Polzunov as a scientist. The first steam engine was invented by Russian inventor Polzunov I.I.

Published: 20.08.2013

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov (1728-1766)

“To facilitate the work for us to come” - this is what the soldier’s son Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov set as the goal of his life, rightly called by one of his few friends “a husband who does true honor to his fatherland.” He had to go through a great and difficult path. His life was tragically cut short prematurely. He was not destined to see the marvelous fire engine, created by him in order to facilitate the work of future generations, in operation. The fate of his creation, destroyed by the enemies of Russian culture, is also tragic.

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov was born in 1728 in the Urals, on the banks of the Iset in Yekaterinburg, now Sverdlovsk. Documents report that Polzunov's father, a soldier of the second Yekaterinburg company, was from the peasants of the city of Yepanchin, or Turinsk.
After graduating from the Mining School in Yekaterinburg in 1742, he was a "mechanical student" of the chief mechanic of the Ural factories N. Bakharev. By that time, he had studied for 6 years in a verbal, and then in an arithmetic school at the Yekaterinburg Metallurgical Plant, which at that time was quite a lot. In Barnaul, young Polzunov received the position of gittenschreiber, that is, a melting clerk. This work is not only technical, since the young man found out how much and what kind of ore, coal, fluxes are needed for smelting in a particular furnace, he gets acquainted, albeit theoretically, with the smelting mode. The giftedness of the young gittenschreiber was so obvious that it attracted the attention of the factory authorities.

Where and how Polzunov's father worked is not exactly known. Most likely, he was one of those who built factories and fortifications on the Iset for their defense. As an ordinary soldier, Polzunov's father received a beggarly salary. It is easy to imagine how a soldier's son lived. I. I. Polzunov was not given the opportunity to finish even primary school those days. Education at school had to be interrupted when the factory mechanic, Nikita Bakharev, needed quick-witted assistants - “mechanical students”.

II Polzunov successfully helped Bakharev; during the period from 1742 to 1748, the mechanic twice made the idea of ​​an increase in salary to a quick and intelligent student. During this period, I. I. Polzunov had many opportunities to get acquainted with the equipment and work of one of the then best factories - Yekaterinburg. He had to visit and work also at other Ural factories.

In 1748, I. I. Polzunov, together with a group of Ural mining specialists, arrived at the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories of Altai, where he grew into an outstanding mining specialist. In the first year of his stay in Altai, he worked only as a scribe at smelting furnaces. And in 1761, he even had to act at one time as the head of the Kolyvan plant and the entire district adjacent to it.

The authorities constantly forced him to work where it was most difficult, where things did not go well. Thanks to this, he had to visit the Barnaul and Kolyvan plants, the Zmeinogorsk mine, the Krasnoyarsk and Kabanovskaya piers. I. I. Polzunov constantly had to travel on business trips, carry out the alloying of ore, pay off ore carriers, repair or build ships, and make revisions. The search for mountain stone was replaced by work on the preparation of hew and rock for roofs. Earthwork alternated with the management of the smoking operation, that is, the preparation of firewood and the burning of coal from them for metallurgical furnaces. I. I. Polzunov even had to transport the transport of gold and silver to distant Petersburg.

On the road and always, I. I. Polzunov sought to find the most best solutions tasks entrusted to him, for which he invented many things. He is credited with the creation in Zmeinogorsk in 1754 of one of the first, if not the first in Russia, a diversion hydropower plant, that is, a plant in which water, which sets the wheels in motion, is supplied through a special channel to long distance from the dam.

He had a lot of meetings with prominent people both in the Altai and the Urals, and especially when traveling to St. Petersburg in 1758. It is likely that Polzunov and Lomonosov could have met then.

In April 1763, Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov submitted a proposal to the head of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories, Poroshin, to build a fire-acting machine invented by him for factory needs. The design of the machine was based on the achievements of science and technology of that time. He was especially helped by the works of Lomonosov, used for the physical justification of the project of the machine. Not limited to theoretical studies, I. I. Polzunov conducted many experiments, investigated water and steam, weighed air, and understood thermal issues perfectly.

At that time, all enterprises dominated manual labor. Only in some cases, bulky machines were used for labor-intensive auxiliary work, the main part of the parts of which was made of wood and only some of metal. That was the age of manual labor and a few simple mechanisms, literally cut down with an ax, just like "chopping a hut." The main builders of machines of that time were "dam" masters and carpenters subordinate to them. They built and installed machines with their usual tools, using only a limited number of metal parts supplied to them by blacksmiths.

The most common machines were bellows for metallurgical furnaces and hammers for forging metals. The most perfect engine was a water wheel, the main tool in the manufacture of which, again, was an ax. The use of water wheels, without which the work of factory metallurgical furnaces and hammers was impossible, tied factories to certain places, very often disadvantageous due to the remoteness from the mines and forests that deliver ores and fuel. There was often not enough water in the factory ponds. The wheels stopped, and with them the plant stopped. In times of floods, the mass of water was wasted, the rapid flood destroyed the dams.

Enlarge, click on photo
Polzunov's steam engine model
made in Suzuna.

Polzunov decided to oppose an unprecedented machine to the kingdom of hand tools and simple machines. “Stop the water management” was Polzunov’s call. To create a fiery machine capable of “by our will, to correct what will be necessary” - this is the task set by him. “I must,” wrote I. I. Polzunov, “to direct all possible labors and forces to that, in which way the fire would be inclined to the machines by a servant.”

According to the principle of operation, the fire-acting machine of I. I. Polzunov belonged to a special type of steam engines - to the so-called steam-atmospheric machines. By installing two cylinders, OH made it possible to conveniently obtain continuously developed useful work in such a machine.

So the first heat engine was invented for factory needs, which could easily be adapted to drive a variety of machines. This engine could be built in any place and, moreover, of such power as was needed.

21 years before Watt, who was recognized by all as the inventor of the first engine, the Russian heating engineer I. I. Polzunov in 1763 invented the “fire-acting machine” as a new engine for general use in production.

“The benefit of the whole people”, the desire for the prosperity of the motherland to “introduce a new car into the custom” - this is what prompted the wonderful patriot to work without sparing his strength.

The construction of the machine was associated with enormous difficulties. I. I. Polzunov insisted on building at first a small, experimental heat and power plant. He wanted to ensure the study and development of new technology, the training of personnel for the construction of large installations. However, Polzunov was forced to immediately start building the car with a “large body”. Having completed the project of such a machine in the shortest possible time, he was forced to begin its construction in Barnaul, not only without competent assistants, but even almost without the participation of skilled workers. He asked for nineteen skilled workers and three apprentices to work, and he was given four apprentices and two retired foremen. Even necessary tool was not for work. Everything had to be done by myself.

In March 1764, I. I. Polzunov filed the first demands for people and materials. By May 20, 1765, one hundred and ten parts of the machine were already ready, not counting the steam boiler. Separate parts weighed up to one hundred and seventy pounds. Each of these parts, according to the builder, "required, for proportional collection, machine work on water wheels, according to the circumstances, turning work." For such work, he created special machines. That is why I. I. Polzunov was a pioneer not only in the field of heat engineering, but also in mechanical engineering.

Shed for Polzunov's steam engine

Polzunov basically completed all the construction by December 1765. A trial run showed that everything was going well. However, the car could not even be tested. Due to the fault of the authorities, a blower installation was not built, which was supposed to be powered by a machine. This omission proved fatal. I. I. Polzunov, having overstrained himself from overwork, fell ill and died before the tests of the machine began. On May 27, 1766, I. I. Polzunov died.

A few days later, tests of the built machine began. She was treated barbarically, but she endured everything and worked.

August 7, 1766 - the date of commissioning of the first ever steam engine for factory needs.

By this time, the barbarism in handling the machine had reached its extreme. To seal the pistons, they decided to use birch bark. One can imagine how the metal pistons removed from the cylinders looked with tatters of birch bark hanging on them!

On November 10, a boiler leaked, which burned out due to an oversight (the protective vault collapsed in the furnace). The boiler, by the way, was made of thin metal sheets, which were recognized as insufficiently strong even before the start of the machine. It would seem that it was necessary to fix the boiler or build a new one, and then start the machine again. This was not done, and the car was stopped forever.

In a short time, Polzunov's machine fully justified itself, returned all costs and even brought huge profits. However, after the damage to the boiler, she continued to stand idle for 12 years.

In July 1778, the head of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories, the German Irman, applied to St. Petersburg with a request to allow him to break Polzunov's thermal power plant. What Irman started, completed new boss factories, the German Meller, who came to replace Irman.

Meller brought a decree on the destruction of Polzunov's machine and destroyed the creation built in Barnaul by a wonderful Russian heat engineer.

The whole case of I. I. Polzunov was consigned to oblivion, and so thoroughly that key documents relating to his work, lay in the dust of the archives untouched by anyone to this day. The dominance of the Germans in the Academy of Sciences of that time played a negative role. It is no coincidence, therefore, that in the country where I. I. Polzunov lived and worked, at the competition for the best essays on fire engines in 1783, the first prize was awarded to Mayard from Vienna, professor of fortification at the Austrian Academy of Engineering.

But the country has not forgotten the majestic work of the soldier's son Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov, who created the first fire-fighting machine in history. The Russian people remember their brilliant representative, who won the right to become the first at the origins of modern technology.

Danilevsky V. V., I. I. Polzunov. Proceedings and life of the first Russian heat engineer, M.-L., ed. USSR Academy of Sciences, 1940

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov(1728-1766) is a Russian scientist-inventor of the middle of the 18th century, the author of the "fiery machine". About I. I. Polzunov they said: "A husband who makes glory to his Fatherland."

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov was born in Yekaterinburg in the family of a soldier. Graduated from the factory school. In 1747, he was appointed to the Barnaul copper-smelting plant as a superintendent and accountant at smelting furnaces. material from the site

During the time of Polzunov, heavy manual labor dominated the factories. Only bellows and hammers for forging metal were set in motion by the power of water. Therefore, factories were built on the banks of rivers. But as soon as the river became shallow, production stopped. Ivan Polzunov set himself the task of replacing manual labor and a water engine with a “fiery machine”. In 1763, a Russian mechanic invented the first two-cylinder steam engine in Russia. But Polzunov did not have to see it in his work: he died earlier, broken by overwork and illness. The steam engine was commissioned by his students. She worked for only 43 days: an accident happened and the engine stopped. The factory authorities declared that there was "no need" for the car. However, in a month and a half, the steam engine not only fully paid for itself, but also made a big profit.

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Just as the creative individuality of its author is reflected in a work of art, in any engineering structure - be it railroad bridge, an airplane or a steam engine - we can easily discover the personality of the creator, his own style. Equally, both works of art and engineering structures are imprinted by the national identity of the author.

The national character does not represent something given once and for all. It changes with the conditions of life, but in each this moment imposes its stamp on the physiognomy of the nation.

More than half a century ago, in January 1894, in a speech dedicated to the "holiday of Russian science" - the opening of the IX Congress of Russian Naturalists - one of the world representatives of Russian science, Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev, characterized the features of Russian science as follows:

“One can hardly doubt that Russian scientific thought is moving most successfully and naturally not in the direction of metaphysical speculation, but in the direction indicated by Newton, in the direction of exact knowledge and its application to life. The Lobachevskys, Zinins, Tsenkovskys, Butlerovs, Pirogovs, Botkins, Mendeleevs, Sechenovs, Stoletovs, Kovalevskys, Mechnikovs - these are the Russian people, - I repeat, after the artists of the word, - who in the field of thought acquired a lasting glory for the Russian name even outside the fatherland ...

