Yefim and Miron Cherepanov. Cherepanov brothers

The Demidovs are a family of the richest Russian entrepreneurs (factories and landowners), who came to the fore under Peter I thanks to the creation of weapons and mining enterprises in Thule and on Ural. The founders of many Ural cities, who made an invaluable contribution to the development and development of the Ural land.

Wandering around Western Europe, Count Demidov drew attention to the importance of steam engines for factories. At the Demidov factories, the first steam engine began to work in 1824.

The dam foreman Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov did an excellent job of installing such a machine.

Efim Cherepanov made his way to the heights of technology solely due to his natural talent and nature. He actually had no education, he studied "at home". From here all the "natural mechanics" of the Cherepanovs went: Yefim himself, his brother Alexei, Yefim's son - Miron, the first assistant in the creation of steam engines and a steam locomotive, nephew Ammos.

Yefim Cherepanov first proposed the plan for his steam engine in 1813. But only seven years later, at his meager expense, he built a "steam engine" with a capacity of only "one horse". Upon learning of this, Count Demidov sent him to England.

Cherepanov, both father and son, managed to visit St. Petersburg and abroad, in Sweden. Here they could get acquainted with the advanced technology of that time.

Upon returning from Sweden to Nizhny Tagil, the Cherepanovs set about building a steam engine for the Copper Mine, which was then one of the main wealth of the Demidovs. The copper mine produced over 640 tons of copper per year. But copper mining was hindered by water that flooded the mine. That is why large funds were allocated for the construction of drainage machines. The Cherepanovs built a thirty-strong steam engine at the Copper Mine, and after it the second and third steam engines, even more advanced and powerful.

Ordinary Russian people, the dam foreman and his son, became specialists with a wealth of technical experience. The Cherepanov mechanical establishment, set up at the Vyisky plant, a few kilometers from Nizhny Tagil, became the foremost center of Russian technical thought.

August 1, 1834 quite a lot of people gathered in the Demidov estate. Everyone was eager to see how the test of the first "land steamer" would go.

A cast-iron road was built especially for the steam locomotive. Its length was 854 meters. The steam train was supposed to carry a train weighing just over three tons at a speed of about 15 kilometers per hour. At that time, it was just very cool, because in order to move these desired 3.3 tons of cargo, at least 50-60 workers would have been needed. And they would have walked loaded for almost half an hour. And so there was an opportunity to manage within four minutes ...

For his father, Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov, the construction of a steam locomotive was one of the most significant events in his life. It was a jubilee year for him, the 60th year, besides, the “owner” Demidov finally succumbed to the persuasion of the “public” and provided the talented mechanic with “freedom”, freeing him from serfdom. Looking back at the past years, Yefim sadly thought that time had flown by quickly, in hard and often thankless work. Even the advanced Russian enterprises of the Demidovs were unable to compete with the Europeans. In our country, most often gratuitous human labor was used, while in the same England machines were involved in the most difficult areas.

Could Russian mechanics "surpass" the Europeans? Indeed, in terms of their talent, creative and technical capabilities, our self-taught people were hardly inferior to their colleagues. But the heavy burden of serfdom, the terrible dullness and downtroddenness played their ungrateful role. In fact, the Cherepanovs could have built a steam locomotive even earlier, but some obstacles arose all the time. And if it weren’t for the “stinginess” of the owner, who refused to buy steam engines in St. Petersburg, where three skins were fought for them, it is unlikely that they, the Cherepanovs, would have been allowed to work on this project.

Other thoughts overcame Miron. He was in the prime of his creative mind, proud of the fact that in a short ten years he and his father built at least ten steam engines to facilitate forced labor in the mines. Miron, like his father, visited England, where he dreamed of at least one peep into the drawings of the famous Stephenson, but the British were not fools, they kept their secrets vigilantly.

It was Miron who, after returning from England, began to pester his father: “Let’s build this thing ourselves, I think I figured out how!” Efim Alekseevich fought off his son, because in the last ten years he was losing his eyesight catastrophically, so it took more and more time to figure out the drawings. But he could not dissuade his son, who, by the way, was still a serf at that time.

... The locomotive drove from the beginning to the end of the cast-iron without stopping once. Demidov was pleased. He ordered a steam locomotive, twice as powerful as the previous one - 46 horsepower. And only after that, in 1836, Miron waited for release. Of course, he didn't give much thought to why this happened. And here was the solution. One of the capital's officials, in great secrecy, told Demidov that to him in next year going to the heir to the Russian throne - Alexander Nikolaevich. And he always loves to ask "uncomfortable" questions. Maybe the hour is uneven, to ask: “Why do you still keep such masters in bondage?” Therefore, the owner had to write out "free" from sin.

The heir to the throne, indeed, arrived in the Urals, at the Demidov factories, in the spring of 1837. Where I saw the "land steamer". So it was named for its power and steam engines. Asked Alexander and those who are the author of the car? He was told: the Cherepanovs. In the same year, 1837, they began to build a railway to Tsarskoye Selo. She was launched in October.

Despite the successful completion of the project, the Cherepanovs' locomotives did not find support outside the plant, and were subsequently replaced by horse-drawn ones.

Deforestation for factory needs has crossed all boundaries and the delivery of timber was quite expensive. It was difficult to use wood-fired steam engines in such conditions, and there were no sources of coal nearby. In addition, the maintenance of steam locomotives was more expensive than the maintenance of horses, and steam locomotives were profitable only when using their full power - for large trains. But at the plant there was no need to transport large volumes of goods.

However, the Cherepanovs were denied a patent for a steam locomotive on the grounds that it was "very smelly".

The creative ideas of the Cherepanovs were never destined to come true. In 1842, returning from another business trip, Yefim Alexandrovich died unexpectedly. Miron Efimovich outlived the "daughter" only for seven years and died on October 5, 1849, at the age of 47 ...

LESSON 8 “OIL during the industrial revolution. ROCKEFELLER"

Rockefeller was the second of six children in a Protestant family. He was born in the city richford, state NY. His father was first a lumberjack, and then an itinerant merchant who called himself a "botanical doctor" and sold various elixirs and was rarely at home. According to the recollections of the neighbors, John's father was considered a strange person who tried to evade hard physical labor, although he had a good sense of humor. William was a risk-taker by nature, which helped him build up the small amount of capital that enabled him to buy land for $3,100. However, the propensity for risk was side by side with foresight, so part of the capital was invested in various enterprises. Eliza, John's mother, kept the household, was a very devout Baptist, and was often in poverty as her husband was constantly away for long periods of time and she constantly had to save money on everything. She tried not to pay attention to reports of oddities and adultery of her husband.

Rockefeller recalled that from an early age his father told him about the enterprises in which he participated, explained the principles of doing business, he wrote about his father: “He often bargained with me and bought various services from me. He taught me how to buy and sell. My father just “trained” me to get rich!”

When John was seven years old, he began to raise turkeys for sale, worked part-time digging for neighbors potato. He recorded all the results of commercial activities in his little book. He invested all the money he earned in a porcelain piggy bank, and already at the age of 13 he lent $ 50 to a farmer friend at the rate of 7.5% per annum. His father's upbringing was continued by his mother, from whom he learned hard work and discipline.

At 13, John went to school. It was difficult for him to study and he had to study hard to complete the lessons. Rockefeller successfully graduated school and entered college Cleveland, where they taught accounting and basics commerce, but soon came to the conclusion that a three-month accounting course and a thirst for action would bring much more than years of college education, so he left him.

Since John Rockefeller was one of the oldest children in the family, at the age of 16 he went to look for work. By that time, he already knew quite well mathematics, and completed a three-month accounting course. After six weeks of searching, he was hired as an assistant accountant in a small company that dealt real estate and maritime transport, he soon rose to the position accountant. He was quickly able to establish himself as a competent professional, and as soon as the manager of the company left his post, Rockefeller was immediately appointed in his place. At the same time, the salary was set at $ 600 dollars, while his predecessor received $ 2,000, because of this, Rockefeller left the company, and this was his only hired job in his biography.

Just at this time, the English entrepreneur John Morris Clark was looking for a partner with a capital of $ 2,000 to create a joint business. At that time, Rockefeller had accumulated $ 800, he borrows the missing amount from his father at 10% per annum, and on April 27, 1857, he becomes a junior partner of Clark and Rochester, a company tradedhay,grain,meat and other goods. During these years, the southern states announced their withdrawal from the Union and began Civil War, the federal authorities had a need to supply a large army.

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, the kerosene lamps and increased demand for raw materials for kerosene - oil.Industrial Revolution demanded in ever-increasing volumes of kerosene and lubricating oils, and this need could only be met at the expense of oil on an industrial scale. At first, the lightest gasoline fraction of oil was not in demand and, as unnecessary, was drained or burned. But the heaviest - fuel oil - immediately came to the court as an excellent fuel for steam locomotives.

Main products of oil refining

At this time, Rockefeller met the chemist Samuel Andrews, who was involved in oil refining and was convinced of the prospects kerosene as a means of illumination. Rockefeller, on the other hand, was interested in a message about an oil field discovered by Edwin Drake in 1859. Common interests rallied Andrews and Rockefeller and they founded the oil processing company Andrews and Clark. The partners founded the Flats refinery in Cleveland. Transported oil and finished products by rail.

Company Standard Oil was established in 1870. Rockefeller is looking for oil; already at the beginning of his career, he noticed that the entire oil business was organized inefficiently and chaotically, and focused on putting things in order. The first step was to create a company charter. In order to motivate employees, Rockefeller at first decided to refuse wages, rewarding them with shares, he believed that thanks to this they would work more actively, because they would consider themselves part of the company, since their final income would depend on the success of the business.

The business began to generate income, and Rockefeller began to gradually buy up other oil firms one at a time, small enterprises that were not very expensive. This strategy did not sit well with many Americans. Rockefeller negotiated with railroad companies to regulate transport prices, so Standard Oil received lower prices than its competitors: it paid 10 for the transportation of a barrel of oil. cents, while competitors - 35 cents, and from a difference of 25 cents from each barrel, the Rockefeller company also received income. Competitors could not resist him, Rockefeller put them before a choice: to unite with him, or ruin. Most of them chose to become part of Standard Oil in exchange for a share of the shares.

Already by 1880, thanks to numerous small and medium-sized mergers, 95% of America's oil production was in the hands of Rockefeller. Becoming monopoly, Standard Oil raised prices and became the largest company in the world at the time. After 10 years law against monopolies

demanded that Standard Oil be split. After that, Rockefeller split the business into 34 small companies and in all of them he retained a controlling stake and at the same time increased capital. Almost all major American oil companies originated from Standard Oil.

Standard Oil brought Rockefeller $ 3 million annually, he owned sixteen railroad and six steel companies, nine real estate firms, six shipping companies, nine banks and three orange groves. In 1894, he becomes the world's first billionaire. As of the 2000s, John Rockefeller is considered the richest man in history, magazineForbes estimated his fortune in terms of the equivalent of 2007 at $ 318 billion, while the largest fortune of that time wasBill Gates - amounted to about $ 50 billion.

Rockefeller's name became a symbol of wealth: he lived in great comfort, but did not flaunt his wealth. He had villa and land in 283 ha, home and personal playground for playing golf.

Considered myself businessman-Christian, from childhood transferred 10% of their income Baptist Church. IN 1905 this share amounted to $100 million.

Beginning with 1897 Rockefeller is gradually transferring the management of Standard Oil to partners, while he himself is increasingly involved in charity. Thanks to him in 1892 was founded University of Chicago, V 1901- The Rockefeller Institute of Medicine, donated $9 million to build the building UN. With all this, he left $ 240 million to six children. Rockefeller Jr. also built the famous skyscraperEmpire State Building.

Rockefeller wanted to live to be a hundred years old, but did not live three years - May, 23rd1937 he died of a heart attack at the age of 97.

LESSON 9 “Medicine, biology, chemistry. L. Pasteur, R. Koch»

In England, an advanced capitalist country of the 18th century. increased interest in disease prevention. The army and navy, the new industrial city, the factory gave an order to English medicine.

Louis Pasteur was born in France in 1822. He studied at college where he was the youngest student. Here he became interested in reading books and was able to become a teacher's assistant. Pasteur's letters of these years, addressed to the sisters, have been preserved, in which the dependence of "success" on "desire and labor" is described. He then got a job as a junior teacher while continuing to study.

