How Pavel Yablochkov tried to apply his inventions in Russia

How Pavel Yablochkov tried to apply his inventions in Russia Immediately after the technical design of his invention, Yablochkov arrived in Petersburg and took steps to apply his invention to his birthplace, but in Russia at that time reigned inertia and routine. The official and financial circles of tsarist Russia were not interested in the achievements of Russian inventors, did not believe in them. They needed a foreign stamp: so great was the admiration for the West and the underestimation of the forces and creative capabilities of the Russian people. Yablochkov had to return to Paris and here to engage in propaganda and distribution of the candle. In Russia, the business shifted from a dead point only when the "candle Yablochkov" was widely used and he became a European celebrity.

After the missed two years in St. Petersburg, the joint-stock company "Yablochkov-inventor and company" was created.

The establishment of the St. Petersburg partnership, which Yablochkov longed for, turned out to be connected to him with a heavy financial sacrifice. After the failure of the first attempt to organize a joint stock company in Russia, he transferred all rights to his Russian privilege (Russian patent) to the Parisian joint-stock company. To have the right to open a candle workshop in St. Petersburg, the inventor had to buy back a Russian patent back in 1878, for which the heads of the Parisian company demanded about a million francs. Passionately wishing to organize electric lighting in Russia, the inventor agreed to this excessively high price.

Not having other money, he gave in return for a Russian patent a large share of the shares of the Parisian company that belonged to him, which at that time had a high price and brought a big income. This noble, patriotic act of Yablochkov reduced for him almost-to-no possibility of influencing the future work of the Parisian company and soon had a serious impact on Yablochkov's financial situation.

Yablochkov actively participated in the creation of the St. Petersburg partnership and in the organization of workshops for the manufacture of candles and other details necessary for electric lighting by his method. Yablochkov invested a lot of energy and labor in setting up production work. In a short time he managed to achieve significant success. Several exemplary lighting installations were successfully carried out in St. Petersburg. Candles made in St. Petersburg began to spread in Russia.

1879 was the year of the greatest success of Yablochkov in Petersburg. Chikolev describes in his memoirs this stay of Yablochkov in Petersburg: "How can I now remember this visit of Pavel Nikolayevich to Petersburg with the reputation of a millionaire and world fame. He settled in the luxurious apartments of the "European Hotel", and whoever had not been to his - lordship, lordship, excellencies, excellencies without numbers, city heads. But all the more carefully, Yablochkov was friendly towards poor workers, technicians and his old friends of poverty.

Yablochkov everywhere was invited in great demand, his portraits were sold everywhere, sympathetic and sometimes enthusiastic articles were devoted to him in newspapers and magazines. "

How Pavel Yablochkov tried to apply his inventions in Russia

By this time, Yablochkov's report in the Russian Technical Society on April 2, 1879, and a public lecture with numerous demonstrations, arranged by the same society on April 13th. April 14, 1879 at a meeting of the Russian Technical Society Yablochkov was brought from this Society a medal with a special inscription. March 29, 1880 was the report of the inventor in Moscow at a meeting of the Physical Sciences Division of the Society of Naturalists. In the closed part of this meeting, a petition was submitted for awarding Yablochkov a large gold medal of the Company. January 30, 1880 Yablochkov was elected deputy chairman of the newly formed Electrotechnical Division of the Russian Technical Society.

The partnership "Yablochkov-inventor and company" quite successfully carried out the lighting of the Palace Bridge across the Neva, the square in front of the Alexandria Theater, the workshops of the Okhta Powder Factory, the Gostiny Dvor and other large objects. Then some theaters, restaurants, rich mansions, etc. were lit up.

Candles of the great electrical engineering, made in St. Petersburg, penetrated Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Helsingfors, Poltava, Krasnodar and other cities. Companies for the exploitation of the Russian invention arose, apart from Paris and St. Petersburg, and in other European cities. The establishment and organization of the activities of all these enterprises deprived the inventor of much effort and time, since everywhere he was a technical manager in the organization and establishment of production, developed plans and projects. In a word, in all cases he was the soul of the matter.

