The Central Bank announced a vote for the symbols of Russia, which will be depicted on the new banknotes in denominations of 200 and 2000 rubles. The Siberian Media Group (SMG) invited readers, viewers and listeners of its media to vote for the monument to Polzunov in Barnaul. As a result, the symbol received the required 5,000 votes and Barnaul passed to the second stage of voting.

The choice is not accidental. 250 years ago, in 1766, Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov created the first steam engine in Russia in Barnaul and surpassed contemporary English heat engineers by making a two-cylinder engine. Streets in many cities of Russia are named after Polzunov, the name of the inventor was included in encyclopedias, and there is simply no more famous Barnaul citizen.

1. Ivan Polzunov was born in Yekaterinburg in the first half of 1729 in the family of a recruit.

2. The future inventor graduated from elementary school and a drawing (drawing) school.

3. In 1747, at the age of 17, Ivan Polzunov was sent to the Barnaul plant as a clerk. He arrived in the city on February 3, 1747. It was his responsibility to record what was loaded into the furnace, and what came out as a result of melting.

4. On April 4, 1752, Poluznov requested permission to build a house in the village of the Barnaul plant along Irkutskaya Street (today Pushkin Street) and release the forest for this. The house has not been preserved, it is only known that it was located at the modern address of the street. Pushkin, 78.

5. In January 1758, non-commissioned officer Polzunov was sent to St. Petersburg with a convoy of silver. The convoy, consisting of 21 wagons, left Barnaul on January 1. The caravan arrived in St. Petersburg on March 6th. Polzunov handed over the silver to the head of the Mint, Ivan Schlatter.

6. Returning to Barnaul in the summer of 1758, Polzunov entered into a civil marriage in Moscow with the 22-year-old widow of a soldier of the Pskov infantry regiment, Pelageya Ivanovna Povalyaeva. Pelageya bore him two children, but they died in infancy.

7. Long before the trip to St. Petersburg, Polzunov asked to be allowed to study mining and assaying. In the spring of 1753, he wrote in a petition submitted to his superiors: “Besides, my youth will be wasted without science.” I wanted to go through all the stages of production at the Barnaul plant. But this request was not satisfied.

8. In February 1759, Polzunov was awarded the officer rank of chief master, which gave more freedom and opportunities in the development of mining. External circumstances also changed: in November 1761, the Office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining authorities ordered officers to study books on mining.

9. In April 1763, Polzunov submitted a memorandum to the Office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining authorities, in which he described the first project of his steam engine. Its drawings are preserved in the regional archive.

10. The drawings and report came to Ivan Schlatter. After reviewing the materials, he recognized Polzunov's machine as an invention, although he noted that the machine was built in the English manner. Schlatter decided that it was necessary to reward Polzunov with the rank of mechanicus (captain) and build a car. This decision came to Barnaul at the beginning of 1764.

11. In January 1764, the Office decided to build a machine. For construction, a temporarily closed building of a glass factory was used (on modern Mamontov Street, now the Barnaul Yeast Factory is located next to this place). Details for the machine - a boiler, cylinders - were made at the Barnaul silver-smelting plant and lifted up the Barnaulka on rafts. The cylinder diameter was 81 cm, the piston stroke was 2 m 56 cm, the volume of the boiler was 7 tons of water.

12. On December 16, 1765, Polzunov reported in a report that the machine had been built. In the presence of the authorities, she was tested on the rise of logs. The tests were successful.

13. After testing, it was decided to install bellows on the machine and build temporary melting furnaces.

14. On April 18, 1766, Polzunov developed transient consumption, coughing up blood. The doctor Keesing wrote that the previous illness had worsened, but there are no documents confirming that Polzunov used to have consumption.

15. May 16, 1766 at 6 pm Polzunov died (death was recorded in Keesing's report), not having lived a week before the start of the machine. Polzunov was buried at the then only Barnaul cemetery next to the Peter and Paul Church on the current Freedom Square.

17. On August 7, the car was put into regular operation. Contemporaries noted that due to the very strong blast, the smelting went well.

18. On November 10, 1766, the brick vaults of the furnaces burned out, and because of this, a copper boiler flowed, water flooded the fire, and the car stopped. They did not restore it.

19. There were no images of Polzunov, no portraits left - there were no artists in Barnaul at that time. Therefore, now we can see completely different images of the inventor: on Freedom Square - one, at the Technical University - another.