Pasteur showed himself to be a talented artist, his name was listed in the reference books of portrait painters of the 19th century. He left portraits his sisters and mother, but, due to his passion for chemistry, he abandoned painting. Pastels and portraits of parents and friends painted by Pasteur at the age of 15 are now on display and kept in the museum Pasteur Institute in Paris. His work was highly acclaimed - Louis received his degree Bachelor of Arts(1840) and Bachelor of Science (1842) in higher normal school. After a brief tenure as professor of physics, Pasteur became professor of chemistry at Strasbourg University, where in 1849 he met and began courting Marie Laurent, daughter rector university. He decided to marry and wrote a letter to the dean's daughter with a successful proposal, where, in particular, Pasteur said the following about himself: “There is nothing in me that a young girl could like, but, as far as I remember, everyone who got to know me closer loved me very much!”

They got married, five children were born in the marriage, but only two of them survived to adulthood (the other three died of typhoid fever). The personal tragedies endured inspired Pasteur to search for causes and led him to try to find cures for contagious diseases such as typhus.

TO 1861 Pasteur showed that education alcohol,glycerine And succinic acid fermentation can only occur in the presence of microorganisms often specific.

Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation is a process closely related to life yeast fungi, which feed and multiply due to the fermenting fluid. At the same time, Louis Pasteur made another important discovery. He found that there are organisms that can live without oxygen. For some of them, oxygen is not only unnecessary, but also poisonous. Their representatives are microbes that cause butyric fermentation. The reproduction of such microbes causes rancidity of wine and beer. Fermentation thus turned out to be "life without oxygen" because it is adversely affected by oxygen ( Pasteur effect).

In 1864, French winemakers turned to Pasteur with a request to help them develop means and methods to combat wine diseases. The result of his research was a monograph in which Pasteur showed that wine diseases are caused by various microorganisms, and each disease has a specific pathogen. To destroy the harmful "organized enzymes", he proposed to warm the wine at a temperature of 50-60 degrees. This method, called pasteurization, has found wide application both in laboratories and in the food industry.

IN 1865 Pasteur was invited by his former teacher South France to find the cause of silkworm disease. After publication in 1876 work Robert Koch"The Origin of Anthrax" Pasteur devoted himself entirely to immunology, finally establishing the specificity of pathogens anthrax,puerperal fever,cholera,rabies, chicken cholera and other diseases, developed ideas about artificial immunity, proposed vaccination method, in particular from anthrax, rabies.

Pasteur was engaged in biology all his life and treated people without receiving any medical or biological education.

In 1868 (at the age of 45) Pasteur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He remained disabled: his left arm was inactive, his left leg dragged along the ground. He nearly died, but eventually recovered. Moreover, he made the most significant discoveries after that: he created the anthrax vaccine and the rabies vaccine. When the scientist died, it turned out that a huge part of his brain was destroyed.

P
about words I. I. Mechnikova, Pasteur was a passionate patriot and hater of the Germans. When a German book or pamphlet was brought to him from the post office, he took it with two fingers and threw it away with a feeling of great disgust.

German scientist Robert Koch was born on December 11, 1843. He was the third of thirteen children. Father - a mining engineer, worked in the management of local mines. The mother is the daughter of a high-ranking official, the chief inspector of the Hanoverian kingdom. It was he who saw in the inquisitive grandson the makings of a researcher. From childhood, encouraged by his grandfather and uncle, he was interested in nature.

At the age of 5, he went to the local elementary school. At this time, he already knew how to read and write. At the age of 8 he entered the gymnasium, where after four years he became the best student in the class.

In 1862, Koch entered the famous for its scientific traditions University of Göttingen. There he studies physics,botany and then medicine.

Robert finishes his studies at the university and receives a medical degree. From that time on, he began to work in various hospitals, and at the same time unsuccessfully tried to organize a private practice in five different cities in Germany. Later, he wants to become a military doctor or travel around the world as a ship's doctor. In 1870 begins Franco-Prussian War, and Koch's work at the hospital is interrupted. Koch volunteers to become a field hospital doctor, despite severe myopia. In the new service, he gains a lot of practical experience, dealing with the treatment of infectious diseases, in particular cholera and typhoid fever. At the same time, he studies algae and large microbes under a microscope, improving his skills in microphotography. In 1871 Koch was demobilized. He loses all interest in private medical practice and begins to conduct research and experiments, for which he gets a large number of mice. He found that among the large cattle, as well as sheep, the disease is common - anthrax which affects the lungs. Knowing about experiences Louis Pasteur on animals with anthrax, Koch uses a microscope to study the pathogen that presumably causes anthrax. After conducting a series of careful, methodical experiments, he establishes that the only cause of the disease is a bacterium. Bacillus anthracis, and studies its biological cycle of development, shows that one bacterium can form a colony of many millions. These studies proved the bacterial origin of the disease for the first time.

Koch publishes Methods for the Study of Pathogenic Organisms, in which he describes a method for growing microbes on solid nutrient media. This method was important for the isolation and study of pure bacterial cultures. Shortly thereafter, a heated discussion broke out between Koch and Pasteur, until then the leader in microbiology. After Koch published sharply critical reviews of Pasteur's anthrax research, the latter's leadership was shaken, and a feud broke out between the two eminent scientists that continued for several years. All this time they have been having heated debates and discussions on the pages of magazines and in public speeches.

Koch later attempts to find the pathogen. tuberculosis, a disease at that time widespread and the main cause of death. Every day, early in the morning, he comes to the hospital, where he receives material for research: a small amount of sputum or a few drops of blood from patients with consumption.

However, despite the abundance of material, he still does not manage to detect the causative agent of the disease. Soon Koch realizes that the only way to achieve the goal is with the help of dyes. Unfortunately, ordinary dyes are too weak, but after several months of work, he still manages to find the necessary substances.

The pounded tuberculosis tissue of the 271st preparation Koch stains in methyl blue, and then in a caustic red-brown dye used in leather finishing, and reveals tiny, slightly curved, bright blue-colored sticks - Koch sticks. These were the causative agents of the disease.

On March 24, 1882, when he announced that he had succeeded in isolating the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, Koch achieved the greatest triumph of his life. At that time, this disease was one of the main causes of death even in Germany. And in our time, tuberculosis is the main cause of death in developing countries. More people die from tuberculosis than from all other infectious diseases, including AIDS and other diseases caused by HIV. In his report, Koch emphasized: "As long as there are on earth slums where the sun does not penetrate , consumption will continue to exist. The sun's rays are death for tuberculosis bacilli. I undertook my research in the interest of the people. For this I have worked. I hope that my works will help doctors to conduct a systematic fight against this terrible scourge of mankind.”

Koch's study of tuberculosis was interrupted when, on the instructions of the German government, as part of a scientific expedition, he left for Egypt and India in order to try to determine the cause of the disease. cholera. While working in India, Koch announced that he had isolated the microbe that causes this disease - cholera vibrio.

In 1904, Koch relinquished his position as director of the Institute for Infectious Diseases to pursue only research activities. A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize, and five years later, on May 27, 1910, Robert Koch died. He passed away as quietly and modestly as he had lived.

The first of all explorers, the first of all people who have ever lived, Koch proved that a certain speciesmicrobe causes a certain disease and that little pitiful bacilli can easily become killers of a large formidable animal.

LESSON 10 “Radio. A television. A.Popov, B.Rosing, Z.Zworykin. I.A. Timchenko"

For many years, society has not been able to decide who invented the radio. The fact is that almost at the same time this brilliant discovery was made by several scientists from different countries. Alexander Popov, Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Heinrich Hertz, Ernest Rutherford - all these people are somehow connected with radio. It is not so important which of them was the first to have a brilliant idea, all scientists have made an invaluable contribution to the development of science.

If you ask a Russian and a European about who invented the radio, then the answers will be completely different, the first will answer that it is Popov, and the second - Marconi.

The discovery of the radio took place largely thanks to Heinrich Hertz. This brilliant scientist in 1888 demonstrated to the public the presence of electromagnetic waves propagating from the speed of light in free space.

The problem is that Hertz's design worked only at a distance of several meters from each other, only a spark was visible in the receiver, and even then in the dark. The device was not perfect and required improvement. It cost nothing to the brilliant engineer and experimenter to improve his invention. Unfortunately, Hertz died at the age of 37 in 1894, shortly before Marconi and Popov's discovery.

Similarity between the experiments of Marconi and Popov

From a technical point of view, Popov and Marconi did not discover anything new, but only used the inventions of other scientists to create an improved device. To Hertz's design, scientists added grounding and an antenna.

A Alexander Stepanovich Popov was born in the Urals on March 16, 1859 in the family of a priest. First, he graduated from the general education classes of the theological seminary, but since he was attracted to electronics, the young man went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the university at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics.

Alexander Stepanovich actively collaborated with navy, and it was for the Navy that he invented the radio. Popov was always interested in the experiments of Hertz, so in 1889 he gave a series of lectures with accompanying demonstrations on the topic of research on the relationship between electrical and light phenomena. The scientist hinted at meetings that this knowledge could be applied in practice, which aroused interest from the leadership of the navy.

Alexander Stepanovich can safely be called the first person in Russia who not only understood the value of Hertz's experiments, but also found practical application for them. On May 7, 1895, when Popov invented the radio and demonstrated the constructed device at a meeting of Russian physicists, nothing was known about Marconi's creation. It is May 7 in Russia that is considered to be the day of the creation of radio.

Popov devoted the whole of 1895 to improving the radio receiver, he conducted experiments on receiving and transmitting electromagnetic waves at a distance of 60 m. On January 20, 1897, the Russian scientist had to defend his right to the primacy of the invention. The article “Telegraphy without wires” appeared in the Kotlin newspaper, having learned about Marconi’s experiments, Popov wrote it. The first radio was invented by Alexander Stepanovich, he demonstrated it in the spring of 1895 and planned to continue working on its improvement, but he did not document his device in any way.

The principle of operation of the first radio receiver

Many inventors could not find a use for their inventions, and only brilliant people with special abilities and extraordinary thinking can translate a scientific idea into reality, and Alexander Popov belongs to such geniuses. The radio, created by the great scientist, consists of the discoveries of various engineers and physicists. So, Popov used a coherer as a conductor, he thought of using this device as a bell and a recorder of the incoming signal. Alexander Stepanovich put together a coherer, a bell and an antenna, building a device for receiving waves and lightning discharges. With the help of a radio receiver, a scientist could transmit a meaningful text with special signals.

Why is Marconi considered the father of radio in Europe?

Scientists still cannot reach a unanimous agreement on the question of who invented the radio. Alexander Popov demonstrated his invention on May 7, 1895, and Guglielmo Marconi applied for a patent only in June 1896. At first glance, everything seems to be clear, the palm should be given to a Russian scientist, but not everything is so simple. The fact is that Popov did not seek to tell the general public about his research, but only informed a narrow circle of people about them - scientists and naval officers. He understood how important this work was for the motherland, so he was in no hurry with printed publications, doing the practical part.

Guglielmo Marconi grew up in a capitalist country, so he sought to consolidate not a historical or scientific priority, but a legal one. He did not initiate anyone into the course of the matter, but only when the invention was ready did he apply for a patent. Of course, history has nothing to do with the legal side, but still, some historians take the side of Marconi. The patent was issued on July 2, 1897, that is, two years after Popov demonstrated his invention. Nevertheless, Marconi had a document confirming his priority, and the Russian scientist limited himself to a printed publication.

Achievement of the Americans

The Americans intervened in the dispute about who invented the radio in 1943, because they also found a craftsman in their country who created the receiver. The United States was outraged by the fact that the first place is shared between Europeans and Russians, because it was their compatriot Nikola Tesla, a famous electrical engineer and scientist, who first made such a great discovery. The veracity of this statement was proven in court.

T
Yesla patented a radio transmitter in 1893, and two years later, a radio receiver. The device of an American scientist could convert acoustic sound into a radio signal, transmit it, again converting it into acoustic sound. That is, it worked like modern devices. The designs of Popov and Marconi noticeably lose, because they could only transmit and receive radio signals from Morse code.

Marconi, Popov and Tesla are not related to each other in any way, they lived in different countries and even on different continents, so no one stole ideas from anyone. It turns out that the idea of ​​​​creating a radio came to scientists at about the same time. This combination of circumstances once again confirmed the law: if the time for discovery has come, then someone will definitely make this discovery.

P The first to propose the use of a cathode ray tube for television transmission was the Russian physicist Boris Rosing. In 1907, he received a patent for a method for electrically transmitting images over a distance. For progressive scanning of the image, Rosing used two mirror drums, which were polyhedral prisms with flat mirrors. Each mirror was slightly inclined to the axis of the prism, and the angle of inclination increased uniformly from mirror to mirror. When the drums rotated, the light rays coming from different elements of the transmitted image were reflected sequentially by mirror faces and alternately (line by line) fell on the photocell. The current from the photocell was transferred to the capacitor plates.

