P apples short biography 10 sentences. Place of birth: Serdobsky district, Saratov province, Russian Empire

The article was prepared by prof. A.B. Kuvaldin

P.N. Yablochkov became the most famous Russian inventor in XIX century thanks to the arc lamp he invented, which was the world's first source of electric lighting, widely used in a number of cities in different countries.

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov was born on September 14, 1847 on his father’s estate near the village of Petropavlovsky, Serdobsky district, Saratov province.
Until 1862, he studied at the Saratov gymnasium and from an early age showed interest in technology. In 1863 he entered the Military Engineering School, where the teachers included such outstanding scientists as M.V. Ostrogradsky and I.A. Vyshnegradsky. Since August 1866, P.N. Yablochkov was a second lieutenant of the 5th engineer battalion of the engineering team of the Kyiv fortress, but at the end of 1867 he retired due to illness.

In 1868, P. N. Yablochkov became a student of the Officer Galvanic Classes, where he studied military minecraft, demolition equipment, design and application galvanic cells and military telegraphy. At the beginning of 1869, P. N. Yablochkov, after completing galvanic classes, was re-enlisted in his battalion, where he became the head of the galvanic team.

In 1870, he retired and took the post of head of the telegraph service of the Moscow-Kursk Railway, where he directly dealt with various issues of practical electrical engineering. In Moscow at that time, members of the Society of Natural History Amateurs were engaged in electrical engineering. At the end of 1873, P. N. Yablochkov learned about the work of A. N. Lodygin on the design and use of incandescent lamps. He decided to devote his experiments to the application electric current for lighting purposes, and by the end of 1874 he left his service as head of the telegraph of the Moscow-Kursk Railway and devoted himself entirely to scientific research.

In the second half of the 19th century, work began on the practical use of electricity in Russia and other countries, i.e. on the creation of power sources, problems of transmission and distribution of electricity and its application.

In those years, many scientists worked in the field of creating lighting electrical appliances(lamp) using the principles of resistive and arc heating, i.e., as often happens in technology, competition arose between incandescent lamps and arc lamps. Samples of electric lamps were created, which were even used for some time, but their use was associated with significant difficulties and therefore the task of creating a simple, inexpensive and reliable electric lamp with a sufficient service life remained very relevant.

The first incandescent lamps quickly failed due to burnout of the filament. The problem with creating arc lamps was the rapid burnout of the electrodes, which required the creation of a system for manual or automatic movement of them, which significantly complicated their design and reduced operational reliability.

P.N. Yablochkov equipped a workshop in Moscow physical devices. Here he managed to build an electromagnet original design- his first invention. At the same time, he carried out work on the installation of electric lighting of the railway track from a steam locomotive to ensure safe travel royal family to Crimea. This work was the first case in world practice of using electric lighting on railways. In his workshop, Pavel Nikolaevich did many experiments on arc lamps, studied their shortcomings, and realized that correct solution The issue of regulating the distance between the electrodes (carbon electrodes were used) is crucial for the creation of reliable electric lighting systems.

In the fall of 1875, P. N. Yablochkov left for Paris, where a lot of work was also being done on the use of electricity. Here he met the famous mechanical designer Louis Breguet, grandson of the famous Louis Francois Breguet, who founded a workshop in Paris in 1780 for the production of striking pocket watches (“Breguet”), which became very fashionable. The workshop grew into a large company, which, in the year Yablochkov arrived in Paris, began designing telegraph devices and electric machines.

Breguet invited Yablochkov to work in his company. At the same time, P. N. Yablochkov did not stop his main work - improving the regulator for the arc lamp, and already at the end of this year he created the design of the arc lamp, which, having found wide use under the name of “electric candle”, or “Yablochkov candle”, made a complete revolution in the technology of electric lighting and opened a wide path to the use of alternating electric current.

March 23, 1876 in Paris P.N. Yablochkov received privilege (patent) No. 112024 for the “electric candle” he invented, which was then followed by a number of other privileges in France and other countries for a new light source and its improvements.

Shortly after receiving the patent, electric lighting first appeared in the large Parisian Louvre store. It was a sensation. Twenty-two alternating current carbon arc lamps replaced two hundred gas jets. After the first Yablochkov candle lighting devices in Paris (in addition to the Louvre store, also the Chatelet Theater, Opera Square, etc.), these devices appeared in many countries.

Pavel Nikolaevich himself wrote to one of his friends at that time: “From Paris, electric lighting spread throughout the world, reaching the palaces of the Shah of Persia and the King of Cambodia.” The success of Yablochkov's candle exceeded our wildest expectations. In April 1876, at an exhibition of physical instruments in London, Yablochkov's candle created a sensation. Literally the entire world press wrote about the new light source and noted that new era in the development of electrical engineering.

The "Russian Light" system was demonstrated in Paris at the world exhibitions of 1878 and 1881 and also enjoyed great success. Companies for its commercial exploitation were founded in France, Great Britain and the USA.

P.N. Yablochkov received patents, in addition to France, in other countries:
in England - for “improvement of electric light”, issued on March 9, 1877 under No. 3552;
in Germany - for an electric lamp (August 14, 1877 for No. 663);
in Russia - for “an electric lamp and a method for distributing electric current in it,” issued on April 6 (12), 1878;
in the USA - for an electric lamp (November 15, 1881).

Yablochkov's candle was distinguished by its simplicity, as it was an arc lamp without a regulator (Fig. 1). Two parallel coal rods had a kaolin spacer between them (in the first designs, one of the coals was placed in a kaolin tube); voltage from the battery was supplied to the lower ends of the rods through the terminals or electrical network. To light a candle, a conductive plate ("fuse") was used, which connected the upper ends of the carbon rods and burned when current passed, resulting in an arc igniting, the flame of which created illumination. Gradually the coals burned and the kaolin melted. The burning time was about one and a half hours.

The invention of the Yablochkov candle posed a number of technical problems, only after solving which it began to be widely used.

When powering a spark plug with direct current, the positive carbon rod burns twice as fast, so it had to be made twice as thick as the negative one. P. N. Yablochkov found that powering his spark plug with alternating current is more rational, since in this case both electrodes can be exactly the same and will burn evenly. Therefore, the use of Yablochkov’s candle required the use of alternating current and the creation of appropriate electrical equipment.

The invention of Yablochkov's candle gave impetus not only to the rapid development of electric lighting, but also to the emergence of a number of other inventions made by Yablochkov himself and other inventors and which were of great importance in the development of electrical engineering. These are the developments of alternating current generators, power supply systems large number lamps (candles) from one power source, creation of transformers, etc.

P.N. Yablochkov created and took the French privilege in 1877 for an inductor-type alternating current machine, which he called “magneto-dynamo-electric.” There were no moving windings in this machine: both the magnetizing winding (excitation winding) and the working winding in which the electromotive force, remained motionless. A toothed iron rotor rotated, changing the magnetic flux that penetrated the working winding as it rotated. The design of the machine was quite simple and there were no sliding contacts.

P. N. Yablochkov was responsible for the development of current distribution systems using induction devices, which were the predecessors of modern transformers. November 30, 1876 - the date Yablochkov received a patent, is considered the date of birth of the first transformer. It was a transformer with an open core on which windings were wound. Yablochkov himself used the term “induction coil”. Since at that time the use of alternating current to power candles was not yet generally accepted, Yablochkov received the privilege to use induction coils with direct current, using a breaker in the primary circuit. In the diagram (Fig. 2), taken from the description of the Russian privilege (patent) of 1877, such a breaker is shown on the left side of the diagram and designated by the letter “A”.

P. N. Yablochkov was the first in the world to face the issue of power factor: during experiments with capacitors (1877), he first discovered that when using them, the sum of the currents in the branches of the alternating current circuit was more power current in the circuit before branching.

P. N. Yablochkov was a patriot of his homeland and wanted to use his inventions in Russia. At the end of 1876, Yablochkov went to Russia and received permission to install experimental electric lighting at the Birzula railway station, where he carried out successful lighting experiments in December 1876. But these works did not attract attention and P. N. Yablochkov was forced to leave for Paris again .