There are several reasons why, after Polzunov's death, his machine did not work for very long. Firstly, there was no inventor himself and there was no one to "supervise" it. Secondly, the car turned out to be bulky. Thirdly, it was uneconomical. They say: it brought a profit of 11 thousand rubles. But this is when melting silver. And if cast iron were smelted, the profit would be much lower. But the most important thing is that the feudal economy did not need this machine. Water-filled wheels, which required only minor repairs, and cheap labor made it possible to obtain silver using the old technology.

The significance of Ivan Polzunov's invention is very great. We often simplify history and say: "Polzunov is the world's first inventor of a steam engine." To this, any Englishman will say that at that time they already had a steam-atmospheric machine in every mine. But Polzunov surpassed the English heating engineers of his time and was certainly the first in Russia to make a steam engine. Moreover, he created not just a machine, but production, independent of the presence of a reservoir.

Photo by Oleg Ukladov.

"Sliders" for a steam engine / Polzunov's steam engine
How the Russian inventor Ivan Polzunov outstripped the Englishman Watt / Made by Russians

The ideas of the general public about modern science and technology often "rest" in a narrow circle of devices used in everyday life. It is on the basis of these ideas that the opinion is built that science and technology have died in Russia. Russian Planet takes on the task of dispelling this myth. Rubric "Made by Russians" we talk about the modern developments of Russian scientists and engineers, little known, but bringing people much more benefits than a new Chinese smartphone, a Korean car, an American computer or a German refrigerator. We remind readers that over the centuries, Russian scientists, engineers and simply talented self-taught people have made discoveries and invented things that were far ahead of their time, on the basis of which fashionable smartphones, cars, computers and refrigerators are made today. More made by Russians: | | | / / | | / / | Gamow | | | | | / | | | | / / / First satellite / / / | / / / / / | | / / / | / | / / / / / | / / / / / | | "Gastronomic map of Russia". Mordovia, and

Restaurant "Polzunov" in Barnaul

To be completely honest, the inventor who first made steam do the work was not James Watt or even Polzunov, but the ancient Greek Heron of Alexandria, who around 130 BC created the so-called aeolipil - a primitive steam turbine. Steam entered the hollow sphere under pressure, then the mechanic opened two L-shaped tubes connected to the sphere, from which the steam began to escape, causing the sphere to spin at a frantic speed - modern engineers who recreated the aeolipil made sure that the "turbine" could do up to 3600 revolutions in a minute! However, the eolipil remained a funny toy - Heron, known for many useful inventions, such as devices for opening doors, did not come up with any practical application for him. The history of the aeolipil perfectly illustrates how the fate of the discovery depends on the development of society - for example, the demand for a new mechanism by the economy. In the fate of the Polzunov machine, this circumstance played an important role.

Polzunov steam engine

Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov was born in 1729 into a soldier's family in Yekaterinburg, who turned out to be only 6 years older than his brilliant son. Yekaterinburg emerged as a city-factory: the dignitary and famous historian Vasily Tatishchev created here the country's largest iron production. The plant was advanced: in terms of technical equipment, it had no equal in Europe. Within a few years, the Mint arose next to it, which provided the state with copper coins, and the Lapidary Factory, whose products replenished the treasuries of the royal court and the richest nobles of St. Petersburg, decorated the toilets of the European rich.

Tsar Peter, of course, could not know that by decree on the foundation of an ironworks, he predetermined the fate of one of the most talented inventors in Russia. The plant needed working hands, and Vanya, having mastered the basics of mathematics at the arithmetic school, entered there as a “mechanical” student to master Nikita Bakhorev. The boy turned out to be a child prodigy - he mastered mining science so well that at the age of 20 he received an unusually responsible task. The young specialist was sent to the Kolyvano-Voskresensky Altai factories, where they mined gold and silver for the treasury. The talented mining master was instructed to explore the ore deposits in the vicinity of the Charysh River in order to choose a place for the construction of new factories. Polzunov successfully mapped the mines. However, it was not mining exploration that occupied his thoughts, but the work of factories itself.