After long and persistent experiments with his imperfect apparatus, Rosing managed to get the first image - a brightly illuminated grating - on the screen of his receiver. This image consisted of four stripes. When one of the lattice holes was closed, the corresponding strip on the screen disappeared. The TV could transmit the image of simple geometric shapes, as well as the movement of the hand.

Reports of Rosing's invention were printed in technical journals USA, Japan and Germany and had a great influence on the further development of television. Although Rosing is credited as the founder of electronic television, his television system was not yet completely electronic - filming and image transmission were carried out using a mechanical device - mirror drums. The next step was to create a cathode ray transmitting tube, the operation of which is based on an external photoelectric effect.

This step was not taken until the 1920s. In 1923, Vladimir Zworykin (in his student years, Zworykin was one of Rosing's students and actively helped him in creating the first television; in 1917 he emigrated to the United States, where he worked until his death) patented a fully electronic television system with a transmitting and receiving electronic beam tubes.

LESSON 11 “AERONAUTICS. AIRCRAFT BUILDING. ROCKET PRODUCTION»

Aeronautics, aeronautics- vertical and horizontal movement in Earth's atmosphere on aircraft easier air.

Aviation uses aircrafts heavier than air.

AERONAUTICS

November 211783 in Paris Pilatre de Rozier, French physicist and chemist, together with the Marquis d'Arlande for the first time in history took to the skies hot air balloon- balloon filled with hot air. They stayed in the air for almost 25 minutes while flying 10 km and rising to a height of about 1 km. The ball called "AD ASTRA" (from Latin "to the stars") with a volume of 2055 m³ was designed by the brothers Joseph And Etienne Montgolfier.

Subsequently, hot air balloons gave way to balloons filled with hydrogen, the so-called charliers. This was due to the inherent disadvantages of hot air balloons: the need to take on board a large amount of fuel, the risk of fire in the air, etc.

However, in the second half of the 20th century, hot air balloons became popular again. This was led by the emergence of new lightweight and fire-resistant materials and the emergence of special gas burners, which, together with gas cylinders, made up a convenient and reliable complex for managing thermal balloons.

There are tethered, free-flying and powered balloons - airships.

According to the type of filling balloons are divided into:

gas - charliers, thermal - hot air balloons, combined - rosiers.

Hot air balloons are filled with hot air.

Used to fill charliers hydrogen; but it is flammable and explosive. This disadvantage is devoid of inert helium However, helium is quite expensive.

August 31, 1933 Alexander Dahl, while on board the open hot air balloon, took the first picture showing the roundness of the earth.

The altitude record was set on October 24, 2014 by Alan Eustace, who climbed to a height of about 41,421 meters in a spacesuit attached to a balloon.

March 1, 1999 2 Swiss went on a balloon in the first non-stop round-the-world flight. They landed in Egypt after 40,814 kilometers of flight after 19 days, 21 hours and 55 minutes (average speed 85.4 km/h).

The altitude record for an unmanned balloon is 53.0 km. This is the highest altitude ever achieved by an aeronautic vehicle. Only rockets, rocket planes and artillery shells can fly higher.

AVIATION

WITH amolet Mozhaisky ("Aircraft projectile") - airplane, designed and built Russiannaval officerAlexander Mozhaisky in 1884, the first in Russia and one of the first life-size aircraft in the world (that is, intended to lift a person).

A full-scale aircraft with a steam propeller installation, containing all the main structural groups of modern aircraft, was built and an attempt was made to test it in flight. Presumably, during the tests there was a separation from the ground. Documents that directly recorded the course of testing of the Mozhaisky aircraft have not been preserved. Later sources indicate that he crashed while trying to take off. According to some of these sources, there was a short-term separation of the device from the ground, and it is this version of events that was reflected in the Russian Military Encyclopedia (1914). Up until the 1980s in Soviet historiography, this separation was considered a reliably established fact, and Mozhaisky’s plane was considered the first aircraft in the world to separate from the ground with a person on board.

A mighty force woke up in the machines, the projectile all strained, sang, trembled and, as if waking up, ran easily along the hard path of straight flooring, along the planed boards, from the slope, from the slope. A moment - the wheels skipped towards the daisies, over the green edge and suddenly separated from the sinful earth. - Flying! - resounded over the sagebrush expanse. - Look! Honestly, fly! - In a single impulse, with a cheerful pressure, "cheers" rolled out.

Not remembering insults, not feeling the joy of feet under him, suddenly and fabulously young, Mozhaisky ran after his creation, after a proud dream, won with a fight, for the first, last love drunk, for clear, magical birth second. He ran like crazy, not feeling the burden, breathing with all his chest, crushing the flowers, not seeing, not hearing how they beat their hands, how caps, gloves, umbrellas flew into the sultry sky of flowery powder.

December 7, 1903 Wright brothers on the Flyer aircraft they designed, they performed four flights in a straight line with a duration of 12 to 59 seconds and a range of 37 to 260 m. that the repair took less than an hour). Nevertheless, these flights are considered to be the first successful flight in history.

SPACE

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky-1857 -1935 - Russian scientist-self-taught, inventor, school teacher. The founder of the theoretical astronautics. Justified the use missiles for flights into space, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to use "rocket trains" - prototypes of multi-stage rockets. Main scientific works belong to aeronautics, rocket dynamics and astronautics.

Russian representative cosmism, member Russian Society of Lovers of World Studies. Author science fiction works, supporter and propagandist ideas for space exploration. Tsiolkovsky proposed to populate outer space using orbital stations, put forward ideas space elevator, hovercraft trains. He believed that the development of life on one of the planets of the Universe would reach such power and perfection that it would make it possible to overcome the forces of gravity and spread life throughout the Universe.

K. E. Tsiolkovsky said that he developed the theory of rocket science only as an appendix to his philosophical research. He wrote more than 400 works, most of which are little known to the general reader.

The first scientific studies of Tsiolkovsky date back to 1880-1881. Not knowing about the discoveries already made, he wrote the work "The Theory of Gases", in which he outlined the basics of jet propulsion. Mendeleev replied in a letter that this had already been known for 23 years. The main works of Tsiolkovsky after 1884 were associated with four big problems: the scientific justification of an all-metal balloon ( airship), streamlined airplane, hovercraft and rockets for interplanetary travel.

Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, 1906-1966- Soviet scientist, designer and chief organizer of production missile-space technology And missile weaponsUSSR, the founder of practical astronautics. One of the biggest figures XX century in the field of space rocket science and shipbuilding.

Sergei Korolev is a well-known creator of Soviet rocket and space technology, which ensured strategic parity and made USSR an advanced rocket and space power, and a key figure in human space exploration, the creator of practical astronautics.

Miron Cherepanov from an early age took over from his father his art as a mechanic. Having received a home education, at the age of 12 he was hired as a scribe in an office. And when he was 17 years old, he helped his father in the construction of the first steam engine. Later, the son will become the dam of the Vyisky plant. Demidov liked the hope expressed by Yefim that over time Miron would be able to replace him at all. At the beginning of 1825, the breeder decided to send Cherepanov to Sweden to study mining and metallurgical industries and to "view the machines." And Yefim managed to ensure that Miron went abroad with him.

Kozopasov was also in the group of Tagil masters who went to Sweden. He insisted on pumping water from the mines using horse drives, as well as bulky rod mechanisms operating from a water wheel. This technique was well known in the days of Mikhail Lomonosov. In Dannemore, Ural travelers observed a rod machine about two kilometers long in operation.

And Cherepanov's attention was attracted again by steam engines. Therefore, in their reports on the trip, he and Kozopasov spoke in favor of completely opposite methods of pumping water. In general, the Swedish technique did not make much of an impression on the Cherepanovs.

The factory authorities did not support Cherepanov in his endeavors. As a mechanic, he had to travel to mines and gold mines. And he asked Demidov to release him from office work. He writes to him: “I understand more to do something with my own hands and show it in practice to craftsmen and working people.” He again speaks out against rod machines and for the construction of steam engines.

And here is the answer: “The awards that I make to you are significant, but your diligence is small ... What has come to my attention is the result of your lack of diligence in the affairs entrusted to you, I consider it fair. You must work and strive day and night ... ". And yet Demidov decides to build both machines at the same time.

The Cherepanovs launched their thirty-horsepower steam engine in 1828. She pumped out less water than a rod machine, besides, she needed firewood and seemed unprofitable. But there was not enough water for the rod machine in the autumn shallow water, it stopped, and the steam engine worked continuously. From now on, it was decided that the rod machine would work in the summer, and the steam engine in the winter.

The Cherepanovs were instructed to build another machine for pumping water. And so, while a new steam engine was being built for pumping water, Miron Cherepanov began to think about how to build a steam cart for transporting copper ore from the Vyisky mine to the smelter. It was out of the question to start a steam cart along a broken, bumpy road, barely passable in autumn and spring, unsuitable for wheels in winter, there was nothing to think about. There were no railroad tracks, or “wheel ducts,” as the Urals used to say, at Demidov’s factories, but laying them between the mine and the factory was not a big problem; excavations, bridges, and embankments were not required here.

Miron Cherepanov had no doubts that the "land steamer" should go along the wheel ducts. The question was how to fit a steam boiler with a machine on an iron cart, how to lighten the weight of all parts without reducing their strength, how to arrange a change of course from forward to reverse ...

A second steam engine for pumps with a capacity of forty horsepower was completed in 1831. “This newly built machine,” the office’s report said to Demidov, “is far superior to the first one, both in cleanliness of finish, as well as in mechanisms, and therefore the office considers itself obliged to put the works of Efim Cherepanov and his son to put on display and ask for a reward for them for the arrangement of this machine, so as not to weaken their zeal for your benefit in the future.

In January 1833, Cherepanov's services to the state were awarded a high award. It was supposed at first to give a gold medal, but only the merchant class was marked as such. And soon Efim and his wife were freed, they were no longer considered serfs of the Demidovs.

As for Miron Efimovich, his father's closest assistant, he was ordered, as a sign of the owner's goodwill, to go to St. Petersburg to the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition that opened there in 1833.

In the autumn, Miron came home and found that his father's work on the steamboat had advanced considerably: the cylinders, the boiler, the flame tubes, and many small details were ready. Miron started making wooden models for casting cast iron parts. In December, these parts were ready. By the new year, the first Russian steam locomotive was assembled, and from January 1834 its testing began, the first timid movement along the wheel ducts laid near the mechanical establishment.

Testing showed insufficient steam capacity of the boiler and the imperfection of the furnace. It took too long to warm up the boiler. Miron Efimovich proposed to rebuild the boiler, giving it a device that was different from the boilers of stationary machines that they had been building so far.

The rebuilt boiler warmed up very quickly, its steam output did not leave much to be desired, but when testing its ultimate endurance, in April 1834, “the steam boiler of this steamer burst,” as was recorded in the test report. With brilliant insight, Miron Cherepanov came to the conclusion that the main task of the designer is to improve the formation of steam in the boiler, because steam is the entire power of the machine. Cherepanov correctly calculated that vaporization can be increased primarily by increasing the heating surface. To do this, he decided to drastically increase the number of pipes in the boiler, eventually bringing it to eighty, which is four times more than that of Stephenson's locomotives.

In August 1834, the Cherepanovs put their steam locomotive into motion on a new cast-iron road one kilometer long. “On a September day in 1834, people went to the Vyiskoye field to the gates of the plant and stood along the line of cast-iron wheel ducts that lay 400 sazhens across the Vyiyskoye field.

At the same time, the Cherepanovs are building a second steam locomotive, completed in March 1835. He could carry a load of 1000 pounds. The Mining Journal for 1835 reported: “Now ... the Cherepanovs have arranged another larger steamer: so that it can carry up to a thousand poods of gravity ... it is proposed now to continue cast-iron wheel ducts ... and use the steamer for transportation copper ores from the mine to the plant. He was twice as powerful as the first and drove loaded carts with a total weight of up to sixteen tons. Unfortunately, the description of this second steam locomotive has not been preserved, but by its power it can be judged that the first experience was used and studied by the designers very thoroughly and with great benefit to the cause.

Already in 1842, exhausted by overwork, Efim Alekseevich died. For seven years after the death of his father, Miron Efimovich continued to work at the factories, showing his characteristic energy and perseverance. In 1849, his life was cut short suddenly, in the prime of life and talent.

Work on the creation of steam engines at the factories of the Tagil district was continued by Ammos Alekseevich Cherepanov, the nephew of Efim Alekseevich. He is the son of Yefim Cherepanov's younger brother, Alexei. Ammos was not even a year old when his father died unexpectedly (1817). Historians suggest that Ammos was brought up under the influence of Yefim and Miron. He was admitted in 1825 to the Vyisk factory school.