In 1878, when the candle was still in its brilliant period of use, P. N. Yablochkov once again came to his homeland to exploit his invention. Returning to his homeland was associated with great sacrifices for the inventor: he had to buy out the Russian privilege from French society and had to pay about a million francs for this. He decided to do this and came to Russia without funds, but full of energy and hopes.

Arriving in Russia this time, Pavel Nikolaevich was greeted with great interest in his works. Funds were found to finance the enterprise. He re-created workshops and conducted numerous financial and commercial affairs. Since 1879, many installations with Yablochkov candles appeared in St. Petersburg, the first of which illuminated the Liteiny Bridge. In 1879, Yablochkov organized the Electric Lighting Partnership "P. N. Yablochkov the Inventor and Co." and an electromechanical plant on the Obvodny Canal in St. Petersburg, which manufactured lighting installations.

P. N. Yablochkov was elected vice-chairman of the electrical engineering department at the Imperial Russian Technical Society, in which he read a report on electric lighting on March 21, 1879. Yablochkov was awarded the Society's medal for the fact that “he was the first to achieve a satisfactory solution in practice to the issue of electric lighting.” Through the efforts of outstanding Russian electrical engineers - members of the society, including Yablochkov, the first Russian electrical engineering magazine “Electricity” began to be published in 1880 (Fig. 3).

Unfortunately, in Russia at the beginning of the 80s there were too few opportunities for the implementation of P. N. Yablochkov’s new technical ideas, in particular for the production of the electric machines he built, and in 1880 he returned to Paris. Yablochkov again entered the service of the Society for the exploitation of his inventions, sold his patent for a dynamo to this Society and began to prepare to participate in the first World Electrotechnical Exhibition, scheduled to open in Paris in 1881. At the beginning of 1881, P. N. Yablochkov left service in the Society and is completely devoted to inventive activity.

At the electrical exhibition of 1881, Yablochkov's inventions received highest award: They were declared out of competition. His merits were recognized by everyone and Pavel Nikolaevich was appointed a member of the international jury to review exhibits and award awards. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government (4 January 1882).

However, the 1881 exhibition itself became a triumph for incandescent lamps - interest in the electric arc candle began to decline.

At the same time, A. N. Lodygin in Russia, T. Edison in America, as well as other inventors managed to complete the development of incandescent lamps, which became not only a serious competitor, but also in terms of key indicators (service life, ease of starting and replacement, efficiency, etc.) surpassed arc lamps. P. N. Yablochkov himself built light bulb of a similar type, the so-called “kaolin”, the glow of which came from fireproof bodies heated by electric current. This principle was new and promising for its time; however, P. N. Yablochkov did not delve into the work on the kaolin lamp.

Work also intensified on arc lamps with regulators, since the electric candle was of little use for floodlights and similar intensive lighting installations.

In the history of technology, similar examples can be cited, in particular, currently forgotten vacuum tubes and ion devices (thyratrons, etc.), instead of which semiconductor transistors and thyristors are used. It’s only surprising that the period of triumph of Yablochkov’s electric candle lasted very short - about 5 years.

Assessing the merits of P.N. today. Yablochkov, it can be noted that he was the first in the world to practically prove the possibility and feasibility of using electric lighting and electrical equipment working for alternating current.

Thus, the creation and use of Yablochkov’s candle and his other inventions had big influence for many works in the field of electrical engineering.

in subsequent years, P. N. Yablochkov devoted himself to working on electric current generators - dynamos and galvanic elements, and he never returned to light sources.

P. N. Yablochkov received a number of patents for electrical machines: for a magneto-electric machine of alternating current without rotational motion (later the famous electrical engineer Nikola Tesla built a machine on this principle); to a magnetic-dynamo-electric machine built on the principle of unipolar machines; an alternating current machine with a rotating inductor, the poles of which were located on a helical line; on an electric motor that could operate on both alternating and direct current, and also serve as a generator.

Pavel Nikolaevich's work in the field of galvanic cells and batteries and the patents he took reveal the exceptional depth and progressiveness of his plans. He built: combustion elements, which used the combustion reaction as a source of current; elements with alkali metals(sodium); three-electrode element (car battery) and many others. These works were devoted to exploring the possibility of direct application chemical energy for high-current electrical engineering. The last privilege Yablochkov received for one of the galvanic cells he proposed was issued in France in 1891.

In the period 1881-1893. P. N. Yablochkov lived in Paris, completely devoting himself to scientific problems and experiments. An explosion that occurred in his laboratory during experiments almost cost him his life. At the same time, her financial situation worsened and her severe heart disease progressed. Yablochkov decided to return to his homeland again after a 13-year absence. In July 1893 he left for Russia, but immediately upon arrival he became very ill.

On March 31, 1894, P. N. Yablochkov died.

In the galaxy of Russian electrical engineers of this time (V.N. Chikolev, A.N. Lodygin, N.N. Benardos, N.G. Slavyanov, F.A. Pirotsky, E.H. Lenz, P.L. Schilling, B S. Jacobi, etc.) Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov occupies a worthy place and his works are still highly valued, and his name has not been forgotten.
In Russia and the USSR, P. N. Yablochkov’s services to Russian electrical engineering science were noted more than once.

The Russian Technical Society awarded him in 1879 an honorary medal of the Society with the inscription: “To the most worthy Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov.”
The Society of Lovers of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography at Moscow University, of which he was a full member, elected Pavel Nikolaevich its honorary member in 1889.

By decision of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a monument was erected at the grave of P. N. Yablochkov (1952). On front side The monument has a bas-relief depicting the inventor, and on the sides there are images of Yablochkov’s candle, an electric machine, and galvanic cells. The words of Pavel Nikolaevich are engraved on the monument: “Electric current will be supplied to houses like gas or water.”

In 1947, in connection with the 100th anniversary of the birth of P.N. Yablochkov, his name was given to the Saratov Electromechanical College (now the College of Radio Electronics). At the entrance to the college in the fall of 1969, a bust of the inventor was installed, created by sculptor K.S. Suminov.

Streets in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Saratov, Penza, Perm, Vladimir, Serdobsk and other Russian cities are named after Yablochkov.

In 1951, a postage stamp dedicated to P.N. Yablochkov was issued in the USSR. In 1992, a monument to P. N. Yablochkov was erected in Serdobsk (Fig. 6).

Founded in 1993, the Academy of Electrical Sciences Russian Federation(AES RF) established for its members a badge and an award medal “For contribution to the development of electrical engineering” with the image of P. N. Yablochkov.

In matters of theory, it is easier to find a discoverer than in experimental science. This is what is written in textbooks: Pythagorean theorem, Archimedes' law, Copernican system, Newton's binomial, periodic table, Einstein's theory. But here's a simple question: who gave us electric light? Who created this already familiar little glass flask with thin metal hairs inside - the most common physical device of our time, the number of which is measured in many billions of pieces - the electric light bulb? Oh, this is not an easy question to answer. It would be possible to write a fascinating, almost adventure novel (what a pity that it has not been written!) with dozens of bright heroes, whose destinies are intricately intertwined around this common idea that completely absorbs them - electric light! And in the ranks of these heroes rises the figure of the Russian inventor Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov. He rises not only thanks to his height - 198 centimeters - but also due to his work, which laid the foundation for electric lighting.

In the year of Paul's birth, cholera was raging in the Volga region, and a great pestilence frightened his parents - they did not allow him to be baptized into the church, and historians then searched in vain for his name in church records. Childhood is a large landowner's house with a mezzanine and echoing enfilades of half-empty rooms, orchards, for which the Saratov land is still famous to this day - the quiet childhood of a small-scale baron. At the age of eleven, Pavel was assigned to the Saratov gymnasium (four years earlier, a freethinking teacher had left it for the St. Petersburg cadet corps Nikolai Chernyshevsky), but he did not study there for long, his family became extremely impoverished, and there was only one way out - a military career, fortunately this had already become a family tradition. And so fate and parental will transfer Pavel Yablochkov from the modest Saratov gymnasium to St. Petersburg, to the Pavlovsk Royal Palace, named after its current residents the Engineering Castle.

