I think I was not the only one who had a question of this kind: why does the whole world consider Guglielmo Marconi or Nikola Tesla to be the inventor of radio, and we are Alexander Popov?
Or why is Thomas Edison considered the inventor of the incandescent lamp, and not Alexander Lodygin, who patented the lamp with incandescent filaments made of refractory metals?
But if Lodygin and Popov are remembered in the world, then some people, whose contribution to military affairs, no doubt, was outstanding, are hardly remembered. I would like to tell you about such people and inventions.
Dynamite
The Nobel family lived in St. Petersburg for over 20 years, the childhood and youth of the Nobel brothers: Robert (1829-1896), Ludwig (1831-1888) and Alfred (1833-1896) spent here, their scientific and business interests were born and formed here. Strictly speaking, Russia became the second homeland for Robert and Ludwig, whose activities are associated with the development of many branches of Russian industry. As for the youngest of the Nobel brothers, Emil (1843-1864), he was even born in the capital of Russia.
House of the Nobel family in St. Petersburg, Petersburg embankment, 24.40s of the XIX century
Fate itself brought the Nobel family, and in particular Alfred, to the founder of Russian organic chemistry, Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin.
Zinin became the teacher of the Nobel brothers, because in Russia at that time the children of foreigners were not allowed to study with the Russians, and the only way out was to hire home teachers.
And with the teacher, the Nobel brothers were extremely lucky, because it was Zinin who developed the most progressive method for synthesizing nitroglycerin from glycerin using concentrated nitric acid, low temperature, etc.
Together with the young engineer-artilleryman V. F. Petrushevsky solved the problem of using the strongest explosive nitroglycerin for military purposes, a very urgent problem at that time. Investigating various nitro derivatives, Zinin, together with V. F. Petrushevsky, began work on the creation of an explosive composition based on nitroglycerin, safe during transportation. As a result, a good option was found - impregnation of magnesium carbonate with nitroglycerin.
Alfred Nobel joined this work, and it is not surprising, you can be sure that this was agreed with the teacher and father, who sent him on an internship to the Italian Ascanio Sobrero, the discoverer of nitroglycerin.
And so in 1859 Nobel-father went bankrupt and with his wife and youngest son Emil returned to Stockholm in search of a new life, their three eldest sons remained in St. Petersburg.
And Alfred, in the winter of 1859/60, conducts various experiments with nitroglycerin. He learned to get it in quantities acceptable for testing. He mixed nitroglycerin with black powder, as Zinin did together with engineer Petrushevsky in 1854 (in fact, they created one of the first ways to passification of nitroglycerin), and set fire to the mixture. Experiments on the ice of the frozen Neva were successful, and satisfied with the results, Alfred went to Stockholm.
In 1862, in Helenborg near Stockholm, the Nobels began to make artisanal nitroglycerin, which ended on September 3, 1864 with an explosion of monstrous force, in which eight people died, among them Alfred's younger brother Emil. Two weeks later, Emmanuel was paralyzed, and until his death in 1872 he was bedridden. The case was now headed by Alfred.
In 1863 g.he invented the nitric acid / glycerin injector (which is by the way his greatest invention), which solved the problem. It was possible to start industrial production and the creation of a network of factories in different countries.
As a result of the search for convenient nitroglycerin-based mixtures, Alfred patented a safe combination of nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth (loose siliceous sedimentary rock made from the shells of diatoms), calling it dynamite.
Nobel patent
The same Dynamite
Of course, in this case, the legal side of the case should have been formalized immediately. Back in 1863, A. Nobel patented the use of nitroglycerin in technology, which was not ethical (remember Zinin!). In May 1867, he patented dynamite (or Nobel's safe explosive powder) in England, and then in Sweden, Russia, Germany and other countries.
In Russia, in 1866, an explosion occurs at the nitroglycerin plant in Peterhof, and further work with nitroglycerin is banned.
So, Sobrero described nitroglycerin in 1847. Zinin proposed to use it for technical purposes in 1853. Engineer Petrushevsky was the first to start producing it in large quantities in 1862 (more than 3 tons were produced), and under his leadership, nitroglycerin was used for the first time in the development of gold-bearing placers in Eastern Siberia in 1867 These are the facts. Among them is the invention of dynamite by Alfred Nobel in 1867. It is appropriate to quote the words of such an authority as Mendeleev: nitroglycerin "was used for explosives for the first time by the famous chemist N. N. Zinin during the Crimean War, and then V. F Petrushevsky in the 60s - earlier than the invention and widespread use of Nobel dynamite and other nitroglycerin preparations."