Uralvagonzavod specialists will recreate the first Russian steam locomotive, designed in 1834 in Nizhny Tagil by Yefim and Miron Cherepanov. His appearance reproduced according to the only surviving drawing. One full-size copy of the original steam engine will be installed on the embankment of the Tagil Pond, the second will become part of the factory's open-air exhibition.

Historians told the "Russian Planet" how and why a "land steamer" was created two centuries ago and why it was not widely used.

First industrial spy

The future chief designer of the first Russian steam locomotive, Efim Cherepanov, was born on July 27, 1774, in the family of a serf Alexei Cherepanov, who worked as a coal burner at the Vyisky plant in Nizhny Tagil, owned by the merchants Demidov. The family had nine children - six daughters and three sons: Efim, Gavrila and Alexei. All three early began to show interest in plumbing and blast furnace business, so the clerks assigned them to study at the artisans' school.

According to legend, Yefim Cherepanov's career began with the fact that he was able to repair the castle, which one of the experienced craftsmen threw out as non-working, historian Vladimir Mironenko tells the RP correspondent. - Attention was drawn to the smart undergrowth, and after only two years of study he was appointed "master of plumbing at the dam superintendent", having shown remarkable talent in the new place. The only shortcoming of Efim Cherepanov, which was noted by everyone who knew him, was a dislike for reading. The clerks reported to the owner of the Vyisky plant and all the serfs working under him, Nikolai Nikitich Demidov: “This Efimko achieves everything only with his ingenuity, but neglects his diploma. He knows the score, but he can read badly, only leading with his finger. Uralsky Kulibin and in the future always preferred to find solutions technical tasks independently, without using someone else's experience. This significantly complicated his life, but at the same time contributed to interesting finds.

In 1802, Efim Cherepanov married, a year later his son Miron was born. And by 1820, he created the first two steam engines that set in motion the mill and lathe. After their successful tests, Nikolai Demidov decided to send a serf master to England to study the features of the production and use of steam engines in the most advanced technically country of that time.

The decision was doubtful, since Yefim Cherepanov did not understand a word of English and, accordingly, without explanations from specialists, he could not understand the intricacies of the high-tech metallurgical production that was not familiar to him, - continues Vladimir Mironenko. - However, he still would not have received any explanations: the British suspected a spy in Efim Cherepanov. The outward appearance of a simple Ural peasant seemed to them unnatural, deliberate. They believed that he was trying to hide his true identity with a long beard and exotic costume. There was an uproar in the newspapers. When one of the notes was sent to Nikolai Demidov, he wrote over it: "Newsmen are freaks!" There was a lot of unnecessary noise and speculation around Cherepanov's trip, which prevented the implementation of all the plans. And, nevertheless, the breeder's idea "fired": after examining the steam engines operating at the factories in Gull and Lidda, the Ural master did not understand their structure, but set himself new goals.

In Lydda, Cherepanov first saw a steam engine moving along rails. In his report to the factory office on the results of the trip, he described it as follows: “I watched the Murray steam engine that carries coal at one time, 2 thousand poods over a distance of four versts three times a day. This car is very outlandish, but for us it is worthless for the reason that English craftsmen like it and are quick to the point, but their cars do not last long, and therefore they are often under repair.

Upon the return of the master in 1823, Nikolai Demidov appointed Efim Cherepanov as the chief mechanic of all the Tagil factories that belonged to him. Soon the inventor creates another steam engine for grinding grain at the mill. And in 1825, the breeder again sent his protégé abroad, now to Sweden. This time Cherepanov is going to meet foreign experience together with his son Miron, who inherited his father's talents.

Yefim and Miron Cherepanov (left to right). Photo: patriota.ru

Demidov set the task of establishing own production steam engines, since the prices for imported equipment were unbearable, - says Vladimir Mironenko. - Therefore, he did not spare money for foreign business trips for serf masters. They had to study the Western standards of mining and metallurgical production, "look after the machines" and then develop, as we would now say, "import-substituting technologies."

The first "bureau" of the Southern Urals

In 1826, by decree of Nikolai Demidov, a "Mechanical Establishment" was created at the Vyisky plant - an analogue of a modern design bureau. All the best Tagil mechanics were gathered under one roof, and Efim Cherepanov was put in charge of them. Myron's son began to work under his father along with other craftsmen. The merchant's calculation turned out to be correct: in just two years, design engineers developed and launched commercial operation a 40 horsepower steam engine designed to pump water from a copper mine.

In 1828, after the death of Nikolai Nikitich Demidov, the management of the enterprises passed to his sons Pavel and Anatoly. The older one was more interested in social life, but the younger one was seriously engaged in the modernization of production. He understood that without this, the Ural plants would not be able to compete with foreign manufacturers in the foreign market, - Vladimir Mironenko continues the story. - Anatoly set the task for the design bureau to develop and implement as many steam engines as possible, which was done. In just a year, the "Mechanical Establishment" prepared a dozen and a half different original projects, one of which was the steam locomotive project - "Land steamer for the carriage of ores, coal and other necessary cargoes."

Some of the projects were accepted and put into production, some were returned for revision. The project of the “overland steamer” was not accepted due to the fact that the power of the machine was insufficient and, in addition, to launch it, it was necessary to build an “overpass” - a railroad. It was decided to "peep" how they solve this problem in England. Efim Cherepanov could not go on a business trip - he was indispensable in production, since he controlled the introduction of all other steam engines. Therefore, his son Miron went abroad.

IN cover letter, addressed to the commissioner of the Demidovs in Hull, Edward Spence, said: “Cherepanov is as stubborn as his father: he did not allow his beard to be shaved. Try to persuade him to agree to this and kindly buy him a good silver watch. Anatoly Demidov was afraid that otherwise Miron would be mistaken for a Russian spy - just like his father had been before. The precautions taken helped: Miron Cherepanov, without any interference, carefully studied the device of the most advanced railway for that time, laid from Liverpool to Manchester. For the first time in the world, mushroom-shaped rails were used on this section, and the locomotive was equipped with a fundamentally new tubular boiler.

In 1833, when Miron Cherepanov returned from England to Nizhny Tagil, his father had already started building his own steam locomotive model. The son offered to improve the project taking into account foreign innovations, but the stubborn father did not listen to him. In March 1834, while testing a steam locomotive, the steam boiler exploded, nearly killing the inventor. I had to refine the design, design a new tubular boiler.

By September 1834, an improved version of the "self-propelled steamer", called the "steamer stagecoach", was ready. By the same date, under the leadership of Miron Cherepanov, the first in Russia was built Railway- "cast-iron wheel duct" from "bars" - rails laid on wooden sleepers. Its length was 854 meters.

In Soviet near-historical literature, stories were very popular about how serf nuggets worked without any support from breeders, how the owners put up all sorts of obstacles for the masters and almost flogged them for every invention, historian Sergei Spitsyn tells the RP correspondent. - Of course, it was not so. Anatoly Demidov invested 10 thousand silver rubles in the creation of the original Russian steam locomotive - huge funds for those times. Moreover, if the project was successful, he promised to give free rein to Efim Cherepanov and his entire family.

"Land steamer"

In September 1834, a steam locomotive with a capacity of 30 horsepower, created under the leadership of Efim Cherepanov, set off for the first time along the first Russian railway at a speed of 15 km/h. He pulled a train with a load of 3.3 tons. It was assumed that the freight train would be supplemented with a passenger trailer car - "a wagon for all luggage and passengers, including forty souls." However, there were no people who wanted to test the novelty, so copper ore took the place of passengers. The locomotive was operated by Miron Cherepanov.

After successful tests, Anatoly Demidov literally showered favors on everyone who was involved in the project, - says Sergey Spitsyn. - Not only Efim and Miron Cherepanov with their families received freedom, but also the families of four more engineers and mechanics who took part in the development of the Russian steam locomotive. In addition, they all received a solid monetary reward and a new social status. From now on, the employees of Cherepanov's "design bureau" were forever freed from daily work, they were assigned a good salary. The children of the masters "until the last knee" were exempted from recruitment duty and received the right to non-competitive admission to the factory school.

And all this despite the fact that the project presented by the Cherepanov "bureau" needed a very serious revision - both the creators themselves and Anatoly Demidov understood this, - emphasizes Vladimir Mironenko. - For example, it did not have a reverse gear and could only move in a straight line due to the fact that the wheel flanges (a protruding edge that prevents the wheel from derailing - RP) were located on the outside. However, the Ural development also had its advantages over imported counterparts: the “land steamer” was much more stable due to the greater width of the wheel sets and weighed half as much as English steam locomotives.

The "mechanical institution" was given the task of improving the project, retaining the advantages of the first steam locomotive and eliminating its shortcomings.

Drawing of the second locomotive of the Cherepanovs. Photo: historyntagil.ru

Soviet historians claimed that the creators dismantled the first steam locomotive into parts in order to use them in the construction of the second model. Allegedly, the Cherepanovs had to do this, since Anatoly Demidov refused to finance further work on the project, says Sergey Spitsyn. - This is an obvious falsification. After the “correct” flanges were installed on the first steam locomotive so that it could turn, it was transported to Italy, to Florence, where the Demidovs had a luxurious country estate. Long years the owners of Villa Demidoff rode guests on it, showing them their possessions.

"Cherepanov Brothers"

In 1835, Yefim and Miron Cherepanov developed a new, improved version of their steam locomotive. It was distinguished by greater reliability and power - 43 horsepower made it possible to transport up to 17 tons of various cargoes. A new railway was also built, linking the Vyisky plant and the Mednorudyansky mine. Its length was 3.5 km. In the spring of 1837, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, the future Emperor Alexander II, examined her, and was more than pleased with what he saw.

After the “land steamer” was created, Russia became the only European state that developed its own model of a steam locomotive, and did not import technology from England. Therefore, for the father and son of the Cherepanovs, the news that English-made steam locomotives would be purchased for the railway under construction between Moscow and St. Petersburg was a very heavy blow. They hoped that their development would be further applied and developed.

It should be recognized that, compared with the Stephenson steam locomotive, the Cherepanov version had one fundamental drawback, says Vladimir Mironenko. - The English locomotive worked on coal, and the Russian - on wood, which played a fatal role in its future fate. During the years of operation of the “overland steamer” on the railway leading from the Vyisky plant to the Mednorudyansky mine, all the forest along its entire length was cut down - it was necessary to provide the steam locomotive with fuel. As a result, firewood had to be brought from afar, on horse-drawn carts, which made the operation of the steam engine unprofitable. Wagons with ore along the first Russian railway were later transported using horse traction.

Nevertheless, the creators of the first Russian steam locomotive, Efim and Miron Cherepanov, took pride of place in Russian history, though for some reason as the "Cherepanov brothers."

It is not known where the common idea that Yefim and Miron were brothers came from, continues Vladimir Mironenko. However, this mythology is rooted in public consciousness so firmly that when in Nizhny Tagil city guests are brought to the monument to the creators of the “overland steamer”, they are certainly told: “Here they are, the Cherepanov brothers. Father, Efim Cherepanov, and his son Miron.

Although, if you look at it, the story with the Cherepanov brothers is also not so simple. Recall that the serf charcoal burner Alexei Cherepanov had three sons - Efim, Gavrila and Alexei. Gavrila died early from an unknown illness, but the younger brother Alexei could compete in terms of talent with Yefim. It was he who made the first sketches of the "steam stagecoach" back in 1803 and infected his older brother with interest in steam engines. Only an early death prevented Alexei Cherepanov from becoming the inventor of the first Russian steam locomotive - he died in 1817 from pneumonia. So at least one Cherepanov brother was involved in the creation of the "land steamer".

But, as it turns out, there was another Cherepanov - the son of Alexei, who died early, Ammos. He was born a year before his father's death, was raised by his uncle Yefim and was also distinguished by rare talents. In 1834, when the most active work over the creation of the Ural steam locomotive, he was appointed deputy to his uncle Efim Cherepanov and took an active part in the implementation of the project. Moreover: the appearance of the first "steam stagecoach" at Uralvagonzavod will be restored according to a sketch made by his hand. So, those who believe that the Cherepanov brothers were the inventors of the first Russian steam locomotive are not so wrong.

Cherepanov brothers

Work completed
10A student of GBOU school No. 185
Barsukova Olesya

Moscow 2015
The Cherepanovs came from the ascribed peasants of the Vyisky plant. Efim Cherepanov from a very early age helped his father in his work at the copper smelter, here, and in the workshops of Vyi craftsmen, he studied factory business in practice. An example of the Makarovs, E.G. Kuznetsova, F.A. Sheptaeva, K.K. Ushkov and other self-taught inventors undoubtedly influenced the formation of Yefim Alekseevich as a master. He mastered the production to perfection. Early showed his innate ability to mechanics and technology. Later, having become a dam master of the Vyisky plant, he created a "mechanical institution" that was not inferior in technical terms to the advanced machine-building enterprises of Europe.
According to the Cherepanovs themselves, all their lives they tried "relentlessly to start the machines ... for the benefit of the factories and to alleviate the forces of the working people."

