Russian physicist and electrical engineer, inventor of the electric motor, creator of electroplating
“I feel very good here,” Boris Jacobi wrote to his brother from St. Petersburg. - But I warn you at the same time: beware lest the Russians also surpass you scientifically, and in no case think that you can rest on your German laurels and that they will not be taken away from you. Many-sided activities take place here. " Born in Germany and adopted Russian citizenship in 1837, Boris Semyonovich considered Russia his second fatherland, was associated with it not only by close family ties, but also by civic feelings. An outstanding physicist and electrical engineer, a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Jacobi sincerely loved Russia and always stressed that his inventions belonged to this particular country. He entered the world history of science as a bright, original-minded scientist who worked in the field of electromagnetism, electroplating, as the creator of a number of telegraph devices, each of which was a step forward in the development of electrical telegraphy.
Boris Semyonovich (Moritz Hermann) Jacobi was born in Potsdam in 1801. At the age of 19 he entered the University of Berlin, but after a while he transferred to the University of Göttingen, after which he received a diploma in architecture. For several years Boris Jacobi designed buildings in his native Potsdam, and after moving to Königsberg he was seriously carried away by the then new branch of knowledge - the theory and practice of electromagnetism. The result of his labors was the creation in 1834 of an electric motor of an original design, for work on which, on the recommendation of the Prussian Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm III, the University of Konigsberg awarded the scientist a doctorate. The fame of the young inventor instantly went beyond Germany. Leading educational institutions of the world invited him to their departments. The choice of Boris Semyonovich fell on St. Petersburg University. Within its walls in 1839, Jacobi, together with Academician Emily Khristianovich Lenz, built two new electric motors. One of them was installed on a large boat and, rotating its paddle wheels, easily lifted the ship with a crew on board against the current of the Neva. Another Jacobi - Lenz electric motor could roll a person in a cart on the rails and was the prototype of a modern tram, trolleybus, electric train.
A great success came to the scientist at the age of 37. It was then that he invented electroplating, with the help of which the interiors of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Hermitage, the Winter Palace were later decorated, copper copies were made from forms for printing money, as well as geographical maps, postage stamps, and art prints.
A feature of the first writing apparatus designed by the scientist was that instead of a multiplier, an electromagnet was used in it, which operated a pencil using a system of levers. Signals were recorded on a porcelain board, which moved on a carriage under the action of a clock mechanism. With the help of this apparatus, the inhabitants of the Winter Palace, the General Staff Building and Tsarskoye Selo were successfully exchanging information. And, nevertheless, Boris Semyonovich was not happy with his invention. The work on its improvement lasted for several years. In the created direct-printing telegraph apparatus, Jacobi's extraordinary original talent and his amazing self-demands were clearly manifested. The new device was based on the principle of in-phase and synchronicity, which was later widely used by other inventors of telegraph devices - David Hughes, Ernst Werner von Siemens and Jean Baudot. This principle has retained its significance for modern direct-printing devices.
For many years, the scientist devoted to the design of domestic electrical equipment, built a number of irreplaceable devices, including a voltmeter, a wire resistance standard, several designs of galvanometers, and a resistance regulator.
The creation of underground and submarine cables, the development of their production technology, the selection of electrical insulating materials also glorified the name of the inventor.
“I drew from science only what leads or promises to lead to practical results, - said Boris Semyonovich Yakobi. "I set myself the task of reconciling science and technology, to erase the unjustified distinction that has been established between theory and practice."
Boris Jacobi became the author of about a dozen designs of telegraph devices, and in 1850 invented the world's first direct-printing telegraph apparatus, which worked on the principle of synchronous motion. This device was recognized as one of the greatest achievements of electrical engineering in the mid-19th century.
Almanac "Great Russia. Personalities. Year 2003. Volume II", 2004, ASMO-press.
Boris Semyonovich Jacobi (Moritz Hermann Jacobi, 1801-1874) is a famous German and Russian physicist and electrical engineer, thanks to whom an electric motor, a telegraph apparatus was created, and electroforming was invented. The scientist was the first to apply the capabilities of an electric motor in practice, setting in motion a boat with passengers. Semyon Borisovich made a huge contribution to the development of electrical engineering by designing several options for a galvanometer, a resistance regulator, a voltmeter and other devices.
Jacobi Boris Semyonovich (St. Petersburg, 1856)
Moritz Hermann Jacobi was born on September 21, 1801 in Potsdam in a wealthy Jewish family - the father of the future inventor Simon Jacobi worked as the personal banker of the Prussian Emperor Frederick Wilhelm III. Thanks to his high income, the boy received a good education and was able to enter the University of Berlin. However, he did not study there for long and soon transferred to the University of Göttingen, where he received the profession of an architect.
At first, Jacobi worked as an architect in the construction department, but physics remained his real passion. In 1834 he moved to Königsberg, where his brother, the famous mathematician Karl Jacobi, taught at the local university. Here he enthusiastically devoted himself to the study of the phenomena of electromagnetism and began work on the creation of an electric motor. The scientist actively published the results of his experiments, which attracted the attention of Russian scientific luminaries Pavel Lvovich Schilling, Vasily Yakovlevich Struve and others. In 1835 Boris Semyonovich received an invitation to take a professorship at the University of Dorpat and gladly accepted it. In his native fragmented Germany, there were no conditions for the realization of scientific dreams of a perpetual motion machine and other inventions.
