Social science
Lodygin biography. Lodygin, Alexander Nikolaevich: biography. Practical application of incandescent lamps

Lodygin biography. Lodygin, Alexander Nikolaevich: biography. Practical application of incandescent lamps

Today we will tell you who actually invented the incandescent lamp, Thomas Edison or Alexander Lodygin.

Thomas Alva Edison

American inventor and entrepreneur who received 1093 patents in the United States and about 3 thousand in other countries of the world; creator of the phonograph; improved the telegraph, telephone, cinema equipment, developed one of the first commercially successful versions of the incandescent electric lamp. It was he who suggested using the word “hello” at the beginning of a telephone conversation. In 1928 he was awarded the highest US award - the Congressional Gold Medal. In 1930 he became a foreign honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

And Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin

Russian electrical engineer, one of the inventors of the incandescent lamp.

Born in the village of Stenshino, Lipetsk district, Tambov province. He came from a very old and noble noble family.

His parents were poor nobles. According to family tradition, Alexander was supposed to become a military man, and therefore in 1859 he entered an unranked company (“preparatory classes”) of the Voronezh Cadet Corps, which was located in Tambov, then was transferred to Voronezh with the characteristic: “kind, sympathetic, diligent.”

He also worked on a diving apparatus project. Without waiting for a decision from the Russian War Ministry, Lodygin writes to Paris and invites the republican government to use the aircraft in the war with Prussia. Having received a positive answer, the inventor goes to France. But the defeat of France in the war stopped Lodygin’s plans.

incandescent lamp

The notorious “Thomas Edison light bulb” was actually invented by Russian engineer Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin.

Returning from Paris to St. Petersburg, he attended classes in physics, chemistry, and mechanics at the Technological Institute. In 1871-1874 he conducted experiments and demonstrations of electric lighting with incandescent lamps at the Admiralty, Galernaya Harbor, on Odesskaya Street, and at the Technological Institute.

In 1872, Lodygin replaced plant fibers in incandescent lamps with carbon rods, and in the 90s he proposed making filament from tungsten. Three years later, the first public demonstrations of incandescent electric lamps suitable for practical use took place. But these lamps burned for only 40 minutes. Vasily Fedorovich Didrikhson, one of Lodygin’s employees, proposed pumping air out of the lamps, as a result of which the life of the lamps increased to almost 1000 hours of operation.

In 1873, in St. Petersburg on Peski (the area of modern Soviet streets), Lodygin made the first experiment in street lighting using an electric incandescent lamp. But Lodygin’s affairs did not receive financial support from the state.

The company he created together with his friend and assistant Didrikhson, “Russian Electric Lighting Partnership Lodygin and Co,” soon went bankrupt. In the 1870s, Lodygin became close to the populists. In 1875-1878 he spent in the Tuapse colony-community of the populists.

Although Thomas Edison began his experiments with an electric incandescent lamp only in 1878. he had the worldwide support of American financiers, in particular John Pierpont Morgan. Together with him, he created the Edison Electric Lighting Company with a capital of 300 thousand dollars. Edison improved Lodygin's invention, creating modern form lamps, screw base with socket, plug, socket, fuse. And today, when the word comes about Edison, looking back, you understand that everything turned out this way because Lodygin did not receive funding from the state. But the fact is that the incandescent lamp was created not by Thomas Edison, but by the Russian engineer Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin himself.

Source – Wikipedia, magazine Mysteries of History, author of the text – Anna Semenenko.

Thomas Edison, incandescent lamp and Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin updated: October 25, 2017 by: website

Lodygin Alexander Nikolaevich (1847-1923) is a famous Russian inventor who created an incandescent lamp, which became widespread due to its efficiency. He stood at the origins of modern electrical engineering, creating several types of furnaces for processing metals in industrial conditions.

Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin

Alexander Lodygin was born on October 6 (18), 1847 in the village of Stenshino, Tambov province. He had noble origin, and his family belonged to the category of very noble ones, which, like the then reigning Romanov family, descended from Andrei Kobyla himself. Despite the title, the family lived rather modestly and could not boast of much wealth.