For most of the operations that were carried out in those days in factories, the physical strength of workers or horses was used as an energy source (a modern person who knows that the power of his car is measured in horsepower usually does not think that this term began to be used precisely at industrial enterprises , where they measured the cost of forces for specific operations). Polzunov was looking for a natural strength that could replace the muscles. Only wind and water came to mind. The wind was not good because it gave too little energy that could be usefully used in factory work. The stormy Altai and Ural rivers offered much more noticeable power - in many of the Russian factories, the water wheel served as the energy source for the operation of bellows and hammers that forged metal. Polzunov experimented with water engines for some time - so, in 1754, a young inventor built a "water-powered sawmill." Here he was not a pioneer - the first such sawmill in Russia was built in 1720 by Mikhail Serdyukov, the creator of the Vyshnevolotsk water system. Most likely, Polzunov built it according to engineering books, which he ordered in batches from St. Petersburg.

The water wheel has a long and well-deserved history: it was first used in Babylon, and in Russia it did not lose popularity until the revolution itself - in 1917, 46 thousand water wheels “worked” in Russia, the total capacity of which was about 40% of the total capacity industrial energy sources (whatever one may say, but there is something to thank grandfather Lenin for with his slogan about the electrification of the whole country). However, the shortcomings of this adaptation were obvious as early as the 18th century: it was possible to build factories and factories only near large rivers, which imposed restrictions on the scale of production, in addition creating additional costs for the transportation of materials - ore, firewood, etc.

However, water is able to move not only in the riverbed - with the help of fire, it could be forced to run through pipes with great force. Polzunov's thoughts were occupied by a "fiery machine", which could replace the water wheel. “By laying down the fiery machine, stop the water leadership and, for these cases, completely destroy it, and instead of dams for the movable foundation of the plant, establish it so that it is able to all the burdens imposed on itself, which are usually required for blowing fire, wear and, according to our will, to correct what will be necessary” - this is how he will define his task in the “project”, which will crown his name with glory.

Scheme of the Severi steam pump (left), 1702, and Newcomen's steam-atmospheric engine

A clarification is required here - the first Polzunov invented a two-cylinder continuous steam engine. The fact is that just steam engines were created from the very beginning of the 18th century, and Polzunov's invention did not arise from scratch. He, of course, could not have been unaware of the steam pump system of the Englishman Thomas Savery, which Peter I purchased in 1717 to supply water to the fountains of the Summer Garden. Severi's machine was pistonless - with the help of steam injection, she moved water through pipes, creating jets. But the steam-atmospheric machine of another Englishman (again Thomas, by the way) - Newcomen - was already a single-piston one. The steam pressure in it was low, and it could only work as a pump, but it was she who determined the further development of steam engines. By the way, one of Newcomen's machines worked in the 1720s in mines near Koenigsberg. All these steam pumps, used mainly for pumping water from mines, were described in books on mining that were available in Russia - their drawings were given there, from which one could understand the principle of their operation.

It was these developments that served Polzunov as the basis for his own drawings. In 1763, he presented them to the Kolyvan-Voskresensky office. Officials did not take responsibility and sent the papers to the capital. The steam engine project was considered by Her Majesty's Cabinet. Polzunov was lucky - the "project" fell into the hands of the president of the Berg Collegium, which was engaged in the mining industry, a very educated person, Ivan Schlatter. He gave the highest rating to Polzunov's invention: "this invention of his should be honored for a new invention," reporting it to Empress Catherine II. The resolution on the “project” was adopted a year later: the empress admired the solution found by Polzunov, ordered him to be promoted to “mechanicus with the rank and rank of engineer captain-lieutenant”, rewarded with 400 rubles, and most importantly, she blessed the construction of the machine, ordering “to give so many people, how much work will he have.

By the spring of 1766, Ivan Polzunov with four students built a car at the Barnaul plant in Altai. It had truly cyclopean dimensions - it was as high as a three-story house, and some parts weighed 2.5 tons. It worked like this: water was heated in a boiler, riveted from metal sheets, and, turning into steam, entered two three-meter cylinders. The pistons of the cylinders pressed on the rocker arms, which were connected to the bellows that fanned the flames in the ore-smelting furnaces, as well as to the water distribution pumps. The presence of two pistons made it possible to make the work process continuous. An automatic supply of heated water to the boiler was provided.

But Polzunov himself did not see his offspring in action - working for more than a year on the drawings, and then on the machine itself, the inventor undermined his health and caught consumption, for which there was no cure in those days. He died suddenly on May 6 (27), 1766 at the age of only 38 years.