And now, few people remember Zinin when they talk about the invention of dynamite. And the question arises whether Alfred Nobel, who grew up in Russia, was such a Swede?
In August 1893, Alfred Nobel, as stated in the Imperial Command, “being interested in physiology and wanting to contribute to research in the field of this science (the influence of urine ptomains on the course of certain diseases and blood transfusions from one animal to another) donated 10 thousand rubles to the Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine., “without setting any conditions for the use of the gift he brought.” The funds went “for the general needs of the institute” - an extension was added to the existing building, where Pavlov's physiological laboratory was located. In 1904, Pavlov was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physiology.
Alfred Nobel
Mortar
On June 17, 1904, the 3rd Japanese army approached the Russian fortress of Port Arthur. The assault began on August 6 and lasted a week. Having suffered heavy losses, the enemy went on the defensive. Preparing for the next attack, the Japanese carried out intensive engineering work. The defenders of the fortress also fortified their positions.
Here on the minelayer "Yenisei" midshipman Sergei Nikolaevich Vlasyev serves as a junior miner. With the company of the amphibious assault, Vlasyev got into Fort No. 2. Here, some Russian and Japanese trenches were separated by a distance of 30 steps. In these conditions, melee weapons were required, since conventional weapons were powerless. The distance to the enemy was so small that when firing there was a risk of hitting their own troops. Only occasionally did the artillerymen of the fortress succeed in flanking enemy positions.
Then the lieutenant of the fleet N. L. Podgursky proposed to shoot at the besiegers from torpedo tubes installed in trenches with a certain angle of inclination to the horizon, throwing out pyroxylin bombs from them with compressed air. Almost simultaneously, midshipman S. N. Vlasyev advised using for the same a 47-mm naval cannon, placed on the carriage of a field "three-inch" gun, in order to give the barrel high elevation angles, and loading it through the barrel with homemade pole mines. The head of the ground defense of Port Arthur, Major General R. I. Kondratenko approved the idea and entrusted the creation of a "mine mortar" to the head of the artillery workshops, Captain Leonid Nikolayevich Gobyato.
After evaluating the projects of Vlasyev and Podgursky, Gobyato proposed a number of important improvements.
The production of the "mine mortar" - as the co-authors called their invention - began during the July battles. "Mine mortar" was created on the basis of ammunition called "throwing mine" and was in service with a number of battleships and cruisers of the Port Arthur squadron.
The throwing mine was a cylindrical projectile with a tail. It had a caliber of 225 mm, a length of 2.35 m and a weight of 75 kg (including 31 kg of explosives). This mine was fired from a tubular apparatus using a powder charge and hit the target at a distance of up to 200 meters.
Progress in the technique of naval combat (first of all, the improvement of torpedo weapons) made the throwing mine by the beginning of the 20th century an archaism. However, the Port Arthur experimenters, this weapon prompted a valuable idea. After all, they had at their disposal a smooth-bore throwing apparatus, which fired a feathered projectile with a hinged trajectory and great destructive power. In addition, it was lightweight and therefore allowed for quick transport to the point of use. To turn it into (as the experimenters called their creation), a device was required that perceives the recoil energy at the moment of a shot, as well as a targeting and aiming device. Their creation was possible for the artillery workshops of Port Arthur.
The limited number of mine vehicles on the squadron and ammunition for them, as well as the short firing range, contributed to this (in total, 6 mine mortars were installed on the land front of the fortress, according to other sources - 7).
It is necessary to dwell on one more version of the "Port Arthur mortar", more precisely, on a new type of ammunition for hanging fire - the "over-caliber feathered mine of the rod type" proposed by Vlasyev.
The essence of its design and method of use can be defined as follows: the cone-shaped warhead was connected by its bottom part to a rod equipped with a stabilizer. This rod was inserted into the barrel of a 47-mm naval gun (from the muzzle), and from the breech the gun was loaded with a loaded sleeve (without a projectile). A mine with a total weight of 11.5 kg was fired at a distance of 50 to 400 meters.
As you can see, the Russian defenders of Port Arthur created two types of guns that shoot feathered shells along a hinged trajectory. Subsequently, they found use as bomb and mortars.
The results of their application were obvious. Of every four mines fired, three hit the trenches. Taking off high up, the mine turned over and fell almost vertically on the target, destroying trenches and destroying the enemy. The explosions were so strong that the enemy soldiers left their places in the trenches in panic.
