Nowadays it is difficult to imagine that the word "electrical engineering" was not known only about 100 years ago. In experimental science, it is not so easy to find a discoverer as in theoretical. It is written in textbooks: the law of Archimedes, the Pythagorean theorem, Newton’s binomial, the Copernican system, Einstein’s theory, the periodic table ... But not everyone knows the name of the person who invented electric light.
Who created a glass cone with metal hairs inside - an electric bulb? It is not easy to answer this question. After all, this invention is associated with dozens of scientists. In their ranks - Pavel Yablochkov, a brief biography of which is presented in our article. This Russian inventor stands out not only for his height (198 cm), but also for his labors. His work laid the foundation for lighting with electricity. No wonder the figure of such a researcher as Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich still enjoys authority in the scientific community. What did he invent? You will find the answer to this question, as well as many other interesting information about Pavel Nikolaevich in our article.
Origin, years of study
When Pavel Yablochkov (his photo is presented above) was born, there was cholera in the Volga region. His parents were afraid of the great pestilence, so they did not carry the child to church for baptism. In vain have historians tried to find the name of Yablochkov in church records. His parents were small landowners, and Pavel Yablochkov’s childhood passed quietly, in a large landowner’s house with half-empty rooms, a mezzanine and orchards.
When Pavel was 11 years old, he went to study at the Saratov gymnasium. It should be noted that 4 years before this, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, a freethinker teacher, left this educational institution in the St. Petersburg cadet corps. Pavel Yablochkov studied at the gymnasium for a short time. After some time, his family became very impoverished. There was only one way out of this situation - a military career, which has already become a true family tradition. And Pavel Yablochkov went to the Pavlovsk Tsar Palace in St. Petersburg, which was called the Engineering Castle by the name of its residents.
Yablochkov - military engineer
The Sevastopol campaign at that time was still in the recent past (ten years have not passed yet). It showed sailor valor, as well as the high art of domestic fortifiers. Military engineering in those years was at a premium. General E.I. Totleben, who became famous during the Crimean War, personally nurtured an engineering school, where Pavel Yablochkov was now studying.
His biography of these years is marked by the residence in the boarding house of Caesar Antonovich Cui, an engineer-general who taught at this school. He was a talented specialist and even more gifted composer and music critic. His romances and operas live today. Perhaps it was precisely these years spent in the capital that were the happiest for Pavel Nikolaevich. Nobody drove him, there were no patrons and creditors. Great insights had not yet come to him, however, the disappointments that filled his whole life later did not exist.
The first failure was made by Yablochkov, when at the end of his training he was promoted to lieutenant by sending him to the fifth Engineer Regiment, belonging to the Kiev fortress garrison. The battalion reality that Pavel Nikolaevich met turned out to be a little like the creative, interesting life of an engineer who dreamed about him in St. Petersburg. The military did not work out of Yablochkov: a year later he quit “due to illness”.
First acquaintance with electricity
After that, the most unsettled period began in the life of Pavel Nikolaevich. However, it opens with one event, which turned out to be very important in his future fate. A year after the resignation, Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov suddenly reappears in the army. After that, his biography went a completely different way ...
The future inventor is studying at the Technical Galvanic Institution. Here his knowledge in the field of "galvanism and magnetism" (the words "electrical engineering" while we already said, did not exist yet) are expanded and deepened. Many famous engineers and young scientists in their youth, like our hero, circled through life, trying on, peering, searching for something, until they suddenly found what they were looking for. Then no temptation could no longer lead them astray. In the same way, 22-year-old Pavel Nikolaevich found his vocation - electricity. Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich devoted his whole life to him. The inventions made by him are all related to electricity.
Work in Moscow, new acquaintances
Pavel Nikolaevich finally leaves the army. He leaves for Moscow and soon heads the department of the telegraph service of the railway (Moscow-Kursk). Here he has at his disposal a laboratory, here you can already check out some, albeit timid, ideas. Pavel Nikolayevich also finds a strong scientific society uniting natural scientists. In Moscow, he learns about the Polytechnic Exhibition, which has just opened. It presents the latest achievements of domestic technology. Yablochkov appears like-minded friends, who, like him, are passionate about electric sparks - tiny man-made lightning! With one of them, Nikolai Gavrilovich Glukhov, Pavel Nikolaevich decides to open his own "business". This is a universal electrical workshop.
