it was intended to improve the financial situation of a young family, was not designed for substantial earnings, but rather provided new students who taught at the Nikolaev Engineering School, Cui, whom he already knows well.

Caesar Antonovich quickly assessed the potential of a new pupil from the Saratov province. A talented engineer himself, Cui immediately noticed Pavel Yablochkov and realized how gifted the boy was in engineering. In addition, the new pupil did not hide from his teacher either his technical inclinations or the inventions already made - a new surveying device and a device for calculating the path traveled by the cart. Alas, no exact information has been preserved about either invention. But there is no doubt that they were: after Yablochkov became famous for his experiments in the field of electricity, many contemporaries spoke about his first inventions, arguing that peasants in the Saratov province used both devices with great success.

Pavel Yablochkov during his years of work in Moscow. Image: istorialamp.ru

By the summer of 1863, Pavel Yablochkov raised his knowledge to the required level, and on September 30 he passed the entrance exam to the Nikolaev Engineering School with honors and was enrolled in the junior conductor class. At that time, training at the school consisted of two stages: the school itself, which admitted teenagers from noble families and from which engineers ensigns and second lieutenants graduated, and the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, which had just merged with it, gave a two-year higher military education.

Pavel Yablochkov never reached the academic bench, despite the fact that all three years of study at the school he was among the first students and was distinguished by excellent knowledge and amazing diligence. In 1866, he passed the final exams in the first category, which gave him the right to immediately receive the second junior officer rank - second lieutenant engineer - and went to his duty station in Kyiv. There, the young officer was enrolled in the fifth sapper battalion of the engineering team of the Kyiv fortress. But, unlike the school, the actual military service clearly weighed on Yablochkov, who sought to engage in scientific activities rather than engineering support for the army. And just a year later, at the end of 1867, Pavel Nikolayevich, with good reason citing poor health (even the serious physical exertion that the students of the Nikolaev School endured did not help to correct him), resigned.

True, it did not last long. Yablochkov quickly realized that in order to obtain the knowledge he needed in the engineering field, and especially in the field of electrical engineering, the army was still the best option, and in 1868 he returned to the service. He was attracted by the Kronstadt Technical Electroplating Institute - the only electrical engineering school in Russia at that time. Pavel Nikolaevich seeks a secondment to Kronstadt and eight months later he returns to the Kyiv fortress, but already to the post of head of the galvanic team. This meant that from now on the young officer was responsible in the citadel for all work using electricity, primarily for mines and the telegraph, which was actively included in the army's technical arsenal.

With a spotlight on a steam locomotive

To the great regret of the father, who saw in his son the continuation of his failed military career, Pavel Nikolayevich did not stay long in the service. Three years later, in 1872, he resigned again, this time for good. But he still has to deal with the military, and not with the army, but with the navy (here it is, his father's legacy!). After all, the first lanterns equipped with the "Yablochkov candle" will be lit in Russia in six years precisely in Kronstadt - near the walls of the house of the commander of the Kronstadt seaport and in the barracks of the training crew.

And then, in 1872, Yablochkov went to Moscow - where, as he knows, they are most actively engaged in research in the field of electrical engineering. At that time, the Polytechnic Museum was the center of attraction for active young scientists conducting electrical experiments. In the local circle of electricians-inventors, work is in full swing on devices that will turn electricity into everyday, affordable energy for everyone, helping to make life easier for mankind.

Spending all his free time on joint experiments with other electrical enthusiasts, Yablochkov earns a living for himself and his young wife, working as the head of the telegraph office of the Moscow-Kursk Railway. And it was here, so to speak, right at the workplace, that in 1874 he received an amazing offer: to put into practice his knowledge in the field of electrical engineering and electric lighting, equipping with a lighting device ... a steam locomotive!

Pavel Nikolayevich received such an unexpected order, since the authorities of the Moscow-Kursk railway urgently needed to impress the family of Emperor Alexander II, who was leaving by train from Moscow to the Crimea, for a summer vacation in Livadia. Formally, the railway workers sought to ensure the safety of the royal family, for which they needed night lighting of the track.