Steam engine from the Barnaul Museum

The car was already launched without Polzunov, in August of the same year. It worked for 43 days, day and night, providing metal smelting in ore-smelting furnaces. During this time, she not only paid back the costs of her construction - 7200 rubles, but also gave 12 thousand rubles of profit in addition.

However, the untimely death of the inventor affected the fate of his offspring in the most regrettable way - when in November of the same year there were leaks from the cylinders and the machine's boiler itself, the engineer's students unsuccessfully tried to fix the problem by wrapping the pistons with birch bark. If Polzunov were alive, he, of course, would have understood that the first pancake came out lumpy and that it was necessary not to repair the old one, but to build a new machine, the design of which could withstand prolonged heating. His students did not have authority, and they failed to convince the factory authorities to build a new steam engine. The stopped giant stood at the plant for 14 years, and then it was dismantled and taken away. The factory people called the place where he stood "Crawler's ashes."

Disputes about who should be considered the discoverer of a two-cylinder steam engine - Polzunov or Watt - have been going on in our country for several decades. "Wattians" point out that the brainchild of Polzunov, as well as the developments on which he relied, was not a universal steam engine: firstly, the features of the heat engineering cycle did not allow it to be made more compact in order to be used for more delicate operations, firstly secondly, Polzunov, unlike Watt, did not develop a transmission mechanism that would turn reciprocating motion into rotational. Needless to say, the fourth of Watt's models, patented by him in 1782 and meeting all these requirements, was indeed more functional. However, these improvements were not something complicated - if Polzunov had not died so early, he would hardly have stopped at the model he originally invented.

The problem, of course, was not only this - unlike the UK, in Russia at that time the culture of invention was poorly developed. There was no one to continue Polzunov's developments. We should not forget that scientific discoveries are made by researchers, but they become in demand due to economic development. In England, industrial capitalism was rapidly developing, and competing factories quickly adopted the steam engine, seeing its prospects. In Russia, capitalism developed slowly and, moreover, extensively - natural resources and a huge undeveloped territory made it possible not to think too much about the efficiency of labor. That is why even the Watt steam engine, which was not difficult to copy and make in Russia, began to gain recognition in our country only in the middle of the next, XIX century. And Polzunov remained a lone talent, whose invention turned out to be no more needed than the eolipil of Heron of Alexandria.

Brief information:

The idea of ​​creating a submarine came from K.A. Schilder during experiments with galvanic bombs. In 1832, having developed a project, he began to build a submarine at his own expense. In addition, the government allocated him an amount of 14,000 rubles. In 1834, a submarine was tested, armed with six missiles designed by A.D. Zasyadko. The missiles were designed to be launched from underwater and surface positions.

Date of invention: 1791

Brief information:

I.P. Kulibin owes his appearance to the medical prosthesis. Ivan Petrovich created it in 1791 for the hero of the Ochakov battle, artillery officer S.V. Nepeitsyn, who lost his leg on the battlefield. The brave ensign was forced to walk on a "piece of wood", leaning on a cane.

Date of invention: 1896

Brief information:

Overlapping-shell is a building structure of overlappings of buildings and structures. In architectural practice, convex, hanging, mesh and membrane shells made of reinforced concrete, metals, wood, polymer, woven and composite materials are used. To calculate such structures, a specially developed theory of shells is used.

Mesh ceilings-shells were first introduced into world practice by the Russian engineer and architect V. G. Shukhov in 1896.

Description:

In 1763 I.I. Polzunov developed a detailed design of a 1.8 hp steam engine, and in 1764, together with his students, he began to create a “fire engine”. In the spring of 1766, she was almost ready. Due to transient consumption, the inventor himself did not manage to see his offspring in action. Testing of the steam engine began a week after Polzunov's death.

Polzunov's machine differed from the steam engines known at that time primarily in that it was intended not only to lift water, but also to drive factory machines - bellows. It was a continuous machine, which was achieved by using two cylinders instead of one: the pistons of the cylinders moved towards each other and alternately acted on a common shaft. In his project, Polzunov indicated all the materials from which the machine should be made, and also outlined the technological processes that would be required during its construction (soldering, casting, polishing). Experts say that the memorandum outlining the project was distinguished by its extreme clarity of thought and the filigree accuracy of the calculations.