Many ancestors of the future inventor devoted themselves military service having achieved a lot of success in this field. But young Sasha was not at all attracted by this prospect, although he could not escape the family tradition. In 1859, Lodygin entered the local preparatory classes of the Voronezh Cadet Corps, and after graduation he was sent to Voronezh with a very positive description. After graduating from educational institution in 1865, Alexander was enrolled as a cadet in the Belevsky infantry regiment, and then spent three years training at the Moscow cadet infantry school.

In 1870, Lodygin submitted his resignation and moved to the capital. Here he plunged headlong into creating a flying machine with an electric motor and at the same time began actively working on incandescent lamps.

Creation of an electroplane

In 1870, on the table of the Minister of War Russian Empire Dmitry Alekseevich Milyutin received a document, the author of which was retired cadet Alexander Lodygin. It reported on the invention of a special aeronautical machine (electric aircraft), capable of moving at different heights and in arbitrary directions. It was designed to transport goods and people, but could also perform military operations. However, the official did not support this idea in any way and did not even bother to personally communicate with the inventor.

The Minister of War did not suspect then that the electric plane anticipated the appearance of the familiar helicopter. The inventor saw it as an oblong cylinder, cone-shaped in front and spherical in the back. A screw was located at the back of the device, which provided horizontal movement. Another screw was located on top - it controlled the speed of the machine when moving in the vertical and horizontal directions.

Faced with an indifferent attitude in his homeland, Lodygin, at the invitation of the French side, goes to Paris to continue the development of the aircraft. However, failure awaited him here too - the outbreak of war with Prussia and the imminent defeat of France crossed out all plans, which forced the scientist to return to Russia. The electrolet was not destined to acquire a material form, but it contributed to the birth of famous invention Lodygina - an electric light bulb, which was supposed to become one of its elements.

Incandescent lamp

The possibility of obtaining artificial lighting using electricity excited scientific minds long before Lodygin was born. There were many ideas offering solutions in many different directions. Some tried to provoke the glow of rarefied gases with electricity, others sought luck in heating bodies with electric current, and still others used the flame of an electric arc. Most of the prototypes never left the walls of the laboratories until a Russian inventor got involved in the work.

After returning from France, Lodygin found himself in a difficult financial situation and was forced to agree to find a job as a technician at the Sirius Oil Gas Society. But the young man devoted all his free time from work to developing an electric lamp. He immediately realized the lack of theoretical training and signed up for lectures at St. Petersburg University, where he met the latest achievements in the field of electrical engineering.

Hard work on the invention yielded results - by the end of 1872, Lodygin had several incandescent lamps at his disposal. The Didrikhson brothers helped materialize the inventor’s plans, among whom Vasily Fedorovich stood out, who personally made most of the samples. At first, iron wire was used for incandescence; later, coke rods were used in experiments.

Iron quickly showed its ineffectiveness, but working with carbon rods gave a positive result. It turned out that they not only provide better light, but also allow us to find an approach to solving the problem of “light fragmentation” - integrating a large number of lighting sources into the circuit of one generator. The sequential operation of the carbon rods turned out to be very convenient, but in outdoor conditions in the open air the filament body burned out quite quickly.

This gave Lodygin the idea to make the lamps in the form of a glass spherical vessel in which two copper rods with a diameter of 6 mm were placed. A small rod with a diameter of 2 mm, made of retort coal, was attached to them. Electricity was supplied through wires through a frame that was located above the opening of the device.

Lodygina incandescent lamp

Despite the fact that Lodygin's first lamps only shone for about 40 minutes, he received privileges for his invention in many European countries. Subsequent improvements made it possible to increase durability - Vasily Didrikhson proposed removing air from the lamps. In addition, carbonized substances of plant origin began to be used. As a result, the service life of the lamps was increased to 700-1000 hours.

Practical application of incandescent lamps

The first street lighting using Lodygin's electric lamps appeared in St. Petersburg on Peski in 1873. The two kerosene lanterns were replaced with electric ones, emitting a bright white light that many people came to see. Some of them brought newspapers to compare the distance of light from kerosene and electric lanterns.

In 1874, lighting appeared on the Admiralty docks, opening up the prospect of using the technology in the navy. A few years later, Florent’s store on Morskaya Street was lit in a similar way. The devices performed excellently - only two coals burned out in two months.