Lighting the streets with "Yablochkov's candles" during the Paris Exhibition of 1878. Image: wikimedia.org

A searchlight with a Foucault regulator - the prototype of the "Yablochkov candle", and at that time one of the most common electric arc light sources - became the world's first lighting device installed on a steam locomotive. And, like any innovation, it required constant attention to itself. For more than two days, which the royal train followed to the Crimea, Yablochkov spent almost 20 hours on the front platform of the locomotive, constantly controlling the searchlight and turning the screws of the Foucault regulator. Moreover, the locomotive was far from alone: ​​the train tractor changed at least four times, and each time Yablochkov had to manually transfer lighting equipment, wires and batteries from one locomotive to another and reinstall them on the site.

Way to the West

The success of this enterprise prompted Pavel Yablochkov to start his own business, so as not to carve out hours and minutes for experiments, but to make them the main business of his life. At the end of the same 1874, Yablochkov left his service on the telegraph office and opened an electrical workshop in Moscow and a store attached to it.

But, alas, how great was the engineering talent of the heir to an old noble family, his commercial abilities turned out to be just as small. Within just one year, Pavel Yablochkov's workshop and the store fell into complete decline: the inventor spent much more money on his research and experiments than he could earn. And then Pavel Nikolayevich decided to take a desperate step: he decided to go overseas, to America, hoping to find there either a demand for his research, which was not there in his homeland, or an investor who could turn his experiments into capital.

Yablochkov went on a long journey in the fall of 1875, hoping to have time to get to the end of the Philadelphia exhibition. Pavel Nikolaevich really wanted to demonstrate on it the recently invented electromagnet with a flat winding - his first invention, which he brought to a patent.

But the Russian inventor never reached Philadelphia: financial difficulties stopped him long before the ocean, in Paris. Realizing that now he can only rely on his own knowledge of electrical engineering and on someone who can evaluate and apply his inventions to the cause, Yablochkov goes to Academician Louis Breguet, a well-known telegraph specialist at that time and the owner of an electrical workshop. And the French academician immediately understands that luck brought him a genius: he hires Pavel Nikolayevich without unnecessary formalities in the expectation that the newcomer will quickly show himself.

And these expectations were fully justified at the beginning of 1876. On March 23, Yablochkov received in France his first patent No. 112024 for an electric arc lamp - then no one called it "Yablochkov's candle". Fame came a little later, when the Breguet workshop sent its representative, that is, Yablochkov, to an exhibition of physical instruments in London. It was there that the Russian inventor on April 15, 1876 for the first time publicly demonstrated his invention - and forever went down in history ...

Bright light "Yablochkov's candle"

From London, "Yablochkov's candle" began a triumphal procession around the world. The first to appreciate the advantages of the new light source were the inhabitants of Paris, where lanterns with "Yablochkov's candles" appeared in the winter-spring of 1877. Then came the turn of London, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras ... By 1878, the "Russian candle" reaches the homeland of its creator: the first lanterns are placed in Kronstadt , and then they illuminate the Stone Theater in St. Petersburg.

The device of the electric "Yablochkov candle". Image: by-time.ru

Initially, Pavel Yablochkov transferred all the rights to his inventions to the Union for the Study of Electric Light (Yablochkov's system), in French - Le Syndicat d "études de la lumière électrique (système Jablochkoff). A little later, on its basis, the General Electric Company arose and became world famous - Société Generale d "électricité (procédés Jablochkoff). How big were the turnover of the company that produced and sold the "Yablochkov candles" can be judged by the following fact: it produced 8,000 of these candles every day, and they all sold out without a trace.

But Yablochkov dreamed of returning to Russia in order to put his inventions at her service. In addition, the success that he achieved in Europe encouraged him and, apparently, gave him hope that now he could be commercially wealthy in Russia. As a result, having redeemed for a crazy amount at that time - a million francs! - the rights to his patents from a French company, Pavel Nikolaevich sets off on his way back to his homeland.

In 1879, the P.N. Yablochkov the Inventor and Co., and soon Yablochkov also organized an electromechanical plant. But, alas, it did not work out to repeat the success of Société Générale d "électricité in Russia. As the second wife of Yablochkova wrote in her memoirs, “it was difficult to meet a less practical person like Yablochkov, and the choice of employees was unsuccessful ... The money was spent, thought about the structure of Russian society with capital from outside failed, and the matter in Russia died out.