Ten years had not yet passed since the Sevastopol campaign, most famous not only for the valor of the sailors, but also for the high art of Russian fortifiers, and the work of military engineering was held in high esteem, the engineering school where Pavel arrived was nurtured by General E. I. Totleben himself - a hero Crimean War.

Pavel Yablochkov lived in the boarding house of the school teacher, engineer-general Caesar Antonovich Cui, a talented military engineer and an even more talented music critic and composer, whose operas and romances still live today. Perhaps these years of study in the capital were the happiest for Pavel Nikolaevich. No one was rushing him, no one was urging him on, there were no creditors or patrons yet, and although great insights had not yet come, the disappointments that had so filled his whole life, fortunately, had not yet occurred. The first disappointment came when, after graduating from college, he was promoted to second lieutenant “with an appointment to serve in the 5th Sapper Battalion” of the Kyiv fortress garrison. How different the entire battalion reality turned out to be from the interesting life of an engineer, full of creative joys, which he imagined in St. Petersburg. He did not turn out to be a military man: after about a year, Pavel Nikolaevich left the army “due to illness.”

The most unsettled period of his life begins, but it opens with an event that is very important for his entire subsequent existence. A year after his retirement, it’s unclear how Yablochkov ended up in the army again. He studies at the Technical Galvanic Institution, where his knowledge in the field of “galvanism and magnetism” is deepened and expanded - after all, I repeat, the word “electrical engineering” did not yet exist. Many great scientists and famous engineers in their young years, like Yablochkov, circled through life like this, bumping into one thing or another, looking closely, trying it on, looking for something that they themselves could not explain, but when they suddenly found , they immediately understood that this was what they were looking for. Like good hounds, they finally picked up the trail, and no force, no temptation could distract them and lead them astray. This is how 22-year-old Yablochkov “took the trace” of electricity so as never to leave it.

Having finally parted with the army, Pavel Nikolaevich comes to Moscow and soon becomes the head of the telegraph service department of the Moscow-Kursk Railway. This is already “electricity”. There is already a laboratory, it is already possible to test some, albeit still timid, ideas. There is a strong scientific society where natural scientists gather - let’s call them that, because if there is no word “electrical engineering”, then there cannot be “electrical engineers”. Finally, there is the just opened first Polytechnic Exhibition - a showcase of the latest achievements of Russian technology. And - perhaps this is most important - there are friends, like-minded people who, like him, are haunted by the secrets of tiny man-made lightning - electric sparks! With one of these friends, Nikolai Gavrilovich Glukhov, Yablochkov decides to open his own “business” - a universal electrical workshop.

Unfortunately, both Yablochkov and Glukhov were inventors, but they were not businessmen. Their “business” failed miserably, and Yablochkov, in order to avoid ending up in debtor’s prison, urgently leaves abroad. There, in Paris, in the spring of 1876, he patented his “electric candle.”

In order to explain the essence of Yablochkov’s main invention without getting into the technical jungle, we need to make a small historical digression about lamps in general. The first lamp - a torch - was known to prehistoric man. From the splinter begins a long chain, counted over centuries: torch - oil lamp - candle - kerosene lamp - gas lantern.

With all the diversity of these lamps, they are united general principle: something burns in everyone, connects with the oxygen of the air. The remarkable Russian scientist V.V. Petrov in 1802 described his experiment “with a huge battery” of galvanic cells, as a result of which he received an electric arc - the world's first artificial electric light. (The natural one was known for a long time: lightning. Another thing is that the nature of this light was not understood.) The modest Petrov did not send his work, written in Russian, anywhere; it was unknown in Europe, and the honor of discovering the arc was long attributed to the famous English chemist Davy, who, knowing nothing about Petrov, repeated his experiment 12 years later and christened the arc in honor of the famous Italian physicist Volta. (It’s interesting that the “Voltaic arc” has absolutely nothing to do with Alessandro Volta himself.)

Petrov's discovery gave impetus to the creation of fundamentally new electric arc lamps: two electrodes approached each other, an arc flashed, and a bright light illuminated everything around. But the carbon electrodes gradually burned out, the distance between them increased and the arc went out. The electrodes needed to be constantly brought closer together. This is how various manual, clock, differential and other adjustment mechanisms arose, which, for all their ingenuity, required vigilant observation. It is clear that each such lamp was an extraordinary phenomenon. True, Jobard in France proposed using incandescent light rather than an arc for lighting. electrical conductor, his compatriot Shanzhi tried to make such a lamp, the Russian inventor A. N. Lodygin brought it, as they say, “to mind”, creating the first one suitable for practice incandescent light bulb, but its coke rod was so delicate and fragile, and the insufficient vacuum in the glass flask burned it so quickly that the incandescent light bulb was abandoned in the mid-70s. We turned to the arc again. And then Yablochkov appeared.

How he invented his candle is unknown. Perhaps the thought of it appeared to him when he was struggling with the regulators of the arc lamp that he installed (for the first time in railway practice!) on the locomotive of a special train traveling with Tsar Alexander II to the Crimea. Maybe the sight of a sudden flashing arc in his Moscow workshop sunk into his soul. There is a legend that in a Parisian cafe he accidentally put two pencils on a table next to him, and then it dawned on him: there is no need to bring anything closer together! Let the electrodes stand next to each other, with fusible insulation between them, which will burn in an arc - the electrodes burn and at the same time shorten! And it’s true what they say: everything ingenious is simple.

The simplicity of Yablochkov’s candle hid a great advantage: its meaning was accessible to businessmen who knew nothing about technology. She was too graphic to argue with. That is why she conquered the world at a speed unheard of. The first demonstration of the “candle” took place in London in the spring of 1876, and Pavel Nikolaevich, who only yesterday was running away from creditors, returned to Paris as a famous inventor. A campaign to exploit his patents immediately arises.

A special plant produces eight thousand “candles” per day. They illuminate the famous Parisian shops, hotels, the port in Le Havre, the opera and the indoor hippodrome in Paris, a whole garland of lanterns hangs in the night sky on the street of the Opera - an unprecedented, fabulous spectacle, “Russian light” is on everyone’s lips. In one of his letters, P.I. Tchaikovsky admires him. I. S. Turgenev writes to his brother from the French capital: “Yablochkov, our compatriot, really invented something new in the matter of lighting...” Yablochkov himself notes later, not without pride: “... it was from Paris that electricity spread throughout different countries world to the palaces of the Shah of Persia and the King of Cambodia, but it did not come to Paris from America at all, as they now have the impudence to claim.”

Here are some amazing things that happen in the history of science: for about five years, the entire world of electric lighting technology, headed by Yablochkov, accompanied by the thunder of triumphal orchestras, was moving, in essence, along a false, unpromising path. The holiday of the “candle” did not last very long, as did the material independence of its inventor. The “candle” did not go out immediately, but the outcome of its struggle with incandescent lamps was a foregone conclusion. Of course, the works of Lodygin, Swan, Maxim, Nernst, Edison and other “parents” modern light bulb Incandescent lighting also did not immediately convince everyone of its many advantages. Back in 1891, when Auer established gas burner its cap, which increases its brightness, there were cases when city authorities again replaced the newly installed electric lighting with gas. But nevertheless, during Yablochkov’s life it was already clear that he was his. The “candle” has no prospects. Why is it that to this day the name of the author of “Russian light” is so firmly inscribed in the history of electrical engineering and has been surrounded by honor and respect for 100 years?

Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov was the world's first inventor who established electric light in the minds of people. The lamp, yesterday as rare as an overseas parrot, today has ceased to be an exotic miracle, has come closer to man, and convinced him of its near happy future. The short and turbulent history of this invention accelerated the solution of many pressing problems of the then technology, showed the need for centralization of current sources, and helped solve the problem of crushing electrical energy, contained the beginnings of the future electrical industry. Yablochkov lived a short and not very happy life. After the “candle” he worked a lot both in Russia and abroad. But not a single other invention of his - this is now clear - influenced the progress of technology as much as his “candle” - a truly great delusion.