As conceived by the inventor, steam from the boiler of the machine was supplied to one of the two cylinders and raised the piston to its highest position. After that, cooled water was injected into the cylinder from the tank, which led to the condensation of steam. Under the pressure of the external atmosphere, the piston descended, while in the other cylinder, as a result of steam pressure, the piston rose. With the help of a special device, two operations were carried out - the automatic admission of steam from the boiler into the cylinders and the automatic supply of cold water. A system of pulleys (special wheels) transmitted the movement from the pistons to the pumps that pumped water into the reservoir and to the blower bellows.

Polzunov's project was submitted for review to the President of the Berg Collegium I.A. Schlatter, who noted its originality. But the high official did not appreciate the main advantage of the project, which was the elimination of the water wheel, which played the role of a transmission link in similar European installations. Large factories were built, as a rule, on the banks of rivers, so that the power of water could be used to set in motion bellows and hammers for forging metal. Schlatter recommended Polzunov to return to the old schemes - a combination of a steam boiler with water wheels. But this meant that production was again made dependent on the vagaries of nature: the river could become shallow and in this case cease to serve people. Therefore, Polzunov did not accept Schlatter's remarks and designed a new installation with a capacity of 32 liters. e., which for that time was an unsurpassed result. The engine proposed by Polzunov could power huge furs.

In parallel with the main machine, the inventor developed many new parts, fixtures and devices that greatly simplified the production process. An example is the direct-acting regulator he designed to maintain a constant water level in the boiler. During the tests, serious engine defects were discovered: inaccurate surface treatment of the used cylinders, loose blower bellows, the presence of shells in metal parts, etc. These flaws were explained by the fact that the level of machine-building production at the Barnaul plant was still not high enough. And the scientific achievements of that time did not allow to accurately calculate the required amount of cooling water. Nevertheless, all the shortcomings were resolved, and in June 1766 the installation with bellows was successfully tested, after which the construction of furnaces began.

In August 1766, a few days after the death of I.I. Polzunov, the installation was launched. The machine fully paid for itself in the shortest possible time: for 43 days of work, a profit of 12,418 rubles was made (and this is when using only three furnaces!). But soon the boiler, built only for a trial run, started to leak, the operation of the machine was stopped. Funds were needed to order a new boiler. Moreover, despite the successful tests. the heads of the office of the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories still doubted the efficiency of the steam engine. They did not have confidence in the readiness of the Barnaul plant to build powerful steam power units. The car was again left for an indefinite time, in 1780 it was dismantled into separate parts until “future need”. The name of the talented Russian mechanic was forgotten for a long time. After his death, the model of the steam engine he created was transferred to the Academy of Sciences, but was not preserved for posterity.

Such a fate was characteristic of many Russian inventions of that time. This was due not only (and not so much) to the callousness of the officials. And the shortsightedness of the authorities. Historians explain the lack of need for a steam engine at that time by the socio-economic structure of Russian society in the 18th century. The labor of serfs assigned to factories was so cheap that it made no sense for their owners to spend money on the purchase and maintenance of a steam engine. Even the fact that the machine paid off these expenses and made a profit did not look attractive to them. (Things were different in Western Europe. There, the owners of enterprises had to pay a significant price for the labor of free workers, which reduced the size of profits. The steam engine, invented by James Watt, immediately found application in developed countries. And in this case, a simple calculation worked: the machine replaced the labor of many workers. Factory owners profited from labor savings.)

Although none of Polzunov's contemporaries appreciated the importance of his ideas and the practical results obtained by him, the launch of factory units from heat engines (without the help of water power) was an unsurpassed innovation for that time. And yet, the honor of inventing the world's first two-cylinder engine and the first continuous steam engine in Russia belongs to Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov. His superiority in this area is not disputed by anyone. And the operation of modern multi-cylinder engines is based on the principle applied by Polzunov (the action of several cylinders on one shaft).

100 Great Russian Inventions, Veche 2008

) - Russian inventor, creator of the first steam engine in Russia and the world's first two-cylinder steam engine.

Biography

Polzunov was born into the family of a soldier, a native of the peasants of the city of 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.

In the library of the Barnaul plant, he gets acquainted with the works of M. V. Lomonosov, and also studies the structure of steam engines.

Less than 3 years after moving to Barnaul, on April 11, 1750, at the suggestion of one of the heads of factories and the largest expert in the mining business, Samuel Christiani, Polzunov was promoted to the junior rank of master with an increase in salary to 36 rubles. in year. Simultaneously with the new production, it was decided that Christiani trained Polzunov to such an extent that Polzunov "...could be worthy of production to the chief officer rank." The resolution announced to Polzunov "... that if he learns the mentioned sciences and, among other things, sees skillfully, then he will have to be given a senior unterschitmeister salary, and in addition, he 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 with the management of factories, entrusted to him after the death of Andreas Beer in May 1751, sought to use Polzunov as a reliable and conscientious worker in a variety of 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.