Medium height, freckled face, red hair on head and beard, small beard, gray eyes, 26 years old. Such a seasoned in police colors verbal portrait Efim Cherepanov was inscribed on a pass for the Demidov masters, who returned in August 1801 to the Nizhny Tagil plant from a business trip to Saltykova's Lindolovsky plants.
What they did there is not known for certain. But the owner of these factories, Daria Saltykova, a year before, sent a letter to Nikolai Demidov, in which she asked: “At least the fur master and the domino apprentice, please insert and continue their patchports.” So the Countess needed them. "Fur Master" - that was Cherepanov. He was responsible at the Vyisky plant for furs - blowers.
In 1806, Yefim was appointed a "dam student", and a year later - a dam. While in this rank, in 1820 he built his first steam engine.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Nizhny Tagil factories, and Demidov himself, were very skeptical about the construction of steam engines. They were worried that demand in other countries for Ural iron was falling. But at the same time, they did not want to admit that the whole point was in technical backwardness, in an insufficient energy base.
In order to understand the reasons for the backlog of his factories, Demidov sends Cherepanov to England. His commissioner in Hull, Edward Spence, was unsubscribed in a letter of recommendation: "his government wants him (Cherepanov) to inspect especially the ironworks and mines of your country."
There Yefim inspected metallurgical plants and copper mines. And he was convinced that the Ural factories were technically lagging behind, and the advantage of the English ones was in wide use steam engines. Then he also saw the steam-powered railroad connecting the Middleton coal mines with Leeds. Being, according to the Demidovs' English partner, "a man of extraordinary abilities in mechanics", Cherepanov later managed to establish the production of engines at the Vyisky plant.
Of course, the British were not interested in transferring their technical experience, their secrets to anyone. Therefore, Yefim was by no means friendly here, “whose long beard had unfortunate consequences and attracted attention, as you can see from the attached newspaper” (this is from a message from Edward Spence to the St. Petersburg office of the Demidovs).
It turns out that Cherepanov was taken for a spy, because of which he simply could not be allowed into many factories. On the message to him about this, Demidov wrote: “Cherepanov is a spy! Newspapermen are freaks." However, judging by the surviving letters of that time, Yefim only had a chance to externally observe the wonders of overseas technology, he was not allowed to see the drawings and documentation. What kind of "spy" is there!
Later, in a report from Hull to his owner-breeder, Yefim places special emphasis on the steam engines he has seen and proposes to build the same one for pumping water from a copper mine. He says the same thing in a memorandum upon his return to Russia. In their comments, the administration of the St. Petersburg office speaks rather sparingly about this.
The following year, Cherepanov was appointed chief mechanic of the Nizhny Tagil factories. His circle of concerns has expanded considerably. And at the same time, as before, it was not easy for him to defend his opinion on the need to build steam engines. Nevertheless, Demidov instructs him to build a second steam engine. But Yefim proposed using it to pump out groundwater from the mine of a copper mine, and the authorities decided to install it at a new wooden flour mill being built at the mouth of the Vyika River.
Demidov, who managed his enterprises from Naples, then from Florence, was very worried about the success of his main rival Alexei Yakovlev. By the beginning of the 19th century, Nevyansky and Verkh-Neyvinsky factories, founded earlier by the first Demidov, already belonged to that.
Cherepanov receives a downright espionage assignment: to visit Verkh-Neyvinsk and find out “why there is smelted from 23 to 25 pounds per box of coal ... in our country it only costs 14 and 16 pounds per box.” As a result of this investigation, the breeder even intended to “transport” his blast furnaces accordingly.
Fulfilling this delicate assignment, Cherepanov limited himself to the information that the plant administration gave him. He reported in his message "what kind of smelting from their book, as well as the size of their blast furnaces, furnaces, coal-bearing boxes." It turned out that Yakovlev's boxes were larger than Demidov's, the ores differed in quality, and the blast furnaces themselves were of different sizes.
In his report to the owner dated March 28, 1824, Yefim happily reports that his second steam engine was tested, "but without any addition to the millstone, and it worked very easily."
And Demidov is primarily interested in how to catch up with Yakovlev in the production of copper and establish "making vitriol." “It must be,” he writes on August 7, 1824 to Cherepanov, “that there will be a fair amount of profit from this, because Alexei Ivanovich Yakovlev is the first breeder in my eyes.” But even in this matter, he soon cooled off.
In the same letter, Nikolai Demidov suggests that the factory clerks out of habit will reject the innovations he introduces. And he unequivocally threatens his mechanic: “You should not imitate your comrades, but do as you are ordered: for I really do not like it when subordinates try to displease me with their contradictions.”

Miron Cherepanov from an early age took over from his father his art as a mechanic. Having received a home education, at the age of 12 he was hired as a scribe in an office. And when he was 17 years old, he helped his father in the construction of the first steam engine. Later, the son will become the dam of the Vyisky plant.
Demidov liked the hope expressed by Yefim that over time Miron would be able to replace him at all. At the beginning of 1825, the breeder decided to send Cherepanov to Sweden to study mining and metallurgical industries and to "view the machines." And Yefim managed to ensure that Miron went abroad with him.
Kozopasov was also in the group of Tagil masters who went to Sweden. He insisted on pumping water from the mines using horse drives, as well as bulky rod mechanisms operating from a water wheel. This technique was well known in the days of Mikhail Lomonosov. In Dannemore, Ural travelers observed a rod machine about two kilometers long in operation.
And Cherepanov's attention was attracted again by steam engines. Therefore, in their reports on the trip, he and Kozopasov spoke in favor of completely opposite methods of pumping water. In general, Swedish technology did not make much of an impression on Yefim.
The factory authorities did not support Cherepanov in his endeavors. As a mechanic, he had to travel to mines and gold mines. And he asked Demidov to release him from office work. He writes to him: “I understand more to do something with my own hands and show it in practice to craftsmen and working people.” He again speaks out against rod machines and for the construction of steam engines.
And here is the answer: “The awards that I make to you are significant, but your diligence is small ... What has come to my attention about your not diligent in the affairs entrusted to you, I consider it fair. You must work and strive day and night ... ". And yet Demidov decides to build both machines at the same time.
The Cherepanovs launched their thirty-horsepower steam engine in 1828. She pumped out less water than a rod machine, besides, she needed firewood and seemed unprofitable. But there was not enough water for the rod machine in the autumn shallow water, it stopped, and the steam engine worked continuously. From now on, it was decided that a rod machine would work in the summer, and a steam machine in the winter.
The Cherepanovs were instructed to build another machine for pumping water. The pumping of underground waters that flooded the mines, and the transportation of ore and coal from the mine to the plant, were those items of expenditure that most of all worried the owner, and therefore the office that wanted to please him. A whole village, located on the left bank of the Tagil, was engaged in the transportation of ore and coal, buying up Bashkir and Kalmyk horses, accustoming them to work. Lines of two-wheeled carts driven by women and teenagers were an integral part of the industrial landscape in Nizhny Tagil, and almost everywhere in the Urals.
This landscape was constantly in front of everyone, but only Miron Efimovich Cherepanov was awakened by the idea that here, too, horses could be replaced with profit and success by a steam engine, as was done with pumps.
And so, while a new steam engine was being built for pumping water, Miron Cherepanov began to think about how to build a steam cart for transporting copper ore from the Vyisky mine to the smelter. It was out of the question to start a steam cart along a broken, bumpy road, barely passable in autumn and spring, unsuitable for wheels in winter, there was nothing to think about. There were no railroad tracks, or “wheel ducts,” as the Urals used to say, at Demidov’s factories, but laying them between the mine and the factory was not a big problem; excavations, bridges, and embankments were not required here.
Miron Cherepanov had no doubts that the "land steamer" should go along the wheel ducts. The question was how to fit a steam boiler with a machine on an iron cart, how to lighten the weight of all parts without reducing their strength, how to arrange a change of course from forward to reverse ...
A second steam engine for pumps with a capacity of forty horsepower was completed in 1831. “This newly built machine,” the office’s report said to Demidov, “is far superior to the first, both in cleanliness of finish, as well as in mechanisms, and therefore the office considers itself obliged to put the works of Yefim Cherepanov and his son to put on display and ask for a reward for them for arranging this machines, so as not to weaken their zeal for your benefit in the future.
In January 1833, Cherepanov's services to the state were awarded a high award. The Sovereign Emperor deigned to approve the decision of the Committee of Ministers to award him a silver medal with the inscription "For Useful" to be worn around the neck on the Anninsky ribbon. It was supposed at first to give a gold medal, but only the merchant class was marked as such. And soon Efim and his wife were freed, they were no longer considered serfs of the Demidovs.
As for Miron Efimovich, his father’s closest assistant, as a token of the owner’s goodwill, he was ordered to go to St. in general, everything that could be adopted and introduced into the factory economy of Nizhny Tagil.
This time, nothing particularly interesting was found in St. Petersburg for the Demidov mechanic, and he was about to return to Tagil when he received an order from the St.
In May of the same year, he went to England, where, among other things, he was interested in the work of rail transport. The letter to Edward Spence said: “Cherepanov is as stubborn as his father, he did not allow his beard to be shaved off; try to persuade him to agree to this and deign to buy him a good silver watch. This, apparently, so that Miron, like his father in his time, would not be mistaken for a spy.

In the autumn, Miron came home and found that his father's work on the steamboat had advanced considerably: the cylinders, the boiler, the flame tubes, and many small details were ready. Miron started making wooden models for casting cast iron parts. In December, these parts were ready. By the new year, the first Russian steam locomotive was assembled, and from January 1834 its testing began, the first timid movement along the wheel ducts laid near the mechanical establishment.
Testing showed insufficient steam capacity of the boiler and the imperfection of the furnace. It took too long to warm up the boiler.
Miron Efimovich proposed to rebuild the boiler, giving it a device that was different from the boilers of stationary machines that they had been building so far.
The rebuilt boiler warmed up very quickly, its steam output did not leave much to be desired, but when testing its ultimate endurance, in April 1834, “the steam boiler of this steamer burst,” as was recorded in the test report.
The accident could not discourage the designers, since the locomotive had already been "bypassed by the action, which was a success," moreover, no one was injured in the boiler explosion. For us, it is quite clear that the accident was a consequence of the fact that Miron Cherepanov did not follow other people's models at all when designing his car, but went his own way. Like his ingenious predecessor in railway construction, Miron Cherepanov, just like Pyotr Frolov, belonged to those people who find it easier to grasp the whole complex subject as a whole, foreseeing its particulars and conclusions, rather than groping from particulars to these conclusions, so that, finally, hug the whole subject.
With brilliant insight, Miron Cherepanov came to the conclusion that the main task of the designer is to improve the formation of steam in the boiler, because steam is the entire power of the machine. Cherepanov correctly calculated that vaporization can be increased primarily by increasing the heating surface. To do this, he decided to drastically increase the number of pipes in the boiler, eventually bringing it to eighty, which is four times more than that of Stephenson's locomotives.
When laying the foundation for the thermal modernization of a steam locomotive, Miron Cherepanov encountered a technical difficulty in placing such a number of tubes in the boiler, as a result of which an accident occurred during testing of the boiler. When building a new boiler, difficulties were overcome, and when testing it, it turned out that the steam locomotive "success has the desired effect."
The Cherepanovs spent the summer of 1834 designing a device for changing the forward motion of a steam locomotive to reverse. And they coped with this difficult task on their own.
After the locomotive was completely ready and repeatedly tested, work began on laying the line. With the experience accumulated by Russian builders in laying railroad tracks, the work was completed very quickly.
In August 1834, the Cherepanovs put their steam locomotive into motion on a new cast-iron road one kilometer long. “On a September day in 1834, people went to the Vyiskoye field to the gates of the plant and stood along the line of cast-iron wheel ducts that lay 400 sazhens across the Vyiyskoye field.