Experiments with electricity
The tsarist government of Nicholas I, who was rightfully called the tsar-engineer, had high hopes for the use of electricity for military affairs. In 1837, Boris Semyonovich was summoned to the capital to organize a series of experiments on equipping sea vessels with an electric motor. This was the reason for the final move to Russia and the acquisition of Russian citizenship. In 1838, one of the experimental ships, a small boat equipped with an electric motor, successfully sailed along the Neva, and Jacobi's mines with electric fuses were used during the Crimean War. Among them were self-igniting (galvanic impact) mines, as well as weapons with a fuse from an induction device. Jacobi came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating special galvanic units in the sapper units.
Working on the electric motor
Boris Semenovich created his first electric motor, equipped with fixed and rotating parts, in 1834. Then he managed to describe the principle of continuous rotational motion. The motor was made of a commutator and two disks, on which 16 iron rods were located. In one revolution of the disks, the switch reversed polarity up to eight times. Due to the force of inertia, the shaft of the main motor rotated. A galvanic battery provided power for the magnets of the setup. Within a second, the engine lifted a load of up to 6 kg to a height of about 30 cm, which corresponded to 15 W.
The original Jacobi engine no longer exists, but a copy is kept in the Moscow Polytechnic Museum
In the video you can see how the Jacobi engine works.
However, in practical terms, the device was not applicable due to its low power, and Jacobi began to purposefully develop an engine for use in transport and in production. As a result, he managed to create a structure in which 40 motors were combined at once, which made it possible to significantly increase the engine's performance.
The tests of the magnetoelectric motor took place in the fall of 1838 in St. Petersburg. The motor was installed on a passenger boat with 12 people on board. The vehicle was moving in opposite directions - both along the river and against. Its speed was not high - only 2 km / h. And although in seven hours of testing the boat managed to overcome only about 7 km, but by the standards of that time, the result can be called outstanding.
Almost immediately, the inventor began to create a more perfect device and a year later new tests were carried out. This time the boat was carrying 14 people, but it was equipped with a more powerful engine capable of moving at a speed of 4 km / h. The news of a successful experiment instantly spread all over the world - the world did not know such a powerful, and most importantly, reliable electric motor. However, in a large-tonnage fleet, it was not possible to find use for it due to the lack of a full-fledged power source.
Jacobi made attempts to install his brainchild on a cart and thus wanted to create an electric locomotive, but could not complete his idea. Despite this, the scientist made a significant contribution to the world electrical engineering, having implemented three main ideas that were developed in the future:
- a switch with rubbing parts;
- rotary movement of the armature in the electric motor;
- magnets in the static and dynamic parts of the electric motor.
Creation of the telegraph
In the 30s of the XIX century, the scientific world was actively involved in the creation of an electromagnetic telegraph. One of the first to succeed in this matter was P. Schelling, who became interested in the phenomenon of a magnetic field around a conductor along which an electric current moves. It was first described by the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted, but it was Schelling who managed to translate this discovery into an applied plane. In 1833, he designed a wired telegraph, the capabilities of which were demonstrated in his five-room apartment on the Moika. Subsequently, the scientist was instructed to draw a telegraph line between Peterhof and Kronstadt, for which Schelling was the first in the world to create an insulated rubber-based cable. But due to his imminent death, he did not succeed in completing the project he had begun, and Jacobi became the successor of the scientist's work.
In 1839, he laid an underground telegraph, in the design of which the receiving and sending electromagnetic devices created by the author were used. The device itself functioned from a manipulator. A clockwork and a pencil connected to the anchor of an electromagnet moved the porcelain board and created special zigzag symbols. This line connected the personal office of Nicholas I in the Alexander Palace and the main communications department.
Later, Jacobi's telegraph would connect the Winter Palace with the General Headquarters, and in 1842, the GUPS (General Directorate of Railways) and the Public Buildings. During this period, the inventor put forward the idea of \u200b\u200ba switch telegraph, which connected several offices of the emperor in the Winter Palace and the Yusupovs' house on the Fontanka. The peculiarity of this design was the receiving station, the rotating arrows of which indicated the letter on the dial, which was broadcast from the side of the transmitting device.
Electromagnetic telegraph
The development of the main railway telegraph became a new stage in the development of the telegraph business. Boris Semyonovich was involved in the work on its creation by the head of the northern directorate for the construction of the Nikolaev railway P. Melnikov. In 1845, Jacobi began laying the cable on an experimental section of the highway under construction, but severe frosts made adjustments to the course of work. This prompted the scientist to propose a new project, which was implemented between the passenger building of the capital and the Obvodny Canal. In 1847, he laid another line between the Aleksandrovsky plant and the Moskovsky railway station, but due to disagreements with the head of the Ministry of Railways, Petr Alekseevich Kleinmichel, further work was curtailed.