After this success, businessmen began to circle around the inventor, wanting to make as much profit as possible from the invention. Alexander Nikolaevich became a participant in one of these enterprises, which exploited his creations. A number of modernized devices even bore the name of third-party people - Conn, Kozlov, who owned a controlling stake in the electric lighting partnership they created. Latest version under the name “Conn’s lamp” had up to 5 separate rods, which were turned on sequentially after the previous ones burned out.

Technology patents

In 1872, the inventor submitted an application for his invention and waited for a response from officials for two years. Only in 1874 did he receive privilege No. 1619.

After the termination of the partnership, the inventor again found himself on the brink of poverty, which forced him to send a patent application for a carbon incandescent lamp to the United States, but he was unable to find the required amount. Lodygin would still receive a patent in 1890, but for a lamp with a metal thread. Here, by law, he will have the right to be considered the inventor of lamps with an incandescent filament made of refractory materials.

Lodygin's molybdenum and tungsten lamps were demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Paris, held in 1900. A year earlier, the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute awarded the inventor the title of honorary electrical engineer. In 1906, the patent for a lamp with a tungsten filament was bought by the famous General Electric Company, which later merged with Edison's enterprise. In 1909, the scientist was granted a patent for an induction furnace.

For his invention, Alexander Nikolaevich received the Lomonosov Prize of 1000 rubles from the Academy of Sciences. Lodygin’s merits in this field are obvious - he created a more advanced example of an incandescent lamp and was the first to turn it from a physical device into a device for practical mass use, took his brainchild out of the laboratory and made it available to the street. Alexander Nikolaevich convincingly demonstrated the advantages of tungsten wire as a material for an incandescent body, becoming the founder of the production of more economical incandescent lamps. He had a decisive influence on the work of Joseph Swan, which contributed to the mass distribution of these devices.

Russia - abroad

Strengthening the radical wing social movement in the second half of the 70s of the 19th century and the subsequent terrorist attacks, one of which killed Emperor Alexander II, affected the fate of Lodygin. At this time, he actively became close to the populists and even spent some time in their colony in Tuapse. The defeat that began after the death of the king " People's Will"touched many of the inventor's friends and acquaintances. Partly, a shadow of suspicion fell on himself, so he decides to go abroad.

After several years in Europe, the inventor moved to the USA in 1888, where he worked on the introduction of electricity into metallurgy. They began to pay him a good salary and the family’s financial situation improved noticeably. After finishing Russo-Japanese War in 1905 he returned to his homeland in order to put his accumulated experience into practice. But Russian reality exceeded all expectations - the inveterate conservatism and indifference of officials fettered any initiative.

The advanced methods used in American industry turned out to be of no interest to anyone here. Therefore, the inventor with worldwide famous name received only the position of head of the substation of the St. Petersburg tram depot. In addition, he showed great interest in the electrification of handicrafts and was engaged in the practical implementation of the theory electromagnetic induction and Maxwell.

In 1914, under the leadership of Alexander Nikolaevich, work on the electrification of Olonetskaya and Nizhny Novgorod provinces, but the outbreak of the First World War confused all the cards. Having not achieved serious success in his native field, Lodygin returned to the USA in 1916. Last years He dedicated his life to the development of electric furnaces. Under his leadership, installations for the production of silicon and phosphorus, as well as ore smelting, were built. In addition, the Russian inventor designed special furnaces for heating bandages, hardening and annealing metals. During this period, he was sick a lot, which often distracted him from his work.

Lodygin's inventive activity was not limited to the incandescent lamp. He created an electric heater, improved an electric furnace for smelting ores, and developed the idea of quenching furnaces, as well as respirators based on the electrolytic method of generating oxygen. Alexander Nikolaevich became one of the founders of the electrical engineering department of the Russian Technical Society and stood at the origins periodical"Electricity".

In 1871, the inventor prepared a design for a diving suit that would allow him to stay under water autonomously using an oxygen-hydrogen mixture. In this case, oxygen was produced directly from water through the process of electrolysis.