Not in the accumulation of countless numbers of meteorological diaries, - he said further, - but in the disclosure of the basic laws of mathematical thinking, not in the study of local faunas and floras, but in the disclosure of the basic laws of the history of the development of organisms, not in the description of the fossil wealth of their country, but in the disclosure fundamental laws of chemical phenomena - this is where Russian science mainly declared its equality, and sometimes even superiority!

If we add to the names listed by Timiryazev the name of Timiryazev himself, the names of Ostrogradsky, Lyapunov, Chebyshev, Petrov, Lebedev, Zhukovsky, Chaplygin, Tsiolkovsky, Michurin, Popov, Chernov, and finally, Pavlov and many other subsequent figures of Russian science and technology, if we recall about Lomonosov, whose personality Timiryazev himself calls "as if prophetic", it will become even more obvious how accurate and correct Timiryazev's characterization of Russian science is.

This national creative character of the Russian people is expressed with particular brightness in Lomonosov. In his famous “Sermon on the Benefits of Chemistry”, Lomonosov speaks with contempt and indignation about people who limit themselves to experiments, observations and their description, without any attempts to generalize, to penetrate into the laws of nature and its elements.

Why are so many experiments done in physics and chemistry? he asks. - Why did only great men have toils and lives dangerous trials? Just so that, having collected a great many different things and materials in a disorderly heap, to look and be surprised at their multitude, without thinking about their arrangement and putting in order?

Lomonosov's own works amaze us precisely with the ability of a brilliant Russian person to broad generalizations and deep penetration into the mysterious essence of things and phenomena.

In the works of Lomonosov, the characteristic features of Russian scientific thought were fully expressed, but Lomonosov is not an exceptional phenomenon in this respect.

The ability for broad generalization, for establishing basic laws, for penetrating into the very essence of things, we also meet with his contemporary - the first Russian engineer, designer and inventor Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov.

Polzunov lived at a time when science itself, like technology, in the present sense of the word, was just beginning in Russia.

That was the era of "enlightened absolutism," when the autocratic despots, by their own power, tried from above to carry out certain reforms that would promote the bourgeois development of the country. Governments, so to speak, ran ahead, destroying the most rude, wild, outdated customs and laws that prevented the bourgeoisie from trading, building, extracting and exploiting. By such a policy of autocracy, the authorities hoped to prevent a bourgeois revolution, the coming to power of the bourgeoisie and capitalists.

In Russia, it is true, the barely emerging bourgeoisie did not even think about power, but the ideas of "enlightened absolutism" had already become guiding during the long reign of Catherine II.

Catherine II ascended the throne in an atmosphere of mass peasant unrest. According to the tsarina’s own testimony, at that time there were “obvious indignations” of one and a half thousand landlord and monastic peasants and fifty thousand factory peasants, so that the government troops “were more than once forced to use weapons against them, and even to cannons.” To weaken the mass unrest and defend the rights of the feudal lords, Catherine, following the European kings, led the policy of "enlightened absolutism."

It is natural, therefore, that Catherine was pleased with the beautiful summer morning of 1763, when the Cabinet Minister Count Olsufiev came to her with a report and informed her about the amazing report of the distant Siberian mining authorities. In this report, the head of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining plants in Altai, General Poroshin, asked for permission to build a “fire-acting” blower for melting furnaces according to the project of Ivan Polzunov, the charge master of the Barnaul plants. The report was accompanied by a draft machine with drawings and explanations, approved by the Mining Chancellery and its advisers.

Own inventor, and even in remote, deaf Siberia - it was such an amazing and so pleasant phenomenon that Catherine could not help but smile with satisfaction. Looking at the drawings, which bore all the signs of knowledge and learning, the queen ordered to immediately draw up a decree on rewarding the inventor to encourage such "commendable zeal for the cause." Ekaterina ordered the project to be submitted for review to the president of the Berg Collegium, an expert in mining, Ivan Schlatter.

With the recall of Schlatter and the decree of the tsarina, Olsufiev sent Polzunov's project back to Barnaul.

The mining authorities in Barnaul were headed by the chief commander of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories, General Poroshin, a mediocre, cruel man. He wanted only one thing: to please the tsarina's office by delivering as much silver as possible and, as a reward, to get the right to return from the Siberian wilderness to St. Petersburg as soon as possible.

If Polzunov's project had fallen into Poroshin's hands a little earlier, he would have put it under the shear. Poroshin believed that with the abundance and cheapness of serf labor, the plant did not need any machines. Nothing but unnecessary trouble, the fuss with the construction of the machine did not promise. But the project ended up in the office in the early years of Catherine's reign, when the "educational and patronizing" policy became nationwide, and Poroshin launched Polzunov's project, hoping that the whole thing would help his own career.

Showing himself as an "enlightened patron of sciences and arts," Poroshin, sending a report to St. Petersburg, asked the empress for permission to award the inventor with a prize.

The impression made on Catherine by the report, however, exceeded all Poroshin's expectations. In winter, towards the end of the year, a royal messenger delivered a decree of the Empress to the snow-covered Barnaul, which read:

“Composed by the charge master Ivan Polzunov, a project with a plan, a very fair description of a new machine that could operate melting furnaces not with ordinary water-acting wheels, but with fire, through the medium of air and vapors resulting from boiling water in a boiler, and cylinders attached to it with other mechanical Members, by Her Highest Imperial Majesty's command, we consider Mr. Actual State Councilor Schlatter, who, with special praise for the diligence and art of the aforementioned Polzunov, in the copy attached hereto, presented his reasoning, and Her Imperial Majesty, as if a real and generous patroness of sciences and arts , not only to them, Polzunov, she is most mercifully pleased to be, but for him and others to follow, in such useful encouragement exercises, she deigned to order: invite him, Polzunov, to the mechanics with the rank and salary of an engineering captain-lieutenant and give out 400 rubles as a reward. Also, if he is not necessary at the factories, then send him to the highest Cabinet with silver, so that he stays for two or three years at the Academy of Sciences in order to acquire more in the mechanics of art and to this, with great instruction, he could be attached and related to him. gifts and ability best success henceforth, for the benefit of the factory, I could use it.

Despite a number of remarks about Polzunov's project, Schlatter, in his review attached to the decree, highly appreciated the work of the Russian inventor.

“Schikhtmeister Polzunov,” he wrote, “found his project precisely on the actual and in operation of such machines, which I, in a mining book published in Russian, presented and described, only he, the shipmaster, so, praise worthy of cunning, this machine managed to remake and portray that this invention of his should be honored for a new invention.

Schlatter's flattering review, permission to build a car, the favors that the inventor was showered with - all this embarrassed Poroshin and was far from happy. The upcoming fuss with the construction of the machine, the obvious correspondence with the cabinet on this matter, the issuance of an award from the funds of the plant, Poroshin immediately called it “very annoying business” and immediately began to slow it down in every possible way.

But the decree and recall of Schlatter were then, on December 22, announced to the inventor, which he signed on the papers.

It was the happiest day in the woeful life of the shipmaster Polzunov.

Polzunov was born in Yekaterinburg, the center of the mining industry, in 1728, in the family of a mining company soldier Ivan Polzunov and his wife Daria Abramovna. Polzunov's father, who came from Siberian peasants, got into the mining company through recruitment seven years before the birth of his son. Mining companies were formed in the newly founded Yekaterinburg, mainly to monitor factory workers. Without this protection, it was in no way possible to keep them at the plant, where living and working conditions were incredibly difficult.

The Polzunov family was rare in those days. Not only Polzunov himself, but also his wife was literate. Soldier Polzunov rose to the rank of corporal. He probably enjoyed the patronage of his superiors, otherwise it is difficult to explain how he managed to place his son in the Yekaterinburg mining school, arranged to provide factories with craftsmen. Usually only noble and deacon children were accepted there.

The school consisted of two departments: verbal and arithmetic. In verbal education, they taught reading and writing, and in arithmetic - arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, drawing and drawing. It was the highest factory school and, in terms of the breadth of the program, surpassed the same kind of schools that existed in other countries.

It is curious that the classes at the school took place all year round and were interrupted only for one month, on the darkest winter days, when the windows in the school did not let in the light, since they could not get the glasses, but oiled paper replaced them.

The soldier's son turned out to be a very capable boy. Probably, the school, despite the rods with which schoolchildren were punished for every misconduct, came to his liking after all. According to the recall of his teacher, Nikita Bakharev, Polzunov studied well, and therefore he was transferred from the “verbal” department to the next, “arithmetic”. Here, schoolchildren, along with teaching mathematics and drawing, were supposed to work at the factory in the evenings as "mechanical students". They were paid for this - sixteen kopecks a month. At the same time, as stated in the instructions, the students should “not only look closely, but also use their hands, if possible, and be clearly informed and reason about the art of the craft.”

Gifted by nature with abilities, accustomed to order, perseverance and discipline in the family, Ivan Polzunov could not finish his studies, however, precisely because he was too capable a student: the teacher hurried to transfer him to the factory as his assistant.

For five years, from 1742 to 1747, Polzunov worked under Bakharev in Yekaterinburg, at one of the then best factories. The young mechanic was not only hardworking and diligent. He surprised his teacher with extraordinary curiosity, commitment to mechanical art, and when the Altai Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories needed experts in mining, Polzunov was sent there along with other specialists.

The Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories in Altai were entering a brilliant period of their development. After in 1723 scouts from the Ural industrialist Demidov discovered deposits of copper ore in the central part of Altai, near Lake Kolyvan, one after another powerful enterprises arose here. Already in 1739, Demidov began to build a second plant, in Barnaul, and in 1742 - a third, near Zmeinogorsk, where the richest silver-lead ores were discovered.

Soon the government took away the factories from Demidov to the treasury, introduced a military mining department to them, obliged the population of Altai to give workers as a recruitment duty and demanded from the Yekaterinburg Main Mining Department the relentless monitoring of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories. The sending of specialists from the Yekaterinburg plant to the Altai testified that in Yekaterinburg, as well as in St. Petersburg, they understood what enormous wealth the tsarist government could have here.

In Barnaul, Polzunov, who did not have a mountain officer rank, was appointed to the post of gittenschreiber, that is, a clerk at a copper smelter.

With all his abilities, he had to "serve" the ranks before receiving a position that corresponded to his inclinations and aspirations.

For four years Polzunov was bored with clerical work, which in no way corresponded to his inclinations and training. Several times he turned to his superiors with requests to give him the opportunity, as he wrote, "at our request, to study mining and smelting sciences." He complained that the “determination” of the authorities to send him with another comrade to the school at the Kolyvan plant for training had not yet been fulfilled, and sadly added in conclusion:

“And I wish, according to the power of these definitions, to study those sciences, so that I, for the other posts assigned to me in the knowledge of these sciences, against my brethren, could not bear resentment. Besides, the youth of my years without science is lost in vain.

The comrades overtook Polzunov, taking advantage of the patronage of their superiors, resorting to flattery and patronage, to acquaintances and intrigues. Polzunov was proud and straightforward. He did not curry favor with his superiors, but demanded justice, and once even sent a complaint to St. Petersburg, in which he asked to arrange an exam for him and one of his comrades in order to make sure which of them was more worthy, who had seniority in the service.

The striving for exact scientific knowledge, so characteristic of Polzunov as of Lomonosov, was not an end in itself for the great Russian scientists. They aspired to it because they saw in exact knowledge a source of practical applications, more powerful than the long experience that the then technology went to its achievements.

Although Polzunov entered the history of Russian science and technology with the condescending nickname of "self-taught", in reality he was the most educated man of his time. In the arithmetic department of the Yekaterinburg Mining School, Polzunov, combining theory with practice, studied geometry, trigonometry, logarithmic calculations, and drawing. With a wider program in those days, there were no special schools in England, which was ahead of technical progress in the age of the industrial revolution.