- Open! shouted someone in the crowd. The heavy gates slowly opened... Another minute of waiting, and a land steamer appeared in the gate frame - an unprecedented machine, unlike anything else, with a high smoking chimney, sparkling with polished bronze parts. Miron Cherepanov stood on the platform at the handles. Puffing steam, flickering with the spokes of the wheels, the ship rolled past the silent crowd ... Passing the crowd, Myron turned some kind of handle, a puff of steam flew out of the pipe, the car accelerated. Miron drove the car to a dead end and reversed. The car went back very quickly. The next voyage was made by the steamer with a trailed cart of 200 pounds of cargo ... A dozen two or three people climbed into the wagon, who wished to become the first passengers, ”describes A.G. Barmin ceremonial launch of the first locomotive.
A note in the Mining Journal for 1835 reported that he “... walks in both directions along cast-iron wheel lines specially prepared for a length of 400 fathoms and carries more than 200 pounds of weight at a speed of 12 to 15 miles per hour. A supply of combustible material follows the steamer in a special van, behind which is attached a decent wagon for any luggage or for passengers, including 40 people.
The first "cast iron" in Russia, 854 meters long, was laid along the Vyisky field. For the experiment, the Cherepanovs proposed, following the example of the British, to use the road for the transportation of ores - to lay a route from the Vyisky copper smelter to the Mednorudyansky mine. The "cast iron", laid on the Vyisky field, had only an experimental value. The Cherepanovs sought to turn this road into an ore-carrying one, constantly operating from the Vyisky plant to the copper mine, which was carried out in 1836.
At the same time, the Cherepanovs are building a second steam locomotive, completed in March 1835. He could carry a load of 1000 pounds. The Mining Journal for 1835 reported: “Now ... the Cherepanovs have arranged another larger steamer: so that it can carry up to a thousand poods of gravity ... it is proposed now to continue cast-iron wheel ducts ... and use the steamer for transportation copper ores from the mine to the plant. He was twice as powerful as the first and drove loaded carts with a total weight of up to sixteen tons. Unfortunately, the description of this second steam locomotive has not been preserved, but by its power it can be judged that the first experience was used and studied by the designers very thoroughly and with great benefit to the cause.
During the construction of steam locomotives and the railroad, the Cherepanovs solved a number of technical problems: more convenient, durable and economical than foreign ones, wheel ducts-rails, a gauge close to modern (1645 millimeters), reversibility of movement, a multi-tubular steam distribution boiler, fewer joints and others.
In contrast to the stationary steam engines demanded by the then Russian industry, the land steamer, along with the railroad, remained “experienced”. Rail traffic at that time could not compete with more profitable horse-drawn transport, in addition, all segments of the population were involved and interested in this business: who breeds horses, who cares for them, takes care of fodder, who makes equipment and carts, plus the drivers themselves ...
Nevertheless, the fact remains that Russia became the only state in Europe where the first steam locomotives were manufactured independently, and not imported from England. However, the names of the heroes of this glory after their death were forgotten for a long time, almost for a century. A fatal role here was played by the fact that at the third St. Petersburg Industrial Exhibition in 1839, the model of the Cherepanovs' steam locomotive was not presented. And the Permyak steam locomotive, manufactured at the Pozhevsky plant by a mechanic named E.E., was exhibited on it. Tet, who received a medal for "the first Russian steam locomotive." But "Permyak" was only the third steam locomotive in Russia. Why the messages of the Mining Journal, reprinted by many metropolitan publications, were forgotten, historians can only guess. The reasons for the “non-attendance” of the model of the Tagil steam locomotive, which the mechanics made especially for demonstration in the capital, remain obscure. For some reason, other exhibits from Tagil went there, but this one stayed at home ...
The Cherepanovs had many associates, successors and successors among the workers, craftsmen and engineers of the Ural factories. However, their inventive activity proceeded in an atmosphere of persistent prejudice and indifference on the part of the factory owners, intrigues and intrigues on the part of often mediocre managers or employees of Demidov's offices. The masters experienced a real tragedy of people deprived of creative freedom, placed in a narrow framework by all sorts of petty prohibitions and restrictions. Neither comparative material well-being, nor the awards of breeders and the government, nor the "free" ones, which, however, brought freedom to the families of talented mechanics, could facilitate it.
The news about the construction of a railway near St. Petersburg by foreign specialists, about the purchase of steam locomotives in England and Belgium, was a heavy blow for the Cherepanovs. Their creation - the "steamboat" - was of no interest to anyone, no one remembered their names.
Exhausted by overwork, Efim Alekseevich died in 1842. For seven years after the death of his father, Miron Efimovich continued to work at the factories, showing his characteristic energy and perseverance. In 1849, his life was cut short suddenly, in the prime of life and talent.
Work on the creation of steam engines at the factories of the Tagil district was continued by Ammos Alekseevich Cherepanov, the nephew of Efim Alekseevich. He is the son of Yefim Cherepanov's younger brother, Alexei. Ammos was not even a year old when his father died unexpectedly (1817). Historians suggest that Ammos was brought up under the influence of Yefim and Miron. He was admitted in 1825 to the Vyisk factory school. Of the “factory written cases”, Ammos liked drawing and drafting the most. True, he excelled in other disciplines.

At the age of thirteen, the youngest from the Cherepanov family successfully graduated from this educational institution and, as recorded in the service record, was accepted as an assistant to the Cherepanov mechanics, who, apparently, needed a specialist who could draw and draw well. It must be assumed that Ammos took an active part in the development of drawings for steam engines, machine tools, and mechanisms. The fact that he was an intelligent and capable specialist is evidenced by the fact that already in 1833 (Ammos was 17 years old), together with his cousin Miron, he made a trip to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Yaroslavl, where he visited industrial enterprises and get acquainted with technical innovations. And in the same year, in the fall, the Nizhny Tagil office appointed Ammos Cherepanov junior assistant mechanic at the Vyisky institution (that is, an assistant to the senior Cherepanovs). In less than two years, Cherepanov Jr. was appointed to the position of assistant clerk at a copper mine.
Less than three years have passed, and he is already being offered a new job: Ammos begins to “manage mechanical buildings” at the Nizhny Tagil plant, that is, he becomes a mechanic. The impetus for this, perhaps, was the project of the original combined metalworking machine developed by him, on which it was possible to perform turning, drilling and screw-cutting operations. After an eleven-year break, Ammos returned to the Vyisk factory school again. This time as a teacher to pass on his experience to the younger generation.
Ammos Cherepanov, as is clear from the documents that have come down to us, was one of the major specialists in mechanical engineering. He became the only one of his kind after the death of his uncle and cousin. Being savvy and talented, besides being technically literate, Ammos is already at the beginning
In the 30s, he took an active and direct part in the creation of steam locomotives, becoming the first assistant to his older relatives. Indeed, before building anything, it was imperative to have a project and an estimate for the future construction, which were approved by the factory office.
It can be argued that Ammos Cherepanov was directly involved in the construction of the Ural steam locomotives (at least the first of them). And therefore he can be recognized as a co-author of the "steamer" and put the name of Ammos on a par with Yefim and Miron. He built a "steam elephant" - a self-propelled vehicle, which for many years transported goods at the Salda factories.
The drawings and documents found today, characterizing the activities of the Cherepanovs, testify that in the person of these first Russian railway workers we have true innovators and highly gifted masters of technology. They created not only the Nizhny Tagil railway and its rolling stock. They designed many metal-working machines, built a steam turbine.
The local history museum of the city of Nizhny Tagil contains a drawing of the first steam locomotive in Russia, designed by the Cherepanovs. The team of the Nizhny Tagil plant named after Kuibyshev, under the guidance of engineer Shlyapnikov, built a working model of the Cherepanovs steam locomotive according to the available drawings. It should not be assumed that the steam engines built by the Cherepanovs were not used because of the inertia of the administration of the factories. It was something completely different. Surprisingly - in ecology. The only source of energy in those parts was wood. Deforestation has reached unimaginable levels. The forest had to be transported over vast distances at that time. It was simply unrealistic to use steam engines in such conditions. It took time for a whole structure to take shape at the same time: coal mines, railways to them, coal steam engines (steam locomotives) for transporting coal to coal steam engines - the engines of factories.

Now exact copies of the Cherepanov steam locomotive and three wagons are on display near the Vysokogorsky mine. The ruling classes of tsarist Russia did not believe in the creative forces of the peoples of Russia and strenuously planted among them admiration for everything foreign. At the same time, advanced people defended their independence in science, technology, literature and art with even greater force, persistently fighting all attempts to belittle the high dignity and superiority of domestic science and technology.
Story railway transport in Russia with particular persuasiveness and clarity testifies to the advanced nature of Russian technology and science.
The creations of the mechanics Cherepanovs and their names constitute the national glory of Russia.
The stories of many inventions, like the biographies of their authors, are full of drama and coincidences. The fate of the Ural mechanics was also not easy, because, like all talents, the Cherepanovs were a little ahead of their era. They were not lone inventors, limited by the scale of Demidov's possessions, they were familiar with the technical innovations that were being introduced on large factories Russia, England and Sweden, communicated with other innovative masters.
Sources.

It would seem that every Tagil citizen knows about who the Cherepanovs are and what they are famous for, almost from the cradle. Yes that Tagilchane - the whole country knows! It is worth typing "Cherepano ..." in the query string of any search engine, and the system will offer you hundreds of links to Internet resources dedicated to the Cherepanovs themselves or their inventions.

The popularity of our illustrious countrymen is evidenced by a funny incident that occurred in 2006 in Moscow. Then, on the eve of National Unity Day, Radio Liberty correspondents went to Red Square, to the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, to find out if Muscovites and guests of the city knew who and why this monument was erected. From more than three dozen seven people interviewed confidently said that the figures of the monument are the Ural craftsmen and inventors of the first Russian steam locomotive, the Cherepanov brothers...

By the way, try asking “Cherepanov brothers” in a search engine, and you will get a lot of links, although such resources will still be about father and son. In the Internet space, for the phrase "Cherepanov brothers" you can be subjected to obstruction, branded as "shkolota" or "petushnik", with the obligatory advice "go, learn materiel." And they will be... wrong.
The fact is that in the matter of creating the first Russian steam locomotive, not everything is as simple as official history presents us. Not only did not only Efim Alekseevich and Miron Efimovich take part in the creation of the steam locomotive, but the legendary Tagil mechanics were almost taken away from the legendary Tagil mechanics during the sunset of the Soviet era.
Let's try to figure it all out.

Part one: Brother
It must be said right away that the Cherepanovs were not pioneers in the development of steam engineering in the Urals. If we talk about those who were the first to introduce the power of steam in production, then one cannot help but recall Lev Fedorovich Sobakin, who arrived in the Urals from Tver in 1800. Lev Sobakin was famous for the fact that in 1787 he visited England, where he met with James Watt, and on his return to Russia he published a book about Watt's steam engine. In 1803, Sobakin built a single-cylinder steam engine for the Berezovsky gold mines. Two years later, he began working as a mechanic at the Kamsko-Votkinsky plant, where he developed various mechanisms, machine tools and steam engines. But the main passion of Lev Sobakin was the design of watches, and therefore he went down in history as a watchmaker, and not as a mechanic and inventor of steam engines.
In 1804, the Englishman Joseph Merger arrived in the Urals. He also built several steam engines for government factories, and already wanted to organize his own company here, but it soon turned out that the machines he made were very imperfect. Within a year and a half, all of them irrevocably failed, and Merger lost all his clientele.
And in 1814, at the invitation of A. I. Yakovlev, the mechanic Afanasy Sidorovich Vyatkin arrived in the Urals. Yakovlev hired Vyatkin to build and implement steam engines at the Verkh-Isetsky plant. Vyatkin built and tested the first of them in 1815. Nikolai Nikitich Demidov was also present at the tests of this machine, who arrived not alone, but accompanied by two of his serf mechanics - the brothers Yefim and Alexei Cherepanov ...

... Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov was born on July 27, 1774 in the traditionally large family for those years, the serf coal burner Alexei Petrovich Cherepanov. The Cherepanov family lived on Klyuchi, a working settlement of Vyiskaya Sloboda, located near Mount Vysokaya, and in addition to the head of the family and his wife, there were nine children, of which there were only three “male persons”: Efim, Gavrila and Alexei. All three brothers started working very early: their father was often ill, and the boys helped the family as much as they could.
Soon the clerks noticed that the young Cherepanovs were keenly interested in plumbing, carpentry and blast furnace business, and in free time willingly help the neighboring handicraftsmen. The sons of the coal burner were taken into account and assigned to the school. However, the very fact of being enrolled in studies did not say anything yet. Alexey Petrovich did not object to such a turnover: education gave a chance that children could become artisans, which was the ultimate dream for a charcoal burner.
The legend says that once one of the masters threw a castle into the street, which the clerk of the Vyisky factory brought to him for repair. The castle, according to the master, was not subject to repair. What was the surprise of the master when two days later Efim Cherepanov brought him this castle in working condition. The master reported about the skillful undergrowth to the clerk, and he appointed Yefim as an apprentice to the master for making box furs. And two years later, Yefim was appointed "foreman of plumbing at the dam superintendent."
Efim's career was rapidly going uphill. However, the attendants noted that “... this Efimko achieves everything only with his ingenuity, and neglects his literacy ... ... he knows the score, but he can read badly, only leading with his finger ... " Efim Cherepanov's dislike for books was also noted by contemporaries later.
Nevertheless, when Countess Saltykova asked Nikolai Demidov to help her in the construction of the plant, Nikolai Nikitich sent three of his artisans to St. Petersburg: “... Firsov, Lobov and Cherepanov Sr., for a period until the plant is allowed to open”. The Saltykova plant was launched in 1801, and the Tagil artisans returned home.