In addition, the trade in “Yablochkov candles” was not Pavel Nikolaevich’s life goal at all: he was much more inspired by work on new electrical machines - alternators and transformers, as well as further work on the distribution of electric current in circuits and on chemical sources of electric current. And just these scientific studies, unfortunately, did not find understanding in the homeland of the inventor - despite the fact that fellow scientists highly appreciated his work. Deciding that European entrepreneurs would be much more interested in new units, Yablochkov left his homeland again and returned to Paris in 1880. Less than a year later, in 1881, at the Paris World Exhibition, the “Yablochkov candle” will again bring glory to its creator - and then it will become clear that its economic age turned out to be as short as the operating time of each individual candle. Thomas Edison's incandescent lamps appeared on the world stage, and Yablochkov could only watch the triumph of an American who built his business on minimal modifications to the inventions of his Russian colleague and his countrymen.

Pavel Yablochkov returned to Russia only 12 years later, in 1893. By this time, his health was completely undermined, commercial affairs were in disorder, and there was no longer enough strength for full-fledged scientific work. On March 31, 1894, the greatest inventor, one of the first world-famous Russian engineers, Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov, died - as witnesses of his last months of life say, without stopping his experiments. True, he had to conduct the last of them already in a poor room in a Saratov hotel, from where the brilliant electrical engineer never came out alive.

"... The world owes all this to our compatriot"

What kind of scientific and technical legacy did Pavel Yablochkov leave behind? It should be noted that it has not been possible to appreciate it to this day: a large part of the scientific archive of Pavel Nikolayevich simply disappeared during his numerous moves. But even the information that has been preserved in patent archives and documents, the memoirs of contemporaries, gives an idea that Yablochkov should be considered among the founding fathers of modern electrical engineering.

Of course, the main and most famous invention of Yablochkov is the legendary "Yablochkov candle". It is ingeniously simple: two carbon electrodes connected by a thin metal thread for ignition and separated along the entire length by a kaolin insulator that evaporated as the electrodes burned out. Yablochkov quickly guessed to add various metal salts to kaolin, which made it possible to change the tone and saturation of the light of the lamps.

Postage stamp of the USSR dedicated to P.N. Yablochkov, 1951 issue. Image: wikipedia.org

Secondly, this is an AC magnetoelectric machine without rotational motion (the predecessor of one of the famous inventions of engineer Nikola Tesla): Yablochkov received one of the French patents for it. He issued the same patent for a magneto-dynamo-electric machine, in which there were no moving windings. Both the magnetizing winding and the winding in which the electromotive force was induced remained motionless, and the toothed iron disk rotated, changing the magnetic flux as it moved. Due to this, the inventor managed to get rid of sliding contacts and make a machine that is simple and reliable in design.

The “Yablochkov clip machine” was also completely original in design, the name of which the inventor gave, as he himself wrote, by the location of “the axis of rotation at an angle relative to the axis of the magnetic field, which resembles the tilt of the ecliptic.” True, there was little practical sense in such a sophisticated design, but modern electrical engineering for Yablochkov largely came not from theory, but from practice, which required, among other things, such unusual constructions.

And research in the field of generating electricity through chemical reactions and the creation of galvanic cells, which Yablochkov became interested in in the last decade of his life, received an adequate assessment only half a century later. In the middle of the twentieth century, experts assessed them as follows: "Everything created by Yablochkov in the field of galvanic cells is distinguished by an unusually rich variety of principles and design solutions, indicating exceptional intellectual data and an outstanding talent of the inventor."

The role of Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov in the world history of electrical engineering was best described by his colleague in the electrotechnical circle at the Polytechnic University, Vladimir Chikolev. Moreover, he formulated it, being a categorical opponent of many of Yablochkov's ideas. However, this did not prevent Chikolev from appreciating the innovation of Pavel Nikolaevich. In 1880, he wrote about him like this: “I believe that Yablochkov’s main merit is not in the invention of his candle, but in the fact that under the banner of this candle he, with inextinguishable energy, perseverance, and consistency, raised electric lighting by the ears and put it on the proper pedestal. If then electric lighting received credit in society, if its progress, supported by the trust and funds of the public, then went on with such gigantic steps, if the thoughts of workers rushed to improve this lighting, among whom the famous names of Siemens, Jamin, Edison, etc. appear, then everyone the world owes this to our compatriot Yablochkov.”