Relocation to Paris, patent for a candle
However, the "case" burst them. This happened because the inventors of Glukhov and Yablochkov were not businessmen. In order to avoid a debt prison, Pavel Nikolayevich urgently goes abroad. In the spring of 1876, in Paris, receives a patent for an "electric candle" Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov. There would be no invention of it, if not for the previous achievements in science. Therefore, we will briefly talk about them.
The history of fixtures to Yablochkova
We will make a small historical digression dedicated to the lamps in order to explain the essence of the most important invention of Yablochkov, without climbing into the technical jungle. The first lamp is a splinter. She was known to mankind in prehistoric times. Then (before Yablochkov) the torch was first invented, then an oil lamp, then a candle, some time later a kerosene lamp and, finally, a gas lamp. All of these fixtures, with all their diversity, have one common principle in common: something burns inside them when connected to oxygen.
The invention of the electric arc
V.V. Petrov, a talented Russian scientist, in 1802 described the experience of using galvanic cells. This inventor received an electric arc, created the world's first electric artificial light. Lightning is natural light. Humanity has long known about it, another thing is that people did not understand its nature.
The modest Petrov did not send anywhere his work written in Russian. It was not known in Europe, so for a long time the honor of opening the arc was attributed to the chemist Davy, the famous English scientist and chemist. Naturally, he did not know anything about Petrov’s achievement. He repeated his experience after 12 years and named the arc in honor of Volta, the famous physicist from Italy. Interestingly, it has absolutely nothing to do with A. Volta himself.
Arc lamps and their inconvenience
The discovery of the Russian and English scientists gave an impetus to the emergence of a fundamentally new arc lamps, electric. The two electrodes approached in them, an arc flashed, after which a bright light appeared. However, the inconvenience was that the carbon electrodes burned out after a while, and the distance between them increased. In the end, the arc went out. It was necessary to constantly bring together the electrodes. So there were a variety of differential, clock, manual and other adjustment mechanisms, which, in turn, required vigilant observation. It is clear that every lamp of this kind was an emergency.
The first incandescent lamp and its shortcomings
The French scientist Zhobar proposed using an electric incandescent conductor for lighting, rather than an arc. Shangi, his compatriot, tried to create such a lamp. A.N. Lodygin, a Russian inventor, brought her "to mind." He created the first practical bulb. However, the coke rod inside it was very fragile and tender. In addition, there was insufficient vacuum in the glass flask, so he quickly burned this rod. Because of this, in the middle of 1870, they decided to put an end to the incandescent lamp. The inventors again returned to the arc. And just then Pavel Yablochkov appeared.
Electric candle
Unfortunately, we do not know how he invented the candle. Perhaps the thought of her appeared when Pavel Nikolaevich was tormented with the regulators of the arc lamp installed by him. For the first time in the history of railways, it was installed on a steam locomotive (a special train that followed in the Crimea with Tsar Alexander II). Perhaps the sight of an arc that suddenly burst into flames in his workshop sunk into his soul. There is a legend that in one of the Parisian cafes, Yablochkov accidentally put two pencils nearby on a table. And then it dawned on him: do not bring anything together! Let the electrodes be nearby, because the fusible insulation burning in the arc will be installed between them. Thus, the electrodes will burn and shorten at the same time! As they say, all ingenious is simple.
How Yablochkova’s candle conquered the world
The Yablochkova candle was really simple in its design. And this was her great advantage. Dealers, not versed in technology, had access to its meaning. That is why the candle Yablochkova with unprecedented speed conquered the world. Her first demonstration took place in the spring of 1876 in London. Pavel Nikolaevich, who had just recently escaped from creditors, returned to Paris as a well-known inventor. A campaign to exploit his patents arose instantly.
A special plant was founded, which produced 8 thousand candles daily. They began to illuminate the famous shops and hotels of Paris, the indoor hippodrome and opera, the port in Le Havre. A garland of lanterns appeared on the street of the Opera - an unprecedented sight, a real fairy tale. Everyone had a “Russian light” on their lips. He was admired in one of the letters of P.I. Tchaikovsky. Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev also wrote from Paris to his brother that Pavel Yablochkov invented something completely new in the field of lighting. Pavel Nikolaevich, not without pride, noted later that electricity spread throughout the world precisely from the French capital and reached the courtyards of the king of Cambodia and the Persian Shah, and not at all vice versa - from America to Paris, as they say.
