Boris Semenovich Jacobi (from the book of SI Vavilov in 1948)

Great scientific discoveries sooner or later are accompanied by grandiose shifts in technology and lead to the creation of new branches of science. But the cases when brilliant scientists themselves bring the results of their works to their technical applications, let alone implement these applications in a practically tangible form, are extremely rare. This part of the work, no less useful for the good of mankind and no less difficult, falls to the share of other figures whose names humanity also takes pride in.

Among such figures is the Russian scientist, academician Boris Semenovich Jacobi. His writings formed the basis of the modern theory of electromagnetic machines. They opened a new field of technology - galvanics.

Boris Semenovich Jacobi was born on September 9, 1801. He received his education at the University of Göttingen. According to the wishes of the parents, Jacobi received his higher education as an architect. In 1835, he became a professor of civil architecture at the University of Dorpat. However, in Derpt B.S. Jacobi did not stay long. His works in the field of "pure and applied electro- logic" found a response in St. Petersburg at the Academy of Sciences, and in 1837 Jacobi was sent there for an "indefinite time".

In 1839, he received an adjunct in the Academy, in 1842 - a place extraordinary and, finally, in 1847 - an ordinary member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1872, upon his return from Paris, where he actively participated as a Russian delegate in the work of the International Commission for the Establishment of a Monotonous International System of Weights and Measures, O. Jacobi began one heart attack, the first symptoms of which were noted back in 1870 He lay down. Seizures began to recur, and on the night of 10 to 11 March 1874 Boris Semenovich Jacobi passed away.

This is the simple external frame of life of BS Yakobi, embracing a diverse and very fruitful scientific activity. Proceeding from the laws and representations of Ampere and Faraday , supplemented by his own research, carried out by him in the late thirties of the last century, in cooperation with Academician E. X. Lenz, BS Jacobi in 1839 built the first magnetoelectric engine that drives the Neva River Against its current boat with fourteen people, and thus proved the possibility of practical implementation and use of electric motors with continuous rotational motion.

Based on these experiments, as well as his earlier studies in the field of "the application of electromagnetism to the movement of machines," BS Jacobi created the theory of electromagnetic machines. The laws of electromagnetic motors are set forth by him in articles published in 1840 and 1850. BS Jacobi broke thus widespread at that time illusions about the possibility of a very significant increase in useful work due to the electric current of a given power by further improvement and reorganization of magnetoelectric machines.

He proved that if such a restructuring leads to a gain in the received engine speed, then this win will inevitably be accompanied by a loss in strength, and back - a win in force will lead to a decrease in speed.

This position before BS Jacobi was recognized only in the field of pure mechanics. B. Jacobi pointed out the special agreement of the expression for the greatest number of work of electromagnetic machines with the expression for heat, developed in this case according to the law of Joule and Lenz, due to the existence of an electric current in a closed conductor.

To determine the real meaning of that consent, however, it was impossible for him, since a new mechanical theory of heat, which proved the constant equivalence of heat and mechanical work, was still emerging at that time.

Even more closely related is the name of BS Jacobi with practical applications of electrolysis, the laws of which were established by the great English scientist Faraday .

When electric current passes through solutions of acids or salts, the constituent parts of these chemically complex bodies are isolated on electrodes - conductors, which supply an electric current to the given solution. Here, these parts either react with the solvent (water) or with the electrode material, or settle on the electrode as a continuous layer.

The latter takes place when most metals are isolated on the cathode, the electrode connected to the negative pole of the electric current source.

To drive the electromagnetic machines, BS Jacobi needed sources of electric current and carefully examined a number of galvanic cells. Working with an element in which copper was deposited on the electrode, he drew attention to the fact that this sinking occurred as a special electroforming workshop where, with the participation of BS Jacobi, many remarkable works of art were made.

Suffice it to say that the workshop was galvanized for statues and bas-reliefs of the St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Hermitage, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the Winter Palace, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and some other items - 6,749 poods of copper. For the gilding of the domes of the Cathedral of the Savior in Moscow, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and several other small domes and gilding of various items, this workshop used 45 poods of 32 pounds of gold.

BS Jacobi's scientific and technical work was diverse. He created a number of devices for measuring electrical resistance, calling them "voltagometry."

Seeking to introduce unity in the measurement of electric current, BS Jacobi prepared his own conventional resistance standard (from copper wire) and sent out his specimens to a number of physicists. In 1852, Weber determined the resistance value of B. Jacobi standards in absolute units. Thus, the measurements made with the aid of these measurement standards could be translated into generally accepted units.

One way to measure the strength of an electric current is to determine the amount of matter deposited on electrodes by current during electrolysis for one second in an instrument called a "voltmeter." B. Jacobi first perfected the voltmeter, moving from the electrolysis of water to the precipitation of copper, then found out the drawback of this method and proposed the now accepted in science method of precipitation in a silver voltammeter from a solution of silver nitrate.

B. Jacobi connected with a telegraph (with an underground laying of wires) the Winter Palace and Tsarskoe Selo, invented and constructed for this line, as well as for telegraph communication between the Winter Palace and the General Staff, several new peculiar types of telegraph apparatuses, conducted a study of the resistance of liquid conductors and their Polarization, invented the so-called "counterbattery", which makes possible the wiring of poorly insulated wires; Built galvanometers of new types; Invented an apparatus for separating and measuring the density of a liquid of a different specific gravity (this apparatus was used as a test instrument in distilleries).

Jacobi developed and improved the method of igniting mines at a distance with an electric current and directed the application of this method in the Kronstadt fortress during the Crimean War. The works and discoveries of BS Yakobi were recognized by his contemporaries. Faraday, Humboldt, Berzelius and other scientists were very warm, and sometimes enthusiastically responded to the discoveries of BS Jacobi.

Thus, Faraday, in response to a letter from BS Jacobi and the electroformed images sent from him from an engraved card: "Faraday from Jacobi with greetings," wrote August 17, 1839: "I was so interested in your letter and those great results, about Which you give me such a detailed account that I translated it and gave it almost entirely to the publishers of the Philosophical Magazine (the name of a major English scientific journal - author) in the hope that they will recognize this news as important to their readers. I'm sure that did not upset you; I just wished that, like me, others would know about the results you achieved.

I will cherish the hope that in one way or another I'll hear again, if possible in a short time, the further results of your work, especially as regards application to mechanical purposes, and I most earnestly wish your great labors to receive the high award they deserve. As I think only about the electromagnetic machine in the "Great Western" or "British Queen" (the name of the major English ships of that time - auth.) And sending them this way to sail across the Atlantic Ocean or even to the East Indies! What a glorious thing it would be! And those records that you sent me are not only very pleasant and flattering to me, but they are both beautiful in their theoretical and practical relationships, and everyone who sees them admires them. "

The discovery of electrotype BS Yakobi laid the foundations of a new field of technology. Other technical applications of physical phenomena proposed by BS Yakobi also made a huge contribution to technology, a contribution that opens up new ways and ways of using the forces of nature for the benefit of mankind.

Source of information: People of Russian science: Essays on outstanding figures in science and technology / Ed. S.I. Vavilov. - M., L .: State. Published in the technical-theoretical literature. - 1948.