Boris Semenovich Jacobi

The works of the Russian inventor, scientist, academician Boris Semenovich Jacobi formed the basis for the modern theory of electric machines . Jacobi was opened entirely new field of technology - galvanics.

"The name ... Boris Semenovich Jacobi is well known as the name of the inventor of electrotype, the pioneer in the field of electromagnetic telegraphy, the designer of the first electric motor , which was used for the motion of a boat, etc. Less known to Jacobi as one of the first organizers of the international metric service and even less , As an enterprising worker in the field of electrotechnical measurements , which contributed to improving the methods of electrotechnical measurements and the improvement of electrical measuring instruments, "wrote the corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, electrical engineer MA Shatelen.

Boris Semenovich (Moritz German) Jacobi was born on September 9, 1801 in Potsdam. Father Jacobi was the personal banker of King Frederick William. Yakobi's younger brother - Karl Gustav Jacob Jacobi - later became an outstanding German mathematician. (He is one of the creators of the theory of elliptic functions, he owns discoveries in the field of number theory, linear algebra and many other branches of mathematics.)

Education Boris Jacobi received at the University of GцTttingen, according to the wishes of his parents - on the specialty of an architect. In 1835, Jacobi became a professor of civil architecture at the University of Dorpat. But Boris Jacobi, apart from architecture, had another passion - to conduct experiments with electricity.

In May 1834, Jacobi built his first acting model of an electric motor, a "magnetic apparatus," as he called his engine. In November 1934, he sent to the Paris Academy of Sciences a manuscript describing the electric motor he invented. On December 1, his achievement was reported at the meeting of the Academy, and on December 3 his note was published.

But Jacobi's name is more known in connection with practical applications of electrolysis, the laws of which were established by the great English scientist Faraday , with whom Jacobi was in friendly correspondence.

When electric current passes through solutions of acids or salts, the constituent parts of these chemically complex bodies are allocated on conductor electrodes, 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 occurs when most metals are isolated at the cathode, the electrode connected to the negative pole of the electric current source.

To drive the electromagnetic machines, 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 subsidence occurred in an even layer, which then could be completely torn off the electrode. The shape of the surface of the copper sheet obtained in this way completely and accurately reproduced all the irregularities and features of the surface of the electrode.

In the summer of 1936, he was able to observe this amazing ability of copper particles to deposit on the surface of a negative electrode. Jacobi used as an electrode copper plaque on which his name was engraved, and saw that the leaf torn off from the electrode is a negative imprint of a plaque with an inscription.

He immediately appreciated the technical significance of this fact and already deliberately very successfully removed a copy from a copper pyatak. Jacobi called this method "galvanoplasty" and began in every possible way to propagate its distribution and application in practice.

His works in the field of "pure and applied electro- logic" interested the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, and in 1837 Jacobi was sent there on 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 1838, he submitted a memorandum to the Academy of Sciences on the discovery of electroforming, and in 1840 published his guide to electroforming: "Electroplating or the method of producing copper products from copper solutions using galvanic methods."

Jacobi was the first to establish the technical feasibility and practical significance of the electrolytic deposition of metals. Thus, Jacobi is the inventor of galvanotechnics in general and the founder of modern electrochemistry.

Thanks to the energy of Jacobi, electroforming quickly found practical application in Russia - in the production of precise and all similar clichés for printing government securities, including banknotes, which could not be achieved by simple engraving clichés.

All his long life and all his powers Jacobi dedicated to serving Russia and its industrial development. He perfectly understood the significance of the discovery of electrotype and for the rest of his life, despite all the difficulties, he fought for the introduction of electrotype in Russian industry.

Jacobi was tempted by the fact that in another country he could have used the rights of the inventor much better. But he believed that electrotype belongs exclusively to Russia: "This invention belongs exclusively to Russia and can not be disputed by any other invention outside of it ..." Here, "it is open and developed here!"

A distinctive feature of Jacobi was his modesty. He never stressed and did not advertise his many years of work, which have enormous scientific and practical significance. Although Jacobi occupied a prominent official position and received for the invention of electrotype in 1840 Demidov Prize of 25,000 rubles, and in 1867 at the Paris exhibition - a large gold medal and a prize, he did not earn a lot of money.