"Fading" candles
Amazing things marked the history of science! All electric lighting of the world, headed by P.N. Yablochkov, for about five years, triumphantly moved, in essence, along a futile, false path. The candle festival, as well as the material independence of Yablochkov, did not last long. The candle did not immediately "die out", but it could not withstand the competition with incandescent lamps. Contributed to this significant inconvenience, which she had. This is a decrease in the luminous point in the combustion process, as well as fragility.
Of course, the works of Svan, Lodygin, Maxim, Edison, Nernst and other inventors of the incandescent lamp, in turn, did not immediately convince mankind of its advantages. Auer in 1891 installed his cap on a gas burner. This cap increased the brightness of the latter. Even then there were cases when the authorities decided to replace the installed electric lighting with gas. However, during the life of Pavel Nikolaevich it was clear that the candle invented by him was unpromising. What is the reason that the name of the creator of the "Russian world" to this day is firmly inscribed in the history of science and has been surrounded by respect and honor for more than a hundred years?
The value of the invention Yablochkova
Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich was the first to establish electric light in the minds of people. The lamp, which was still very rare yesterday, has already approached a person today, has ceased to be a kind of overseas miracle, convinced people of its happy future. The stormy and rather short history of this invention contributed to the solution of many pressing problems that faced the technology of that time.
Further biography of Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov
Pavel Nikolaevich lived a short life, which was not very happy. After Pavel Yablochkov invented his candle, he worked a lot both in our country and abroad. However, none of his subsequent achievements did not affect so much the progress of technology as his candle. Pavel Nikolayevich put a lot of work on the creation of the first in our country electrotechnical magazine called "Electricity." He began to go out in 1880. In addition, on March 21, 1879, Pavel Nikolayevich read a report on electric lighting in the Russian Technical Society. He was awarded the Society Medal for his achievements. However, these signs of attention were not enough for Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov to be provided with good working conditions. The inventor understood that in the backward Russia of the 1880s there were few opportunities for implementing his technical ideas. One of them was the production of electric machines, which was built by Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich. His brief biography was again marked by a move to Paris. Returning there in 1880, he sold a patent for a dynamo, after which he began preparations for participation in the World Electrotechnical Exhibition, held for the first time. Its discovery was scheduled for 1881. At the beginning of this year, Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich completely devoted himself to the design work.
A brief biography of this scientist continues with the fact that Yablochkov’s inventions at the 1881 exhibition received the highest award. They earned recognition beyond the competition. His authority was high, and Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich became a member of the international jury, whose tasks included the consideration of exhibits and the decision to award prizes. It should be said that this exhibition itself became a triumph of incandescent lamps. From this time on, the electric candle gradually began to decline.
In subsequent years, Yablochkov began working on galvanic cells and dynamos - electric current generators. The path that Pavel Nikolaevich took in his works remains revolutionary in our time. Success on it can usher in a new era in electrical engineering. Yablochkov no longer returned to the light sources. In the following years, he invented several electric machines and received patents for them.
The last years of the inventor's life
In the period from 1881 to 1893, Yablochkov conducted his experiments in difficult material conditions, in continuous labor. He lived in Paris, completely surrendering to the problems of science. The scientist skillfully experimented, applied many original ideas in his work, going in unexpected and very bold ways. Of course, he was ahead of the state of technology, science and industry of that time. The explosion that occurred during experiments in his laboratory almost cost Pavel Nikolaevich life. The constant deterioration of financial situation, as well as heart disease, which all progressed - all this undermined the strength of the inventor. After a thirteen-year absence, he decided to return to his homeland.
Pavel Nikolaevich left for Russia in July 1893, but became very ill immediately upon arrival. He found in his estate such a neglected economy that he could not even hope for an improvement in his financial situation. Together with his wife and son, Pavel Nikolaevich settled in a Saratov hotel. He continued his experiments even when he was sick and deprived of his livelihood.
Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich, whose discoveries are firmly inscribed in the history of science, died of heart disease at the age of 47 years (in 1894), in the city of Saratov. Our homeland is proud of his ideas and work.