Authentic documents that have come down to us and belong to Polzunov himself, his memos, drawings and explanations to them indicate that the first Russian heat engineer was quite at the level of scientific knowledge of his time.

Requests, complaints, demands of the "soldier's son", who already jumped ahead too much, on a par with noble and officer children, did not lead to anything. Rather, they irritated the authorities, aroused a desire to get rid of the restless employee. Therefore, Polzunov began to be sent to various chores. He served as an overseer at a smelter in Barnaul, measured the mines at the Zmeinogorsky mine, took part in the construction of a water mill, was in charge of a forest pier on the Charysh River, traveled with caravans of ships, delivering ore to the factories.

He got wet in the rain, froze his hands, drowned in the river, saving broken barges, built ships, made revisions, prepared firewood, smoked coal, but did not lose his desire to “learn mining and smelting sciences”.

Among all these diverse economic assignments, there was one for which the future heating engineer could thank fate. In 1758 Polzunov was sent with a convoy of silver to Petersburg, where he lived for three months.

Polzunov in Petersburg.

A trip to the new Russian capital, acquaintance with its factories, shipyards, marinas and ships, a visit to the famous Cabinet of Curiosities of the Academy of Sciences, meetings with new progressive people - all this made a huge impression on Polzunov.

Petersburg became for Polzunov that higher school, which was all he lacked in order to rise to the heights of the then science, technology and art. If he did not return from St. Petersburg as a complete scientist and engineer, then, in any case, he was quite ready to become both.

Even before the trip, in 1754, Polzunov was promoted to chief master - this was the first rank for employees of state-owned mining factories, equivalent to promotion to officers. The shiftmaster had to “inspect mining work so that he could always be truly aware of his work”, take care of the serviceability of mining equipment, “stock up” tools and materials, “so that there was no stop in mining”, keep records of the work done, observe the workers , account for expenses.

The regulation on the position of the ship master also stated that “the ship master must study with great zeal and willingness mining so that he could rule mining and show the people of the Russian nation in this way and for that he had to get a promotion. The next in rank was the rank of mechanic, or machinist, who already had to "know all kinds of machines that are necessary for mining, namely for pouring water, for lifting ore and other things to build and produce in action." Thus, the opportunity finally opened up before Polzunov to freely surrender to his inclinations and, above all, to study the sciences. The officer rank gave access to the officers' meeting, to the library, relieved of corporal punishment, improved both moral and financial situation Polzunov.

Soon, a decree came from St. Petersburg that all mining officers working at state-owned factories should carefully study Professor Schlatter’s book “A Comprehensive Instruction to Mining”, published in 1760, which was a practical encyclopedia of mining. The author was not a stranger in Altai: in 1745 he inspected the mines here and began smelting silver on them. In his major work, he dwelled mainly on the characterization of the state of the mining business in Russia and partly in Western Europe.

Polzunov carefully read the book, and it made a great impression on him. In it, the future mechanicus, obliged to “know, build and put into action all kinds of machines,” found words that opened the bitter path to glory, labor and torment for him.

“There is no such invention,” Schlatter wrote, moving on to a description of Newcomen’s machine, “which could glorify the human mind so much as the invention of operating machines by fire, with which terrible weights can be lifted and which have been found from the British since the beginning of this century and in many places in use for pouring out of ore and coal pits were introduced.

For so long yearning for a great and extraordinary cause, languishing for creative work, for which he had been preparing all his life, Polzunov felt in the book recommended by St. Petersburg a mentor, friend, teacher and protection from the mining authorities. Reading the description of Newcomen's machine, he not only understood its structure, but was able to understand the basic principles of its work and find in it new, unused opportunities, hidden even from the progressive minds of European countries.

And so Polzunov decides to build an unprecedented machine himself.

“And although it is true that new and useful things starters do not always suddenly get lucky,” Polzunov wrote in his explanation for the project a year later, “however, the intelligent world does not consider such smart people to be presumptuous, but courageous and generous.”

He is well acquainted not only with mining equipment, but also with the mining industry. Polzunov understood all the imperfection of the water wheels, which were then used as engines: water had to be brought to the water wheel from afar, or plants had to be built where there was water. The Russian mechanic therefore decided to start "inventing" such a "fire" machine, which could not only pump water out of mines, but become a universal engine, suitable for any work, in any place, at any time.

The Russian heating engineer based his thoughts on the works of his compatriot and contemporary Lomonosov. Polzunov had to design the machine, relying on his own experience and ingenuity. In Russia, he had no predecessors, he had never seen “refined from the British” drainage machines, and Schlatter’s book gave the most general concepts about them.

Does this mean that Polzunov's path to solving the problem went straight from reflection to practice, and not from contemplation to reflection and from reflection to practice, like any dialectical path to truth?

Of course not!

After all, we contemplate and cognize the reality around us not only through our senses - sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste - but also through the word seen or heard. Probably, none of us has been to Africa, to the Sahara desert, but we all have such an accurate and complete idea of ​​the Sahara that direct contemplation of it would add little to this idea.

The word reflects in our consciousness the objective world as well as the direct perception of it by the senses. There are a great many reflections imprinted by means of a word in our brain. However, they must be based on reflections imprinted in the brain by direct contemplation: plain, sand, heat, sun.

The Word has given us the opportunity to think creatively, to create science, literature, art, to learn even that which is inaccessible to direct perception.

To solve his problem, Polzunov followed the same dialectical path as his predecessors, but more complex, difficult and unique.

At this time, as we have seen, he already had a large and varied industrial experience. This experience allowed him to clearly see the needs of production and boldly set grandiose technical tasks, but this experience gave almost nothing to create a design and to carry it out.

How could the Russian genius overcome the tragic discrepancy between the grandeur of the idea and the need for experience for its implementation? Only relying on their theoretical preparedness, on a deep acquaintance with the technical literature of that time, richly and fully collected in the Barnaul library!

The main difficulty in solving the problem was to get continuous operation from the engine.

In the dewatering plant described in Schlatter's book, the steam-atmospheric machine made only one working stroke, when the piston fell down under air pressure, after which a reverse, “idle” stroke followed, which did not perform any useful work. Meanwhile, to operate factory mechanisms, such as blower bellows, a continuous driving force was required.

Polzunov thought, drew and calculated...

From all that technical and scientific literature could offer at that time, Polzunov chose the most appropriate solution: he would build a steam-atmospheric machine with two cylinders, so that the pistons in them moved simultaneously, but in opposite directions. Thus, the driving force in the machine will be uninterrupted.

During the day - at the small window of his log cabin, at night - by candlelight, the charge master, who had never seen real fire engines, knew them only from books, was thinking, drawing and calculating. He did not just reproduce the machine described in the literature - he created a new design for a new purpose.

It was a steam engine. Above the steam boiler, a Russian heat engineer placed two cylinders with pistons moving in the opposite direction. The movements of the pistons were transmitted to the blower bellows with the help of chains and pulleys. A system of tanks and pipes provided continuous water supply to the boiler. Polzunov made automatic supply of steam and water to the cylinders for condensation. All this was structurally very different from all known systems described in Schlatter's book.

All the "members" of the designed machine, according to Polzunov's plan, were supposed to "keep themselves in motion without the help of hands," as he wrote in his explanation for the project. Polzunov managed to achieve almost complete automation of his power plant, and from this alone one can judge what an advanced mind in heat engineering he was at that time.

This is not enough. The boiler was automatically fed with hot water that had been used in the machine. This desire for the full and rational use of heat in the machine, as well as the desire to automate its work, speaks of the exceptional depth and vigilance of his design ideas.

But that's not all. Although Polzunov intended his machine for the first case for blowing bellows, at the same time he saw in it in general "a fiery machine, capable of whatever needs to be corrected by our will." Indeed, the continuity of the operation of Polzunov's machine, due to the presence of two cylinders, made it possible to adapt it as an engine to any factory mechanism.

The desire for generalizations, characteristic of Russian scientific and technical thought, appears before us with extraordinary brightness in the project of the first Russian heat engineer. Already in the very design of his car was laid its versatility, suitability to meet all needs in the driving force. How far and how clearly Polzunov saw the further path of development of energy technology, at the very beginning of which he stood, is shown by the subsequent history of its development.

Polzunov worked tirelessly for about two years, developing a detailed design of his machine, "facilitating the work for us to come," as he later wrote in an explanation to the project, "directing all possible labors and forces to that, in which way the fire would be incline to the machines as a servant."

In April 1763, Polzunov submitted his project to his boss, General Poroshin. The office of the mining authorities, according to Poroshin, reacted positively to the project, recognized that the machine proposed by Polzunov "would bring great benefits", but doubted "with extreme regret" that "it can be put into action here" due to the lack of knowledgeable people and experienced craftsmen. Therefore, Polzunov was asked to build a machine “in a small form” in order to check whether it would work and whether among the local workers there were “craftsmen of copper, plumbing, casting” who could cope with the delicate work.

At the same time, it was decided to “report” Polzunov’s project to St. Petersburg, and “in order to encourage henceforth, both the aforementioned Polzunov and others who are prone to curiosity and labors and do not disdain people, to ask permission to award him, Polzunov, with the rank of mechanicus and, in addition ordinary annual salary, in the amount of money up to two hundred rubles.

In April 1763, Polzunov submitted his project to the Mining Chancellery. In December, he signed the reading of the royal decree here.

General Poroshin somewhat interpreted what he had read in his own way. He decided to issue a monetary reward not earlier than the machine was put into operation, and he did not consider it necessary to let Polzunov go to the academy, referring to the fact that without a mechanic it would be impossible to build a machine. In order to somehow delay the whole unpleasant business, he suggested that the inventor redo the project in accordance with Schlatter's instructions, although the royal decree did not require it.

The happiest day - the first and last in Polzunov's life - ended with the inventor, to the despair of his wife and mother, sitting down again at his table. He reworked the project, taking into account the authority of Schlatter.

It was an uninspired and gloomy work. Polzunov spoiled his car to please Schlatter. Meanwhile, for many months, while the project was sent to St. Petersburg, Polzunov managed to build a model of the machine. She convinced him that Schlatter's distrust was based on nothing.

In March 1764 new project was handed over to the Mining Chancellery and approved by its advisers. Poroshin had no choice but to release the materials and funds for the construction to the inventor and put at his disposal several students and workers.

In the prescription of the office, announced to Polzunov, he was asked to begin construction by choosing students from the employees of the factories, whom he was charged with the duty of “training, instructing and clearly interpreting the first mechanical principles and rules, so that he could receive help from them.”

Presenting a bill of materials and tools required for the construction of the machine, Polzunov asked that Dimitri Levzin, Fyodor Ovchinnikov, Ivan Chernitsyn and Pyotr Vyatchenin be seconded to him as the most capable of the young factory workers. With these assistants, he began construction.

The manufacture of parts of a machine that had never been built by anyone, with the imperfection of the technical means of that time, was an unheard of difficult and complicated matter. It required the constant participation of the designer himself, who had to not only teach others, but also learn from experience and mistakes himself. And he built not only the machine itself, but also the lathes he designed for processing parts of the future machine.

Polzunov spent days and nights at work, resting in fits and starts, often forgetting about lunch. He did not shun menial work, tormented himself with both physical and creative labor. He was urged on by inquiries about the state of affairs from St. Petersburg, and in addition to natural difficulties, the Mining Chancellery put up its own obstacles, harassing the inventor with reports, delaying the release of materials and money.

Polzunov drew, calculated, followed either the casting of parts or the construction of the machine building. He reported on expenses and unsubscribed from the demanding authorities, who looked with displeasure at the idea of ​​​​the master. Even Polzunov's old comrade from school, the builder of water wheels in the mines, Kuzma Frolov, a wonderful Russian mechanic, was also doubtful of his friend's plans.