By the way, the defenders of the fortress used another new weapon - land-based sea anchor mines. They were loaded with 100 kg of pyroxylin, 25 kg of shrapnel bullets, inserted a piece of fuse cord, designed to burn for a few seconds. They were used mainly from positions located on hills. The mines were dragged up a specially constructed 20-meter plank flooring, set fire to the cord and pushed towards the Japanese. But for flat terrain, this means of defeating the infantry was not suitable.
General Nogi, assessing the situation, decided to stop attacks on the wide (Eastern) front and concentrate all his forces to capture Mount Vysokaya, from which, as he learned, the entire Port Arthur harbor was visible. After fierce battles that lasted ten days on November 22, 1904. High was taken. The creations of Vlasyev and Gabyato also fell into the hands of the Japanese, thanks to which his device soon became the property of the British press. Unfortunately, the work of the defenders of Port Arthur was rated by Russian generals as "toy guns", but it was appreciated in Germany and England.
Flamethrower
The creator of the knapsack fire device is Lieutenant General Sieger-Korn (1893). In 1898, the inventor proposed a new original weapon to the Minister of War. The flamethrower was created on the same principles by which modern flamethrowers operate.
Sieger-Korn Flamethrower
The device was very complicated and dangerous in use and was not adopted for service under the pretext of "unreality", although the inventor demonstrated his brainchild in action. An exact description of its construction has not survived. But nevertheless, the countdown of the creation of the "flamethrower" can be started from 1893.
Three years later, the German inventor Richard Fiedler created a flamethrower of a similar design.
Fiedler's flamethrowers
Fidler turned to Russia with a request to test his developments, which was carried out at the test site in Ust-Izhora.
Ust-Izhora test of flamethrowers (1909)
3 types of flamethrowers were shown: small (carried by 1 soldier on his back), medium (carried by 4 soldiers), heavy (carried).
After the test in 1909. the Russian military department did not begin to acquire new weapons. In particular, the small flamethrower was considered unsafe for its own, and the medium and heavy were considered unsuitable due to the large mass and the need to have a lot of stocks of flammable substances. The loading and installation was considered to be quite lengthy, which is fraught with risk for the combat teams and the flamethrowers themselves.
A year and a half later, Fiedler again turned to Russia, now with improved weapons, but again had no success. In other European countries, which he traveled even before Russia, the invention was also not accepted into service. However, the events of 1915, when the Germans used flamethrowing forces against the Entente countries, forced the governments of Germany's opponents in the First World War to think.
At the beginning of 1915, design work on the creation of flamethrowers began in Russia. In September of the same year, the knapsack flamethrowers developed by Professor Gorbov were sent to military trials. But the flamethrower turned out to be very bulky and heavy, which did not fit into the category of wearable weapons. This flamethrower was rejected.
In 1916, the knapsack flamethrower developed by the designer Tovarnitsky was presented to the commission of the Russian Ministry of War. After successful tests, the Towarnitsky flamethrower was put into service in 1916, and at the beginning of 1917 the infantry regiments of the Russian army had flamethrower teams.
Flamethrower Towarnitsky
Structurally, the Towarnitsky knapsack flamethrower consisted of three main parts: a cylinder with a fire mixture, a cylinder with compressed air and a hose with an igniter. The principle of operation of the Towarnitsky flamethrower was as follows: compressed air from a special cylinder entered the cylinder with the fire mixture through a special reducer. Under the influence of compressed air pressure, the fire mixture was pushed into the hose, where it ignited. The simplicity of the design made it possible until the middle of 1917 to produce about 10 thousand Towarnitsky knapsack flamethrowers.
Knapsack parachute
On September 8, 1910, the first aviation competitions of Russian pilots were held at the Commandant's Field in St. Petersburg. The holiday was already ending when Captain Matsievich's airplane suddenly began to collapse at an altitude of 400 m. The pilot fell out of the car and fell like a stone to the ground. This terrible event shocked G. E. Kotelnikov, who was present at the same time, that he decided at all costs to come up with an apparatus that would save the lives of pilots in such situations.
Prior to Kotelnikov, pilots escaped with the help of long folded "umbrellas" attached to the plane. The design was very unreliable, besides, it greatly increased the weight of the aircraft. Therefore, it was used extremely rarely.
At home, in the theater, on Kotelnikov Street, I was thinking about an aircraft parachute. He came to the conclusion that during the flight, the parachute should be on the aviator, work flawlessly, be simple in design, compact and light, its canopy is best made of silk.
