A. N. Lodygin. Thomas Edison, the incandescent lamp and Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin
Lodygin Alexander Nikolaevich was born in 1847 in the village of Stenshino, Tambov province. In 1859, Alexander became a cadet, first studying in the Tambov Cadet Corps, then in Voronezh. Even during his studies, Alexander showed interest in physics and even acted as a laboratory assistant in the physics room. In 1865, Lodygin was released as a cadet into the 71st Belevsky Regiment, from 1866 to 1868 he again studied at the Moscow Junker Infantry School, Belevsky Regiment and retired, as Lodygin became disillusioned with military service. Lodygin enters the Tula Arms Factory as a simple worker and, having saved a small amount of money, goes to St. Petersburg.
Here he is looking for funds to create the flying machine he conceived (electroplane) and at the same time begins his first experiments with incandescent lamps. Work is also underway on a diving apparatus project. Naturally, the War Ministry did not respond to the proposals of the young projector. Then Lodygin sent his proposals to Paris, promising to create an aircraft that could be used in the war with Prussia. The incredible happened, he was invited to France, where he even managed to begin preparations for the construction of an electric plane at the Creuzot factories. But France was defeated in the war, and funding for the creation of the electric aircraft ceased. Lodygin had to return to St. Petersburg.
In St. Petersburg, Lodygin got a job as a technician at the Sirius Oil Gas Society and continued experiments with electricity, and at the same time began attending lectures at St. Petersburg University and the Institute of Technology to fill the gaps in his education. It was then that he became interested in creating incandescent lamps that could be used not only for experiments, but also for practical lighting.
In 1872, Lodygin began publicly demonstrating his lamps and submitted an application for “Method and apparatus for cheap electric lighting” to the Department of Trade and Manufactures. He received a document confirming the privilege, but only two years later. The demonstration of street lighting using electric lamps by Lodygin in 1873 aroused great interest, but they were still imperfect and required serious improvement. The following year, the inventor demonstrated the capabilities of his lamps for lighting warships, which aroused great interest in the naval department. In the same year, the Academy of Sciences awarded Lodygin the prestigious Lomonosov Prize.
In 1873, Lodygin received patents in Austria, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Spain and even in such distant countries as Australia and India. In Germany, patents were issued in his name in a number of individual principalities, and privileges were received in the name of the company founded by Lodygin in France.
For almost two years Lodygin worked in the workshops of P.P. Yablochkova, where, in addition to his main responsibilities for the production of electric candles, he was able to continue developing his own lamps. In 1884, the inventor was forced to go abroad because he found himself under police surveillance due to his connections with populist revolutionaries. Lodygin works in France and the USA, creates new incandescent lamps, invents electric furnaces, electric cars, builds factories and subways. Of particular note is the patents he received during this period for lamps with filaments made of refractory metals, sold in 1906 to the General Electric Company.
The Lodygin family returned to Russia in 1907. Alexander Nikolaevich brings a whole series of inventions in drawings and sketches. Methods for preparing alloys, electric furnaces, engines, electric devices for welding and cutting... Lodygin teaches at the Electrical Engineering Institute, works in the construction department of the St. Petersburg Railway. In 1914, he was sent by the Department of Agriculture and Land Management to the Olonets and Nizhny Novgorod provinces to develop proposals for electrification. The First World War changes all plans, Lodygin begins to work on a vertical take-off aircraft. After the February Revolution of 1917, the inventor did not work well with the new government. Financial difficulties force the Lodygin family to leave for the USA. Due to illness, Alexander Nikolaevich was forced to decline the invitation to return to the RSFSR to participate in the development of the GOELRO plan. In March 1923, Lodygin died in Brooklyn.
Lodygin Alexander Nikolaevich (1847-1923) is a famous Russian inventor who created an incandescent lamp, which became widespread due to its efficiency. He stood at the origins of modern electrical engineering, creating several types of furnaces for processing metals in industrial conditions.
Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin
Alexander Lodygin was born on October 6 (18), 1847 in the village of Stenshino, Tambov province. He was of noble origin, and his family belonged to the category of very noble ones, which, like the then reigning Romanov family, descended from Andrei Kobyla himself. Despite the title, the family lived rather modestly and could not boast of much wealth.
Many ancestors of the future inventor devoted themselves to military service, achieving a lot of success in this field. But young Sasha was not at all attracted by this prospect, although he could not escape the family tradition. In 1859, Lodygin entered the local preparatory classes of the Voronezh Cadet Corps, and after graduation he was sent to Voronezh with a very positive description. After graduating from the educational institution in 1865, Alexander was enrolled as a cadet in the Belevsky infantry regiment, and then spent three years training at the Moscow cadet infantry school.
In 1870, Lodygin submitted his resignation and moved to the capital. Here he plunged headlong into creating a flying machine with an electric motor and at the same time began actively working on incandescent lamps.
Creation of an electroplane
In 1870, a document was placed on the desk of the Minister of War of the Russian Empire, Dmitry Alekseevich Milyutin, the author of which was retired cadet Alexander Lodygin. It reported on the invention of a special aeronautical machine (electric aircraft), capable of moving at different heights and in arbitrary directions. It was designed to transport goods and people, but could also perform military operations. However, the official did not support this idea in any way and did not even bother to personally communicate with the inventor.
The Minister of War did not suspect then that the electric plane anticipated the appearance of the familiar helicopter. The inventor saw it as an oblong cylinder, cone-shaped in front and spherical in the back. A screw was located at the back of the device, which provided horizontal movement. Another screw was located on top - it controlled the speed of the machine when moving in the vertical and horizontal directions.
Faced with an indifferent attitude in his homeland, Lodygin, at the invitation of the French side, goes to Paris to continue the development of the aircraft. However, failure awaited him here too - the outbreak of war with Prussia and the imminent defeat of France crossed out all plans, which forced the scientist to return to Russia. The electrolet was not destined to acquire a material form, but it contributed to the birth of Lodygin’s most famous invention - the electric light bulb, which was to become one of its elements.
Incandescent lamp
The possibility of obtaining artificial lighting using electricity excited scientific minds long before Lodygin was born. There were many ideas offering solutions in many different directions. Some tried to provoke the glow of rarefied gases with electricity, others sought luck in heating bodies with electric current, and still others used the flame of an electric arc. Most of the prototypes never left the walls of the laboratories until a Russian inventor got involved in the work.
After returning from France, Lodygin found himself in a difficult financial situation and was forced to agree to find a job as a technician at the Sirius Oil Gas Society. But the young man devoted all his free time from work to developing an electric lamp. He immediately realized the lack of theoretical training and signed up for lectures at St. Petersburg University, where he became acquainted with the latest achievements in the field of electrical engineering.
Hard work on the invention yielded results - by the end of 1872, Lodygin had several incandescent lamps at his disposal. The Didrikhson brothers helped materialize the inventor’s plans, among whom Vasily Fedorovich stood out, who personally made most of the samples. At first, iron wire was used for incandescence; later, coke rods were used in experiments.
Iron quickly showed its ineffectiveness, but working with carbon rods gave a positive result. It turned out that they not only provide better light, but also allow us to find an approach to solving the problem of “light fragmentation” - integrating a large number of lighting sources into the circuit of one generator. The sequential operation of the carbon rods turned out to be very convenient, but in outdoor conditions in the open air the filament body burned out quite quickly.
This gave Lodygin the idea to make lamps in the form of a glass spherical vessel in which two copper rods with a diameter of 6 mm were placed. A small rod with a diameter of 2 mm, made of retort coal, was attached to them. Electricity was supplied through wires through a frame that was located above the opening of the device.
Lodygina incandescent lamp
Despite the fact that Lodygin's first lamps only shone for about 40 minutes, he received privileges for his invention in many European countries. Subsequent improvements made it possible to increase durability - Vasily Didrikhson proposed removing air from the lamps. In addition, carbonized substances of plant origin began to be used. As a result, the service life of the lamps was increased to 700-1000 hours.