Pavel Nikolaevich died in Saratov from heart disease when he was only 47 years old. They say his last words were: “It was hard there, but it’s not easy here either.” Summing up this sad conclusion, could the poor, forgotten inventor, whose fame burned out as quickly as his “candle”, think that a hundred years later we, his descendants, would remember him with deep respect for his difficult life, thanks which is where this new word appeared in our dictionaries - electrical engineering.
Ya. Golovanov

Yablochkov Pavel Nikolaevich is a Russian electrical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. Born in the village. Zhadovka of the Saratov province in the family of a small nobleman. He was educated as a military engineer - he graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering School in 1866 and from the Technical Galvanic Institution in St. Petersburg in 1869. At the end of the last year, Yablochkov entered the Kyiv sapper brigade as a second lieutenant, but soon left military service and took the place of the head of the telegraph on the Moscow-Kurskaya railway. Already at the beginning of his service on the railway, P. N. Yablochkov made his first invention: he created a “black-writing telegraph apparatus.” In 1873 Yablochkov opened a workshop of physical instruments: he invented a signal thermometer for regulating the temperature in railway carriages; arranged the world's first installation for illuminating a railway track with an electric spotlight mounted on a steam locomotive.

Yablochkov worked in the workshop to improve batteries and dynamos, and conducted experiments on lighting large area a huge spotlight. In the workshop, Yablochkov managed to create an electromagnet of an original design. He used a winding made of copper tape, placing it on edge in relation to the core. This was his first invention, and here Pavel Nikolaevich carried out work on improving arc lamps. One of Yablochkin’s main inventions dates back to 1875 - an electric candle - the first model of an arc lamp without a regulator, which already satisfied a variety of practical requirements. In 1875, Yablochkin went to Paris, where he designed an industrial prototype of an electric lamp (French patent No. 112024, 1876), developed and implemented an electric lighting system using single-phase alternating current, and developed a method of “splitting light through induction coils.” Yablochkov's candle turned out to be simpler, more convenient and cheaper to operate than A. N. Lodygin's coal lamp; it had neither mechanisms nor springs. It consisted of two rods separated by an insulating kaolin gasket. Each of the rods was clamped into a separate terminal of the candlestick. An arc discharge was ignited at the upper ends, and the arc flame shone brightly, gradually burning the coals and evaporating insulating material.

Yablochkov designed the first alternating current generator, which, unlike direct current, ensured uniform burning of carbon rods in the absence of a regulator, was the first to use alternating current for industrial purposes, created an alternating current transformer, an electromagnet with a flat winding, and was the first to use static capacitors in an alternating current circuit. The inventor developed a system for powering a number of electric candles from a single current source, based on the use of capacitors.

In 1879, Yablochkin organized the Electric Lighting Partnership P. N. Yablochkov the Inventor and Co. and an electromechanical plant in St. Petersburg, which manufactured lighting installations on a number of military ships, the Okhtensky plant, etc. From the 2nd half of the 1880s, Yablochkin was involved in mainly on the issues of generating electrical energy: he designed a “magneto-dynamoelectric machine”, which already had the basic features of a modern inductor machine, carried out a lot of original research in the field of practical solution to the problem of directly converting fuel energy into electrical energy, proposed a galvanic cell with an alkaline electrolyte, created a regenerative element ( the so-called car battery), etc. Over time, Yablochkov’s invention was replaced by more economical and convenient incandescent lamps with a thin electric filament inside; his “candle” became just a museum exhibit. However, this was the first light bulb, thanks to which artificial light began to be used everywhere: on streets, squares, theaters, shops, apartments and factories.

Yablochkin was a participant in electrical engineering exhibitions in Russia (1880 and 1882), the Paris Electrical Engineering Exhibitions (1881 and 1889), the First International Congress of Electricians (1881), and one of the initiators of the creation of the electrical engineering department of the Russian Technical Society and the Electricity magazine. Awarded a medal of the Russian Technical Society. In 1947, the Yablochkin Prize was established for better job in electrical engineering, awarded once every 3 years.

Pavel was born on September 14 (26), 1847 in Serdobsky district, in the family of an impoverished small-scale nobleman who came from an old Russian family. The Yablochkov family was cultured and educated. Father of the future inventor Nikolai Pavlovich, in his youth he studied at Morskoy cadet corps, but due to illness he was dismissed from service and awarded the civil rank of XIV class (provincial secretary). Pavel's mother, Elizaveta Petrovna, managed the household of a large family. She was distinguished by her imperious character and, according to contemporaries, she held the entire family “in her hands.”

Since childhood, Pavel loved to design. He invented a goniometer device for land surveying, which the peasants of Petropavlovka, Bayki, Soglasov and other surrounding villages used during land redistribution; a device for measuring the distance traveled by a cart - a prototype of modern speedometers.

In the summer of 1858, at the insistence of his wife, N.P. Yablochkov took his son to the Saratov 1st men's gymnasium, where after successful exams Pavel was immediately enrolled in second grade. However, at the end of November 1862, Nikolai Pavlovich recalled his son from the 5th grade of the gymnasium and took him home to Petropavlovka. The difficult financial situation of the family played no small role in this. It was decided to send Pavel to the Nikolaev Military Engineering School in St. Petersburg. But Pavel did not have the necessary knowledge to enter there. Therefore, for several months he studied at a private preparatory boarding school, which was maintained by the military engineer Ts. A. Cui. Caesar Antonovich had a great influence on Yablochkov and aroused the future inventor's interest in science. Their acquaintance continued until the death of the scientist.

On September 30, 1863, having brilliantly passed the difficult entrance exam, Pavel Nikolaevich was enrolled in the Nikolaev School, in the junior conductor class. A strict daily routine and adherence to military discipline brought certain benefits: Pavel became physically stronger and received military training. In August 1866, Yablochkov graduated from college in the first category, receiving the rank of engineer-second lieutenant. He was appointed a junior officer in the 5th engineer battalion, stationed in the Kyiv fortress. His parents dreamed of seeing him as an officer, Pavel Nikolaevich himself military career did not attract, and even burdened. After serving in the battalion for a little over a year, he, citing illness, much to the chagrin of his parents, resigned from military service, receiving the rank of lieutenant.

In January 1869, Yablochkov returned to military service. He was sent to the Technical Galvanic Institution in Kronstadt, at that time it was the only school in Russia that trained military specialists in the field of electrical engineering. There P. N. Yablochkov got acquainted with the latest achievements in the field of studying and technical application electric current, especially in mining, thoroughly improved his theoretical and practical electrical training. Eight months later, after graduating from the Galvanic Institute, Pavel Nikolaevich was appointed head of the galvanizing team in the same 5th Engineer Battalion. However, as soon as his three-year service period had expired, he retired to the reserve on September 1, 1872, parting with the army forever. Shortly before leaving Kyiv, Pavel Yablochkov got married.

Beginning of inventive activity

Having retired to the reserve, P. N. Yablochkov got a job at the Moscow-Kursk Railway as head of the telegraph service. Already at the beginning of his service on the railway, P. N. Yablochkov made his first invention: he created a “black-writing telegraph apparatus.” Unfortunately, the details of this invention have not reached us.

Yablochkov was a member of the circle of electricians-inventors and electrical engineering enthusiasts at the Moscow Polytechnic Museum. Here he learned about the experiments of A. N. Lodygin on lighting streets and premises electric lamps, after which he decided to improve the then existing arc lamps. He began his inventive activity with an attempt to improve the Foucault regulator, the most common at that time. The regulator was very complex, operated with the help of three springs and required constant attention.

In the spring of 1874, Pavel Nikolaevich had the opportunity to practically use an electric arc for lighting. A government train was supposed to travel from Moscow to Crimea. For traffic safety purposes, the administration of the Moscow-Kursk road decided to illuminate the railway track for this train at night and turned to Yablochkov as an engineer interested in electric lighting. He willingly agreed. For the first time in the history of railway transport, a searchlight with an arc lamp - a Foucault regulator - was installed on a steam locomotive. Yablochkov, standing on the front platform of the locomotive, changed the coals and tightened the regulator; and when the locomotive was changed, Pavel Nikolaevich dragged his searchlight and wires from one locomotive to another and strengthened them. This continued all the way, and although the experiment was a success, he once again convinced Yablochkov that this method of electric lighting could not be widely used and the controller needed to be simplified.