Why, you can’t get material for your fire machine, he repeated, but there will be no one to look after it. We have as much forest as we want for water wheels, we can erect them, there is enough water everywhere.

Despite the incredible difficulties, the construction of the machine continued. Polzunov could barely stand on his feet: tuberculosis was eating him up. Inhuman stress, sleepless nights, difficult childhood, half-starved youth did their job.

In the evenings, in his free time, Polzunov, choking with a cough, would go to the Ob or Barnaulka, which emptied into it, and then he would sit alone for a long time on the shore, thinking now about the car, now about the brilliant Petersburg where the academy was waiting for him. With anguish, he peered into the misty distance of the river, into the harsh sunset and purple sky, or drew some detail of the machine on the sand. Sometimes, attacking a new idea, Polzunov ran to the building, more often he sat out until his wife came. By a dull cough, she would find him at dusk and quietly take him home.

Will I die? he sometimes asked, marveling at his weakness and the indifference that overwhelmed him. - What do you think, huh?

A young Russian scientist, a Swede by origin, Eric Laxman, who was in Barnaul at that time, was a witness to Polzunov's hard work and ingenious ingenuity these days. He was sent here as a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences to study botany and mineralogy.

Laxman highly valued Polzunov and was proud of his friendship. In February 1765, Laxman wrote from Barnaul to St. Petersburg to his friends:

“The other one, with whom I am most familiar, is the mining mechanic Ivan Polzunov, a husband who does honor to his fatherland. He is now building a fiery machine, completely different from the Hungarian and English ones. This machine will set in motion the bellows or cylinders in the smelters by means of fire: what profit will follow from that! Over time, in Russia, if necessary, it will be possible to build factories on high mountains and even in mines. Fifteen furnaces will operate from this machine.

Showing his machine to Laxman and explaining its advantages over the "fire machines" of the West, Polzunov, as we see from this letter, was well aware of the achievements of science and technology in Europe.

And Laxman, of course, was right when he called Polzunov "a husband who does honor to his fatherland."

In mining, Laxman himself was not well versed, then Polzunov became his teacher. The student and teacher quickly became friends. Laxman instilled in him faith in achieving the intended goals. He was a strong, cheerful man; interested in everything, he left traces of his activities in chemistry, and in botany, and in mineralogy. Not tired either in studies or in teaching, Laxman spent several years traveling through the snowy Siberian expanses.

Laxman spoke not only about himself. He talked about his teacher Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish scientist, about the great Lomonosov, about many other people he met. He talked about St. Petersburg and made the gloomy inventor smile easily and sincerely.

So the summer passed. In the fall, Polzunov seemed to feel better. The construction of the machine was coming to an end, the main difficulties were overcome. The apprentices of the Mechanicus mastered the science and sometimes gave the teacher good advice themselves. Polzunov saw that they could manage the business without him, and only waited for a test run of the machine to ask for dismissal from work.

But no matter how they rushed to finish the construction, it dragged on until deep winter. Only in December 1765 was the machine finally rough ready. Polzunov decided to make a test.

In the early morning the boilers began to heat up. Instead of furs not yet made, the machine was loaded with huge logs. Mechanicus, this time donning a uniform and a cocked hat, inspected the machine and without any hesitation, in the presence of his students Levzin and Cheriitsyn, turned on the faucet and turned on the steam.

Huge pistons, a meter in diameter, moved with noise and squeal in three-meter cylinders. The logs replacing the bellows went up and down, towards each other. Until the last minute, few believed, except for the inventor himself, in the possibility of setting heavy bars in motion in this way.

The Mechanicus took off his cocked hat. Chernitsyn approached the teacher and bent down to kiss his hand. Polzunov embraced him and said muffledly:

Much hardship has been endured and exhaustion in health, but the machine has been put into operation for us and the fatherland for joy and benefit ... And for you and Levzin, after my dismissal, have supervision over it and build new ones according to this model ...

He coughed, gasping for breath, went to the window, sat down on a stool and picked up some kind of drawing to hide his pain and agitation.

Levzin, who was digging through the furnace, looked back at the mechanicus. Polzunov ordered to extinguish the fire and carefully inspect the car. Not everything was finished yet: there was a need for finishing touches. The new blower bellows were not ready either, the cauldron had not yet been bricked up, but the machine worked, as testing showed, and the teacher's haggard face shone with happiness.

However, only in the spring, feeling the hopelessness of his position and the proximity of death, Polzunov decided to ask for his dismissal and for the issuance of the promised remuneration.

“I made the above-mentioned shown machine with my constant and vigilant diligence in all its members and, having assembled it in the built factory, set it up and brought it to action at melting furnaces, which was confirmed by the commander of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories, the commander, Major General and Cavalier Poroshin, with some mountain officers have already testified, in which the structure I suffered no small burden and exhaustion in health. With all the same machine arrangement, from the mechanics students who were with me, Dmitry Levzin, Ivan Chernitsyn, they deliberately understood the composition in terms and know the production, and if it turns out to be damaged in something in the future, they can fix it ... "

“For the indefatigable work and diligence that I have indicated when arranging the machine, the money granted four hundred rubles from the Office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining authorities to me, and if, by the will of God, I die from the disease that is now on me, then my remaining wife for food and commemoration give out my soul. And the disciples of Levzin and Chernitsyn, would you deign to the most graciously named major general and cavalier or other mountain officers in knowledge to testify and dismiss me from all that machine production due to illness ... "

The petition, sent to St. Petersburg, as required by subordination, through the Mining Chancellery caused a commotion among the mining authorities. On the same day, the office decided:

“In order for him to have no doubts about the issuance of that certain award and to calm down in spirit, this money of four hundred rubles in silver coins, now from the commissariat government, is to be given to him, Polzunov, and if, more than aspirations, he will not live to see his wife.”

The supervision of the machine until the recovery of the mechanicus was entrusted to Levzin and Chernitsyn. Loyal students hastily prepared the machine for commissioning, but ten days before launch, on May 16, 1766, Polzunov died of "severe guttural bleeding."

The Empress’s cabinet, which managed state-owned factories, expressed “extreme regret about the early death” of Polzunov and demanded an explanation why a monetary reward had not been issued in a timely manner to someone who “has always been worthy of great praise and generous rewards already and for the fact that, being a person in educated in the wilderness remote from sciences, could by his natural sharpness and self-taught, so to speak, not understanding, moreover, foreign languages, to know the composition and action thereof, and to build such a machine himself.

- A lot of burdens have been suffered ... but the machine has been put into action ...

From the test log of the Polzunov machine, which took place shortly after the death of its creator, it is clear that the brilliant teacher left his students with a completely finished creation. Chernitsyn and Levzin announced on May 22 that the car was ready for launch, and received orders on the morning of May 23 to separate the steam and set the car in motion.

The officers who were present at the test of the machine, led by Poroshin, were convinced that the machine was working perfectly, “the furs have a deliberate movement, from a chest attached to the fur pipes or nozzles, air is satisfied in all twelve tubes, and it is noted that there is ten or all of that air there will be twelve ovens."

The first factory-made engine in the world was created, the bold plan of the Russian genius began to be fulfilled.

Despite the particular technical imperfections that were discovered in the operation of the machine, which were eliminated by Levzin and Chernitsyn, Polzunov's engine worked for forty-three days.

The rumor about a new profitable and convenient car was already spreading everywhere, requests from some factories about Polzunov’s car had already begun to arrive at the Mining Office, and even a demand was received from Nerchinsk to send drawings.

But in November of the same year, 1766, the furnace vaults burned out and the copper boiler began to leak. The machine had to be stopped and the issue of replacing the boiler with a stronger one, about changing some parts made without proper precision or from the wrong material, was taken up. The mining authorities did not lose hope that he would be able to “introduce this useful machine into the custom in Russia,” but General Poroshin was soon replaced by A.I. Irman turned to the office with a request whether it would be ordered to disassemble the machine, since the office "did not recognize it as necessary due to the abundance of water at the local plant."

The Cabinet agreed, but with the proviso that “members should store for the future sometimes in the future the need for such a machine in a place where, due to lack of water G better use may be used."

However, no one took care of the safety of parts of the machine in Barnaul, and the very memory of the grand enterprise of the Russian genius almost disappeared.

General Poroshin, before leaving his post, in 1768 sent with Levzin to St. Petersburg a model of a car, begun by Polzunov and completed by his devoted students. The cabinet sent the model to the Academy of Sciences "to classify it among the worthy things stored in it of the same curiosity and some note," and Levzin, as the closest student of Polzunov, offered to leave it at the academy for training.

The chancellery of the academy decided: to entrust Levzin for training to Professor Kotelnikov, to put the model of the machine in the cabinet of curiosities, and at the same time to request from the Medical College a model of some kind of “acting in pairs” machine, “bought in Berlin from Dr. Lieberkind”, in order to carry out a comparative study of both machines.

However, no further information about the Polzunov model could be found.

Did anyone take advantage of the design ideas of the Russian inventor, or did everything that happened in the Siberian wilderness remain forgotten for a long time? There is no doubt that Polzunov's experience gained fame outside of Russia - at least in narrow circles of technicians and engineers, as can be seen from the documents that have come down to us - and led technical thought to the creation of a universal engine. Polzunov doubled the cylinders to obtain a continuous driving force, eliminated the rocker, introduced automatic water supply to the boiler and, most importantly, created the world's first universal engine, fundamentally suitable for all other needs of the national economy.

So, the time in which Polzunov made his wonderful invention refers to the beginning of the history of the city of Barnaul. In 1727, on the Belaya River at the foot of the Kolyvan Mountains, Akinfy Demidov's ascribed people built the first copper smelter in Altai. They called this plant Kolyvano-Voskresensky, after the name of the Kolyvan Lake located near and the Resurrection mine. After 12 years, they began to build another plant, at the mouth of the Barnaulka river. The Barnaul plant was intended for the smelting of silver-bearing ores, which were mined in the Zmeinogorsk mine.

In 1747, all the factories and mines of Demidov in Altai became the property of the Russian tsars. The new royal estate, called the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories, included, according to the modern administrative division, the Altai Territory, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo regions and part of the eastern regions of Kazakhstan. The total territory was 443 thousand km 2, which is approximately equal to the area of ​​Sweden. The center was the Barnaul plant, which housed the Chancellery of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky plants, which was directly subordinate to the management of all imperial estates - "Her Majesty's Cabinet".

In December 1747, on his way to the Altai, Beer stopped in Yekaterinburg. Taking advantage of the right granted to him, he selected a large group of mining specialists here for the royal factories. Among them was 18-year-old mechanic apprentice Ivan Polzunov. By that time, he had studied for 6 years in a verbal, and then in an arithmetic school at the Yekaterinburg Metallurgical Plant, which at that time was quite a lot. From school, as the best of the best, he was taken as a student by the mechanic of the factories of the Urals and Siberia, Nikita Bakhorev, and in 5 years of work with him, Polzunov achieved a lot. In Barnaul, young Polzunov received the position of gittenschreiber, i.e. melting clerk. This work is not only technical, because the young man found out how much and what kind of ore, coal, fluxes are needed for smelting in a particular furnace, he gets acquainted, albeit theoretically, with the smelting mode. The giftedness of the young gittenschreiber was so obvious that it attracted the attention of the factory authorities.