Practical application of incandescent lamps
The first street lighting using Lodygin's electric lamps appeared in St. Petersburg on Peski in 1873. The two kerosene lanterns were replaced with electric ones, emitting a bright white light that many people came to see. Some of them brought newspapers to compare the distance of light from kerosene and electric lanterns.
In 1874, lighting appeared on the Admiralty docks, opening up the prospect of using the technology in the navy. A few years later, Florent’s store on Morskaya Street was lit in a similar way. The devices performed excellently - only two coals burned out in two months.
After this success, businessmen began to circle around the inventor, wanting to make as much profit as possible from the invention. Alexander Nikolaevich became a participant in one of these enterprises, which exploited his creations. A number of modernized devices even bore the name of third-party people - Conn, Kozlov, who owned a controlling stake in the electric lighting partnership they created. The latest version, called the “Conn lamp,” had up to 5 separate rods, which were turned on sequentially after the previous ones burned out.
Technology patents
In 1872, the inventor submitted an application for his invention and waited for a response from officials for two years. Only in 1874 did he receive privilege No. 1619.
After the termination of the partnership, the inventor again found himself on the brink of poverty, which forced him to send a patent application for a carbon incandescent lamp to the United States, but he was unable to find the required amount. Lodygin would still receive a patent in 1890, but for a lamp with a metal thread. Here, by law, he will have the right to be considered the inventor of lamps with an incandescent filament made of refractory materials.
Lodygin's molybdenum and tungsten lamps were demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Paris, held in 1900. A year earlier, the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute awarded the inventor the title of honorary electrical engineer. In 1906, the patent for a lamp with a tungsten filament was bought by the famous General Electric Company, which later merged with Edison's enterprise. In 1909, the scientist was granted a patent for an induction furnace.
For his invention, Alexander Nikolaevich received the Lomonosov Prize of 1000 rubles from the Academy of Sciences. Lodygin's merits in this field are obvious - he created a more advanced example of an incandescent lamp and was the first to turn it from a physical device into a device for practical mass use, took his brainchild out of the laboratory and made it available to the street. Alexander Nikolaevich convincingly demonstrated the advantages of tungsten wire as a material for an incandescent body, becoming the founder of the production of more economical incandescent lamps. He had a decisive influence on the work of Joseph Swan, which contributed to the mass distribution of these devices.
Russia - abroad
The strengthening of the radical wing of the social movement in the second half of the 70s of the 19th century and the subsequent terrorist attacks, one of which killed Emperor Alexander II, affected the fate of Lodygin. At this time, he actively became close to the populists and even spent some time in their colony in Tuapse. The defeat of Narodnaya Volya, which began after the death of the Tsar, affected many of the inventor’s friends and acquaintances. Partly, a shadow of suspicion fell on himself, so he decides to go abroad.
After several years in Europe, the inventor moved to the USA in 1888, where he worked on the introduction of electricity into metallurgy. They began to pay him a good salary and the family’s financial situation improved noticeably. After the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, he returned to his homeland in order to put his accumulated experience into practice. But Russian reality exceeded all expectations - the inveterate conservatism and indifference of officials fettered any initiative.
The advanced methods used in American industry turned out to be of no interest to anyone here. Therefore, the world-famous inventor received only the position of head of the substation of the St. Petersburg tram depot. In addition, he showed great interest in the electrification of handicrafts and was involved in the practical implementation of the theory of electromagnetic induction and Maxwell.
In 1914, under the leadership of Alexander Nikolaevich, work on the electrification of the Olonets and Nizhny Novgorod provinces was supposed to begin, but the outbreak of the First World War confused all the cards. Having not achieved serious success in his native field, Lodygin returned to the USA in 1916. He devoted the last years of his life to the development of electric furnaces. Under his leadership, installations for the production of silicon and phosphorus, as well as ore smelting, were built. In addition, the Russian inventor designed special furnaces for heating bandages, hardening and annealing metals. During this period, he was sick a lot, which often distracted him from his work.