After leaving telegraph service in 1874, Yablochkov opened a workshop of physical instruments in Moscow.

Together with the experienced electrical engineer N. G. Glukhov, Yablochkov worked in the workshop to improve batteries and dynamos, and conducted experiments on illuminating a large area with a huge spotlight. In the workshop, Yablochkov managed to create an electromagnet of an original design. He used a winding made of copper tape, placing it on edge in relation to the core. This was his first invention, and here Pavel Nikolaevich carried out work on improving arc lamps.

Along with experiments to improve electromagnets and arc lamps, Yablochkov and Glukhov great importance gave electrolysis to solutions of table salt. An insignificant fact in itself played a big role in the further inventive fate of P. N. Yablochkov. In 1875, during one of the many electrolysis experiments, parallel coals immersed in an electrolytic bath accidentally touched each other. Immediately an electric arc flashed between them, illuminating the walls of the laboratory with bright light for a short moment. It was at these moments that Pavel Nikolaevich had the idea of ​​​​a more advanced design of an arc lamp (without an interelectrode distance regulator) - the future “Yablochkov candle”.

World recognition

"Yablochkov's Candle"

In October 1875, having sent his wife and children to the Saratov province, to live with his parents, Yablochkov went abroad with the goal of showing his inventions and achievements of Russian electrical engineering in the United States at the World Exhibition in Philadelphia, and at the same time becoming familiar with the development of electrical engineering in other countries. However, the financial affairs of the workshop were completely upset and, in the fall of 1875, Pavel Nikolaevich, due to the prevailing circumstances, ended up in Paris. Here he became interested in the physical instrument workshops of Academician L. Breguet, whose devices Pavel Nikolaevich was familiar with from his work when he was the head of the telegraph in Moscow. Breguet received the Russian engineer very kindly and offered him a position in his company.

Paris became the city where Yablochkov quickly achieved outstanding success. The thought of creating an arc lamp without a regulator did not leave him. He failed to do this in Moscow, but recent experiments have shown that this path is quite realistic. By the beginning of the spring of 1876, Yablochkov completed the development of the design of an electric candle and on March 23 received a French patent for it No. 112024, containing a brief description of the candle in its original forms and an image of these forms. This day became a historical date, a turning point in the history of the development of electrical and lighting engineering, Yablochkov’s finest hour.

Yablochkov's candle turned out to be simpler, more convenient and cheaper to operate than A. N. Lodygin's coal lamp; it had neither mechanisms nor springs. It consisted of two rods separated by an insulating kaolin gasket. Each of the rods was clamped into a separate terminal of the candlestick. An arc discharge was ignited at the upper ends, and the arc flame shone brightly, gradually burning the coals and vaporizing the insulating material. Yablochkov had to work a lot on choosing a suitable insulating substance and on methods for obtaining suitable coals. Later, he tried to change the color of electric light by adding various metal salts to the evaporating partition between the coals.

On April 15, 1876, an exhibition of physical instruments opened in London. The French company Breguet also showed its products there. Breguet sent Yablochkov as his representative to the exhibition, who also participated in the exhibition on his own, exhibiting his candle at it. In one of spring days the inventor held a public demonstration of his brainchild. On low metal pedestals, Yablochkov placed four of his candles, wrapped in asbestos and installed at a great distance from each other. The lamps were supplied through wires with current from a dynamo located in the next room. By turning the handle, the current was turned on, and immediately the vast room was flooded with a very bright, slightly bluish electric light. The large audience was delighted. So London became the site of the first public display of the new light source.

The success of Yablochkov's candle exceeded all expectations. The world press, especially French, English, German, was full of headlines: “You should see Yablochkov’s candle”; “The invention of the Russian retired military engineer Yablochkov is a new era in technology”; “Light comes to us from the North - from Russia”; “The Northern Light, the Russian Light, is a miracle of our time”; “Russia is the birthplace of electricity” etc.

Companies for the commercial exploitation of Yablochkov candles were founded in many countries around the world. Pavel Nikolaevich himself, having ceded the right to use his inventions to the owners of the French “General Electricity Company with Yablochkov's patents”, as the head of its technical department, continued to work on further improvement of the lighting system, being content with a more than modest share of the company’s huge profits.

Yablochkov's candles appeared on sale and began to sell in huge quantities, for example, the Breguet enterprise produced over 8 thousand candles daily. Each candle cost about 20 kopecks and burned for 1½ hours; After this time, a new candle had to be inserted into the lantern. Subsequently, lanterns with automatic replacement of candles were invented.

In February 1877 electric light The fashionable shops of the Louvre were illuminated. Then Yablochkov’s candles flared up in the square in front of the opera house. Finally, in May 1877 year he and for the first time illuminated one of the capital’s most beautiful thoroughfares – Avenue de l’Opera. Residents of the French capital, accustomed to dim gas lighting of streets and squares, flocked in crowds at the beginning of twilight to admire the garlands of white matte balls mounted on high metal poles. And when all the lanterns flashed at once with a bright and pleasant light, the audience was delighted. No less admirable was the lighting of the huge Parisian indoor hippodrome. His running track was illuminated by 20 arc lamps with reflectors, and the spectator seats were illuminated by 120 Yablochkov electric candles, arranged in two rows.

London followed the example of Paris. On June 17, 1877, Yablochkov's candles illuminated the West India Docks in London, and a little later - part of the Thames embankment, Waterloo Bridge, the Metropole Hotel, Hatfield Castle, and Westgate sea beaches. The success of coverage using the Yablochkov system aroused among the shareholders of powerful English gas companies panic. They used all means, including outright deception, slander and bribery, to discredit the new method of lighting. At their insistence, the English Parliament even established a special commission in 1879 to consider the admissibility of widespread use of electric lighting in the British Empire. After lengthy debate and listening to testimony, the opinions of the commission members were divided. There were among them supporters of electric lighting, and there were also many ardent opponents of it.

Almost simultaneously with England, Yablochkov’s candles flared up in the premises of the trading office of Julius Michaelis in Berlin. New electric lighting is conquering Belgium and Spain, Portugal and Sweden with exceptional speed. In Italy, they illuminated the ruins of the Colosseum, National Street and Colon Square in Rome, in Vienna - the Volskgarten, in Greece - the Falernian Bay, as well as squares and streets, seaports and shops, theaters and palaces in other countries.

The radiance of the “Russian light” crossed the borders of Europe. It broke out in San Francisco, and on December 26, 1878, Yablochkov's candles illuminated the Winemar stores in Philadelphia; streets and squares of Rio de Janeiro and Mexican cities. They appeared in Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and a number of other cities in India and Burma. Even the Shah of Persia and the King of Cambodia illuminated their palaces with “Russian light”.

In Russia, the first test of electric lighting using the Yablochkov system was carried out on October 11, 1878. On this day, the barracks of the Kronstadt training crew and the square near the house occupied by the commander of the Kronstadt seaport were illuminated. Two weeks later, on December 4, 1878, Yablochkov’s candles, 8 balls, illuminated the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg for the first time. As the newspaper “Novoe Vremya” wrote in its issue of December 6, when

Not a single invention in the field of electrical engineering has received such rapid and widespread distribution as Yablochkov’s candles. This was a true triumph of the Russian engineer.

Other inventions

During his stay in France, Pavel Nikolaevich worked not only on the invention and improvement of the electric candle, but also on the solution of other practical problems. In the first year and a half alone - from March 1876 to October 1877 - he gave humanity a number of other outstanding inventions and discoveries. P. N. Yablochkov designed the first alternating current generator, which, unlike direct current, ensured uniform burning of carbon rods in the absence of a regulator, was the first to use alternating current for industrial purposes, and created an alternating current transformer (November 30, 1876, date of receipt of the patent, considered to be the birth date of the first transformer), a flat-wound electromagnet and the first use of static capacitors in an alternating current circuit. Discoveries and inventions allowed Yablochkov to be the first in the world to create a system for “crushing” electric light, that is, powering a large number of candles from one current generator, based on the use of alternating current, transformers and capacitors.