Both Yablochkov and Lodygin were "temporary" emigrants. They were not going to leave their homeland forever and, having achieved success in Europe and America, returned back. It’s just that Russia at all times “stopped”, as it is fashionable to say today, innovative developments, and sometimes it was easier to go to France or the USA and “promote” your invention there, and then triumphantly return home as a well-known and sought-after specialist. This can be called technical emigration - not because of poverty or dislike for native broken roads, but precisely with the aim of pushing away from abroad in order to interest both the homeland and the world.

The fates of these two talented people are very similar. Both were born in the autumn of 1847, served in the army in engineering positions and almost simultaneously retired in close ranks (Yablochkov - lieutenant, Lodygin - second lieutenant). Both made the most important inventions in the field of lighting in the mid-1870s, developing them mainly abroad, in France and the USA. However, later their fates diverged.

So, candles and lamps.

filament

First of all, it is worth noting that Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin did not invent the incandescent lamp. Just as Thomas Edison did not, to whom Lodygin eventually sold a number of his patents. Formally, the Scottish inventor James Bowman Lindsey should be considered the pioneer of using a hot spiral for lighting. In 1835, in the city of Dundee, he held a public demonstration of lighting the space around him with a hot wire. He showed that such light made it possible to read books without the use of the usual candles. However, Lindsey was a man of many hobbies and no longer engaged in light - this was just one of a series of his “tricks”.

And the first lamp with a glass bulb was patented in 1838 by the Belgian photographer Marcellin Jobard. It was he who introduced a number of modern principles of the incandescent lamp - he pumped air out of the bulb, creating a vacuum there, applied a carbon filament, and so on. After Jobar, there were many more electrical engineers who contributed to the development of the incandescent lamp - Warren de la Rue, Frederic Mullins (de Moleyns), Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, John Wellington Starr and others. Robert-Houdin, by the way, was generally an illusionist, not a scientist - he designed and patented the lamp as one of the elements of his technical tricks. So everything was ready for the appearance of Lodygin on the “lamp arena”.

Alexander Nikolayevich was born in the Tambov province in a noble family, but not rich, he entered, like many noble offspring of that time, in the cadet corps (first in preparatory classes in Tambov, then in the main unit in Voronezh), served in the 71st Belevsky regiment, studied at the Moscow Junker Infantry School (now Alekseevsky), and in 1870 he resigned, because his soul did not lie in the army.

At the school, he trained in engineering, and this played an important role in his passion for electrical engineering. After 1870, Lodygin was closely engaged in work on improving the incandescent lamp, and at the same time attended St. Petersburg University as a volunteer. In 1872, he applied for an invention called "Technology and Apparatus for Electric Lighting" and two years later received the privilege. Subsequently, he patented his invention in other countries.

What did Lodygin invent?

An incandescent light bulb with a carbon rod. You will say - so after all, Jobar used a similar system! Yes, definitely. But Lodygin, firstly, developed a much more perfect configuration, and secondly, he guessed that vacuum is not an ideal environment and you can increase the efficiency and service life by filling the flask with inert gases, as is done in such lamps today. This was the breakthrough of world significance.

He founded the Russian Association of Electric Lighting Lodygin and Co., was successful, worked on many inventions, including, by the way, on diving equipment, but in 1884 he was forced to leave Russia for political reasons. Yes, because of they left at all times. The fact was that the death of Alexander II from the Grinevitsky bomb led to mass raids and repressions among those who sympathized with the revolutionaries. Basically, it was the creative and technical intelligentsia - that is, the society in which Lodygin moved. He left not from accusations of any illegal actions, but rather away from sin.