Less than 3 years after moving to Barnaul, on April 11, 1750, at the suggestion of one of the plant managers and the largest expert in the mining business, Samuel Christiani, Polzunov was promoted to the junior master rank with an increase in salary to 36 rubles. in year. Simultaneously with the new production, it was decided that Christiani should train Polzunov to such an extent that Polzunov "...could be worthy of being promoted to the rank of chief officer." The decree announced to Polzunov "... that if he learns the mentioned sciences and, among other things, sees skillfully, then he will have to be assigned a senior unterschitmeister salary, and will not be left with an increase in rank."

This decision, which provided Polzunov with the opportunity to realize his desire for learning, was not implemented. Christiani, busy managing the factories entrusted to him after the death of Andreas Beer in May 1751, sought to use Polzunov as a reliable and conscientious worker in various chores. The lack of people, especially specialists, was the scourge of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories. Many workers died due to poor nutrition (bread was delivered intermittently over hundreds of miles), household disorder, and lack of medical care.

On June 26, 1750, the junior unterschichtmeister Ivan Polzunov was given the task of checking whether the place for the pier on the Charysh River, above the village of Tugozvonnaya (now the Charyshsky District), was chosen correctly, and also to measure and describe the road to the Zmeinogorsky mine. By that time, huge heaps of ore had accumulated there, which they did not have time to export. Polzunov inspected the place for the pier, and then walked with a measuring chain to the very mine. He measured 85 versts 400 sazhens, marked the entire route with stakes, even outlined "winter huts" - convenient places for spending the night wagon trains with ore. The length of the future road turned out to be 2 times shorter than the current ore-carrying one.

"Saw" mill in Zmeinogorsk

According to the results of the trip, he "made" a drawing with detailed description, showing himself also as an excellent draftsman (this drawing is still kept in the state archive of the Altai Territory). Polzunov returned to the plant in July, and in August he was again sent to the Krasnoyarsk pier, where this time he spent a whole year. In the autumn he built an ore shed, a guard hut for the soldiers of the guard, in the winter he received five thousand pounds of ore from the peasant carters, and in the spring he organized its shipment along the Charysh and Ob to the Barnaul plant; he returned to Gittensteiburg only

autumn. On September 21, 1751, Polzunov, together with his partner A. Beer, again submitted a joint petition to the Chancellery with a request and a reminder of the promise to teach them mining sciences. But only in November 1753 did Christiani finally fulfill his request. He appoints him as a superintendent of the work of the smelters for half a year, and then to the Zmeinogorsky mine. This was the study. I had to study at the smelter, in the mine, adopting experience and knowledge from practitioners, because there were no universities, technical schools, or even schools in Altai at that time, just as there was no technical literature in Russian. In addition to studying various mining operations, it was here that Polzunov first showed himself as an inventor. He took part in the construction of a new sawmill near the dam. The sawmill was the first factory building erected under the direction of I.I. Polzunov.

It represented one of the most complex technical structures of that time. From the rotating water wheel, the transmission was carried out to two sawmill frames, to the "sledge", on which the sawn logs moved, and to the log haul. The transmission mechanism was a complex set of moving parts, which included: cam gear, gear, shafts, cranks, connecting rods, ratchet wheels, rope gates. Here Polzunov received a practical school in the design and installation of complex transmission mechanisms containing automation elements. Very interesting was Polzunov's decision to locate the sawmill not at the dam, but at some distance from the Zmeevka River on a diversion canal. In November 1754, Polzunov was appointed to the plant to conduct "a secondment to artisans and working people to work," as well as "supervision of all work."

Along with this, Christiani still did not bypass him with assignments, sometimes quite unexpected. Here is one of them. In January 1755, a glass factory was put into operation in the upper reaches of the factory pond. Two people sent from central Russia"glass" masters. At first, the dishes they made turned out to be with a "fog", not transparent - an obvious marriage. The "glass" masters failed to identify the cause of the marriage. Then it was entrusted to Polzunov. He non-stop spent about a month at the plant, meticulously delving into all the little things of a completely unfamiliar glass melting technology and solved the riddle! The dishes fogged up because they were not cooled properly.

It can be said without exaggeration that by this time Polzunov had won such authority from his superiors that none of his comrades, non-commissioned masters, had. Here is convincing proof of this. In January 1758, it was planned to send another caravan with silver to St. Petersburg. It was only possible to entrust such a load, and this is no less than 3600 kg of silver and 24 kg of gold, to an officer. But by that time there were only four of them. It was “impossible” to do without any of them for eight to ten months (the trip to the capital took so much time) without prejudice to business. And the Office came up with such a way out; army captain Shirman was appointed as a caravan officer, and since he was not aware of factory affairs, to help him in case, "if he asked anything, he could clearly and extensively convey ... he was recognized as capable

Unterschichtmeister Polzunov." He was also given a package of documents for transfer to the Cabinet, as well as a large amount of money for the purchase of goods needed by the plant.

This trip was doubly, triple joyful for Polzunov. He got the opportunity to visit, although passing through, his native Yekaterinburg, to see the capital, Moscow, Russia. On the 64th day, the caravan arrived in St. Petersburg. Polzunov was again entrusted with handing over the precious metals. They were received personally by the director of the Mint, Johann Wilhelm Schlatter (in Russian, Ivan Andreevich), the largest specialist in Russia in the field of mining, coinage, and metallurgy. After St. Petersburg, Polzunov stayed in Moscow for another three months to buy the goods ordered by the Chancellery. Here he found his personal happiness - he met a young soldier's widow Pelageya Povalyaeva. Together they went to Siberia.

In January 1759, Polzunov was sent to the Krasnoyarsk and Kabanovskaya piers to supervise the reception of ore. Here he received in March a letter from Christiani, which began like this: "The most noble and venerable Mr. Schichtmeister"! Is it necessary to say what feelings these words aroused in Polzunov? They meant that the long-awaited decree of the Cabinet had finally arrived! He became a master! A cherished dream came true, ten years of impeccable service were crowned with success!...

Why was Polzunov so eager to become an officer?

He was not driven by ambition, although he probably had it. But the main thing was that now he was moving from a taxable, disenfranchised, "mean" estate to a privileged one, becoming a nobleman, "your honor", a free man. No one could subject him to corporal punishment, insult him, even say "you". Restrictions on service were lifted, now he could full force expand their capabilities, knowledge, energy, in a word, bring more benefits to the Fatherland. Finally, not the last role for him, now a family man, was played by material side: the salary has tripled, a batman has appeared ...

Polzunov was transferred to a "real" officer position - the commissar of the Kolyvan plant "at the receipt and expenditure of the monetary treasury" or, in relation to current concepts, the deputy manager of the plant for the economic part. Meanwhile, things at the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories began to decline. So, if in the year of Beer's death in 1751 the smelting of silver reached 366 pounds, then by 1760 it had dropped to 264 pounds. The Cabinet, or rather the crowned mistress of the factories, did not want to put up with such a loss of income. In October 1761, the head of the factories A.I. Poroshin, shortly before promoted to major general, was returned to Altai. He brought with him a whole package of measures "to improve the factories" developed by the Cabinet (with his participation) and approved by the Empress.

One of these measures was the construction of a new silver smelter. The question arises - was it not easier to increase the capacity of the existing ones -

Barnaul and Kolyvansky? That's the thing - no. The capacity of the plant was limited by the number of water wheels, or, in other words, by the amount of water in the pond. The plant also needed a large supply of forest nearby for burning charcoal (at that time they did not know how to use stone).

The river and the forest were an indispensable condition for the construction of the plant, and not every river was suitable, but only not very wide and not very fast with strong (not sandy) banks. It was not easy to find such a place near the Zmeinogorsky mine. It is no coincidence that the Barnaul plant is located 240 versts from it. With the arrival of A.I. Poroshin, the search acquired a wide scope. All mountain officers were involved in them, only I.I. Polzunov was not involved. Shortly before that, he headed the povyte (office) "for forestry and smoking affairs" of the Barnaul plant, he was given time to get used to the new troublesome position. But he did not want to stay away from what the entire "mountain society" lived, he also looked for a way out, only his thoughts went in a different direction: how to overcome the slavish dependence of mining and factory production on a water wheel? In April 1763, he put an unexpected and daring project of a "fiery" machine on the table of the head of the plant. I.I. Polzunov intended it to actuate blower bellows; and in the future he dreamed of adapting "according to our will, what would need to be corrected", but did not have time to do this ... "

In order to appreciate the creative feat of I.I. Polzunov, let us recall that at that time in Russia not a single steam engine was not there yet. The only source from which he knew that there was such a thing in the world was I.V. Schlatter's book "A Detailed Instruction to Mining", published in St. Petersburg in 1760. But in the book there was only a diagram and the principle of operation of a single-cylinder Newcomen machine, but not a word about the technology of its manufacture. It never occurred to IV Schlatter that anyone in Russia might need such information. It can be said without exaggeration that Polzunov borrowed from I.V. Schlatter only the idea of ​​a steam-atmospheric engine, he thought of everything else himself. The necessary knowledge about the nature of heat, the properties of water, air, steam, he drew from the works of M.V. Lomonosov.

Soberly assessing the difficulties of carrying out a completely new business in Russia, Polzunov proposed to build at first, as an experiment, one small machine of a design he developed for servicing a blower installation (consisting of two wedge-shaped bellows) with one melting furnace. In the drawing attached to the note, in the explanatory text, the installation, according to Polzunov's first project, included: a boiler - in general, of the same design that was used in Newcomen's machines; a steam-atmospheric machine, consisting of two cylinders with pistons ("emvols") alternately moving in them in opposite directions, equipped with steam and water distribution systems; tanks, pumps and pipes for supplying the plant with water; a transmission mechanism in the form of a system of pulleys with chains (Polzunov refused a balancer), which sets the blower furs in motion. Water vapor from the boiler entered the piston of one of the working cylinders. This equalized the air pressure.

The vapor pressure was only slightly higher than the pressure of atmospheric air. The pistons in the cylinder were connected by chains, and when one of the pistons was raised, the second one fell. When the piston reached its upper position, steam access was automatically stopped, and cold water was sprayed into the cylinder. The steam condensed and a vacuum formed under the piston (rarefied space). By the force of atmospheric pressure, the piston descended to the lower position and pulled the piston behind it in the second working cylinder, where steam from the same boiler was let in to equalize the pressure by an automatic machine acting from the engine transmission mechanism.

The fact that the pistons with the motion transmission system were connected by chains shows that when the pistons were lifted up the chain, motions could not be transmitted (the chain was not tensioned). All parts of the engine worked due to the energy of the descending piston. those. the piston, which moved under the action of atmospheric pressure. The steam did no useful work in the engine. The value of this work depended on the consumption of thermal energy throughout the entire cycle. The amount of thermal energy expended expressed the magnitude of the potential energy of each of the pistons. This is a dual steam-atmospheric cycle. Polzunov clearly represented the principle of operation of a heat engine. This can be seen in the examples with which he characterized the conditions best work the engine he invented. He defined the dependence of engine operation on the temperature of the water condensing the steam in the following words: “the action of the emvols and their ascents and descents will become higher, the colder the water in the fantals, and even more so from the one that reaches the freezing point, but does not yet thicken and from this, in the whole movement, ability will give a lot. This proposition, now known in thermodynamics as a particular case of one of its fundamental laws, had not yet been formulated before Polzunov. To understand its meaning, let's translate Polzunov's words into our modern language: the work of a heat engine will be the greater, the lower the temperature of the water condensing the steam, and especially when it reaches the solidification point of water 0 ° C. Polzunov's engine in his project of 1763 was intended for supplying air to melting furnaces with blower bellows. At the same time, he actuated the pistons of the water pumps that supply water to the upper pool to feed the "fountains" inside the cylinders at the moment the steam condenses. Thus, the engine could drive two different mechanisms - water pumps and bellows, which no other machine in the world had done before. In addition, he could drive hammers, ore crushers, and many other factory and mine mechanisms. If desired, the engine could easily perform rotational movements using a crank mechanism widely known in Russia. Polzunov's project was considered by the office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories and was highly appreciated by the head of the factories A.I. Poroshin. Poroshin pointed out that if Polzunov undertakes to make a machine suitable for servicing several furnaces at once, if he builds a machine suitable for pouring water from mines, then the Chancellery will willingly support his plans. The final decision on this issue remained with the Cabinet and

the mistress of the factories - Catherine II. The project was sent to St. Petersburg, but the response of the Cabinet was received in Barnaul only a year later. By decree of the Cabinet of November 19, 1763, the Empress granted the inventor to the "mechanicus" with the rank and rank of engineer captain-lieutenant. This meant that Polzunov was now provided with a salary of 240 rubles per annum, with the addition of two orderlies and the maintenance of horses, he received 314 rubles. He was promised a reward of 400 rubles.