On April 21, 1876, P. N. Yablochkov was elected a full member of the French Physical Society.

In 1877, Russian naval officer A. N. Khotinsky received cruisers in America, built to order from Russia. He visited Edison’s laboratory and gave him A. N. Lodygin’s incandescent lamp and the “Yablochkov candle” with a light crushing circuit. Edison made some improvements and in November 1879 received a patent for them as his inventions. Yablochkov spoke out in print against the Americans, saying that Thomas Edison stole from the Russians not only their thoughts and ideas, but also their inventions. Professor V.N. Chikolev wrote then that Edison’s method is not new and its updates are insignificant.

In 1878, Yablochkov decided to return to Russia to tackle the problem of the spread of electric lighting. At home, he was enthusiastically greeted as an innovative inventor. Soon after the inventor’s arrival in St. Petersburg, the joint-stock company “Partnership for Electric Lighting and Manufacturing of Electrical Machines and Apparatuses P. N. Yablochkov the Inventor and Co” was established, among the shareholders of which were industrialists, financiers, and military personnel - fans of electric lighting with Yablochkov’s candles. Assistance to the inventor was provided by Admiral General Konstantin Nikolaevich, composer N. G. Rubinstein and other famous people. The company opened its electrical plant on the Obvodny Canal.

In the spring of 1879, the Yablochkov-Inventor and Co. partnership built a number of electric lighting installations. Most of the work on installing electric candles, developing technical plans and projects was carried out under the leadership of Pavel Nikolaevich. Yablochkov's candles, produced by the Paris and then St. Petersburg plant of the company, were lit in Moscow and the Moscow region, Oranienbaum, Kiev, Nizhny Novgorod, Helsingfors (Helsinki), Odessa, Kharkov, Nikolaev, Bryansk, Arkhangelsk, Poltava, Krasnovodsk, Saratov and other cities of Russia.

The invention of P. N. Yablochkov was met with the greatest interest in the naval institutions. By mid-1880, about 500 lanterns with Yablochkov candles were installed in Russia. Of these, more than half were installed on military ships and in factories of the military and naval departments. For example, 112 lanterns were installed at the Kronstadt Steamship Plant, 48 lanterns were installed on the royal yacht “Livadia”, and 60 lanterns were installed on other ships of the fleet, while installations for lighting streets, squares, stations and gardens each had no more than 10-15 lanterns.

However, electric lighting in Russia has not become as widespread as abroad. There were many reasons for this: Russian-Turkish war , which diverted a lot of money and attention, the technical backwardness of Russia, the inertia, and sometimes the bias of city authorities. It was not possible to create a strong company with the attraction of large capital; the lack of funds was felt all the time. The inexperience of the head of the enterprise himself in financial and commercial affairs also played an important role. Pavel Nikolaevich often went to Paris on business, and on the board, as V.N. Chikolev wrote in “Memoirs of an Old Electrician,” “unscrupulous administrators of the new partnership began to throw away money in tens and hundreds of thousands, fortunately it was easy!” In addition, by 1879, T. Edison in America had brought the incandescent lamp to practical perfection, which completely replaced arc lamps.

On April 14, 1879, P. N. Yablochkov was awarded a personalized medal of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (RTO).

On January 30, 1880, the first constituent meeting of the Electrical Engineering (VI) Department of the RTO was held in St. Petersburg, at which P. N. Yablochkov was elected deputy chairman (“chairman candidate”). On the initiative of P. N. Yablochkov, V. N. Chikolev, D. A. Lachinov and A. N. Lodygin, one of the oldest Russian technical magazines, Electricity, was founded in 1880.

In the same 1880, Yablochkov moved to Paris, where he began preparing to participate in the first International Electrotechnical Exhibition. Soon, to organize an exhibition stand dedicated to his inventions, Yablochkov called some employees of his company to Paris. Among them was the Russian inventor, creator of electric arc welding Nikolai Nikolaevich Benardos, whom Yablochkov met back in 1876. To prepare Yablochkov’s exposition, the electrical engineering experimental laboratory at the Electisen magazine was used.

The exhibition, which opened on August 1, 1881, showed that Yablochkov's candle and his lighting system began to lose their importance. Although Yablochkov's inventions received highly appreciated and were recognized by the International Jury as out of competition, the exhibition itself was a triumph of the incandescent lamp, which could burn for 800-1000 hours without replacement. It could be lit, extinguished and relit many times. In addition, it was also more economical than a candle. All this had a strong impact on further work Pavel Nikolaevich and from that time on he completely switched to creating a powerful and economical chemical current source. In a number of schemes for chemical current sources, Yablochkov was the first to propose wooden separators to separate the cathode and anode spaces. Subsequently, such separators found wide application in the designs of lead-acid batteries.

Work with chemical current sources turned out to be not only poorly studied, but also life-threatening. While conducting experiments with chlorine, Pavel Nikolaevich burned the mucous membrane of his lungs and since then began to choke, and his legs also began to swell.

Yablochkov took part in the work of the first International Congress of Electricians, held in 1881 in Paris. For his participation in the exhibition and congress, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor.

last years of life

All of P. N. Yablochkov’s activities in Paris took place in the intervals between trips to Russia. In December 1892, the scientist finally returned to his homeland. He brings all his foreign patents No. 112024, 115703 and 120684, paying a ransom of a million rubles for them - his entire fortune. However, Petersburg greeted him coldly, as if his name was known to few people. In St. Petersburg, P. N. Yablochkov became very ill. He felt fatigue and the consequences of the explosion of a sodium battery in 1884, where he almost died and subsequently suffered two strokes. Having waited for his second wife Maria Nikolaevna and son Plato to arrive from Paris, Yablochkov leaves with them for the Saratov province.

The former Eshliman estate in the village of Ivano-Kuliki

(Rtishchevsky district), where P. N. Yablochkov lived until 1893

From Saratov, the Yablochkovs left for Atkarsky district, where, near the village of Koleno, the small estate of Dvoenki, inherited by Pavel Nikolaevich, was located. Having stayed there for a short time, the Yablochkovs headed to Serdobsky district to settle in " father's house", and then go to the Caucasus. However, the parental house in the village of Petropavlovka no longer existed; several years before the scientist arrived here, it burned down. I had to settle with my older sister Ekaterina and her husband M.K. Eshliman (Eshelman), whose estate was located in the village of Ivanovo-Kuliki (now Rtishchevsky district).

Pavel Nikolaevich intended to do scientific research, but very soon I realized that here, in a remote village, it was impossible to do science. This forced the Yablochkovs to move to Saratov at the beginning of winter (apparently in November 1893).

Saratov. Former “Central Numbers” of Ochkin,

where P. N. Yablochkov lived from 1893 to 1894

They settled in the mediocre “Central Rooms” of Ochkin, on the second floor. His room quickly turned into a study where the scientist, mostly at night, when no one distracted him, worked on drawings for electric lighting in Saratov. Yablochkov’s health deteriorated every day: his heart became weaker, his breathing became difficult. Heart disease led to dropsy, my legs were swollen and could hardly move.

On March 19 (31), 1894 at 6 o’clock in the morning P. N. Yablochkov died. On March 21, Pavel Nikolaevich’s ashes were transported to his native place for burial. On March 23, he was buried on the outskirts of the village of Sapozhok (now Rtishchevsky district), in the fence of the Archangel Michael Church in the family crypt.

Family

P. N. Yablochkov was married twice. First wife - Nikitina Lyubov Ilyinichna (1849-1887). The second wife is Albova Maria Nikolaevna. Children from his first marriage - Natalya (1871-1886), Boris (1872-1903) - engineer-inventor, was fond of aeronautics, worked on developing new powerful explosives and ammunition; Alexandra (1874-1888); Andrey (1873-1921). Son from his second marriage: Plato is an engineer.