Lodygin's inventive activity was not limited to the incandescent lamp. He created an electric heater, improved an electric furnace for smelting ores, and developed the idea of quenching furnaces, as well as respirators based on the electrolytic method of generating oxygen. Alexander Nikolaevich became one of the founders of the electrical engineering department of the Russian Technical Society and was at the origins of the periodical “Electricity”.
In 1871, the inventor prepared a design for a diving suit that would allow him to stay under water autonomously using an oxygen-hydrogen mixture. In this case, oxygen was produced directly from water through the process of electrolysis.
- Thomas Edison made the first experiment with his lamp in 1879, which happened 6 years later than Lodygin did. But thanks to the aggressive promotion of his brainchild, it was the American who began to be considered in the mass consciousness as the inventor of the incandescent lamp.
- After coming to power, Lenin suggested that Lodygin return to Russia to develop the GOELRO plan, but the scientist’s serious illness prevented this.
- Since 1970, one of the craters on the far side of the Moon has been named after Alexander Lodygin.
- Lodygin was one of the few domestic inventors awarded the Order of Stanislav III degree. He was awarded an honorary award for his participation in the Vienna Electrotechnical Exhibition.
Video
Documentary film “Sketches of the Great. Alexander Lodygin. Creator of the incandescent lamp."
- Russian inventor and electrical engineer. He created an electric incandescent lamp with a tungsten filament. It was he who first proved the viability of using a refractory metal conductor as a luminous element for electric light bulbs.
Alexander Nikolaevich was born October 6, 1847 in the village of Stenshino, Tambov region, in a very old and noble noble family. At the age of 12, he entered the Tambov Cadet Corps, and then the Moscow Junker School. In 1867 He graduates from college, having received the education of a military engineer. After this, his short military career begins. After serving his mandatory service (3 years), Lodygin left the army and plunged headlong into engineering developments, for which he had an undoubted inclination.
In 1870 He develops a heavier-than-air aircraft, while at the same time beginning experiments to improve the incandescent lamps created at that time. As for the aircraft, although it turned out to be quite functional, it did not find approval from the Russian government, and then from the French. From 1871 to 1874 Lodygin is a free student at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and at the same time demonstrates incandescent lamps. For his developments, he initially uses metal filaments, but they quickly burn out and Lodygin turns his attention to carbon rods. In 1872 Alexander Nikolaevich applies for a patent for his incandescent lamp with a carbon rod, and only two years later he receives it. The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences even awarded him the Lomonosov Prize.
Before 1884 Lodygin fruitfully works not only on improving incandescent lamps, but also on the development of diving equipment. He cooperates with various Russian factories and participates in electrical exhibitions. For his engineering developments he receives the Order of Stanislav, III degree - a rare award for Russian inventors. In 1884 mass arrests of revolutionary-minded members of various organizations forced Lodygin to leave Russia and move first to France and then to America. In Paris, he organizes the production of incandescent lamps according to his own calculations. In 1993 he again returns to experiments with metal filaments, but this time from refractory metals - tungsten, chromium and titanium. A year later he organized his own lamp company, Lodygin and de Lisle.
In the USA, he creates new lamps based on refractory metals and builds a plant for the electrochemical production of tungsten, chromium and titanium. He develops electric furnaces for melting and hardening metals, producing phosphorus and silicon.
It cannot be said that it was Alexander Nikolaevich who was the sole father of the discovery of the electric light bulb. Its creation is a whole chain of events and inventions of various scientists and inventors. But it was Lodygin who first proposed and actually began to use tungsten filaments, which are still used today. In addition, it was he who suggested using not a straight thread, but a thread twisted into a spiral. It was he who came up with the idea of pumping air out of the flask and filling it with an inert gas. It was his inventions that became the impetus for the creation of modern incandescent lamps.