Before that, he had already worked in Paris, and now he moved to the capital of France to live. True, the company he created abroad went bankrupt rather quickly (Lodygin was a very doubtful businessman), and in 1888 he moved to the USA, where he got a job at Westinghouse Electric (“Westinghouse Electric”). George Westinghouse attracted leading engineers from all over the world to his developments, sometimes outbidding them from competitors.

In American patents, Lodygin secured leadership in the development of lamps with molybdenum, platinum, iridium, tungsten, osmium and palladium filaments (not counting numerous inventions in other areas, in particular a patent for a new system of electric resistance furnaces). Tungsten filaments are still used in light bulbs today - in fact, Lodygin in the late 1890s gave the incandescent lamp its final look. The triumph of Lodygin's lamps came in 1893, when the Westinghouse company won a tender to electrify the World's Fair in Chicago. Ironically, later, before leaving for his homeland, Lodygin sold the patents obtained in the United States not at all to Westinghouse, but to Thomas Edison's General Electric.

In 1895 he moved again to Paris and there he married Alma Schmidt, the daughter of a German immigrant whom he had met in Pittsburgh. And 12 years later, Lodygin, with his wife and two daughters, returned to Russia - a world-famous inventor and electrical engineer. He had no problems either with work (he taught at the Electrotechnical Institute, now St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI"), or with the promotion of his ideas. He was engaged in social and political activities, worked on the electrification of railways, and in 1917, with the advent of the new government, he again left for the United States, where he was received very cordially.

Perhaps Lodygin is a real man of the world. Living and working in Russia, France and the USA, he achieved his goal everywhere, received patents everywhere and implemented his developments in life. When he died in Brooklyn in 1923, even the newspapers of the RSFSR wrote about it.

It is Lodygin who can be called the inventor of the modern light bulb to a greater extent than any of his historical competitors. But the founder of street lighting was not at all him, but another great Russian electrical engineer - Pavel Yablochkov, who did not believe in the prospects of incandescent lamps. He went his own way.

CANDLE WITHOUT FIRE

As noted above, the life paths of the two inventors were at first similar. In fact, you can simply copy part of Lodygin's biography into this subsection, replacing the names and names of educational institutions. Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov was also born into the family of a small-scale nobleman, studied at the Saratov Men's Gymnasium, then at the Nikolaev Engineering School, from where he graduated as a second lieutenant engineer and went to serve in the 5th engineer battalion of the Kyiv fortress. He served, however, not for long and less than a year later he retired for health reasons. Another thing is that there was no sensible work in the civilian field, and two years later, in 1869, Yablochkov returned to the army and was seconded to the Technical Electroplating Institute in Kronstadt (now the Officers' Electrotechnical School) to improve his skills. It was there that he became seriously interested in electrical engineering - the institution trained military specialists for all work related to electricity in the army: the telegraph, mine detonation systems, and so on.

In 1872, 25-year-old Yablochkov finally retired and began work on his own project. He rightly considered incandescent lamps unpromising: indeed, at that time they were dim, energy-consuming and not very durable. Yablochkov was much more interested in the technology of arc lamps, which at the very beginning of the 19th century was independently developed by two scientists - the Russian Vasily Petrov and the Englishman Humphrey Davy. Both of them in the same 1802 (although there are discrepancies regarding the date of Davy's "presentation") presented to the highest scientific organizations of their countries - the Royal Institute and the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences - the effect of the glow of an arc passing between two electrodes. At that time, there was no practical application for this phenomenon, but already in the 1830s the first arc lamps with a carbon electrode began to appear. The most famous engineer who developed such systems was the Englishman William Edwards Steight, who received a number of patents for carbon lamps in 1834-1836 and, most importantly, developed the most important unit of such a device - the distance controller between the electrodes. This was the main problem with the carbon lamp: as the electrodes burned out, the distance between them increased, and they had to be moved so that the arc did not go out. State's patents were used as references by many electrical engineers around the world, and his lamps illuminated a number of pavilions at the 1851 World's Fair.

Yablochkov, on the other hand, set out to correct the main drawback of the arc lamp - the need for maintenance. Near each lamp there had to be a person constantly twisting the regulator. This negated the advantages of both bright light and the relative cheapness of manufacture.