Masonic activity

While living in Paris, Yablochkov was initiated into the Masonic lodge “Labor and True Friends of Truth” (French. Travail et Vrais Amis Fideles ) of the Supreme Council of the Old Scottish Rite, which was part of the union of the Grand Lodge of France. Master of the Lodge Chair from the first half to the mid-1880s. On June 25, 1887, Yablochkov founded the first Russian emigrant lodge “Cosmos” in the VLF system in Paris, and was the first venerable master of this lodge. This lodge included many Russians who lived in France. In 1888, such subsequently famous Russian figures as professors M. M. Kovalevsky, E. V. de Roberti and N. A. Kotlyarevsky were initiated there. P. N. Yablochkov wanted to turn the Cosmos lodge into an elite one, uniting in its ranks the best representatives of Russian emigration in the field of science, literature and art. However, after the death of the scientist, the box he created actually collapsed. She managed to resume her work only in 1899.

Memory

At the end of the 1930s, the Archangel Michael Church was destroyed, and the Yablochkov family crypt was also damaged. The grave of the inventor of the candle itself was lost. However, on the eve of the scientist’s 100th anniversary, the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences S.I. Vavilov decided to clarify the burial place of Pavel Nikolaevich. On his initiative, a commission was created. Its members traveled to more than 20 villages in the Rtishchevsky and Serdobsky districts, interviewed old-timers, delved into archival documents. In the archives of the Saratov regional registry office they managed to find the registry register of the parish church of the village of Sapozhok. By decision of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a monument was erected at the grave of P. N. Yablochkov. Its opening took place on October 26, 1952. The author of the monument is unknown. The monument is a stone statue. On the front side there is a bas-relief depicting the inventor, and below there is a memorial plaque on which the words are engraved: “Here lies the ashes of Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov, an outstanding Russian inventor in the field of electrical engineering (1847-1894).” On the sides the sculptor sculpted an image of a Yablochkov candle, an Eclipse electric machine, and galvanic elements. The words of Pavel Nikolaevich are engraved on the monument: “Electric current will be supplied to houses like gas or water”;

On the facade of house No. 35 on the corner of M. Gorky and Yablochkov streets in Saratov, there is a memorial plaque that says: “In this house in 1893-1894. lived the outstanding Russian electrical engineer, inventor of the electric candle Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov";

On the facade former home Eshliman in the village of Ivano-Kuliki (Rtishchevsky district), a memorial plaque was erected saying: “The Russian electrical engineer Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov often visited this house”;

In 1947, in connection with the 100th anniversary of the birth of P. N. Yablochkov, his name was given to the Saratov Electromechanical College (now the College of Radio Electronics). At the entrance to the college in the fall of 1969, a bust of the inventor, created by sculptor K. S. Suminov, was installed;

In 1992, a monument to P. N. Yablochkov was erected in Serdobsk;

Streets in Moscow (Yablochkova Street), St. Petersburg (Yablochkova Street), Saratov, Penza, Rtishchevo, Serdobsk, Balashov, Perm, Vladimir and other cities of Russia bear the name of Yablochkov;

In 1947, the Yablochkov Prize was established for the best work in electrical engineering, which is awarded once every three years;

In 1951, a postage stamp dedicated to P. N. Yablochkov was issued in the USSR;

In 1987, the USSR Ministry of Communications issued an artistic marked envelope dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the birth of P. N. Yablochkov;

In 1997, an artistic marked envelope with an original stamp was released in Russia, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the inventor’s birth.

The name of this Russian scientist and discoverer is widely known. His most famous invention was the first arc lamp, which went down in history under the name “Yablochkov’s candle.” This inventor also worked on the creation of electrical machines and chemical current sources.

Pavel was born in the Serdobsky district of the Saratov province in the family of an impoverished small-scale nobleman. The inventor's father, Nikolai Pavlovich, was educated in the Naval Cadet Corps, but was dismissed from service due to illness and was awarded the civilian rank of XIV class (provincial secretary). The mother, Elizaveta Pavlovna, had a strict disposition and, according to contemporaries, held the entire family in her hands.

Little Pavel discovered his design talent in childhood. It was then that he created his first invention - a goniometric device for land surveying, which the peasants of Petropavlovka, Bayki, Soglasov and other nearby villages used when dividing land into plots. Yablochkov also invented a device for measuring the distance traveled by a cart - an analogue of a modern speedometer that measures the speed of a car and the distance it has traveled in a certain time.

In 1858, young Pavel entered the Saratov 1st Men's Gymnasium, where, after he brilliantly passed the examination test, he was immediately enrolled in the 2nd grade. However, in 1862, due to the difficult financial situation of the family, his father took him out of the 5th grade of the gymnasium and returned with him to the village.

After family council, it was decided to enroll Pavel in the Nikolaev Military Engineering School in St. Petersburg, but the boy did not have enough knowledge to enroll. For several months he had to take courses at a private preparatory boarding school, which was maintained by the military engineer Ts. A. Cui. This man, as a teacher, had a great influence on the young inventor and aroused interest in science and acquiring new knowledge. This communication, first between a student and a teacher, then between two scientists, lasted Yablochkov’s entire life.

In September 1863, after brilliantly passing the entrance exams, Pavel Nikolaevich was enrolled in the Nikolaev School, in the junior conductor class. Strict routine and almost military discipline in the corps brought positive results: Yablochkov received military training and became physically stronger.

In 1866, Yablochkov graduated from college, graduating with the first category and receiving the rank of engineer-second lieutenant. He was sent as a junior officer to the Fifth Engineer Battalion, stationed in the Kyiv Fortress. His parents wanted Pavel to become a military man, but Yablochkov himself was not happy with this prospect. He served in the battalion for about a year and, citing illness, resigned from military service, receiving the rank of lieutenant. In 1869, Yablochkov again had to return to military service, the reason was the disastrous financial position families. Yablochkov was sent to Kronstadt, to the Technical Galvanic Institution, since at that time it was the only educational institution, training military specialists in the field of electronics. It was there that Yablochkov was able to get acquainted with the latest achievements in the field of both research and the subsequent use of electric current. Pavel Nikolaevich increased his level of knowledge and practical skills in the field of galvanics and electromagnetic current.

8 months later, after completing the courses at the Galvanic Institute, Pavel Nikolaevich transferred to the same Fifth Engineer Battalion, but this time with the rank of head of the galvanizing team. However, as soon as the minimum allowable three-year period of military service expired, in 1872 Yablochkov again retired to the reserve, saying goodbye to the army this time forever.

After his dismissal, Yablochkov became head of the telegraph service at the Moscow-Kursk Railway. It was from this moment that his serious work as an inventor began: he created a “black-writing telegraph apparatus.” Alas, the description of this invention never reached our descendants, and the drawings by which the device could be restored were not preserved.

Yablochkov was a member of the circle of electricians-inventors and electrical engineering enthusiasts at the Moscow Polytechnic Museum. There he learned about the experiments conducted by A. N. Lodygin on lighting streets and rooms using an electric light bulb, after which he decided to take a closer look at the issue of creating an arc lamp. He took his first steps in this direction, trying to improve the Foucault regulator, which was widespread at that time.

In 1874, Pavel Nikolaevich had the opportunity to put his developments in the field of lighting technology into practice. A government train was supposed to travel along the railway connecting Moscow and Crimea. For security purposes, as well as in order to capture the imagination of high authorities, the administration of the Moscow-Kursk road decided to illuminate the railway track at night, with which they turned to Yablochkov for help. The inventor immediately agreed: he did not expect a more favorable opportunity to demonstrate his invention to the public.

