A talented Russian inventor, son of Stepan Baranovsky, professor at the University of Helsingfors and inventor. Born on September 1, 1846, died on March 7, 1879. Education itself contributed to the development in him of a vocation for mechanics and mathematics, studying the latter under the guidance of the best professor (his father). From the age of 11, he practically got acquainted with mechanics, accompanying his father on his trips abroad to get acquainted with the then state of the issue of compressed air as a mechanical engine.
In 1861, at the age of 15, Baranovsky was an active accomplice in his father's work on the construction of a "wind scooter" (a self-propelled cart with a pneumatic drive).
Together with him, in 1862, he participated in the implementation of a government order for the construction of an air engine for a submarine, and here, by designing a special design of the bows between the pipes of the blower, he made it possible to reduce the ordered amount demanded by the Rossell factory by 1000 pounds sterling.
Without receiving any diplomas, Baranovsky nevertheless stocked up on an excellent scientific education, listening to public lectures at one of the institutes in Paris and attending St. Petersburg University as a volunteer. From here Baranovsky entered first at the plant of A. I. Shpakovsky, then moved on to Ludwig Nobel, after parting with whom, shortly before his death, he set about setting up his own mechanical and shipbuilding plant.
Contributing to the general development of technology, Baranovsky enriched the latter with a number of his inventions. The most important of them are: a drainage machine for work in gold mines, a special type of fire pipe and a hydraulic control panel. He also introduced many useful improvements in artillery technology; in a comparative test of mitrailleus, produced in Egypt, the improved six-barreled "rapid-fire" Baranovsky was recognized as the best. The charging box invented by him stood out for its original advantages.
But Baranovsky's most important invention in this area was his 2½-inch rapid-fire cannon. In general, in 1872-1875, he created a whole family of 2.5-inch artillery systems - a light cannon for horse artillery, a mountain cannon and an amphibious assault cannon, which laid the foundation for the domestic rapid-fire artillery.
The merit of V. S. Baranovsky lies in the fact that he was the first to equip his guns with devices that have become indispensable accessories for any rapid-fire riflemen. These included a piston bolt equipped with a self-cocking axial striker, which was automatically triggered when the bolt was closed. At the same time, a special fuse excluded the possibility of an accidental shot with a loosely closed bolt, but in case of a misfire, the drummer was instantly cocked by turning a special handle. For vertical (from -10 to +200) and horizontal guidance, Baranovsky was the first to use high-speed screw rotary and lifting mechanisms. Instead of a simple rack and pinion sight with a front sight on the front of the barrel, he equipped his cannons with a S. K. Kaminsky optical sight, which ensured quick aiming.
The loading process was sharply accelerated by the use of unitary cartridges, and the rollback after the shot was reduced by a hydraulic brake in a cylindrical body, on which a spring knurler was put on, which returned the barrel to its original position. Thanks to these engineering solutions, VS Baranovsky's cannons developed a rate of fire unprecedented at that time: 5 rounds per minute.
Baranovsky's rapid-fire artillery systems, which opened a new era in the history of artillery, were immediately adopted by the Russian army. It is curious that when testing his 2, 5-inch mountain gun, the German "cannon king" A. Krupp hastened to offer the Russian military department his 75-mm mountain speed gun. But after comparative firing, the head of the Main Artillery Directorate, General A. A. Barentsev, reported to the Minister of War D. A. Milyutin that the domestic weapon was superior to the Krupp weapon in all respects.
The guns of the Baranovsky system, as part of a whole battery, took part in the last Turkish campaign and brilliantly withstood the test defined for them.
Not limited to the development of rapid-fire cannons, V. S. Baranovsky in 1875 created an original sample of the canister, as in those years they called the multi-barreled, small-caliber systems, the predecessors of machine guns. For the mass production of unitary cartridges, he creates a machine, the design of which has practically not changed for almost a century. A talented engineer could still do a lot for the Russian artillery, but on March 7, 1879, he tragically died while testing unitary cartridges. A premature explosion of a shell, while loading the gun by Baranovsky himself, mortally wounded him, and an hour later, in terrible agony, he died.
The inventor's business was continued by his cousin P. V. Baranovsky, who had previously created carriages for Vladimir Baranovsky's quick-shooters.