The reason for the misunderstanding between the scientist and the official was experiments to develop more reliable insulation, in which Jacobi used both traditional materials - clay, resin, silk threads, and completely new for those times, for example, gutta-percha. However, the lack of the necessary equipment forced Boris Semyonovich to stop work and deal with the issue of laying overhead lines. This technology looked more promising and the Old World began to gradually abandon underground communications. Kleinmichel rejected the scientist's proposal due to the unreliability of such structures, which led to a break in cooperation with the railway department.
Nevertheless, in 1850 Jacobi succeeded in inventing the first direct-printing telegraph on the planet. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe Russian scientist formed the basis for subsequent electromagnetic telegraph devices. In 1854, he created his last telegraphic device for communication on large ships between the captain and the sailors of the engine room.
The invention of electroplating
Electroplating is considered one of the areas of applied electrochemistry. Its essence lies in obtaining metal copies of objects by an electrolytic method. If metal coatings are applied to various surfaces in a similar way, then this is called electroplating.
The origins of electroplating, which were previously actively used in the printing industry, were laid by Boris Yakobi, conducting a series of experiments with galvanic cells while still in Dorpat. Further experiments were continued in St. Petersburg. In 1837, during one of the experiments, he managed to produce a 2 kopeck coin by electroplating, which the scientist soon got rid of for fear of being accused of counterfeiting.
The official discovery of electroforming took place later, when in October 1838, at a meeting of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Jacobi's letter was read out, where he described in detail the process of his discovery. In the future, he continued to improve his brainchild, trying to adapt it to the practical needs of the printing industry. In particular, Boris Semyonovich was engaged in copying polytypes (a typical book decor for repeated use in different publications), which were used to reproduce ornamental patterns.
Later, Jacobi discovered a way to build up a metal layer on dielectric casts of various objects while preserving authentic engravings and polytypes that had previously been simply destroyed. This led to the emergence of a new direction of electroplating.
In 1840, Jacobi submitted a petition to the Manufacturing Council, which dealt with the protection of inventions, for a privilege for electroplating for a period of 10 years. The Council approved his request, and the Minister of Finance Kankrin ordered to give the scientist 25 thousand silver rubles for the wide publication of his own technology. Boris Semyonovich followed the instructions and published a practical guide detailing the electroforming method.
Jacobi's discovery almost immediately found application in life. The priority here was, of course, with the printing industry. One of the first products of electroforming was a set of typographic type, as well as a copy of the dagger-type "Bank of the Neva".
Thanks to the highest appreciation of the discoveries made, Jacobi's career began to develop rapidly. In 1839 he was promoted to Adjutant of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. In 1842, he was approved first as an extraordinary, and five years later as an ordinary councilor. His services as a scientist were highly appreciated abroad as well - Boris Semyonovich was elected a correspondent of the Rotterdam Society of Sciences, as well as a foreign member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Turin Academy and many others. In 1867, the scientist was awarded a large gold medal at the Paris exhibition, and Emperor Alexander II soon granted him hereditary nobility.
Other interests
After the death of Nicholas I, the interests of the government changed and Jacobi reduced his work in the field of electrical engineering. During this period, the scientist was engaged in the processing of platinum, and in 1864 Semyon Borisovich was involved in the development of methods for determining the alcohol content in alcoholic beverages. Jacobi pays great attention to metrology, making a number of interesting assumptions. Together with him, he proposed a ballistic method for electrical measurements. Being engaged in the development of reference measures and the selection of units of measurement, the scientist had a huge impact on the formation of the metric system in the Russian Empire.
Jacobi invented several variants of rheostats - prototypes of typewriters for typing. In 1840, he presented one of his models to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences - the Jacobi agometer, which was the focus of the future creators of rheostats Charles Wheatstone and Johann Poggendorf.
Personal life
Jacobi was a father of many children. His wife Anna bore him seven children, five of whom died in early childhood. Only two sons, Vladimir and Nikolai, survived their majority, the first of them followed in his father's footsteps and also became an inventor.
Boris Semyonovich died of a heart attack on February 27, 1874. The scientist was buried at the Protestant Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg.
- For the discovery of electroplating, Jacobi was awarded the prestigious Demidov Prize, for which 5 thousand rubles were supposed. However, he refused to personally take the money, offering to send it to further work to improve galvanism and electromagnetism.
- In the early 40s of the 19th century, a special electroforming class was opened at the Drawing School on Vasilievsky Island, whose students could personally master the new method. The training course lasted just over a month - classes were held twice a week. The inventor himself read 12 lectures here, besides him, the famous sculptor Pyotr Karlovich Klodt and one of the Russian founders of the daggerotype F. Werner taught here. And although there were only ten people in the class, a full audience gathered for Boris Semyonovich's performances.
- Born in Prussia, Jacobi called Russia “the second Fatherland” and claimed that he was connected with it by the personal feelings of a citizen.
Moritz Hermann von Jacobi was born into a wealthy Jewish family. The father of the future physicist, Simon Jacobi, was the personal banker of King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia; mother, Rachel Lehman, was a housewife. He begins his studies at the University of Berlin, then goes to the University of Göttingen. After completing the course in Göttingen until 1833 he worked as an architect in the construction department of Prussia.