Russian electrical engineer, inventor of the incandescent lamp Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin was born on October 6 (October 18, new style) 1847 in the estate of his parents, the village of Stenshino, Lipetsk district, Tambov province. According to family tradition, a military career was being prepared for him. To receive secondary education, he was sent to the Voronezh Cadet Corps, where he studied until 1865. After graduating from the cadet corps, A. N. Lodygin completed a course of study at the Moscow Junker School and was promoted to second lieutenant, after which his service began as an army officer .
The presence of undoubted engineering abilities distracted A. N. Lodygin from his military career. After serving his mandatory term, he retired and never returned to the army. Having started working in factories after retiring, A. N. Lodygin was engaged in some technical issues, in particular the construction of aircraft.
In 1870, he developed the design of a heavier-than-air aircraft, and he proposed it to the National Defense Committee in Paris for use in the conditions of the Franco-Prussian War that was taking place at that time. His proposal was accepted: he was summoned to Paris to build and test his apparatus. A. N. Lodygin had already begun preparatory work at the Creuzot factories, shortly before France was defeated in this war. His proposal in this regard soon lost its relevance, they refused to implement it, and A. N. Lodygin returned to Russia after an unsuccessful stay abroad.
In Russia, A. N. Lodygin found himself in a difficult financial situation and was forced to accept the first job he came across at the Sirius Oil Gas Society. He began working there as a technician, while devoting his free time to developing incandescent lamps.
Before his trip to Paris, A.N. Lodygin, apparently, did not deal with this issue. He became interested in this technical problem in connection with his work on building an aircraft, for the illumination of which such a light source was more suitable than any other.
Having started work on electric lighting with incandescent lamps, A. N. Lodygin undoubtedly felt the insufficiency of his knowledge in the field of electrical engineering. After returning from Paris, he began listening to lectures at St. Petersburg University, trying to become more familiar with the latest trends in scientific thought in the field of applied physics, especially in the field of electricity.
By the end of 1872 A.N. Lodygin had several copies of incandescent lamps that could be publicly demonstrated. He managed to find excellent mechanics in the person of the Didrikhson brothers, one of whom, Vasily Fedorovich Didrikhson, personally manufactured all the designs of incandescent lamps developed by A. N. Lodygin, introducing significant technological improvements already during the manufacture of the lamps. In his first experiments, A. N. Lodygin heated an iron wire with current, then a large number of small coke rods clamped in metal holders.
Experiments with iron wire were dismissed by him as unsuccessful, and the incandescence of carbon rods showed that with this method it was possible not only to obtain more or less significant light, but also to simultaneously solve another very important technical problem, which at that time was called “fragmentation of light”, i.e. i.e. including a large number of light sources in the circuit of one electric current generator.
Sequential activation of the rods was very simple and convenient. But heating coal in the open air led to rapid burnout of the filament. A. N. Lodygin built an incandescent lamp in a glass cylinder with a carbon rod in 1872. His first lamps had one carbon rod in a cylinder, and air was not removed from the cylinder: the oxygen burned out when the coal was first heated, and further heating took place in an atmosphere of residual rarefied gases.
The already improved lamp was demonstrated by Lodygin in 1873 and 1874. At the Technological Institute and other institutions, A.P. Lodygin gave many lectures on lighting with incandescent lamps. These lectures attracted a large number of listeners. But the installation of electric lighting with incandescent lamps, arranged by A. N. Lodygin in the fall of 1873 on Odesskaya Street, was of historical significance. In Petersburg.
This is how engineer N.V. describes this device. Popov, who was personally present at these demonstrations (Electricity magazine, 1923, p. 644): “On two street lamps, kerosene lamps were replaced by incandescent lamps, which emitted a bright white light. A mass of people admired this lighting, this fire from the sky. Many brought newspapers with them and compared the distances at which they could read under kerosene lighting and under electric lighting. On the panel between the lights lay wires with rubber insulation, the thickness of a finger.
What kind of incandescent lamp was this? These were pieces of retort coal, about 2 millimeters in diameter, sandwiched between two vertical coals of the same material, 6 millimeters in diameter. The lamps were introduced in series and were powered either by batteries or by magneto-electric machines of the Van Maldern system, Alliance company, alternating current.”