All this is a great mercy. She once again testifies that Empress Catherine loved to maintain her fame as the patroness of sciences and arts. But the size of the encouragement once again confirms that the significance of Polzunov's invention was not understood in St. Petersburg. To confirm, we can cite the following fact: when Polzunov's namesake Ivan Kulibin presented the empress with the original watch he made, he received 1,000 rubles as a gift. When he made a model of a bridge across the Neva in one span, he was awarded the same amount and was showered with other rewards. After testing the bridge, Kulibin received another 2,000 rubles as a reward. Ivan Kulibin, of course, was a highly gifted mechanic, but still his inventions cannot be placed next to Polzunov's machine.

Speaking about the role and significance of the first project of the "fiery machine" in the world history of technology, the following should be stated with confidence: if Polzunov did not build anything at all and did not design anything, but only left a sketch of his first project, then this would be enough, to bow before his brilliant idea.

While the Cabinet was considering the engine project, Polzunov wasted no time working on the project for the second stage. He designed a powerful heat engine for 15 melting furnaces. It was already a real heat power station. Polzunov did not just increase the scale of the engine, but made a number of significant changes to it. After the project of a powerful engine was completed, Polzunov became aware that the Cabinet, having familiarized himself with his first project, awarded him the title of mechanic and decided to give 400 rubles as a reward, but did not take any decision on the merits of the issue.

Despite this position of the Cabinet, the head of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky plants, A.I. Poroshin, allowed Polzunov to begin the implementation of the first stage of the project. In March 1764, I.I. Polzunov proposed to start building a large heat engine. Poroshin agreed with this proposal. Thus, the construction of the world's first universal thermal power plant began at the Barnaul plant.

It was a serious decision, if only because the car would cost no less than building a new factory. Polzunov was required to apply for labor and materials. He introduced her at the end of March. But it was a request

already on another machine, more powerful than in the first project. Why? Apparently, the events of recent months have forced the inventor to look at everything differently. At too high a price, he obtained permission to build. Probably hardly

once in a lifetime there will be such an opportunity ... Of course, Polzunov realized that without sufficient experience it would not be easy to create a large machine for driving blower bellows, providing 6-9 melting furnaces. And yet he decided to do it. Before starting the construction of the machine, the inventor encountered a difficulty: the lack of people capable of realizing his ideas and the tools and mechanisms necessary for the construction. It was necessary to build the first steam engine in Russia, but there were neither specialists capable of leading the construction, nor skilled workers familiar with the construction of such engines. Polzunov himself, who assumed the duties common leader works, to some extent solved the problem of technical leadership, but precisely, "to some extent", because to lead one person is so new and difficult technical enterprise it was not possible.

No less difficult was the problem of selecting workers. Experienced modellers, foundry workers, blacksmiths, locksmiths, carpenters, roasters, specialists in copper and soldering were required. According to Polzunov's calculations, 76 people, including 19 highly qualified craftsmen, were to be directly involved in the construction of the engine. It was impossible to get such specialists on the spot. There was only one way out; call specialists from the Urals - a real forge of technical personnel.

Difficulties in acquiring building tools and the mechanisms proved even more insurmountable. According to the inventor's plan, "the whole machine must be made of metal", which inevitably required the presence of special metal-working equipment, which Russia almost did not have. The matter was aggravated by the fact that the engine was built in Altai, and this was an area with developed copper and silver smelting production, but backward foundry, forging and metalworking equipment.

Premonitions did not deceive the inventor. The Office has only fully approved considerations for the quantity of materials required. Not wanting to spend money on calling experienced craftsmen from the distant Urals, the factory authorities allocated Polzunov four students whom he knew and asked to be assigned to him, two retired artisans and four soldiers to guard the construction site.

The rest of the artisans (over 60 people) the Chancellery decided to appoint at the disposal of Polzunov as needed, "how much, when he, Polzunov, will have work to happen." During the construction of the machine, this "as required" was a source of constant difficulties. The decision of the office put forward new difficulties for the inventor. Four young students - Ovchinnikov, Levzin, Chernitsyn and Vyatchenin - reminded him of his own youth, the life of a beginning "mechanical student". The retired artisans Medvedev and Bobrovnikov became decrepit over the years and lost their strength so much that they were removed from factory work for their infirmity. Thus, instead of seventy-six people, Polzunov was entrusted with ten. Only then a few more ascribed peasants were identified. But even under such circumstances, the inventor does not

trembled, did not retreat. His work was his life's work. When he had to choose between the quiet existence of an ordinary factory employee and the difficult, risky life of a mechanical engineer, he chose the latter. The car was built in two places at once. Casting and processing of cylinders, pallets and other large parts was carried out in one of the workshops of the Barnaul plant, where it was possible to use a water wheel, lathes, flattening (rolling) machines, water-acting hammers for the manufacture of spherical copper sheets for assembling the boiler; small parts were cast and forged in the premises of a temporarily closed glass factory, where a small melting furnace with a forge was built especially for this purpose. The plant was located in the upper reaches of the pond, three miles from the village. These versts Polzunov had to measure more than once a day. Such a load could exhaust a healthy person, but he developed consumption ...

Appearance the building in which Polzunov's car was placed. Later reproduction of the drawing from 1765

Until now, all factory equipment, including a water wheel, machine tools, was made mainly of wood, there were few metal parts. And here it was necessary to build a huge car for those times, 11 meters high, almost entirely of metal, to build, as they say, from a sheet, without even testing it on a model. And this is despite the lack of experienced specialists, the necessary machines and tools. Polzunov had to invent some machines and tools literally on the go. At the beginning of construction, Polzunov made a serious mistake, due to which he lost about two months of precious summer time. In order to reduce the cost of the machine, he decided to cast cylinders from an alloy of copper and lead, and water pipes and other small parts - entirely from lead. In fact, it turned out that they did not have the necessary margin of safety. I had to start all over again, why ask for an additional 224 pounds of copper and 15 pounds

tin. There was no tin in the warehouse, the Chancellery ordered to buy it from local merchants, although they took the opportunity to raise the price higher than usual. New cylinders (from an alloy of copper and tin) were cast only in late September - early October; their turning and grinding of the inner walls began already with the onset of winter. On May 20, he reported that, in addition to the boiler, up to 110 parts had already been made for the machine by "casting and turning work", with a "burden" from one to one hundred and seventy pounds each. The following figure testifies to the scope of turning work alone: ​​in July, Polzunov handed over 97 pounds of copper filings to the warehouse!

So, the parts of the car were basically ready. In the time remaining before winter, it was necessary to build a building for it, and in it "largely connect", assemble a car. Polzunov promised to do this by October. It must be said that he appointed himself an extremely short time.

They built the world's first heat engine on the right bank of the pond, not far from the Barnaul silver-smelting plant, next to a small glass factory. A large shed was built for the car, as high as a three-story house. The diggers were the first to set to work. At the place where the car should have been installed, they took out a layer of soft soil. Foundation beams were laid on a flat platform. Now one could hope that under the weight of the machine, the earth would not begin to subside. Gradually, the walls of the furnace for heating the boiler grew. At the bottom, mechanisms were built to lift cylinders and other heavy parts. They laid out the furnace furnace, the turn came to install a steam boiler. By this time, the builders had not received a cast boiler with thick walls. The fate of the request for the manufacture of such a boiler, sent to the Yekaterinburg plant, remained unknown. The situation became critical. After much deliberation, Polzunov decided to temporarily install a thin-walled boiler own production. There was simply no other way out. All autumn passed in the assembly of the machine. These days were the most intense for the builders of the "fiery" machine. What was the cost of assembling just one seven hundred bucket boiler from separate sheets with riveting and soldering seams, attaching various fittings to it. It was necessary to raise 150-pound cylinders to a height of two floors, install them exactly vertically at given points, assemble a multi-meter web of pipes, a pumping unit, balancers, etc., fix everything properly, solder it in a hundred places, etc.

A huge overstrain of forces and work in an unheated room until the very night, when the cold metal parts of the machines burned their hands with frost, undermined Polzunov's health. It is known that from May 1764 to August 1765, he turned three times to the doctor of the Barnaul hospital Yakov Kizing for help, because. was "obsessed with a thumping in the chest."

By December 7, the assembly of the machine was basically completed, and the inventor decided to make its first trial run, to test it in operation. Instead of the handles of blower bellows (the construction of bellows had not yet begun), a bunch of logs were attached to the balancers of the transmission mechanism. By the way the machine would lift such a weight, the inventor hoped to determine its power. And so

the long-awaited day of the first start-up of the machine has come. Work started earlier than usual. For the last time, we checked the adjustment of the steam and water distribution mechanism, the reliability of the operation of the steam and water taps. By noon, the inspection of all mechanisms and systems was completed. After a short break, on command, water was poured into the reserve pool, hand pump pumped it into the upper tank.

Finally, the fuss subsided. Quietly and a little decorously stood and looked at the "hero" of the occasion. Here he abruptly approached the firebox, bent down and began to kindle the firewood laid in it since the previous evening. Dry birch logs quickly flared up, crackling merrily and scattering sparks. Finally, the first flames licked the dull copper of the steam boiler. Two agonizing hours passed. The water in the boiler began to boil, releasing more and more steam. Finally, with a noise and a whistle, the steam burst into the cylinder. The balancer, as if reluctantly, shook the logs suspended from it. Then something thumped in the cylinder, the balancer swung again. Immediately, as if on cue, the piston of the second cylinder came to life. The piston rods moved faster and faster, lightly swinging the heavy logs suspended from the balance bars. But Polzunov no longer saw this. A thick veil shrouded his eyes. A big courageous man, who was not broken by any hardships of life, wept with joy.