The invention of the electric motor
In 1834 he moved to Königsberg, where his younger brother Karl taught at the university. His hobbies for physics lead Jacobi to a serious invention - the world's first electric motor with direct rotation of the working shaft. Before Jacobi's invention, there were electrical devices with a reciprocating or rocking motion of the armature. Jacobi commented on one of them:
The goal of the scientist is to create a more powerful electric motor with the possibility of its practical application. In 1834, Jacobi builds an electric motor based on the principle of attraction and repulsion between electromagnets.
The engine consisted of two groups of magnets: four fixed ones were mounted on the frame, and the rest were mounted on a rotating rotor. A switch invented by the scientist was used to alternately change the polarity of movable electromagnets, the principle of which is still used in traction motors. The engine was powered by galvanic batteries and at the time of its creation was the most advanced electrical device. The engine lifted 10-12 pounds (about 4-5 kg) to a height of 1 foot (about 30 cm) per second. The engine power was about 15 W, the rotor speed was 80-120 rpm. In the same year, Jacobi sent a manuscript describing his work to the Paris Academy of Sciences. The invention is considered at a meeting of the Academy and almost immediately the work is published. Thus, the engine built in May 1834 in Königsberg became widely known in December 1834.
Russian period
Jacobi's works were highly appreciated by V. Ya. Struve, P. L. Schilling, and on their recommendation Jacobi in 1835 was invited to the post of professor at the University of Dorpat at the Department of Civil Architecture. In the same year, Jacobi published his "Memoir on the Application of Electromagnetism to the Motion of Machines", which aroused great interest in academic circles.
In 1837, on the recommendation of several members of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Jacobi draws up a memorandum with a proposal for the practical use of his electric motor "to drive a mill, boat or locomotive" and submits it to the Minister of Public Education and the President of the Academy, Count SS Uvarov. Jacobi's proposal was brought to the attention of Nicholas I, who ordered the creation of a "Commission for the production of experiments on the adaptation of electromagnetic force to the movement of machines in the manner of Professor Jacobi." The commission was entrusted to be headed by Admiral I.F.Kruzenshtern, and it includes academicians E. H. Lenz, P.L.Schilling and other famous scientists. A fabulous sum of 50 thousand rubles was allocated for the work. Jacobi moved to Russia forever, took Russian citizenship and considered Russia his second homeland until the end of his life:
The scientific and technical work of the scientist was diverse. Jacobi invented a number of devices for measuring electrical resistance, which he called a voltagometer. In 1838, Jacobi made his most remarkable discovery, namely, he discovered electroforming, initiating a whole area of \u200b\u200bapplied electrochemistry. Significant advances have been made in the field of telegraphy. He designed a synchronous telegraph apparatus with direct (without decoding) indication in the receiver of transmitted letters and numbers and the world's first direct-printing telegraph apparatus, supervised the construction of the first cable lines in St. Petersburg and between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. He developed galvanic batteries, worked a lot on the creation of a new type of anti-ship mines, including self-igniting (galvanic) mines, mines with a fuse from an induction apparatus; was the initiator of the formation of galvanic teams in the sapper units of the Russian army.
Jacobi's works received well-deserved recognition, in 1839 he was approved as an associate of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, in 1842 he became an extraordinary, and in 1847 - an ordinary academician. For the invention of electroforming B.S. Jacobi in 1840 was awarded the Demidov Prize in the amount of 25,000 rubles, in 1867 he was awarded the Great Gold Medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. Awarded with a diploma for hereditary nobility on 12/04/1864.
During the last years of his life he was in charge of the Physics Office of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Boris Semyonovich Jacobi died in St. Petersburg from a heart attack. He was buried at the Smolensk Lutheran cemetery on Vasilievsky Island.
Scientific heritage
Together with Academician Lenz, Jacobi investigated electromagnetic attraction and the laws of iron magnetization. For this purpose, he built a special rheostat, which he called a volt-agometer. In 1839, Jacobi built a boat with an electromagnetic engine, which developed 1 horsepower from 69 Grove elements and propelled a boat with 14 passengers along the Neva against the current. This was the first application of electromagnetism to large locomotion. In 1838, Jacobi made his most remarkable discovery, namely electroforming. In 1840 Jacobi was approved as an adjunct of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, in 1842 as an extraordinary, and in 1847 as an ordinary academician. The evaluation of Jacobi's work was given by Academician Wild in a speech delivered on December 29, 1874 at the annual meeting of the Academy of Sciences (see "Bulletin de l" Academie "December 29, 1876) Jacobi for a long time still served as a member of the Manufacturing Council under the Ministry of Finance. In 1867, during the world exhibition in Paris, Jacobi was a delegate from Russia to an international commission for the development of common units of measures, weights and coins; here Jacobi was an ardent champion of the metric system.In 1842 - 1845 Jacobi built a telegraph with underground wires between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo, Jacobi also built along this line several telegraph devices of a new, very ingenious design, which are kept in the physics room of the Academy of Sciences.
The main scientific works of B.S. Jacobi
Electroplating or a method according to these samples to produce copper products from copper solutions using galvanism, St. Petersburg, 1840.
Addresses in St. Petersburg
Boris Semenovich Jacobi
Electrical engineer, creator of electroplating.
Before his final move to Russia, Jacobi was named Moritz Hermann Jacobi. He received his primary education at home and at the gymnasium.