In addition, at first, especially during the Paris exhibition in 1878, Yablochkov had to argue with numerous ill-wishers, refute their false fabrications about the shortcomings of the invention, restore the truth about the cost of electric lighting. The main opponents were gas companies; They took up arms against Yablochkov. The great Russian electrical engineer fought persistently and successfully, defending the advantages of electric lighting. But the outcome of this struggle was the triumph of not the electric arc, but its competitor - incandescent lamps.

In 1887, Yablochkov once again came to Russia. But the external side of his stay here has abruptly changed. About this period Chikolev writes: "What an impressive difference with his arrival in 1879. He stayed in an inexpensive hotel, in a simple room, very few friends and acquaintances visited him, all the people were poor and unseen. The same people who were ingratiating in his time, now turned away from him, barely honoring the conversation. Even from those that were put on their feet and ate bread for many years at the expense of the partnership "Yablochkov the inventor and the company", he was directly indebted to him for his present position, even those who were said to have been lied by his hoof. "

As we have already noted, the demand for the "Yablochkov candle" began to fall as quickly as it used to grow. The incandescent lamp, as a mass light source, won the electric arc. The contracts of the partnership "Yablochkov-inventor and company" with the city administration of Paris on street lighting were not renewed. The prosperity of the St. Petersburg joint-stock company also came to an end, the inventor's financial situation was shaken. The attitude of capitalist entrepreneurs to him and to his ideas has also changed. On Yablochkov bankers began to look like a loser, who risked to trust money.

In addition to the incandescent lamp, the arc candle had other rivals. The idea of ​​the differential controller Chikoleva, inadvertently published by him in one of the foreign journals, was intercepted by the German firm Schuckert, and also by Siemens in Berlin. The arc lantern with the regulator was released under the name of the Gaufner-Altenek lamp. About the same time, other types of such regulators appeared. Thus, the arc candle has a number of serious rivals.

In Russia, in the eyes of the ruling and financial circles, Yablochkov found himself in the position of a debunked hero, and abroad he was a stranger. In the Paris partnership, having lost shares, he no longer had enough weight.

In the difficult period for the inventor to quench the demand for his candle, Yablochkov never ceased to believe in the ultimate triumph of advanced technology and in the opportunity to overcome all the difficulties that arose before him. He continued to work, albeit in a somewhat different field, and made a number of valuable inventions on galvanic elements and in the field of electric machines, but to carry out any invention to the end and introduce it into practice as it was with a candle in his time Could no longer; For research work and for the manufacture of new products, the talented inventor did not have the means.

In 1889 PN Yablochkov was the organizer of the Russian electrotechnical department of the next Parisian exhibition. Lanterns Yablochkov still shone in this exhibition and were presented in an amount of about a hundred copies. At the same time, the use of transformers was demonstrated and a number of improvements were made to the entire electric burner of Yablochkov. These successes were properly reflected in the reports on the exhibition and in the technical literature of the time, but they could no longer have practical consequences.

All these adversities, together with many years of hard work and emotional unrest caused by the failure of the beloved cause, and the ever more constrained material situation affected the health of the inventor. After returning from the Paris exhibition in 1889, which absorbed a lot of energy from Yablochkov, his health was even more shaken, one by one, followed by two blows. Having recovered, Yablochkov left for his native Serdobsky district, in the homestead inherited from his father, and then settled in Saratov, where he again tried to organize his work. But a serious heart disease intensified more and more. March 31, 1894 Pavel Nikolayevich Yablochkov died in Saratov at the age of 46 years.

So prematurely the life of this remarkable Russian inventor was cut short. Russian technology and science lost in him not only one of his most gifted representatives, but also a fiery fighter for the idea of ​​technological progress in Russia.

Kaptsov NA "Yablochkov - glory and pride of Russian electrical engineering"