The inventor decided to arrange the parachute according to the "devil in a box" principle. I made a model in the form of a doll with a cylindrical tin helmet, which was closed with a latch. Inside the helmet on a compressed spring lay the canopy and lines. It was worth pulling on the cord connected to the latch, the lid was thrown back, and the spring pushed the dome out. “We lived in a dacha in Strelna,” the inventor's son Anatoly Glebovich (in 1910 he was 11 years old) recalled the first tests of the parachute model. - It was a very cold October day. The father went up to the roof of a two-story house and threw a doll out of there. The parachute worked perfectly. My father burst out joyfully only one word: "Here!" He found what he was looking for!"
The model was, of course, a toy. When the calculation of a real parachute was made, it turned out that the required amount of silk in the helmet did not fit. And then it was decided to put the parachute in the knapsack. The model was tested in Nizhny Novgorod, the doll was thrown from a kite. Returning to St. Petersburg, Kotelnikov wrote a memo to the Minister of War, General VA Sukhomlinov: “Your Excellency! A long and mournful list of glorious aviation victims prompted me to invent a very simple and useful device for preventing the death of aviators in cases of airplane accidents in the air."
Kotelnikov asked the minister for subsidies for the manufacture of a parachute and testing. He himself took his letter to the Ministry of War. The minister was absent, and Kotelnikov was received by the assistant minister, General A. A. Polivanov. He read the note, examined the model. The inventor threw the doll up to the ceiling, and it sank smoothly onto the parquet floor. The demonstration had a decisive effect on Polivanov. A resolution appeared on the memo: “Main Engineering Department. Please accept and listen."
The meeting at which the parachute was considered was remembered by Kotelnikov for the rest of his life. The head of the Officer Aeronautical School, Major General A. M. Kovanko (a graduate of the Academy of the General Staff!), Chaired it. Gleb Evgenievich clearly and clearly reported the essence of the matter.
- All this is fine, but here's the thing … What will happen to your aviator when the parachute opens? - asked Kovanko.
- What do you have in mind? - did not understand the question Kotelnikov.
- And the fact that he will have no need to save himself, since his legs will come off from the blow when opening the parachute!
Kotelnikov had objections to such an "iron" argument of the gallant gentshabiist, but the academic commission suffered: "To encourage the speaker, but reject the invention because of the apparent ignorance of the author."
Kotelnikov recalled: “It was like a tub of slop was poured over me. Hands dropped ….
The second attempt to register his invention was made by Kotelnikov already in France, having received a patent No. 438 612 on March 20, 1912.
And on the evening of June 6, 1912, a kite balloon rose from the camp of the aeronautical park in the village of Saluzi near Gatchina. Attached to the side of his basket was a mannequin in full flight uniform. The command “Stop on the winch!” Sounded.
Altitude 2000 m. Three-time horn signal. The dummy flew down. A couple of seconds later, a snow-white dome opened above him. The success of the tests was evident. But the military was in no hurry. Several more tests were carried out. The famous pilot Mikhail Efimov threw a dummy from his "Farman" - everything worked out. At the Gatchina airfield, the tests were carried out by Lieutenant Gorshkov. He dropped the dummy from the Bleriot aircraft at a height of about one hundred meters. The parachute worked brilliantly.
But the Main Engineering Directorate of the Russian Army did not accept it into production because of the fears of the head of the Russian air force, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, that at the slightest malfunction, the aviators would leave the airplane.
This is how a fundamentally new parachute of the RK-1 type was invented. Kotelnikov's parachute was compact.
Its canopy was made of silk, the lines were divided into 2 groups and attached to the shoulder straps of the harness. The canopy and slings were placed in a wooden and later aluminum satchel. At the bottom of the knapsack, under the dome, there were springs that threw the dome into the stream after the bouncing one pulled out the exhaust ring. Subsequently, the hard knapsack was replaced with a soft one, and honeycombs appeared at the bottom for laying lines in them. This design of the rescue parachute is still used today. For which I think Kotelnikov will be forever grateful to all "nebonyrs", pilots and other flyers.
In general, officials of all stripes treated inventors in a rather unfriendly manner, and the way out for them was “abroad”. The one who was able to patent his ideas there is remembered. About the rest they say "Well, yes, of course … Russia is the birthplace of elephants." Paradoxically, for example, for all the unusualness, ambitiousness, complexity and enormous size of the tsar-tank Lebedenko, he got his chance for life, because he was interested in Nicholas II.