In 1821, Jacobi entered the University of Berlin, but a year later he transferred to the Physics and Technology Faculty of Göttingen, from which he graduated in 1823.
Having received the profession of a civil engineer, Jacobi supervised the construction of several large buildings in Potsdam, also developed a project for a large road bridge, and later a canal for regulating river waters in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Oranienburg.
In 1829 Jacobi was admitted to the "Union for the Promotion of Industrial Activity in Prussia"; he received the title of architect.
In 1833, Jacobi moved to Königsberg, where his younger brother Carl Gustav taught mathematics at the university.
Continuing to engage in construction work, Jacobi devoted all his free time to studying the literature on electricity and magnetism - phenomena that were then new and very fascinating to him. He himself conducted experiments and built simple instruments. In 1834, the electric motor he built attracted the attention of electrical engineers for its novelty and practicality. For this work, the University of Königsberg awarded Jacobi with a Ph.D.
In the well-known speech "On the use of natural forces of nature for human needs", delivered in June 1834 at the Konigsberg Physico-Economic Society, Jacobi analyzed the main characteristic features of the modern production process with its more and more clearly increasing tendency to make the fullest possible use of all available types of energy for a person in order to replace the physical strength of a person with natural forces of nature.
There were few such natural forces or types of energy at that time.
Jacobi referred to them the muscular strength of man and animals himself, the energy of water, the energy of wind and the energy of steam.
The animal engine, in Jacobi's view, despite its many obvious conveniences, has very limited power. The scientist calculated that if, for example, in England all mechanical engines were replaced by horses, this would require about a million horses. It is clear that it is extremely difficult to feed such a number of animals.
Man as an engine, Jacobi pointed out, has undoubted advantages over any animal, but man is a creation of God, he must strive for a higher destination. In addition, without a person, the production process is simply unthinkable, which means that the main purpose of a person is to manage production, perform the most complex operations, constantly improving his skills and knowledge.
Wind energy is limited due to its inconstancy.
The energy of water, although it gives a lot of useful work, but dams, for example, cannot always be placed exactly where energy is required.
Summarizing what was said, Jacobi came to the conclusion that it is necessary to look for ways leading, if not to complete, then at least to greater independence of man from nature.
Having constructed a working model of an electric motor, Jacobi demonstrated its capabilities to a group of famous scientists, among whom were the famous German naturalist A. Humboldt, the astronomer F. Bessel, director of the Konigsberg Observatory, and the Russian academician V. Ya. Struve, who at that time headed the Derpt Observatory.
The effect was undeniable.
At the request of Humboldt, Jacobi even received 600 thalers from the Prussian government for research.
Unfortunately, this was very little money, it was impossible to deploy extensive work on it. Seeing no other opportunity to continue the works of interest to him, Jacobi, at Struve's invitation, moved to Russia in 1835. There he received a position at the University of Dorpat.
Two years later, Jacobi moved to St. Petersburg and took Russian citizenship.
After in 1821 M. Faraday established that a conductor with a current revolves around a magnet and vice versa, attempts were made to use Faraday's discovery for practical purposes. But researchers were confused by the steam engine. Trying to create a motor that works with an electric current, they followed the old idea associated with the translational movements of the piston.
Jacobi was the first to realize the advantage of a rotating electric motor.
Using the laws discovered by Galvani, Volt, Ampere and Faraday, Jacobi built his magnetoelectric motor. Working on it, he even forbade himself to think about the piston. In need of funds, in a memorandum submitted to the Russian government, Jacobi pointed out the special importance of the work he proposed and expressed his most sincere desire “... to devote all his time and all his energy to this matter just now, when there are no longer any doubts about the success of his plans, and not only in order not to give up their previous labors, but also so that my new homeland, with which I am already connected by many ties, does not lose the glory of saying that the Neva was covered by ships with magnetic motors before the Thames or the Tiber.
A skillfully written memo had its effect.
In 1837, a special "commission for the application of electromagnetism to the movement of machines according to the method of Professor Jacobi" began its work.
The commission included famous Russian scientists P.L.Schilling, E.H. Lenz, M.V. Ostrogradsky, A. Ya.Kupfer, N.N. Fuss, Colonel of the Corps of Mining Engineers L.G. Sobolevsky, Captain of the Corps of Naval Engineers S. A. Burachek. Vice-Admiral IF Kruzenshtern headed the commission for the application of electromagnetism, since Emperor Nicholas I became very seriously interested in the Jacobi project, and, first of all, in the prospect that the future electric motor could well be put on military and civilian ships.
The interest of the emperor gave the business scope, in this Jacobi was lucky. However, the business itself promised a lot: to get away from clumsy and heavy steam engines that burned a lot of fuel forever.
Jacobi especially emphasized the benefits of creating an electric motor with rotary motion. Being completely confident that he was right, he immediately decided to create not a model, but a working model.
“I’m not even talking about extreme simplicity,” he wrote, “with a round, continuous movement, about its constructive advantages and the ease with which the circular movement can be transformed into anything else that a given working machine requires. From the very beginning I was imbued with these thoughts, even when I did not imagine how I would be able to implement my machine; I then had in mind its practical application, and the task seemed to me so important that I did not want to waste energy on inventing toys with reciprocating motion, which would be honored to be put on a par with the electric bell in relation to their effect. "
In September 1838, an unusual ship could be seen on the Neva and on the canals of St. Petersburg: there were no rowers on it, there was no smoke from the chimneys, and there were no chimneys. Nevertheless, the strange ship stubbornly moved in the direction assigned to it, while carrying more than a dozen passengers.