These experiments were promising and represented the first public use of an incandescent lamp. The incandescent lamp took its first step into technology. The success of A. N. Lodygin’s work was unconditional, and after that it was necessary to undertake a serious reworking of the design and elimination of the weak points that it had.
Before A.N. Lodygin, as a designer, became concerned with complex technical issues: finding the best material for making the lamp filament body, eliminating the combustion of the filament body, i.e., completely removing oxygen from the cylinder, the problem of sealing the inputs in order to make it impossible for air to penetrate inside the cylinder from the outside.
These issues required a lot of persistent and collective work. Technicians have not stopped working on them to this day. In 1875, a more advanced design of incandescent lamps was built in terms of sealing methods and with evacuation of the cylinder.
Design of a lamp built in 1875. The demonstration of lighting using Lodygin lamps at the Admiralty Docks in 1874 showed that the naval department could greatly benefit from the use of incandescent lighting in the fleet.
Among scientific and industrial circles, interest in the works of A. N. Lodygin increased greatly after this. The Academy of Sciences awarded him the Lomonosov Prize, thereby emphasizing the scientific value of his works. The brilliant successes of A. N. Lodygin led to the fact that entrepreneurs began to group around him, caring not so much about improving the lamp as about possible profits. This ruined the whole thing.
This is how V. N. Chikolev (“Electricity”, 1880, p. 75), who always treated the work of A. N. Lodygin with attention and goodwill, characterized the situation created after everyone recognized the success of the work and experiments on lamps incandescent: “Lodygin’s invention aroused great hopes and enthusiasm in 1872-1873. The company formed to exploit this completely undeveloped and unprepared method, instead of vigorously working to improve it, as the inventor had hoped, preferred to engage in speculation and trading in shares in anticipation of the future enormous profits of the enterprise. It is clear that this was the most reliable, perfect way to ruin the business - a method that was not slow to be crowned with complete success. In 1874-1875 there was no more talk about covering Lodygin.”
A.N. Lodygin, having become part of such a hastily organized enterprise, essentially lost his independence. This can be seen at least from the fact that all subsequent design versions of his incandescent lamp did not even bear the name of Lodygin, but were called either Kozlov lamps or Conn lamps. Kozlov and Conn are the owners of shares in the so-called “Electric Lighting Partnership A. N. Lodygin and Co.”, who have never been involved in design work and, of course, have not built any lamps.
The latest lamp design had 4-5 separate rods, in which each coal was automatically turned on after the previous coal burned out. This lamp was also called the Conn lamp.
Lodygin’s invention was used in 1877 by Edison, who knew about his experiments and got acquainted with samples of his incandescent lamps brought to America by naval officer A. M. Khotinsky, sent by the Naval Ministry to accept cruisers, and began working on improving incandescent lamps.
On the part of official institutions A.N. Lodygin also failed to meet with a favorable attitude. Having submitted, for example, on October 14, 1872, an application to the Department of Trade and Manufactures for “Method and apparatus for cheap electric lighting,” A. N. Lodygin received the privilege only on July 23, 1874, i.e., his application traveled around for almost two years offices. The liquidation of the Partnership's affairs put A. N. Lodygin in a very difficult financial and moral situation.
He lost faith in the possibility of successfully continuing work on the lamp in Russia, but he hoped that he would find better opportunities in America. He submits a patent application to America for a carbon incandescent lamp; However, he could not pay the established patent fees and did not receive an American patent.
In mid-1875, A. N. Lodygin began working as a toolmaker at the St. Petersburg Arsenal, in 1876-1878. he worked at the metallurgical plant of the Prince of Oldenburg in St. Petersburg. Here he had to face completely new questions related to metallurgy; Under their influence and as a result of his familiarity with electrical engineering acquired while working on electric lighting, he developed an interest in electric smelting issues and began working on building an electric furnace.