In 1875, Yablochkov, having never found a use for his skills in Russia, left for Paris, where he got a job as an engineer in the laboratory of the famous physicist Louis-Francois Breguet (his grandfather founded the Breguet watch brand) and became friends with his son Antoine. There, in 1876, Yablochkov received the first patent for an arc lamp without a regulator. The essence of the invention was that long electrodes were located not with their ends to each other, but side by side, in parallel. They were separated by a layer of kaolin, an inert material that did not allow an arc to occur along the entire length of the electrodes. The arc appeared only at their ends. As the visible part of the electrodes burned out, the kaolin melted and the light descended down the electrodes. Such a lamp burned for no more than two or three hours - but it was incredibly bright.

"Yablochkov's Candles", as the journalists called the novelty, gained crazy success. After the lamps were demonstrated at the London exhibition, several companies immediately bought the patent from Yablochkov and organized mass production. In 1877, the first "candles" lit up on the streets of Los Angeles (the Americans bought a batch immediately after public demonstrations in London, even before mass production). On May 30, 1878, the first "candles" were lit in Paris - near the Opera and on the Place des Stars. Subsequently, Yablochkov's lamps illuminated the streets of London and a number of American cities.

How is it, you ask, they burned for only two hours! Yes, but it was comparable to the "run time" of a conventional candle, and at the same time, arc lamps were incredibly bright and more reliable. And yes, many lamplighters were required - but no more than for servicing the ubiquitous gas lamps.

But incandescent lamps were approaching: in 1879, the Briton Joseph Swan (later his company would merge with the Edison company and become the largest lighting conglomerate in the world) installed the first incandescent street lamp in history near his house. In a matter of years, Edison lamps have become equal in brightness to the "Yablochkov candles", while having a significantly lower cost and an operating time of 1000 hours or more. The short era of arc lamps is over.

In general, this was logical: the crazy, incredible rise of the “Russian world”, as the “Yablochkov candles” were called in the USA and Europe, could not last long. The decline became even more rapid - by the mid-1880s there was not a single factory left that would produce "candles". However, Yablochkov worked on various electrical systems and tried to maintain his former glory, went to congresses of electrical engineers, gave lectures, including in Russia.

He finally returned in 1892, having spent his savings on buying his own patents from European copyright holders. In Europe, no one needed his ideas, and in his homeland he hoped to find support and interest. But it did not work out: by that time, due to many years of experiments with harmful substances, in particular with chlorine, Pavel Nikolayevich's health began to deteriorate rapidly. His heart failed, his lungs failed, he suffered two strokes and died on March 19 (31), 1894 in Saratov, where he lived for the last year, developing a scheme for electric lighting of the city. He was 47 years old.

Perhaps if Yablochkov had lived to see the revolution, he would have repeated the fate of Lodygin and would have left for the second time - now forever.

Today, arc lamps have received a new life - xenon lighting works on this principle in flashes, car headlights, searchlights. But a much more important achievement of Yablochkov is that he was the first to prove that electric lighting of public spaces and even entire cities is possible.

P.N. Yablochkov was born on September 14 (26), 1847 in the Saratov province, in the family of an impoverished nobleman. From childhood he was fond of designing: he came up with a device for land surveying, which later the peasants of the surrounding villages used during land redistribution; a device for counting the path traveled by a cart is a prototype of modern odometers.

He was educated first at the Saratov Men's Gymnasium, then at the Nikolaev Engineering School in St. Petersburg. In January 1869, P.N. Yablochkov was sent to the Technical Electroplating Institute in Kronstadt, at that time it was the only school in Russia that trained military specialists in the field of electrical engineering. After completing his studies, he was appointed head of the galvanic team of the 5th engineer battalion, and after three years of service he retired.

After P.N. Yablochkov worked on the Moscow-Kursk railway as the head of the telegraph service, here he created a "black-writing telegraph apparatus".

P.N. Yablochkov was a member of the circle of electricians-inventors and lovers of electrical engineering at the Moscow Polytechnic Museum. Here he learned about the experiments of A. N. Lodygin on lighting streets and premises with electric lamps. After that, he decided to improve the then existing arc lamps. He began his inventive activity with an attempt to improve the most common Foucault regulator at that time. The regulator was very complex, operated with the help of three springs and required continuous attention.