This was tested by Jacobi's boat with an electric motor.
On the first day the boat covered a distance of fourteen kilometers in seven hours. Of course, the distance is short, but no one immediately expected significant results from the new car.
The electric motor demonstrated by Jacobi consisted of two groups of electric motors having common vertical axes. The rotation of these axes with the help of bevel gears was transmitted to the horizontal, on which the paddle wheels were attached. 320 copper-zinc galvanic cells served as a current source for the motor.
The newspaper "Northern Bee" enthusiastically informed its readers:
“Turning to an electromagnetic boat ...
We find in it a small car that, at four feet in height, takes up no more than a space? arshin in length and one and a half arshins in width. It looks like the mechanism of the boat consists of two pillars, between which an iron axis runs across the entire width of the boat. At the end of the axle there are rowing wheels, arranged exactly like on steamers ...
The galvanic batteries that make up their own life principle in these machines are usually made of zinc, copper and liquefied sulfuric acid. In the local shells, instead of copper, a thin platinum plate was used ... "
Incidentally, the last improvement was introduced by Jacobi himself.
“In the Middle Ages,” the newspaper reported enthusiastically, “fanatics would have burned Mr. Jacobi, and poets and storytellers invented a legend about him as Faust. In our time, we will not burn him, but we will warm him with a feeling of gratitude for his useful works and instead of a legend we will tell the truth, namely, that Mr. Jacobi, beyond scholarship, is an excellent person in all respects, because he has no pedantry, but there is a true, fiery passion for science and an equally ardent desire to be useful to hospitable and grateful Russia ... "
The conclusion of the special commission also underlined the importance of Jacobi's work.
"Contrary to the original plan," said the official report, "according to which it was supposed to carry out experiments on calm water, it was possible to sail along the Neva itself and even against the current ..."
In a special addition to the report, the captain of the corps of naval engineers S. A. Burachek said that in the future the results of testing the electric motor undoubtedly promise the possibility of its use on warships. At the same time, Captain Burachek quite rightly pointed out a very significant drawback of sailing ships: as soon as a red-hot core hits the sails and tears them, the sailboat loses its maneuverability. And the disadvantages of steam engines, Captain Burchek saw in the fact that a red-hot core can always pierce a steam boiler, or knock down a chimney, or destroy paddle wheels.
As for the electric motor, Captain SA Burachek pointed out, it is easy enough to hide it from the enemy's nuclei. In addition, a small electric motor will free the ship from a huge load of coal, increase its speed and maneuvering ability.
Unfortunately, it soon became clear that it would be difficult to achieve a significant increase in engine power, as well as to create light, high-capacity and reliable power sources. For this reason, in 1842, a special commission decided to suspend work "... until the opening of any new path that could lead to an improvement in the application of magnetic force to the movement of ships."
It was, of course, a smart decision.
Even now, we still do not have batteries that can freely compete with gasoline engines.
On October 5, 1838, Jacobi announced at a meeting of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences about the discovered and developed by him method of obtaining exact copies of various objects.
This day is rightly considered the birthday of electroforming.
When in 1840 the work "Electroforming, or a method for producing copper products from copper solutions using galvanism" was published, the name of Jacobi immediately became known to the entire scientist, and not only to the scientific world. Within a short time, Jacobi received a lot of various awards, orders of honor and titles. And in 1842, for many original works that glorified Russian science, Jacobi was elected a full member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.
The discovery of electroforming, according to Jacobi himself, was made by accident.
While preparing a galvanic cell for the next experiment, a technical servant, Jacobi's assistant, while cleaning a copper cylinder, accidentally separated from it several pieces of copper, quite extensive, but thin and fragile. Of course, Jacobi made a remark to the assistant, indicating that the copper from which the cylinder was made was, apparently, badly flattened by it, and therefore doubled.
“His (assistant's) heated protest,” Jacobi recalled in 1846, “made me think of solving the question of the origin of these pieces by comparing their inner surface with the outer surface of the cylinder.
Starting this research, I immediately saw several almost microscopic file scratches on both surfaces, exactly matching each other: concave on the cylinder surface and embossed on the surface of a separate sheet.
Electroforming, - the scientist modestly notes, - was the result of this thorough research. "
Testing the assumptions that arose, Jacobi used a copper plate as an electrode on which his name was engraved, and immediately received an accurate negative impression from the plate. After that, Jacobi did a similar experiment with a nickel. It is also very symbolic: in our time, electroforming has become widespread in the manufacture of accurate and in all similar clichés necessary for printing government papers, including banknotes.
In 1840, Jacobi was awarded the Demidov Prize.
Realizing the importance of Jacobi's discovery, the Russian government bought the scientist's idea of \u200b\u200belectroforming for 25 thousand silver rubles, immediately offering to publish all the information received in the open press so that it becomes available to everyone.
Jacobi didn't mind.