Upon returning from the "business trip" Yefim was waiting for different news.
The middle brother - Gavrila - died of an unknown disease, but the younger brother - Alexei - came to the attention of the clerks, like a skilled mechanic. Despite his young age, he "... he was awarded with silver and has many thanks for his considerable efforts and ingenuity." By the way, Yefim himself was already expecting a promotion ...

…IN official history Nikolai Nikitich Demidov is presented as a spendthrift, a spender, and a person who is absolutely not interested in production. In reality, there are many documents that testify to the contrary. If under Nikolai's father, Nikita Akinfievich, the training of working people in literacy and specialties was episodic, then Nikolai Nikitich paid great attention to the training of his own qualified personnel. The same, however, as the modernization of production. Any "smart lad" was registered with clerks and sent to study. Particularly talented people had every chance to continue their studies abroad, and upon completion of it, become clerks and even managers ...

Nikolai Nikitich Demidov
In 1802, Yefim Cherepanov was appointed dam foreman at the Vyisky plant. Soon the clerks report to Demidov: “Efimko Alekseev [dam] economy strictly observes, repaired the alignments and did it in his own way, from which they stopped breaking, and also put different machines on the move and they work better than before ...”
Soon, Efim marries, and a year later his son Miron will be born, who has become known to all of us as the first assistant to his father and the only co-author of the first Russian steam locomotive.

But in reality, the first co-author of the idea of ​​a "coach engine" was Yefim's younger brother, Aleksey Alekseevich Cherepanov.
Alexei Cherepanov was born in 1787. From childhood, Alexei tried to be like Yefim in everything, and by the age of 14 he had established himself "a diligent student, inclined to comprehend the sciences". Like his older brother, Alexey Alekseevich quickly moved along career ladder. At the age of 16, Alexey, as part of a group of artisans, goes to the Kama to help the breeder and senator Vsevolod Andreyevich Vsevolozhsky ...

... Already in Soviet times, in the factory archives of the Vsevolozhsky, sketches and a description of "the device of a steam engine on a river boat and a land stagecoach" were found, made by Alexei Cherepanov. These documents date back to 1803. At that time, apparently, the proposal of the young Tagil artisan was left without attention, but already in 1817 Vsevolozhsky built the first Russian steamship on the Kama, and he himself took it to Kazan. And in 1828, the idea of ​​a “steam stagecoach” was partially implemented: at one of Vsevolod Andreevich’s factories in the city of Pozhva, its working model was built, demonstrating the possibility of creating a land vehicle on steam power. And although these projects were implemented under the guidance of foreign Tets engineers, they were based on the inventions of Alexei Cherepanov ...

Steam carriage of the Pozhvinsky plant
... Meanwhile, the career of Alexei Cherepanov is moving rapidly. He travels a lot in Russia, carrying out orders from Nikolai Demidov related to the arrangement of mechanical business at different factories. In 1813, Alexei Alekseevich, being on another “business trip” in Moscow, personally met Nikolai Nikitich Demidov and reported to him his thoughts on the transfer of conversion production to steam power. The owner liked the idea, and he sends Alexei to the iron foundry in Kronstadt to get acquainted with the equipment. The result of this trip was disappointing: Alexei Alekseevich reported to the office that the "English cars" were expensive and extremely unreliable. But in general, Demidov was satisfied with the work of Alexei and thought about creating his own production of steam engines. In the meantime, another, more urgent job was found for Cherepanov Jr.: he was put in charge of the wire production at the Nizhny Tagil plants. Soon Demidov also needed a tinning plant, and Alexei Cherepanov was also entrusted with organizing it. Confidence in the young serf mechanic grew. Soon the owner sends a serf mechanic to Arkhangelsk with the task of auditing the commodity office.
After this incident, Nikolai Nikitich announced that he intended to make Alexei Cherepanov a clerk in the near future.
Meanwhile, under the influence of a brother, to take an interest steam engines Yefim also starts. His career at the Nizhny Tagil factories is also moving uphill. At the factories, the Cherepanovs are highly respected. Bailiffs and the manager address them by their first name and patronymic, their children receive special education, and Demidov celebrates the brothers with prizes. But unexpectedly for everyone, in 1817 Alexei Alekseevich Cherepanov dies of pneumonia. He was only 30 years old...

...Three years after the death of his brother, Efim Cherepanov announces the successful testing of his first steam engine. It was a device of relatively small power, setting in motion a lathe. The introduction of the machine made it possible to release two workers and seriously increase the productivity of the machine. Then, in 1820, Efim Alekseevich was testing another steam engine. Initially, he suggested using it to pump water from the mine of the Vyisky mine, but in the end the machine was installed in a mill for grinding grain.

Scheme of the first Cherepanov steam engines
The introduction of these machines convinced Nikolai Demidov of the possibility of self-construction of such units. The breeder gives the order to send Efim Alekseevich to England so that he gets acquainted with the peculiarities of the production and use of steam engines, and in the summer of 1821 Cherepanov goes on a trip.
The banker E. Spence, who received the guest, was perplexed in a letter to Demidov: “... How can a simple master, besides not knowing in English to figure everything out? What will he be able to understand in English technology and in metallurgical production?
Nevertheless, Efim Cherepanov toured the facilities at Hull and Lydda, with a particular focus on steam engines. Efim Alekseevich reported to Demidov about one of these machines: “... In a minute, this machine pumps up to 500 buckets of water to a height of 17 meters ... ... It does not interfere with the use of one in our copper mine". In the then center of British metallurgy - the city of Lydda - Cherepanov first saw a steam engine moving on land. It was a three-axle platform on which a horizontally positioned boiler was mounted. The car was moving along the rails. The wheels of the middle axle captured the teeth on the rails, and the wheels of the two extreme axles moved along the smooth rail. “I watched Murray’s steam engine, which carries coal at a time, two thousand pounds at a distance of four miles, three times a day”, - Efim Cherepanov wrote in the report, - “This machine is very outlandish, but for us it is worthless for the reason [that] the English masters are quick to do what they want, but their machines do not last long, and therefore they are often under repair ...”. Watt's steam engines, which were used in the iron rolling process, made a much greater impression on the Ural master.

In 1823, Demidov appointed Cherepanov as the chief mechanic of all factories in the Nizhny Tagil district. At first, he had to deal only with the restructuring and repair of dams, chests, water wheels and other mechanisms. However, soon Efim Alekseevich presents his third four-horsepower steam engine. This machine was also installed at the mill, where it grinded up to 90 pounds of rye per day.
Two years later, Efim Alekseevich, on the orders of Demidov, goes to Sweden. On this trip, he took his son, Miron. From Sweden, the father and son Cherepanovs drove to St. Petersburg, where they examined Byrd's steam engines installed there at the Kolpino and Izhora plants. The reason for this visit was that the entrepreneur and breeder Bird had a monopoly on the sale of steam engines of his own design in the territory. Russian Empire, and more than once offered Demidov to order cars for the Ural factories. At the same time, Byrd broke such prices that Nikolai Nikitich began to more and more incline to the fact that his own production of steam engines was inevitable.
In 1826, by decree of Nikolai Demidov, a “Mechanical Establishment” was created at the Vyisky plant - a kind of design bureau. Well-known Tagil mechanics began to work in the "institution" - Pyotr Makarov, Stepan Kozopasov, Frol Monzin, Miron Cherepanov, Pavel Steblov. Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov was put at the head of the "institution".

The first product that came out of the walls of the Mechanical Establishment was a 40 horsepower steam engine designed to pump groundwater at the Anatolsky copper mine. In February 1828, this machine entered into permanent operation.

After the death of Nikolai Nikitich Demidov, the management of the factories passed to his sons - Pavel and Anatoly. Pavel Nikolaevich was busy public service and factory affairs was interested in so far as. But young Anatoly immediately turned his attention to the problem of technical re-equipment of factories. Anatoly Nikolaevich appointed a curator to Cherepanov's "Mechanical Establishment" - a young, educated serf manager Fotiy Shvetsov, giving him broad powers. Before Cherepanov, Anatole set the task of not only “boldly introducing steam mechanisms at factories and mines,” but also teaching especially capable undergrowths. In addition, the “institution” was tasked with preparing as many projects as possible for the introduction of steam engines in the course of the year. metallurgical production and for its maintenance. And a year later, Cherepanov's Design Bureau presented to Anatoly Demidov almost a dozen different projects using steam engines: mechanisms for pumping water, steam hammers, a project for a river steamer and a “land steamer”. A number of these proposals were accepted, a number were rejected, a number were sent for revision. Among the latter was the steam locomotive project.

One of the steam engines developed in Cherepanov's "Mechanical Establishment"
In addition to meeting the needs of the Tagil factories, steam engines were also built at the Mechanical Establishment by order of other breeders. So, in 1828-1830. a machine for pumping water at the Vladimir mine of a copper mine, a steam engine for the Kyshtym plant of the Rastorguevs, and several steam engines for mills were created and put into operation.
Their cars not only cost Demidov twice, or even three times, cheaper than Berdov's, but, as it turned out, they were in good demand among breeders and merchants of the Urals and Siberia ...

part two: Brother 2
... One of the "steam projects" sent for revision by Anatoly Demidov was a project "overland steamer for the carriage of ores, coal and other necessary cargoes", the author of which was Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov. The comments on the project concerned two points: the power of the machine and the “overpass device”, that is, the railroad. It was easier to peep at the solution of problems from the "English masters", but Efim Alekseevich himself could not go to England: at some factories, the reconstruction of the dam facilities was started. In addition, another task was assigned to his "Mechanical Establishment" - it was assigned to the Vyisky school, and was supposed to become a kind of training and production plant, where students would practice. Therefore, the son of Yefim, Miron, is sent to England. Together with him, Efim's cousin, the eldest son of Alexei Cherepanov, Ammos, who recently graduated from the Vyisk school, and worked in his uncle's "Mechanical Establishment" is sent ...

Ammos Alekseevich Cherepanov was born in 1816, a year before the sudden death of his father.
Efim Alekseevich took up the upbringing of the boy. In 1825, Ammos Cherepanov was enrolled in the Vyisky factory school. He studied very diligently, which was noted by almost all teachers. But best of all, Ammos was able to draw from life and draw. They even wanted to send the lad to Moscow to study as a painter, but the drawings of Ammos caught the eye of the manager Lyubimov, and he left the young Cherepanov at the factory.
At the age of thirteen, the youngest of the Cherepanov family successfully graduated from this Vyisk school and, as recorded in the service record, was accepted as an assistant to the Cherepanov mechanics, who needed a specialist who could draw and draw well. And soon Ammos began to take an active part in the development of drawings of steam engines, machine tools, mechanisms.

One of the drawings of a steam engine made by Ammos Cherepanov
The efforts of a talented young man did not go unnoticed. In 1833, the manager of the Tagil factories, Alexander Akinfievich Lyubimov, appointed Ammos as an assistant to the chief mechanic at the Vyisky institution, that is, in fact, the deputy of Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov. And less than two years later, Ammos Cherepanov was appointed to the position of assistant clerk at the Copper Mine.
In 1833 Miron and Ammos Cherepanov set off for St. Petersburg. There the brothers parted ways. Ammos goes to the factories of Kronstadt and St. Petersburg to get acquainted with technical innovations. And Miron goes to Liverpool, where the railway to Manchester has recently been put into operation. The Manchester-Liverpool line in those years was considered the most modern in the world. Engineer Stephenson, who supervised the construction, pioneered the use of mushroom rails there, and his steam locomotive "Rocket" was equipped with a new tubular boiler. The British did not hide technical innovations from the Russians at that time, in the hope that Russian industrialists and merchants, having familiarized themselves with machines and mechanisms, would start ordering them. Often this happened.

Miron Efimovich spent more than a month in England, studying the devices of steam locomotives and rails, and then went to the Moscow region and Yaroslavl, where Ammos was also supposed to arrive. The brothers visited two or three more factories owned by allies of the Demidovs, and went to the Urals.