But during the launch, a number of shortcomings were revealed (which is quite natural). Polzunov immediately set about correcting them. By this time, he had moved into an apartment at the glass factory, which previously belonged to the "glass masters". There was no need to waste time on the road from the village and back. It was good, of course. But the bad thing is that now he disappeared by the car until his strength left him completely. But winter came, in the engine house at the time it was at least to freeze the wolves, how he endured there, it is difficult to understand. He returned home in the dark, chilled to the core, barely moving his legs, coughing up blood. And in the morning, despite the persuasion and tears of his wife, he again hurried to the car, fanatically shining his eyes on a frostbitten, emaciated - more beautifully put in a coffin - face. It was quite clear that, feeling the near end, he was in a hurry to complete the work he had begun, even at the cost of his life. In icy drafts, he climbed with assistants along the ladders around the car breathing cold, something

endlessly correcting, compacting, adjusting. A short winter day was not enough, evenings were seized. It is known that on December 30, 1765, Polzunov received three pounds of candles. By March, at last, huge covers of blowing bellows, made according to the project of the inventor, were delivered on 8 horses. They were installed and the machine is finally fully assembled. The case remained for melting furnaces. In the spring, Polzunov's illness worsened. On April 18, he once again began to bleed in his throat, after which he was no longer able to get up from

bed. With merciless clarity, the inventor realized that he would not live to see the start of the machine. On April 21, Polzunov dictated to Vanya Chernitsyn (he could no longer write) a petition addressed to the Empress. "The Most Gracious, Most Powerful, Great Sovereign Empress Ekaterina Alekseevna, Autocrat of All Russia, Most Merciful Empress! Mechanic Ivan beats her brow

Ivanovich, son of Polzunov, about the following: Your Imperial Majesty, as far back as 1763, considered the draft of a new machine I had composed and deigned to be pleased with it. And for the greater me and others following my example in such useful encouragement exercises, they deigned to give me 400 rubles as a reward. But that money has not yet been given to me. And although I didn’t get the chance to get that dacha, my zeal for the service did not weaken, and I made the aforementioned machine in all its members and assembled it in the built factory, set it up and brought it to action in the smelting furnaces, which was the main thing over the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories Commander Major General and Cavalier Poroshin with some mountain officers has already been witnessed. Under which structure I suffered a considerable burden and exhaustion in health. With all the same mechanical arrangement, from the mechanics who were with me, the students Dmitry Levzin, Ivan Chernitsyn, deliberately understood its composition in members and know the production, and if it turns out to be damaged in something in the future, they can correct it.

May 16, 1766 at six o'clock in the evening in the city of Barnaul, on the Irkutsk line (now Pushkinskaya street), I.I. Polzunov died. He was 38 years old. A week after the death of I.I. Polzunov, on May 23 (June 5), 1766, official tests of the world's first heat engine began. On the very first day, the testers came to the conclusion that the machine could drive bellows to supply air to 10-12 ovens.

The large engine built by Polzunov differed significantly in design from the machine that he described in the original project of 1763. The transmission of movement to the machines that the engine was supposed to serve was carried out using balancers. The chains connecting the engine pistons to the balancers, for greater strength, the inventor made of separate iron rods and articulated, i.e. of the type now known as "Gall's chains". The supply of the boiler with heated water was automated. Polzunov came up with a simple mechanism that kept the water in the boiler at the same level while the engine was running. This simplified the work of people servicing the machine.

In order for the air blast in the melting furnace to be uniform, I.I. Polzunov invented a blast accumulator. The bellows supplied air not immediately in the furnace, but into a large box - an "air chest", from which a continuous air stream entered the melting furnaces. I.I. Polzunov’s engine was called by his contemporaries a “smelter factory”. The height of the machine was 10 meters, and the cylinders were about 3 meters. The heat engine developed a power of 40 horsepower. The construction of a large, unprecedented machine in those production conditions that I.I. Polzunov had was a truly heroic, almost fabulous feat. It was truly a miracle, which only the genius of the great

Russian people. A man of heroic creative daring, the soldier's son Polzunov was the embodiment of the ingenuity and perseverance characteristic of our people. During the first tests of the heat engine, problems were discovered. During the tests, it turned out that water and steam seep between the pistons (emvols) and the cylinder walls, and the pumps supply water in insufficient

quantity. Called from the Zmeinogorsky mine, Kozma Frolov proposed replacing the mine pumps with water-lifting pumps. They brought the pumps from the Zmeinogorsky mine, installed them, and the result was excellent. So it was proved that Polzunov's machine is capable of performing another task - to pump water from the mine. Had Polzunov lived longer, he might have figured out how to use it to set machine tools in motion and, in general, "according to our will, what will need to be corrected."

With symbols, things were more complicated. The leather seal wore out quickly: tests have shown that cork bark is better suited for this.

On July 4, the fifth and last test of the machine was made. All mechanisms and systems worked well. The factory authorities decided to put the car into operation. The trials lasted for a month and a half. Most of the shortcomings were either the result of construction omissions, or those that could not be eliminated at the then level of technological development. But not a single word of reproach was said about the general design of the fire engine itself. Everything to the smallest detail was provided and taken into account by the inventor! The tests were over, but the car was idle for a whole month without use. In the first days of August 1766, the construction of smelting furnaces was finally completed; on August 4, the office scheduled the machine to be put into operation.

From early morning, impatiently shifting from foot to foot, people crowded around the building of an unprecedented car. Curious people gathered from all over Barnaul. By 7 o'clock in the morning, a flame was already bubbling in the furnace of the boiler. A thin whistle of steam signaled the readiness of the machine for work. From minute to minute they postponed the ignition of the furnaces and the beginning of the first smelting. For more than six hours the car was idle. At two o'clock in the afternoon all the factory authorities arrived. The solemn moment of blowing out the furnaces was coming. But the celebration did not take place, because. at the moment of blowing, the piston of the left cylinder suddenly stopped in the lower position, and the machine froze.

With the help of blocks, I had to remove the pistons from the cylinders, carefully examine both. The reason for the stop was still not found. At first glance, everything was in order. Only after the furnace was extinguished, steam was released from the boiler and a thorough inspection of the machine was made, it was discovered that the nut, which had weakened, apparently even during the test period, allowed the steam

adjuster to turn a much larger angle than intended. The steam regulator was jammed and would not turn to the sides. At the same time, the inlet window turned out to be closed, the steam did not have access to the cylinder. An unfortunate oversight disrupted the launch of the machine, and the repair delayed it for another two days. On August 7, at six o'clock in the morning, the mechanism was started up again, but this time they did not wait for the arrival of the high authorities. At two o'clock, without any solemnity, the melting furnaces were blown out. The day of August 7, 1766 will remain in the memory of people for centuries. On this day, the first steam power plant was put into operation, designed for

direct drive of factory units! The machine operated non-stop for more than three days. During this time, about 400 pounds of ore were melted. On August 10, the car was stopped again. The seal, made of poor quality cork bark, crumbled into crumbs and began to let cold water into the cylinder. I had to send a request for a cork to Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg pharmacies. Seeking a way out of this situation, they temporarily used birch bark for compaction.

All thoughts of the factory office were directed to the acquisition of cork bark. None of the technical managers of the plants thought of taking a different path: to change the design of the piston itself, to make it more perfect. In addition, many mines in the district operated sump pumps with pistons made of two discs, between which hemp was packed for compaction. Therefore, it was timely to use such a piston.

On September 25, with the arrival of the cork bark, the machine was put into action and worked with few stops until November 10. On this day, “in the afternoon at the sixth hour, during a very decent and uninterrupted action, it turned out, behind the flaring up of brick vaults under the cauldron, from one cauldron there was not a small water leak, so that the fire under the cauldron was extinguished, which for the sake of forced this machine in bulk and with smelting stop stoves. On this, Polzunov's machine "ended with work." The boiler, riveted from thin sheet copper, turned out to be her weak point. Polzunov also pointed out that he was only fit for the initial test, but it was not possible to make it more durable at the Barnaul plant.

The total useful time of the machine was 1023 hours (42 days and 15 hours). During this time, silver was received 14 pounds 38 pounds 17 spools 42 shares, gold 14 pounds 22 spools 75 shares. After deducting all the expenses for the construction of the machine, the payment of the smelters, even 400 rubles of reward to Polzunov, the net profit amounted to 11,016 rubles 10.25 kopecks. But the machine worked for less than a month and a half, and even then not at full capacity: it served only three furnaces. Nevertheless, it was decided that in the future "letting it into action, due to the abundance of water in the local plant, should not be recognized as necessary." This decision was signed, sadly, by the head of the factories, Poroshin, until recently an ardent supporter of the "fiery" machine.

The reason was, apparently, that at the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories, as well as throughout feudal Russia, there was no great need for cars. There were enough cheap forced laborers. Polzunov's tragedy was that he was ahead of his time... In 1784, James Watt received a patent for a universal heat engine, which soon won worldwide recognition. And Polzunov's car, having stood for 15 years, 5 months and 10 days, was dismantled in March 1782.

History of the steam engine

The first attempt to put steam at the service of man was made in England in 1698: the Savery machine was designed to drain mines and pump water. The inventor himself called it a "firing machine" and widely advertised it as a "friend of the miners." Fire was required to produce the steam that powered the machine, but Savery's invention was not yet an engine in the full sense of the word, since, apart from a few manually opened and closed valves, it had no moving parts.
Savery's machine worked as follows: first, a sealed tank was filled with steam, then the outer surface of the tank was cooled with cold water, causing the steam to condense, and a partial vacuum was created in the tank. After that, water - for example, from the bottom of the mine - was sucked into the reservoir through the intake pipe and, after the next portion of steam was admitted, was thrown out through the outlet. Then the cycle was repeated, but the water could only be lifted from a depth of less than 10.36 m, since in reality it was pushed out by atmospheric pressure.
The first successful "steam" engine with a piston was built by the Frenchman Denis Papin, whose name is more often associated with the invention of the autoclave, which is now available in almost every home in the form of a pressure cooker.
In 1674, Papin built a powder engine, the principle of which was based on the ignition of gunpowder in a cylinder and the movement of a piston inside the cylinder under the influence of powder gases. When excess gases exited the cylinder through a special valve, and the remaining gas cooled, a partial vacuum was created in the cylinder, and the piston returned to its original position under the action of atmospheric pressure.
The machine was not very successful, but it gave Papin the idea to replace gunpowder with water. And in 1698 he built a steam engine (in the same year, the Englishman Savery built his "fiery engine"). The water was heated inside a vertical cylinder with a piston inside, and the resulting steam pushed the piston up. As the steam cooled and condensed, the piston was pushed down by atmospheric pressure. Thus, through a system of blocks, Papin's steam engine could drive various mechanisms, such as pumps.
After hearing about the Papin steam engine, Thomas Newcomen, who often visited the mines in the West Country, where he worked as a blacksmith, and understood better than anyone else how good pumps are needed to prevent flooding

mines, joined forces with plumber and glazier John Calley in an attempt to build more perfect model. In 1705, a patent was issued to T. Newcomen for a water-lifting machine (Fig. 4), in which cylinders with a piston were used for the first time. The design of this machine covered

a contradiction that did not allow it to work continuously: the work of the steam moved the piston, which performed a useful action, but the piston extended to the end stopped working - it was necessary to open the valve, release steam and idle to return the piston to its original position.

Fig.4. The principle of operation of the Newcomen machine

The first steam engine was installed in a collieries in Staffordshire in 1712. As in Papen's machine, the piston moved in a vertical cylinder, but on the whole Newcomen's machine was much more advanced. To eliminate the gap between the cylinder and the piston, Newcomen fixed a flexible leather disk on the end of the latter and poured some water on it.
Steam from the boiler entered the base of the cylinder and lifted the piston up. But when cold water was injected into the cylinder, the steam condensed, a vacuum formed in the cylinder, and under the influence of atmospheric pressure the piston went down. This return stroke removed the water from the cylinder and, by means of a chain connected to a rocker, moving like a swing, raised the pump rod upwards. When the piston was at the bottom of its stroke, steam again entered the cylinder, and with the help of a counterweight mounted on the pump rod or on the rocker, the piston rose to its original position. After that, the cycle was repeated. Newcomen's machine was extremely successful and was used throughout Europe for more than 50 years. In 1740, a machine with a cylinder 2.74 m long and 76 cm in diameter did the work in one day, which teams of 25 people and 10 horses, working in shifts, used to do in a week. In 1775, an even larger machine built by John Smeaton (creator of the Eddystone Lighthouse) drained the dry dock in Kronstadt (Russia) in two weeks. Previously, with the use of high windmills, it took a whole year. And yet,

Newcomen's machine was far from perfect. It converted only about 1% of thermal energy into mechanical energy and, as a result, devoured a huge amount of fuel, which, however, did not matter much,

when the machine worked in the coal mines. In general, Newcomen's machines played a huge role in the preservation of the coal industry: with their help, it was possible to resume coal mining in many flooded mines.
The project of the world's first steam engine (Fig. 5), capable of directly actuating any working mechanisms, was proposed on April 25, 1763 by the Russian inventor I. I. Polzunov, a mechanic at the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining plants of Altai. The project got on the table to the head of the factories, who approved it and sent it to St. Petersburg, from where the answer soon came: "... This invention of his for a new invention should be honored". Polzunov's steam engine received recognition.