Over the next few years, many pounds of copper and gold were besieged in Jacobi's electroforming workshop, which went to statues and bas-reliefs of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Hermitage, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, and the Peter and Paul Cathedral. For the gilding of the domes of the Cathedral of the Savior in Moscow and St. Isaac's Cathedral alone it took 45 poods 32 pounds of gold.
In Paris, at the world exhibition in 1867, Jacobi was awarded the Gold Medal for his invention.
The famous M. Faraday, with interest in the work of Jacobi, wrote to him on August 17, 1839:
“I was so interested in your letter and the great results on which you give me such a detailed report that I translated it and passed it almost entirely on to the publishers of the Philosophical Magazine in the hope that they would recognize this news as important to their readers. I am sure that this did not upset you in the least; I just wanted others, like me, to know about the wonderful results you have achieved. I will cherish the hope that one way or another I will hear again, if possible in a short time, about the further results of your labors, especially as regards the application to mechanical purposes, and I sincerely wish that your great labors receive the high reward they deserve. ...
As I think only of the electromagnetic machine in the Great Western or British Queen ( famous ships of the British fleet at that time) and sending them in this way to sail across the Atlantic Ocean or even to the East Indies! .. What a glorious thing that would be! ..
And those records that you sent me are not only very pleasant and flattering to me, but in themselves both are wonderful in theoretical and practical terms and everyone who sees them here admires them ... "
Jacobi created several designs of various electrical telegraphs, very perfect for their time, in particular, the very first direct-printing apparatus (1850). However, these works were immediately classified by the military department and the scientific community for a long time did not know anything about them. As well as about the galvanic antipersonnel and naval mines that Jacobi developed.
In 1842, Jacobi connected the Winter Palace with the General Headquarters by writing telegraph, and the next year with the Main Directorate of Railways. Electrical signals were sent to the electromagnet of the writing apparatus, which attracted a vertically located rod with a pencil attached to it. The clockwork periodically moved the screen in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the pencil, and the pencil drew some wavy line, which, knowing the secret, was not difficult to decipher.
In 1843, extending a new line of writing telegraph between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo, Jacobi for the first time in world practice used the ground for the second wire.
Jacobi owns ten designs of various types of telegraph devices.
In 1850, for example, he invented the original direct-printing telegraph apparatus.
Under the action of moving electromagnets in the transmitting and receiving apparatus, the index hands rotated synchronously, occupying at each given moment the same position above the dials with letters. On one axis with an arrow, rigidly connected to it, there was a typical wheel with letters. To convey the desired letter, the telegraph operator, using a pin, set the arrow directly opposite the desired letter. At the same time, at the receiving station, a directional arrow was installed opposite the same letter along with a typical wheel. At the same time, electromagnets were triggered and a paper tape was pressed against a typical wheel, on which the necessary letters were imprinted one after another.
All these works were classified, but once, being in Berlin, in a friendly company, Jacobi showed the drawings of his apparatus, which, of course, he had no right to do. Engineer V. Siemens immediately took advantage of this information leak. Having made some changes to the design of Jacobi, V. Siemens, together with the mechanic I. Galske, organized the serial production of such devices. This was the beginning of the activities of the famous electrical engineering firm Siemens and Halske, which quickly took over all similar European institutions, including those in Russia. Later, Jacobi said more than once with bitterness that the invention he made, as is often the case, did not enrich him, but people who were not involved in the invention.
Jacobi gave a lot of energy to military affairs.
"Our system of underwater mines," he wrote in 1847, "and the means we found, which guaranteed us their validity, are completely unknown to foreign governments."
It really was.
By the beginning of the Crimean War, in a special "galvanic" team, many Russian officers, sailors and soldiers had received good training in the electromagnet case developed by Jacobi. Prior to that, together with Jacobi, they participated in real tests of underwater mines, which were carried out almost annually in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Nevka, at the Peter and Paul Fortress and in the Revel region.
In 1847, large demonstration tests of the action of underwater mines were carried out in the area between Kronstadt and Oranienbaum in the presence of Emperor Nicholas I and all senior military officials.
First, the action of unloaded mines was demonstrated, connected to a galvanic battery installed on the shore, and, in turn, connected to a telegraph apparatus. When a rowboat driven by sailors collided with mines, the fuse went off, the galvanic circuit was closed and a bell rang on the telegraph apparatus. Then experiments were carried out with military mines, which had a powder charge, but with an open circuit. It was necessary to show that their ships could pass over mines without being in danger. And finally, the most important part of the tests was carried out. The chain connecting the battery with the war mines closed, the ship, passing over the mine, touched it - the fuse went off, an explosion took place.
During the Crimean War, according to the system proposed by Jacobi, the Kronstadt raid was mined, which did not allow the British and French ships to approach St. Petersburg.
Jacobi was worried about the fate of Sevastopol.
He did everything to help the besieged city.
He made sure that the military authorities sent everything necessary for the mining of the Sevastopol raid: the best hunting powder, wooden and metal mine barrels, special conductors, connecting devices, galvanic batteries and fuses. However, Prince A.S. Menshikov, who commanded the defense, refused to mine the raid. In February 1853, Prince Menshikov was removed from command, but time was lost, Jacobi's mines did not manage to defend the city.
