Do not think that only foreign scientists have made breakthrough discoveries. Russian inventors invented things that are popular today at the end of the 19th century. Few people know that the idea of fashionable electric vehicles appeared a century ago. Electroplating, electric arc welding and oil pipeline were also invented by the Russians. Novate.ru will tell you about these and other inventions.
1. Electric car
The end of the 19th century was marked by an electrical fever. The inventors experimented in a variety of ways, including the creation of electric vehicles. In 1899, the engineer-inventor Ippolit Romanov made several models of electric cabs. And his most important achievement was the creation of an electric omnibus for 17 seats. Romanov even developed a route plan, but sponsors were never found, to the delight of cabbies and horse-drawn trams.
2. Four-engine aircraft
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it was believed that an aircraft can have only one engine, otherwise it would be too difficult to control. However, aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky denied this theory. In 1913, he took off on a twin-engined Le Grand aircraft, and a little later tested its analogue for four motors - "Russian Knight". Six months later, the aircraft designer presented the four-engine Ilya Muromets aircraft, designed for 16 passengers, which was a record for that time. Moreover, heating, a bathroom and even a promenade deck were provided on board. In 1914, Sikorsky set another record on the Ilya Muromets - he flew there and back the distance from St. Petersburg to Kiev. It was the four-engine aircraft that became the first heavy bombers in history, which showed themselves during the First World War.
3. Oil pipeline
In 1863, Dmitry Mendeleev proposed to deliver oil from Baku through pipes instead of the usual and bulky barrels. The idea was not taken seriously until a couple of years later, the Americans built the Pennsylvania pipeline. Immediately in Russia they decided to tackle this issue and in 1878, relying on Mendeleev's idea and the experience of the Americans, engineers Alexander Bari and Vladimir Shukhov created the first oil pipeline in the empire.
4. Electroforming
Electroforming is a method of forming various products by metal deposition. Thanks to this, perfect copies of objects are obtained. The technology was invented by the Russian physicist and electrical engineer Boris Yakobi. At first, the scientist invented an electric motor with direct gross rotation, but his most important achievement was electroforming. The technology is still used today, and Boris Yakobi himself received the Russian Demidov Prize and a gold medal in Paris for it.
5. Electric arc welding
During his life, engineer Nikolai Benardos invented more than 100 inventions, but the most striking was the electric arc welding of metal products. Benardos himself called it electrohephaestus and in 1882 patented the discovery in several countries at once, including Russia, the USA and European states. Half a century later, the invention finally took root, because it was much easier to weld metal elements than to work with rivets and bolts.
6. Color photography
The first color photographs began to be taken at the end of the 19th century, but their quality left much to be desired. Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky strove to get closer to the most natural color rendition and worked to improve the chemical process of photo development. In 1905, he patented a substance capable of increasing the sensitivity of photographic plates - a sensitizer. Thanks to this, the negatives began to be obtained of excellent quality.
7. Color TV
Vladimir Zvorykin was interested in science since childhood and as a student became interested in studying cathode-ray tubes. Then the young engineer realized that the future of televisions lies in electrical circuits. First, Vladimir designed a kinescope, and in the 30s received a patent for an iconoscope receiving tube. In the 40s, Zvorykin managed to split the light beam into red-blue-green colors, and the first color television was created.
8. Automatic
In 1913, weapons designer Vladimir Fedorov began testing an automatic rifle chambered for 6, 5 mm rounds. Three years later, they began to arm the Russian Imperial Army with machine guns firing bursts. The serial production of weapons was launched after the revolution. Fedorov's assault rifles were used until 1928, and according to some reports, even in the Soviet-Finnish war.
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