Based on the results of the trip, he “created” a drawing with a detailed description, showing himself to be an excellent draftsman as well (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 in the 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 Polzunov 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 saw mill 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 “sleigh”, 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." By this time, Polzunov had won such authority from his superiors that none of his comrades unterschichtmeisters had.

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 the case. 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 something, he could clearly and extensively convey” Unterschichtmeister Polzunov was recognized as capable. He was also handed over for transfer to the Cabinet, a package of documents, 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, 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 a letter from Christiani in March, which began like this: “The most noble and venerable Mr. Schichtmeister.” A cherished dream came true, ten years of impeccable service were crowned with success - Polzunov became an officer and transferred to an officer position - commissioner of the Kolyvan plant “at the arrival and expense money treasury "or, in relation to the 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, who had been promoted to major general shortly before, was returned to Altai. He brought with him a whole package of measures "for the improvement of 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.

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 povyt (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 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. At that time, there was not a single steam engine in Russia and the world. 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.

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 alternate movement of pistons ("emvols") 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. that is, the piston that moved under the influence 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 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 for the best operation of the engine he invented. He determined 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 that, 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. Today, this means that 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 point of solidification of water - 0 degrees Celsius.

Polzunov's engine in his project of 1763 was intended to supply air to melting furnaces with blower bellows. If desired, the engine could easily perform rotational movements using a crank mechanism widely known in Russia. Polzunov's project was reviewed 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 II loved to maintain her fame as the patroness of sciences and arts. But the size of the encouragement confirms that the significance of Polzunov's invention was not understood in St. Petersburg.

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 proceed with the implementation of the first phase 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. 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 of the general manager of the work, to some extent solved the problem of technical management, but precisely, “to some extent”, because it was not possible for one person to manage such a new and complex technical enterprise.

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 - the forge of technical personnel.

Difficulties in acquiring building tools and machinery proved to be 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 Office decided to appoint at the disposal of Polzunov as needed, "how much, when he, Polzunov, will have work to happen."

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. Such a load could exhaust a healthy person, and he developed consumption.

By 1765, parts of the machine were mostly ready. In the time remaining before winter, it was necessary to build a building for her, and in it “largely connect”, assemble a car. Polzunov promised to do this by October. 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.

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 Kiesing, for help, as he was "obsessed with a prickly 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. 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 a glass factory. There was no need to waste time on the road from the village and back. Now he disappeared by the car until his strength left him completely.

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. It was quite clear that, feeling the near end, he was in a hurry to complete the work he had begun at the cost of his life. 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 of 1766, Polzunov's illness worsened. On April 18, he once again began to bleed in his throat, after which he could no longer get out of 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 his student Vanya Chernitsyn (he himself could no longer write) a petition addressed to the empress asking for the promised bonus for his family.

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 pistons of the engine with the balancers, for greater strength, the inventor made of separate iron rods and articulated, of the type that are 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.

Memory

Monument to I. I. Polzunov in front of the main building of AltSTU

The name of I. I. Polzunov is Altai State Technical University, opposite the main building of which there is a monument to the inventor.

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 with the management of factories, entrusted to him after the death of Andreas Beer in May 1751, sought to use Polzunov as a reliable and conscientious worker in a variety of 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 a detailed description, showing himself to be also 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 "glass" masters sent from central Russia worked on it. 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 removed, now he could deploy his capabilities, knowledge, energy in full force, in a word, bring more benefit to the Fatherland. Finally, the material side also played an important role for him, now a family man: his salary tripled, a batman 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 there was not a single steam engine in Russia 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 for the best operation of 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 of the general manager of the work, to some extent solved the problem of technical management, but precisely, “to some extent”, because it was not possible for one person to manage such a new and complex technical enterprise.

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 machinery proved to be 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 ...

External view of 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 of his own making. 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, pumped into the upper reservoir with a hand pump.

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 thwarted the launch of the machine, and repairs 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 a better 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 a net profit of 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 remain hot and the condenser cold if they are covered with heat-insulating material on the outside. 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

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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.

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