A year before his death, Jacobi wrote in his autobiography:
“... My work was directed in the sense of applying the power of galvanism to military affairs. The beginning of my work on this subject coincides with the beginning of 1840. Consequently, Russia drew attention to this currently so significant branch of military production almost thirty years earlier than other states, which are now enjoying the fruits of the successes and improvements made in this regard.
The mines I have invented and improved (torpedo) are hardly inferior to the newest torpedoes of other states, in spite of the intensified efforts made in these countries to improve the aforementioned projectile, which Russia first owned long before such a means of military defense became known abroad. Used for the first time in the war during the defense of Kronstadt, Russian torpedoes of my design represented, as you know, a serious obstacle to an attack by the Anglo-French fleet.
Jacobi was a member of thirteen foreign scientific societies, an honorary doctor and professor of many domestic and foreign universities, a corresponding member of several foreign academies. Among his close friends and scientific correspondents were A. Becquerel, K. M. Baer, \u200b\u200bJ. Berzelius, F. P. Litke, M. Faraday, V. Ya. Struve, A. N. Lodygin, N. N. Zinin, M.V. Ostrogradsky, A. Humboldt. He worked with Mendeleev, Petrushevsky, Khvolson, Yablochkov, Lenz, Sluginov.
“I drew from science only that which leads or promises to lead to practical results,” Jacobi wrote, recalling the path he had traveled. "I set myself the task of reconciling science and technology, to erase the unfair difference that was established between theory and practice."
He undoubtedly succeeded in this.
Jacobi died on March 3, 1874 in St. Petersburg from a heart attack - quite a happy, worthy man who managed to express himself, suddenly turned from Moritz into Boris, and was never shy about it, but on the contrary, proud of it.
From the author's bookFriedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743-1819) writer, philosopher The position of philosophy should remain the root of philosophy: human knowledge proceeds from revelation; it is the mind that reveals freedom because it reveals providence; and all branches of the [philosophical] doctrine grow out of this
From the author's book From the author's book1838 Jacobi In 1838, on October 5, at a meeting of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, the German physicist Moritz Jacobi (1801-1874), who worked in Russia, made a report on the discovery and technical development of electroforming - a technology for creating thin metal coatings on the cathode,
From the author's book1839 Grove, Jacobi In 1839, the British physicist Sir William Grove (1811–1896) developed a galvanic cell suitable for powering power circuits. By design, the Grove element was similar to the Daniel element, but the copper sulfate in it was replaced by nitric acid, and copper
From the author's bookJACOBI, Johann (Jacoby, Johann, 1805-1877), German physician, left-liberal politician3 The problem with kings is that they do not want to hear the truth. 1848 Frederick Wilhelm IV received a group of deputies from the Prussian National Assembly, silently listened to their demands, and left. His phrase Jacobi
Moritz Hermann Jacobi (in Russian way Boris Semyonovich Jacobi; German Moritz Hermann von Jacobi; September 21, 1801, Potsdam - February 27 (March 11) 1874, St. Petersburg) - German and Russian physicist-inventor. He became famous for the discovery of electroplating. Built the first electric motor, a telegraph machine that prints letters.
The elder brother of mathematician Carl Jacobi, father of the inventor Vladimir Jacobi and Senator Nikolai Jacobi.
Biography
Moritz Hermann Jacobi was born into a wealthy Jewish family. The father of the future physicist, Simon Jacobi, was the personal banker of King Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia; mother, Rachel Lehman, was a housewife. He begins his studies at the University of Berlin, then goes to the University of Göttingen. After completing the course in Göttingen until 1833, he worked as an architect in the construction department of Prussia.
The invention of the electric motor
In 1834 he moved to Königsberg, where his younger brother Karl taught at the university. His hobbies for physics lead Jacobi to a serious invention - the world's first electric motor with direct rotation of the working shaft. Before Jacobi's invention, there were electrical devices with a reciprocating or rocking motion of the armature. Jacobi commented on one of them:
The goal of the scientist is to create a more powerful electric motor with the possibility of its practical application. In 1834, Jacobi builds an electric motor based on the principle of attraction and repulsion between electromagnets.
The engine consisted of two groups of magnets: four fixed ones were mounted on the frame, and the rest were mounted on a rotating rotor. A switch invented by the scientist was used to alternately change the polarity of movable electromagnets, the principle of which is still used in traction motors. The engine was powered by galvanic batteries and at the time of its creation was the most advanced electrical device. The engine lifted 10-12 pounds (about 4-5 kg) to a height of 1 foot (about 30 cm) per second. The engine power was about 15 W, the rotor speed was 80-120 rpm. In the same year, Jacobi sent a manuscript describing his work to the Paris Academy of Sciences. The invention is considered at a meeting of the Academy and almost immediately the work is published. Thus, the engine built in May 1834 in Königsberg became widely known in December 1834.
Russian period
Jacobi's works were highly appreciated by V. Ya. Struve and P. L. Schilling, and on their recommendation Jacobi in 1835 was invited to the post of professor at the University of Dorpat at the Department of Civil Architecture. In the same year, Jacobi published his "Memoir on the Application of Electromagnetism to the Motion of Machines", which aroused great interest in academic circles.