The experience was innovative not only in the field of electricity, but also in the field of the railway industry: for the first time in the history of railway transport, an arc spotlight was installed on a steam locomotive. The inventor standing on the front platform personally changed the coals, tightened the arc and adjusted the degree of its intensity, and when the locomotive was changed, Yablochkov himself removed the spotlight from one car and installed it on another. This had to be done all the way from Moscow to Crimea, after which Yablochkov was finally convinced that such a device could not be widely used. In 1874, Pavel Yablochkov decided to leave his post at the telegraph and opened a workshop of physical instruments in Moscow. In this workshop, together with N. G. Glukhov, he worked on improving batteries and dynamos, and also conducted experiments on lighting large room using a high-power spotlight. Yablochkov managed to create an electromagnet that was original in terms of design solution, which was based on a copper tape winding and a core. The workshop also carried out work to improve the arc lamp.

Except lighting fixtures and experiments with them, Yablochkov and Glukhov attached great importance to the electrolysis of solutions of table salt. This phenomenon, insignificant in itself, later played a leading role in the emergence of Yablochkov as a world-class inventor. So, in 1875, during one of the experiments on electrolysis, parallel carbon rods accidentally touched. The effect was exactly the grain of truth that Yablochkov was trying to find: a short but bright electric arc flashed between the rods, illuminating the laboratory rooms with strong light. This moment, perhaps, should be considered the time of the birth of the Yablochkov arc lamp.

In the same year, the inventor left for the USA with the goal of demonstrating his invention at the world exhibition held in Philadelphia as the leading achievement of Russian electronics and at the same time getting acquainted with developments in this area in other countries. But the financial affairs of the workshop were completely ruined, and the funds were only enough to travel to Paris. There Yablochkov met the physicist L. Berge. Amazed by the technical ingenuity and remarkable intelligence of the Russian scientist, Berge offered him a job in his company.

Paris became the place where Yablochkov revealed himself as a scientist. However, the idea of ​​​​creating an arc lamp without a complex regulator never left the inventor. Despite the fact that in Moscow he was unable to bring his ideas to life, experiments showed that this was quite possible. Already at the beginning of 1876, Yablochkov completed the development of an electric candle and in March received a French sample patent numbered 112024, containing short description electrical appliances and sketches for these descriptions. The day the patent was received became a historical date in the development of lighting and electrical engineering and a high point in the life of Pavel Yablochkov himself.

Yablochkov's device turned out to be much more effective and convenient to use than A. N. Lodygin's coal lamp, which had neither springs nor regulating mechanisms. The design of the “Yablochkov candle” included two carbon rods separated from each other by a thin kaolin spacer. Each of the rods was fixed in a separate terminal of the candlestick. The upper ends of the rods served as the site for the formation of an electrical arc, and this electric flame shone brightly, gradually burning the carbon rods and evaporating the kaolin fixing layer.

Despite the simplicity and elegance of the design, the invention cost Yablochkov himself a lot of effort: the choice of gasket insulating material and the debugging of the method for producing a carbon rod were especially difficult required size and shapes. The inventor's later experiments concerned changing the color of an electric arc using crystals of various salts.

In April 1876, an exhibition of physical instruments was opened in London. The Berge company also demonstrated its products there. Yablochkov was the representative of the entire company; he also participated as the inventor of a single device - an arc candle. The first presentation of an electric lighting device took place at this exhibition.

The success of the “Yablochkov candle” was beyond the wildest expectations of the inventor. Notes about his achievement were published in English, French, and German newspapers and magazines. The headlines of these days are themselves evidence of the excitement that gripped the European public: “You must see Yablochkov’s candle”, “The invention of the Russian retired military engineer Yablochkov - a new era in technology”, “The light comes to us from the North - from Russia”, “Northern light, Russian light, is a miracle of our time,” “Russia is the birthplace of electricity,” etc.

Soon, campaigns for the commercial exploitation of the “Yablochkov candle” began and gained momentum. The inventor himself ceded his exclusive right to the device to the owners of the French " General company electricity with Yablochkov’s patents.” He became the head of its technical department and continued to work on further improving the resulting lighting system, content with a modest percentage of the company's huge earnings.

Yablochkov’s invention sold in the tens of thousands: Berge’s enterprise alone produced more than 8 thousand of them per day. Each of the candles that came out of the factory cost 20 kopecks and burned for 1.5 hours, after which the next candle had to be inserted into the lantern. Soon, lanterns and candlesticks were developed and went on sale, in which the candle was replaced automatically.

During 1876, Yablochkov developed and managed to implement an electric lighting system using single-phase alternating current. It ensured uniform burning of the carbon rods in the absence of a regulator. Later, the inventor developed a method for “splitting” electric light (powering several candles from one current generator), and Yablochkov proposed three solutions to this problem at once, including the first practical use capacitor and transformer.

At the beginning of 1877, the fashionable shops of the Louvre were illuminated with the light of electric candles. Then similar lanterns appeared in front of the Opera House in Paris. By May, candles completely illuminated one of the most beautiful thoroughfares of the capital of France - Avenue de l'Opera. Accustomed to the dirty light of the Parisian twilight, the capital's residents, as soon as it got dark, came out in droves to admire how the garlands of white matte balls mounted on metal pillars. The moment when all this splendor came into working order and soft electric light poured onto the pavements like a river, for a long time was marked by the joyful jubilation of the Parisian crowd.

Soon, London authorities also intended to illuminate their night streets. In 1877, the West India Docks were equipped with Yablochkov candles, then the light spread along the Thames embankment, illuminating the Waterloo Bridge, Hadtfield Castle and the Metropole Hotel.

The success of the lighting campaigns caused real panic among the shareholders of powerful English companies that provided society with gas lamps.

To discredit the new method of lighting, everything was used available funds from gently cajoling former clients to outright and grossly deceiving the public. This could not go unnoticed, and in 1879 a special independent commission was assembled to determine whether such a lighting method was harmful. The lengthy debates of the respected members of the British Empire Commission, however, did not bring clear results. The jury was divided approximately equally, some of them supported electric method street lighting, while others relied on classic gas lamps.

While the English lords were sorting things out, Yablochkov’s candle continued to conquer enlightened Europe. Almost simultaneously with England, Berlin was electrified, and in the same way as its earlier counterpart cities - with the largest department stores. The streets of Belgium and Spain, Portugal and Sweden are illuminated with exceptional speed. In Italy, Yablochkov's candles were honored to illuminate the ruins of the Colosseum, Piazza Colon and National Street in the eternal city of Rome, in Austria - the Volksgarten, in Greece - the Bay of Falern. Yablochkov's candles lit up everywhere - on the most beautiful streets, squares and palaces.

In 1878, the “Russian light” crossed the ocean and illuminated the streets of San Francisco in the USA. After a short amount of time, the invention reached Philadelphia, the city to which the Russian inventor was so eager at one time. Lanterns with Yablochkov devices installed on them appeared on the streets of Mexico and India - in Delhi, Calcutta and Madras. The king of Cambodia did not refuse to illuminate his palaces with a Russian electric candle. Belatedly, but still at the end of the same year, the “Russian light” reached its homeland. Trials of electric lighting using the Yablochkov system began in Russia. The first to be illuminated were the barracks of the Kronstadt training crew and the area near the house occupied by the commander of the Kronstadt seaport. Two weeks later, the light of eight huge milky-white balls dispersed the darkness near the Bolshoi Theater in St. Petersburg.

Not a single invention has spread so quickly throughout the world and won so quickly more and more new fans. This was a genuine triumph for an ordinary Russian engineer. In 1878, the famous inventor decided to return to Russia to tackle the problem of distributing electric lighting himself.

In 1879, Yablochkov organized the Electric Lighting Partnership P. N. Yablochkov the Inventor and Co. and an electrical plant in St. Petersburg.

In Russia, the inventor realized that in his homeland there were few opportunities for the implementation of new technical inventions. In addition, by 1879 T. Edison in America completed work on the incandescent lamp, and it completely replaced arc lamps.

In 1880 Yablochkov returned to Paris. In 1881, the inventor took part in the first World Electrotechnical Exhibition. There, the inventions of the Russian scientist were highly appreciated, and Edison's incandescent lamp became a triumph.

Yablochkov did not leave his work and continued to work on issues of generating electrical energy - creating dynamos and galvanic cells.

At the end of 1893, the famous inventor returned to Russia after 13 years of absence, but died of a heart disease a few months later.