Drawing of the Polzunov machine Fig. 5 The principle of operation of the Polzunov steam engine

Unlike Newcomen's machine, Polzunov's machine produced work continuously. They used two cylinders, the pistons of which transferred work to a common shaft in turn. Thus, Polzunov spread the condition of the absence of idling between different objects, for the first time putting forward the idea of ​​adding up the work of several cylinders. When one cylinder was idling, the other was doing work. Polzunov proposed to build at first

a small machine on which it would be possible to identify and eliminate all the shortcomings inevitable in a new invention. The factory authorities did not agree with this and decided to immediately build a huge machine for a powerful blower.

The construction of the machine was entrusted to Polzunov, to whom were allocated " those who do not know, but have only one inclination for this, among the local artisans

two"Yes, even a few auxiliary workers. With this" staff "Polzunov started building his car. It was built for a year and nine months. When the car had already passed the first test, the inventor fell ill with transient consumption and died a few days before the final tests.
On May 23, 1766, Levzin and Chernitsyn, Polzunov's students, started the last tests of the steam engine alone. In the "Daily note" dated July 4, it was noted " correct machine action", and on August 7, 1766, the entire installation - a steam engine and a powerful blower - was put into operation.
In just three months of work, Polzunov's machine not only justified all the costs of its construction in the amount of 7233 rubles 55 kopecks, but also gave net profit in 12640 rubles 28 kopecks.
On November 10, 1766, the boiler leaked and the machine stopped. Despite the fact that this malfunction could be easily eliminated, the factory authorities, not interested in mechanization, abandoned Polzunov's creation.
Over the next thirty years, the machine was inactive, and in 1779 the then managers of the Altai factories gave the order to dismantle the machine, "to break the factory located at it and use the wood for whatever it would be good for."
Around the same time, the Scotsman James Watt worked on the creation of a steam engine in England. In 1784, the Englishman James Watt received a patent for a universal steam engine.

Fig.6. Watt steam engine cylinder operation

After twenty years of improvements, Watt finally got a continuous machine (Fig. 6). He smashed the contradiction within the same object: he closed the cylinder with a lid with an oil seal, now steam could be supplied alternately on both sides of the piston - the idling disappeared. The stroke in one half of the cylinder was idle for the other half.

Beginning in 1763, he was engaged in improving the inefficient Newcomen steam-atmospheric machine, which, in general, was only suitable for pumping water. It was clear to him that the main drawback of Newcomen's machine was the alternating heating and cooling of the cylinder. How

how to avoid it? The answer came to Watt on a spring Sunday afternoon in 1765. He realized that the cylinder could remain hot all the time if, before condensation, the steam was diverted to a separate reservoir through a pipeline with a valve. Moreover, the cylinder can stay hot and the condenser cold if they are covered on the outside. heat-insulating material. In addition, Watt made several more improvements that finally turned the vapor-atmospheric machine into a steam one. In 1768 he applied for a patent for his invention. He received a patent, but he did not manage to build a steam engine for a long time. And only in 1776 Watt's steam engine was finally built and successfully passed the test. It proved to be twice as efficient as Newcomen's machine.
In 1782, Watt created a new remarkable machine - the first universal double-acting steam engine. He equipped the cylinder cover with a gland invented shortly before, which ensured the free movement of the piston rod, but prevented steam from escaping from the cylinder. Steam entered the cylinder alternately from one side of the piston, then from the other. Therefore, the piston made both a working and a return stroke with the help of steam, which was not the case in previous machines.
Since the piston rod in a double-acting steam engine performed a pulling and pushing action, the old drive system of chains and rocker arms, which responded only to traction, had to be redone. Watt developed a system of linked rods and used a planetary mechanism to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston rod into rotational motion, used a heavy flywheel, a centrifugal speed controller, a disk valve and a pressure gauge to measure steam pressure.
Watt's patented "rotary steam engine" was first widely used to drive machines and machine tools of spinning and weaving mills, and later other industrial enterprises. Thus, Watt's steam engine became the invention of the century, which marked the beginning of the industrial revolution.
In 1785, one of Watt's first machines was installed in London at Samuel Whitbread's brewery for grinding malt. The machine did the work instead of 24 horses. Its cylinder diameter was 63 cm, the piston stroke was 1.83 m, and the flywheel diameter reached 4.27 m. The machine has survived to this day, and today it can be seen in action in the Sydney Powerhouse Museum.
The Watt engine was suitable for any car, and the inventors of self-propelled mechanisms were not slow to take advantage of this.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. www.Aomai.ab.ru/Books/Files/1998-01/02/pap_02.html

2. www.Free-time.ru/razdeis/!anziki/p_11.html.

3. Confederates I.Ya. Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov. - M.-L.: Gosenergoizdat, 1951. - 296 p.: ill.

4. Zubkov B.V., Chumakov S.V. - encyclopedic Dictionary young technician - 2nd ed. - M .: Pedagogy 1988.

5. Saveliev N.Ya. Altai is the birthplace of outstanding inventions. - Barnaul: Altaikraiizdat, 1951. - 117 p.

6. Shishkin A.D. The creator of the "fiery" machine (I.I. Polzunov). - Sverdlovsk: Sverdlovsk book. publishing house, 1963. - 83 p.

7. Borodkin P. Stories about Polzunov // Altai. - 1977. - No. 1. - S. 53-61.

8. Virginsky V.S. Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov 1729-1766 / Responsible. ed. N.K.Laman. - M: Nauka, 1989. - 165 p.,: ill.

9. Danilevsky V.V. II Polzunov: Works and life of the first Russian heating engineer. - M.-L.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1940. - 446 p.: ill., 18 sheets of ill., hell.

10.skbkontur.ru/personal/blink/triz.htm

285 YEARS
FROM THE BIRTH OF AN ENGINEER, INVENTOR
IVAN IVANOVICH POLZUNOV
(1728-1766)

"TO MAKE WORK EASIER FOR US FUTURE" - THIS IS WHAT THE SOLDIER'S SON SET THE PURPOSE OF HIS LIFE

Biography

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov is a self-taught, talented inventor, creator of a two-cylinder steam engine.

Unfortunately, not every discovery, even if it is really significant and important, has a future. This happened with the invention of Polzunov: his contemporaries could not appreciate the created machine. The invention waited for recognition for several centuries.

By the age of twenty, Polzunov was already considered a specialist in the mining business, he was respected. Soon he was transferred to the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories of the Altai Territory, where gold and silver ore was mined for the royal treasury. There he received the position of gittenschreiber, a theoretical mechanic, whose duty was also charged with compiling regular reports on the progress of production.

inventions

The design and invention activity of Ivan Polzunov, according to historians and bibliographers, begins in 1754, when for the needs of the plant Polzunov designs and then assembles a water-powered sawmill. Not having received a proper education in his specialty, the diligent and inquisitive Polzunov began self-education. The study of books on mineralogy and metallurgy bore fruit fairly quickly. He soon received managerial position at the plant, being at the same time one of the most technically competent workers of the plant. From that moment on, Polzunov's most important concern was to facilitate the work of the rest of the team.
All subsequent inventions were supposed to significantly help the workers of the plant, but most of the plans were never implemented: bold and witty innovation projects continued to gather dust in the archives for years. Of great importance to the fate of Polzunov had treatise by the famous Russian chemist I. A. Schlatter “Comprehensive instructions to the ore business”, in which (in addition to advanced developments in the field of drilling and ore cleaning) he describes models of English and Hungarian steam engines.
While in Europe the idea of ​​using steam was already developing with might and main, in Russia, especially in the mining area, the use of the energy of falling water was considered the most developed. But devices whose device was based on a water wheel, despite good results use, could not be compared with the power of steam.
Polzunov, having estimated in theory the difference between water and steam engines, already in April 1763 proposed to his boss A.I. Poroshin the project of a “fiery engine” - the first operating steam engine in Russia.
Unlike foreign single-cylinder counterparts, Ivan Polzunov's steam engine was equipped with two cylinders. This innovation made it possible to simultaneously produce "blast" (steam in the furnace) and pump out the water necessary for subsequent work.

In the future, the inventor was going to modernize the resulting steam mechanism and make it suitable for use in areas other than mining.

Naturally, an invention of this kind could not remain unknown - the project was reported to Catherine II. After reviewing the application for the invention, the empress ordered Polzunov to be promoted to the position of "mechanic with the rank and rank of engineer captain-lieutenant", to issue an award of 400 rubles and to ensure his admission to study at the Academy of Sciences.
In 1764, with the permission of the Chancellery and with financial support provided by the Empress herself, the engineering captain-lieutenant began the construction of a machine whose power was 15 times higher than that stated in the project. At the same time, it was supposed to serve from 10 to 13 furnaces - an unheard of achievement at that time.
The unit was assembled in record time, especially if we take into account the size of the mechanism. 13 months after the signing of the project, a steam mechanism was assembled in the "machine mansion" 18.5 m high. Some of its particularly large parts and assemblies weighed over 2700 kg!
The importance of the work done was not even in the size of the steam engine, but in the fact that its creation required the invention of a number of related mechanisms, some of which are used in mechanical engineering to this day.
“Subsequent” inventions include, for example, lathe for metalworking, using for work all the same force of falling water, with which the inventor tried so fiercely to fight. Unfortunately, the huge unit was the last in the life of Polzunov. Maximum mental concentration and physical overstrain undermined the health of the inventor: he died of consumption in 1766, just a week before the launch of his offspring.
. A few years later, the car became practically unusable, because its boiler burned out. The factory authorities made a decision "to put it into action in abundance in the local water plant, it should not be recognized as necessary."
A couple of years later, the car finally broke down. The titanic structure was dismantled for spare parts, and the name of its creator was erased for a long time from the memory of both the inhabitants of Altai and the pundits of Russia.
The self-taught scientist, who was ahead of his time with the genius of his inventions, was again able to “resurrect” only in the memory of his descendants, who were able to appreciate Polzunov’s technical thought at its true worth.

Memory

The name of I. I. Polzunov is the Altai State Technical University, opposite the main building of which there is a monument to the inventor. In Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Barnaul, Tula and Voronezh, as well as in Kyiv, streets are named after Polzunov.
The first educational institution in Yekaterinburg - the mining school - is now called the Ural public college named after I. I. Polzunov. On June 6, 2011, a monument to I. I. Polzunov, the creator of the first steam engine and the world's first two-cylinder steam engine, was unveiled in Veliky Novgorod. The research and production association "CKTI" (Central Boiler and Turbine Institute) in St. Petersburg is named after him.

		Virginsky V. S. Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov. 1729-1766 / V. S. Virginsky; ed. N. K. Laman. - Moscow: Nauka, 1989. - 165 p., ill. - (Scientific-bibliographic literature)
		Gumilevsky L. Russian engineers / L. Gumilevsky. - 2nd ed. - Moscow: Young Guard, 1953. - 440 p., ill.
		Confederates I. Ya. Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov / I. Ya. Confederates; foreword M. V. Kirpicheva. - Moscow; Leningrad: State. energy publishing house, 1951. - 296 p. - (Workers of energy technology. Biographical series; issue XIII)

Chief Librarian technical and economic and agricultural literature

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