In the spring of 1874, Pavel Nikolaevich had the opportunity to practically apply an electric arc for lighting. A government train was supposed to follow from Moscow to Crimea. The administration of the Moscow-Kursk road, for the sake of traffic safety, decided to light the railway track for this train at night and turned to Yablochkov as an engineer interested in electric lighting. For the first time in the history of railway transport, a searchlight with an arc lamp - a Foucault regulator - was installed on a steam locomotive. Yablochkov, standing on the front platform of the locomotive, changed the coals, twisted the regulator; and when they changed the locomotive, he dragged his searchlight and wires from one locomotive to another and strengthened them. This went on all the way, and although the experiment was a success, he once again convinced Yablochkov that this method of electric lighting could not be widely used and the regulator had to be simplified.

After leaving the telegraph service in 1874, Yablochkov opened a workshop for physical instruments in Moscow. According to the memoirs of one of his contemporaries:

"It was the center of bold and witty electrical events that sparkled with novelty and were 20 years ahead of the time."

Yablochkov's candle turned out to be simpler, more convenient and cheaper to operate than A. N. Lodygin's coal lamp, it had neither mechanisms nor springs. It consisted of two rods separated by an insulating gasket made of kaolin. Each of the rods was clamped in a separate terminal of the candlestick. An arc discharge was ignited at the upper ends, and the arc flame shone brightly, gradually burning the coals and evaporating the insulating material. Yablochkov had to work very hard on the choice of a suitable insulating substance and on methods for obtaining suitable coals. Later, he tried to change the color of electric light by adding various metallic salts to the evaporating partition between the coals.

On April 15, 1876, an exhibition of physical instruments opened in London, at which P.N. Yablochkov exhibited his candle and held a public demonstration of it. On low metal pedestals, Yablochkov placed four candles wrapped in asbestos and set at a great distance from each other. The current from the dynamo, which was in the next room, was connected to the lamps by wires. By turning the handle, the current was switched on, and immediately a very bright, slightly bluish electric light flooded the vast room. The large audience was delighted. So London became the site of the first public demonstration of a new light source.

The success of Yablochkov's candle exceeded all expectations. The world press was full of headlines:

"You must see Yablochkov's candle"
"The invention of the Russian retired military engineer Yablochkov is a new era in technology"
"Light comes to us from the North - from Russia"
"Northern light, Russian light, is a miracle of our time"
"Russia is the birthplace of electricity"

Yablochkov's candles appeared on sale and began to diverge in huge quantities, each candle cost about 20 kopecks and burned for 1½ hours; after this time, a new candle had to be inserted into the lantern. Subsequently, lanterns with automatic replacement of candles were invented.

In February 1877, the fashionable shops of the Louvre were illuminated with electric lights. No less admirable was the lighting of the huge Parisian covered hippodrome. His running track was illuminated by 20 arc lamps with reflectors, and the seats for spectators were lit by 120 Yablochkov electric candles arranged in two rows.

The new electric lighting is conquering England, France, Germany, Belgium and Spain, Portugal and Sweden with exceptional speed. In Italy, they illuminated the ruins of the Colosseum, National Street and Colon Square in Rome, in Vienna - Folskgarten, in Greece - Falerno Bay, as well as squares and streets, seaports and shops, theaters and palaces in other countries.

The radiance of the "Russian world" crossed the borders of Europe. Candles Yablochkov appeared in Mexico, India and Burma. Even the Shah of Persia and the King of Cambodia illuminated their palaces with "Russian light".

In Russia, the first test of electric lighting according to the Yablochkov system was carried out on October 11, 1878. On this day, the barracks of the Kronstadt training crew and the area near the house occupied by the commander of the Kronstadt seaport were illuminated. On December 4, 1878, Yablochkov's candles, 8 balls, lit up the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg for the first time. As the Novoye Vremya newspaper wrote in its December 6 issue:

“Suddenly an electric light was turned on, a white bright, but not a cutting eye, but a soft light instantly spread across the hall, in which the colors and colors of women's faces and toilets retained their naturalness, as in daylight. The effect was amazing.”