In 1878-1879 P.P. was in St. Petersburg. Yablochkov, and A.P. Lodygin began working for him in workshops organized for the production of electric candles. Working there until 1884, he again made an attempt to produce incandescent lamps, but it was limited to only small-scale experimental work.
In 1884 A.P. Lodygin finally decided to go abroad. He worked in Paris for several years, and in 1888 he came to America. Here he worked first in the field of incandescent lamps to find a better material than coal for the filament body. Undoubtedly outstanding and fundamental in this direction were those of his works that were associated with the manufacture of incandescent bodies from refractory metals.
In America he was issued patents Nos. 575002 and 575668 in 1893 and 1894. on a glow body for incandescent lamps made of platinum filaments coated with rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, chromium, tungsten and molybdenum. These patents played a significant role in the development of work on the construction of incandescent lamps with a metal filament; in 1906 they were acquired by the General Electric concern.
A.N. Lodygin is credited with pointing out the particularly important importance of tungsten for the construction of incandescent lamps. This opinion of his did not immediately lead to corresponding results, but 20 years later the electric lamp industry around the world completely switched to the production of tungsten incandescent lamps. Tungsten continues to be the only metal for the production of incandescent lamp filaments.
In 1894 A.N. Lodygin went from America to Paris, where he organized an electric lamp plant and at the same time took part in the affairs of the Columbia automobile plant, but in 1900 he returned to America again, participated in the construction of the New York subway, and worked at a large battery plant in Buffalo and cable factories.
His interests are increasingly concentrated on the application of electricity in metallurgy and on various questions of industrial electrothermy. For the period 1900-1905. under his leadership, several factories were built and put into operation for the production of ferrochrome, ferrotungsten, ferrosilicon, etc.
The outcome of the Russo-Japanese War greatly upset A.N. Lodygina. And although at that time his financial position in America was strong, as a specialist he enjoyed great authority, his creative powers were in full bloom - he wished to return to Russia in order to apply his extensive and versatile knowledge of an engineer in his homeland.
He returned to Russia at the end of 1905. But here he found the same reactionary government course and the same technical backwardness. The post-war economic depression began to take its toll. At that time, no one in Russia was interested in the methods of American industry and the news of overseas technology. And A. N. Lodygin himself turned out to be superfluous. For A. N. Lodygin, there was only a position as manager of city tram substations in St. Petersburg. This work could not satisfy him, and he left for America.
Recent years in America after returning from Russia A.N. Lodygin was exclusively engaged in the design of electric furnaces. He built the largest electric furnace installations for smelting metals, melinite, ores, and for the extraction of phosphorus and silicon. He built furnaces for hardening and annealing metals, for heating bandages and other processes.
A large number of improvements and technical innovations were patented by him in America and other countries. Industrial electrothermy owes a lot to A. N. Lodygin as the pioneer of this new branch of technology.
March 16, 1923, at the age of 76, A.N. Lodygin died in the USA. With his death, an outstanding Russian engineer, who was the first to use an incandescent lamp for lighting practice, and an energetic fighter for the development of industrial electrothermy, went to his grave.
Literature:
People of Russian Science: Essays on Outstanding Figures of Natural Science and Technology
/ Ed. S.I. Vavilova. - M., L.: State. publishing house of technical and theoretical literature. - 1948.
According to the new style), entrepreneur.
| Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | October 6 (18)(1847-10-18 ) |
| Place of Birth |
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| Date of death | March 16(1923-03-16 ) (75 years old) |
| A place of death |
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| A country |
Russian empire Russian empire
USA USA |
| Scientific field | electrical engineering |
| Place of work |
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| Alma mater |
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| Known as | one of the inventors of the incandescent lamp and other inventions, |
| Awards and prizes |
Lomonosov Prize |
| Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin at Wikimedia Commons | |
USSR postage stamp with a portrait of Lodygin, 1951
Biography
According to family tradition, Alexander was supposed to become a military man, and therefore in 1859 he entered an unranked company (preparatory classes) of the Voronezh Cadet Corps, which was located in Tambov, then was transferred to Voronezh with the characteristic: “kind, sympathetic, diligent” [ ] . In 1861, the entire Lodygin family moved to Tambov. In 1865, Lodygin was released from the cadet corps as a cadet in the 71st Belevsky Infantry Regiment, and from 1866 to 1868 he studied at the Moscow Junker Infantry School.