Dying, this largest inventor was forced to address the government with a request not to leave his family in need. Yet BS Jacobi, compared with other Russian inventors, electrical engineers of the XIX century. - AN Lodygin, PN Yablochkov, extremely lucky.

He was interested in work by people in power, up to Emperor Nicholas I. He was provided with all the conditions and means for work. Practical implementation of his invention was carried out, on the one hand, by the "Expedition of the preparation of state papers," on the other - a special electroforming workshop where, with the participation of Jacobi, many remarkable works of art were made.

So, for the 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 products, the workshop besieged 6749 poods of copper galvanically! For the gilding of the domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul Cathedral and several other small domes and gilding of various items, this workshop used 45 poods of 32 pounds of gold.

Proceeding from the laws and representations of Ampere and Faraday , supplemented by his own research, conducted by him in the late 1830's. Together with Academician E. X. Lenz, Jacobi built the first magnetoelectric engine in 1839, driving a boat with fourteen people on the Neva River against its current, and thereby proved the possibility of practical use of electric motors with continuous rotational motion.

On the basis of these experiments, as well as his earlier studies in the field of "the application of electromagnetism to the movement of machines," Jacobi created the theory of electromagnetic machines. The laws of electromagnetic motors are set forth by him in articles published in 1840 and 1850. Jacobi broke at the same time widespread at the time illusions about the possibility of a very significant increase in useful work due to the electric current of this power through further improvement and restructuring of electromagnetic machines.

He proved that if such a restructuring leads to a gain in the speed of the engine, then this win will inevitably be accompanied by a loss in strength, and vice versa - a gain in strength will lead to a decrease in speed. This position before Jacobi was recognized only in the field of pure mechanics. The scientific and technical creativity of Jacobi was very diverse.

He created a number of devices for measuring electrical resistance, calling them "voltammeters". In an effort to introduce unity in the measurement of electric current, Jacobi prepared his own conventional resistance standard (from copper wire) and sent out his copies to a number of physicists.

In 1852, Weber determined the magnitude of the resistance of Jacobi standards in absolute units. Thus, measurements made with the help 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 material deposited on electrodes by electrolysis for one second in an instrument called a "voltmeter."

Jacobi first perfected the voltmeter, moving from the electrolysis of water to the deposition 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.

Jacobi connected the Winter and Tsarskoe Selo palaces with a telegraph (with an underground laying of the wires), invented and constructed for this line, as well as for telegraph communication between the Winter Palace and the General Staff, several new original telegraph apparatuses, investigated the resistance of liquid conductors and their polarization, invented the so-called A counterbattery that makes possible wiring on poorly insulated wires; Built galvanometers of new types; Invented an apparatus for separating and measuring the density of a liquid of different specific gravity (this apparatus was used as a testing device 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. In the declining years, Jacobi was in charge of the Physical Cabinet of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He created a team of military galvanizers, on the basis of which the highest electrotechnical school of Russia grew.

In 1872, upon his return from Paris, where he took an active part as a Russian delegate to the work of the International Commission for the Establishment of a Monotonous International System of Weights and Measures, Jacobi began heart attacks (seizures), the first symptoms of which were back in 1870. He slept . Heart attacks began to recur, and on the night of 10 to 11 March 1874, Boris Semyonovich Jacobi died.

Shortly before his death, Jacobi wrote: "The cultural and historical significance and development of nations are valued for the contribution that each of them makes to the common treasury of human thought and activity, and therefore the undersigned treats with a sense of contented consciousness to his thirty-seven-year scholarly activity devoted entirely to the country, Who is accustomed to be regarded as the second fatherland, being connected with it not only by the duty of citizenship and the close ties of the family, but also by the personal feelings of the citizen.The undersigned is proud of this activity because, having proved fruitful in the common interest of all mankind, it also brought immediate and substantial benefit Russia ... "

During the establishment of memorial plaques on the house where outstanding Russian academicians lived, in 1949, in an opening address, the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician SI Vavilov said: "Jacobi's name will forever remain in history in connection with the electroforming that he invented, which received the widest application In technology ... "

Source of information: The most famous inventors of Russia / Author-compiler S.V. Istomin. - M .: Veche, 2000 - 469p.

See also: Boris Semenovich Jacobi (from the book of SI Vavilov, 1948)