During his stay in France, P.N. Yablochkov worked not only on the invention and improvement of the electric candle, but also on solving other practical problems.

Only in the first year and a half - from March 1876 to October 1877 - he presented mankind with a number of other outstanding inventions and discoveries: he designed the first alternating current generator, which, unlike direct current, ensured uniform burnout of carbon rods in the absence of a regulator; first used alternating current for industrial purposes, created an alternating current transformer (November 30, 1876, the date of obtaining a patent, is considered the date of birth of the first transformer), an electromagnet with a flat winding, and for the first time used static capacitors in an alternating current circuit. Discoveries and inventions allowed Yablochkov to be the first in the world to create a system for "crushing" electric light, that is, supplying a large number of candles from one current generator, based on the use of alternating current, transformers and capacitors.

In 1877, the Russian naval officer A.N. Khotinsky received cruisers in America that were being built by order of Russia. He visited Edison's laboratory and gave him A. N. Lodygin's incandescent lamp and the "Yablochkov candle" with a light splitting scheme. Edison made some improvements and in November 1879 he received a patent for them as for his inventions. Yablochkov spoke out in print against the Americans, saying that Thomas Edison stole from the Russians not only their thoughts and ideas, but also their inventions. Professor V. N. Chikolev wrote then that Edison's method was not new and its updates were insignificant.

In 1878, Yablochkov decided to return to Russia to deal with the problem of the spread of electric lighting. Shortly after the arrival of the inventor in St. Petersburg, the joint-stock company "Partnership of Electric Lighting and the Production of Electrical Machines and Apparatus P. N. Yablochkov the Inventor and Co." was established. Yablochkov's candles were lit in many Russian cities. By the middle of 1880, about 500 lanterns with Yablochkov candles were installed. However, electric lighting in Russia is not as widespread as it is abroad. There were many reasons for this: the Russian-Turkish war, which diverted a lot of money and attention, the technical backwardness of Russia, the inertia of the city authorities. It was not possible to create a strong company with the attraction of large capital, the lack of funds was felt all the time. An important role was played by the inexperience in the financial and commercial affairs of P.N. Yablochkov.

In addition, by 1879, T. Edison in America brought the incandescent lamp to practical perfection, which completely replaced arc lamps. The exhibition, which opened on August 1, 1881 in Paris, showed that Yablochkov's candle and his lighting system began to lose their significance. Although Yablochkov's inventions were highly praised and declared out of competition by the International Jury, the exhibition itself was a triumph for the incandescent lamp, which could burn for 800-1000 hours without replacement. It could be ignited, extinguished and re-ignited many times. In addition, it was more economical than a candle. All this had a strong influence on the further work of Pavel Nikolayevich, and from that time on he completely switched to the creation of a powerful and economical chemical current source. In a number of schemes of chemical current sources, Yablochkov was the first to propose wooden separators for separating the cathode and anode spaces. Subsequently, such separators have found wide application in the construction of lead-acid batteries.

Work with chemical current sources turned out to be not only little studied, but also life-threatening. Carrying out experiments with chlorine, Pavel Nikolaevich burned the mucous membrane of his lungs. In 1884, during the experiments, an explosion of a soda battery occurred, P.N. Yablochkov almost died, and suffered two strokes after that.

He spent the last year of his life with his family in Saratov, where he died on March 19 (31), 1894. On March 23, his ashes were buried on the outskirts of the village of Sapozhok (now the Rtishchevsky district), in the fence of the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Church in the family crypt.

In the late 1930s, the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Church was destroyed, and the family crypt of the Yablochkovs was also damaged. The grave of the inventor of the candle was also lost. But on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the scientist, the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences S. I. Vavilov decided to clarify the burial place of Pavel Nikolaevich. On his initiative, a commission was created. Its members traveled to more than 20 villages in the Rtishchevsky and Serdobsky districts, and in the archives of the Saratov Regional Registry Office they managed to find the metric book of the parish church in the village of Sapozhok. By decision of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, a monument was erected on the grave of P. N. Yablochkov, the opening of which took place on October 26, 1952. The words of P.N. Yablochkov.