In 1870, Lodygin retired and moved to St. Petersburg. Here he is looking for funds to create the flying machine he had planned with an electric motor (electric aircraft) and at the same time begins his first experiments with incandescent lamps. He also worked on a diving apparatus project. Without waiting for a decision from the Russian War Ministry, Lodygin writes to Paris and invites the republican government to use the aircraft in the war with Prussia. Having received a positive answer, the inventor goes to France. But the defeat of France in the war stopped Lodygin’s plans [ ] .
Returning to St. Petersburg, he attended classes in physics, chemistry, and mechanics as a volunteer. In 1871-1874 he conducted experiments and demonstrations of electric lighting with incandescent lamps at the Admiralty, Galernaya Harbor, on Odesskaya Street, and at the Technological Institute.
Lodygin, living in St. Petersburg, and the second creator of electric light, Yablochkov, in Moscow, knew about each other from numerous and noisy publications about themselves in the press, as well as from the stories of a mutual friend, also an electrical engineer-inventor, Vladimir Chikolev. We met at industrial exhibitions. Fate brought them together to work together only in 1878 - in St. Petersburg.
Initially, Lodygin tried to use iron wire as a filament. Having failed, he moved on to experiments with a carbon rod placed in a glass container.
In 1872, Lodygin applied for the invention of an incandescent lamp, and in 1874 he received a patent for his invention (privilege No. 1619 dated July 11, 1874) and the Lomonosov Prize from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Lodygin patented his invention in many countries: Austria-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Saxony, and even India and Australia. He founded the company “Russian Electric Lighting Partnership Lodygin and Co.”
In the 1870s, Lodygin became close to the Narodniks. In 1875-1878 he spent in the Tuapse colony-community of the populists. Since 1878, Lodygin was back in St. Petersburg, working at various factories, improving the diving apparatus, and working on other inventions. For participation in the Vienna Electrotechnical Exhibition, Lodygin was awarded the Order of Stanislav, 3rd degree. Honorary electrical engineer of the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute (1899).
In 1884, mass arrests of revolutionaries began. Among those wanted are Lodygin's acquaintances and friends. He decided to go abroad. The separation from Russia lasted 23 years. Lodygin worked in France and the USA, creating new incandescent lamps, inventing electric furnaces, electric cars, building factories and subways. Of particular note is the patents he received during this period for lamps with filaments made of refractory metals, sold in 1906 to the General Electric Company.
In 1884, he organized the production of incandescent lamps in Paris and sent a batch of lamps to St. Petersburg for the 3rd Electrical Engineering Exhibition. In 1893, he turned to filaments made of refractory metals, which he used in Paris for powerful lamps of 100-400 candles. In 1894, he founded the lamp company Lodygin and de Lisle in Paris. In 1900 he participated in the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1906, in the USA, he built and put into operation a plant for the electrochemical production of tungsten, chromium, and titanium. An important area of inventive activity is the development of electric resistance and induction furnaces for melting metals, melenite, glass, hardening and annealing of steel products, and producing phosphorus and silicon.
In 1895, Lodygin married journalist Alma Schmidt, the daughter of a German engineer. They had two daughters, in 1901 - Margarita, and in 1902 - Vera. The Lodygin family moved to Russia in 1907. Alexander Nikolaevich brought a whole series of inventions in drawings and sketches: methods for preparing alloys, electric furnaces, an engine, electrical devices for welding and cutting.
Lodygin also took part in political life. He wrote the article “Open Letter to Messrs. members of the All-Russian National Club" (1910) and the brochure "Nationalists and Other Parties" (1912), published by the All-Russian National Club.
In March 1923 he died in