Drawing of a steam locomotive, made by Ammos Cherepanov (1834)
In October 1833, Miron and Ammos returned to the Nizhny Tagil plant, where Efim Cherepanov had already started building a steam locomotive. Already in early February 1834, he wrote in the ledger: “The land steamer was assembled in a satisfied form, and for the first time it was skipped ...”
But suddenly the work stopped. Miron and Ammos, with calculations on hand, proved to Efim Alekseevich that the boiler of the future steam locomotive would not be able to work for a long time. But Cherepanov Sr. insisted on his own. The tests continued, but during one of them, in March 1834, the boiler exploded. At the same time, Efim Alekseevich almost died. The following entry was made in the incident logbook: “The steamer was already almost assembled by detuning and by action it was skipped, which was a success, but the steam boiler of this steamer burst ...”
Alexander Akinfievich Lyubimov demanded from Efim Cherepanov a detailed report on the cause of the accident. The manager already disliked Cherepanov Sr., considering him "a lucky upstart and a semi-literate man", whose ingenuity was overestimated by the owners. Fuel to the fire of Lyubimov's indignation was also added by the promise of Anatoly Demidov to release "the entire Cherepanov family into freedom." The manager was indignant for good reason. Ten thousand silver rubles were allocated for the implementation of the “overland steamer” project - a huge amount in those days. Moreover, Lyubimov, not without reason, assumed that the Cherepanovs could well get by with half the amount. At the request of Lyubimov, Fotiy Ilyich Shvetsov, who oversees the activities of the Mechanical Institute, assembled a technical consultation, during which errors were taken into account and almost all the comments of Miron and Ammos Cherepanov were accepted. The locomotive project was quickly finalized, and after the new boiler was built, the tests continued. It took two months.
On June 10, 1834, an entry appeared in the ledger: “Passed tests with immediate success. The move is being achieved... although some details are being forwarded" The entry dated August 5 of the same year reads: “The steamboat stagecoach has been completely rebuilt by rebuilding, and for its passage a cast-iron road is being built, and to save the stagecoach, a shed is already being rebuilt ...”
While Efim Alekseevich was engaged in fine-tuning the locomotive, Miron and Ammos were building a railway.
“A cast-iron overpass of four hundred fathoms is being rebuilt day and night, and under the supervision of the mechanics Cherepanovs M. and A., and Shvetsov F., it will be completed in the very near future”- Manager Lyubimov wrote to Pavel Nikolayevich Demidov.
Materials for the road began to be produced in the spring of 1834. In the April records of the office of the Vyisky plant, an entry appeared: “Mechanic Cherepanov for the road to the ship was cast 62 bars, weighing 248 pounds and 91 pieces of supports, weighing 91 pounds”. In June there were “44 pieces of pedestals were cast, weighing 214 pounds; bars 30 pieces, weighing 120 pounds, and boards 2 pieces, weighing 2 pounds ... In July “for the road to the steamer, 12 pieces of supports, weighing 12 pounds, and 12 pieces of beams, weighing 54 pounds”.
The “bars”, that is, the rails, were 1 sazhen (2.13 m) long, and were attached close to each other on massive cast-iron pillows 19 cm high and 29 cm wide at the base. These pillows, in turn, were mounted on wooden sleepers, the number of which, therefore, corresponded to the number of joints. The sleepers were 2.26 meters long and 27 cm wide. 12-15 workers were constantly employed in the construction, but sometimes their number increased to 20 or 26 people.
The construction of the first Tagil railway ended on September 5, 1834. Another week was spent on checking the joints of the path, and eliminating minor imperfections.

It is officially believed that the Cherepanovsky steam locomotive made its first flight in mid-late September 1834. Although the documents discovered relatively recently in the RGADA suggest that the locomotive went earlier. Back in 1984, information was found in the Demidov archives that the locomotive made its first departure in June 1834, that is, three months earlier. “In response to your letter of June 8, we have the honor to notify: today, that is, on June 29, 1834, the steamer was put into operation ...”, - the manager D. Belov wrote to Anatoly Demidov, - “... and this car can run both along a cast-iron track and along a wooden one, and [along] the last one ran 25 sazhens with me”
It is clear that the letter is about a test run. Nevertheless, we can say that the locomotive was already on the move in the summer of 1834. Perhaps they wanted to coincide with the official launch either on a certain date, or on the arrival of some important person.

Model of the Cherepanovs' first steam locomotive installed in the yard of the mechanics' house
The Cherepanovs' "land steamer" made its first, official, flight in September 1834. A steam locomotive with a capacity of about 30 horsepower led a train weighing 3.3 tons at a speed of up to 15 km / h. The length of the railway - "cast-iron overpass" - was a little more than four hundred fathoms, that is, 854 meters. The locomotive was supposed to carry a trailer wagon with a supply of coal and water and “a wagon for all luggage and passengers among forty souls”. True, on the appointed day of the first flight, there were no people who wanted to ride in the wagon. Then two hundred pounds of copper ore were loaded into it. Efim Cherepanov entrusted the place at the firebox to his son, Miron. With a considerable crowd of people, the manager gave the go-ahead, and the "land steamer" started off ...

The launch of the first locomotive of the Cherepanovs (artist P. S. Bortnov)
... The first question that the manager of the Tagil factories asked the mechanics at the end of the flight was the question of the carrying capacity of the locomotive. The Cherepanovs assured that after three more carts (wagons) were completed, the car would be able to carry up to a thousand pounds of cargo. And in order to finally dispel Lyubimov's skepticism, Efim Alekseevich stated that he had already begun to build a more powerful steam locomotive capable of carrying up to 2000 pounds of cargo.
The first Russian steam locomotive showed both undeniable advantages and unfortunate shortcomings.
So, for example, English steam locomotives weighed more than five tons, and the Cherepanovs' steam locomotive weighed only 150 pounds, that is, 2.4 tons. The Cherepanovsky steam locomotive was much more stable than the English ones due to the width of the wheelsets (1650 cm). The main disadvantages of the first Tagil steam locomotive, first of all, are two points: it did not have a reverse gear, and could only move in a straight line due to the fact that its wheel flange was on ... the outside. The construction interfered with making a flange on the inside railway track, or rather, the design of the "pedestals" on which the rails were attached.
Nevertheless, the "gentlemen owners" were satisfied with the tests, and showered the project executors with a hail of favors.
Firstly, the promised “freemen” were issued not only to the Cherepanov families, but also to the families of other engineers and mechanics - the Shvetsovs, Mokeevs, Steblovs and Monzins.
Secondly, the entire composition of the "mechanical institution" was transferred "according to the category of employees", that is
they were freed from daily work, received salaries and provisions from the office.
Thirdly, a solid "social package". From now on, all the children of the mechanics of the institution “until the last knee” had the right to study at the factory school, after which they were guaranteed to receive the positions of foremen in production. In addition, the children of employees were not subject to recruitment. Weak family members were paid benefits, and those who could work were taken to work at the factories of the district or at the office.
And finally, money. The amount of remuneration can be judged by the fact that, for example, Fotiy Ilyich Shvetsov built two houses in Tagil (one of which Tagil residents, due to their ignorance, call "Demidov's cottage"), bought a house in Tomsk and opened not only his own business, but also became a co-founder of the steamship company on the Ob.

The further fate of the first steam locomotive is no less interesting than the history of its creation.
In Soviet times, it was said that the steam locomotive was dismantled, and its parts were used to create a second steam locomotive. Like, the Demidovs didn’t give any more money for steam locomotives, and the Cherepanovs had to assemble a second car from what God would send. But in the late 80s, documents were found in which information was found about all three steam locomotives built by Tagil mechanics within the walls of the Vyisky “mechanical institution”.
The Cherepanovs' first steam locomotive was remade by the spring of 1835.
Initially, they were going to send it to the show in Moscow and St. Petersburg. But then this idea was abandoned. The wheels were replaced on the first-born (now they had “correct” flanges), new coupling locks were installed. The locomotive made about a dozen trips, and showed the ability to carry 500 pounds of ore. But by all accounts, he remained unprofitable. And in the autumn of the same 1835, the locomotive was laid up. They did not modernize it further, concentrating efforts on creating a second steam locomotive, which was built taking into account all the shortcomings of its predecessor. In January 1836, Anatoly Demidov sent an order: to dismantle the locomotive, pack its parts in boxes and “carefully and carefully” transport them to Florence.
The dismantling and assembly of the locomotive was entrusted to Ammos Alekseevich Cherepanov. With him
several more artisans went to Florence, who took part in the launch of a steam locomotive in Tagil. The first Russian steam locomotive worked at Villa Demidoff until the end of its days as a sightseeing transport.
In 1836, Yefim and Miron Cherepanov reported that they were ready to show their new, more powerful steam locomotive. At the same time, Fotiy Ilyich Shvetsov published in the Mining Journal a detailed article on the structure of a steam locomotive, providing it with drawings and drawings:

Drawings of the second locomotive of the Cherepanovs, published in the Mining Journal
The new locomotive was created under the leadership of Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov, but most of the work was carried out by Miron and Ammos. The second steam locomotive turned out to be more powerful: 43 horsepower allowed it to transport a thousand pounds of ore or other cargo without any problems. For this locomotive, a new railway was built. This road connected the Vyisky plant and the Mednorudyansky mine, the manager of which was recently appointed another outstanding Tagil mechanic Fotiy Ilyich Shvetsov. This railway with a length of more than 3.5 kilometers was subsequently rebuilt and improved several times. So, along the entire route of the train, small warehouses were arranged with a supply of firewood, coal and water, and repair sheds were built at the final points.

Cherepanovs steam locomotive at work
... In the spring of 1837, accompanied by a large retinue, the heir to the throne, Tsarevich Alexander Nikolayevich, arrived in the Urals. On May 28, the Tsarevich arrives at the Demidov factories in Tagil. After inspecting the iron plant, the future emperor travels around the factory village, seeing the sights: a monument to Nikolai Nikitich Demidov, an exhibition of iron and copper products, ores and minerals (specially arranged for his visit), and in the afternoon the crown prince is taken to the Mednorudyansky mine - an exemplary enterprise of Tagil districts. There, the heir to the throne was quite surprised technical equipment mine. At that time, three steam engines with a capacity of 20, 40 and 60 horsepower, and a steam locomotive were operating at Mednorudyansky. Alexander Nikolaevich, who himself is well versed in technology, is interested in the origin of the machines, and, having learned that they were all created by the mechanics of the Vyisky plant, notes this fact in his diary. The Tsarevich is introduced to both the Cherepanovs and the Mechanical Establishment itself, where at that time work is underway on a new, worthy steam engine...

Soon, instead of Efim Alekseevich Cherepanov, his son, Miron, was appointed to the post of head of the Vyisky Mechanical Institute. And Ammos Alekseevich became his first deputy. “The mechanical part of the factories requires vigilant activity, observation and improvement; the mechanic Eph. Cherepanov, due to his old age, is unable to properly monitor the mechanism in all factories ... "- wrote to Anatoly Demidov, the manager of the Tagil factories.
However, Efim Cherepanov does not "retire". He continues to teach at the Vyisky factory school, advises his son and nephew on various technical issues. Meanwhile, Miron and Ammos Cherepanovs start building the third locomotive. As conceived by the brothers, it was supposed to be a 120-horsepower car capable of transporting up to three thousand pounds at a time payload. In parallel, work is underway to create a number of steam engines for factory needs, and for sale.
But the new locomotive was not built. The mechanics receive an urgent order from the Demidovs: to create a working model of a steam locomotive for demonstration at exhibitions and fairs. At that time, such a product was very relevant: industrial exhibitions and fairs were held not only in the capitals, but also in provincial cities. In 1839, the operating model of the steam locomotive was ready and successfully demonstrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Upon returning from the capitals, the model stood for a long time in the classrooms of the Vyisky school, where she served visual aid, and at the beginning of the 20th century it was transferred to the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, where it is still located.

Cherepanovs' third steam locomotive (working model)
After the death of Efim Cherepanov in 1842, his son, Miron, became the chief mechanic of the district factories. Seven years later, when Miron died, this post was taken by Ammos Alekseevich. But very little is known about him and his activities during this period.

The names of Yefim and Miron Cherepanov are known to almost every Russian. Their images can be found on a variety of souvenirs, and monuments to Cherepanovsk steam locomotives stand not only in Nizhny Tagil, but also in Yekaterinburg, Omsk, and Novosibirsk. And, here, the names of Alexei Alekseevich and Ammos Alekseevich Cherepanov for some reason were forgotten, and now only a few are known.

Monument to the locomotive of the Cherepanovs in Omsk

Monument-model of the Cherepanovs steam locomotive in the Novosibirsk Museum of Railway Engineering