Thomas Edison made the first experiment with his lamp in 1879, which happened 6 years later than Lodygin did. But thanks to the aggressive promotion of his brainchild, it was the American who began to be considered in the public consciousness as the inventor of the incandescent lamp.
After coming to power, Lenin suggested that Lodygin return to Russia to develop the GOELRO plan, but the scientist’s serious illness prevented this.
Since 1970, one of the craters on back side The moon is named after Alexander Lodygin.
Lodygin was one of the few domestic inventors awarded the Order of Stanislav III degree. He was awarded an honorary award for his participation in the Vienna Electrotechnical Exhibition.

Video

Documentary film “Sketches of the Great. Alexander Lodygin. Creator of the incandescent lamp."

- Russian inventor and electrical engineer. He created an electric incandescent lamp with a tungsten filament. It was he who first proved the viability of using a refractory metal conductor as a luminous element for electric light bulbs.

Alexander Nikolaevich was born October 6, 1847 in the village of Stenshino, Tambov region, in a very old and noble noble family. At the age of 12, he entered the Tambov Cadet Corps, and then the Moscow Junker School. In 1867 He graduates from college, having received the education of a military engineer. After this, his short period begins military career. After serving his mandatory service (3 years), Lodygin left the army and plunged headlong into engineering developments, for which he had an undoubted inclination.

In 1870 He develops a heavier-than-air aircraft, while at the same time beginning experiments to improve the incandescent lamps created at that time. As for the aircraft, although it turned out to be quite functional, it did not find approval among Russian government, and then in French. From 1871 to 1874 Lodygin is a free student at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and at the same time demonstrates incandescent lamps. For his developments, he initially uses metal filaments, but they quickly burn out and Lodygin turns his attention to carbon rods. In 1872 Alexander Nikolaevich applies for a patent for his incandescent lamp with a carbon rod, and only two years later he receives it. The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences even awarded him the Lomonosov Prize.

Before 1884 Lodygin fruitfully works not only on improving incandescent lamps, but also on the development of diving equipment. He cooperates with various Russian factories and participates in electrical exhibitions. For his engineering developments he receives the Order of Stanislav, III degree - a rare award for Russian inventors. In 1884 mass arrests of revolutionary-minded members of various organizations forced Lodygin to leave Russia and move first to France and then to America. In Paris, he organizes the production of incandescent lamps according to his own calculations. In 1993 he again returns to experiments with metal filaments, but this time from refractory metals - tungsten, chromium and titanium. A year later he organized his own lamp company, Lodygin and de Lisle.

In the USA, he creates new lamps based on refractory metals and builds a plant for the electrochemical production of tungsten, chromium and titanium. He develops electric furnaces for melting and hardening metals, producing phosphorus and silicon.

It cannot be said that it was Alexander Nikolaevich who was the sole father of the discovery of the electric light bulb. Its creation is a whole chain of events and inventions of various scientists and inventors. But it was Lodygin who first proposed and actually began to use tungsten filaments, which are still used today. In addition, it was he who suggested using not a straight thread, but a thread twisted into a spiral. It was he who came up with the idea of pumping air out of the flask and filling it with an inert gas. It was his inventions that became the impetus for the creation of modern incandescent lamps.

According to the new style), entrepreneur.

Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin

Date of Birth	October 6 (18)(1847-10-18 )
Place of Birth	Stenshino, Lipetsk district, Tambov province, Russian empire
Date of death	March 16(1923-03-16 ) (75 years old)
A place of death	Brooklyn, NY, NY, USA
A country	Russian empire Russian empire USA USA
Scientific field	electrical engineering
Place of work	St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University
Alma mater	Alekseevsky Military School
Known as	one of the inventors of the incandescent lamp and other inventions,
Awards and prizes	Lomonosov Prize
Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin at Wikimedia Commons

USSR postage stamp with a portrait of Lodygin, 1951

Biography

According to family tradition, Alexander was supposed to become a military man, and therefore in 1859 he entered an unranked company (preparatory classes) of the Voronezh Cadet Corps, which was located in Tambov, then was transferred to Voronezh with the characteristic: “kind, sympathetic, diligent” [ ] . In 1861, the entire Lodygin family moved to Tambov. In 1865, Lodygin was released from the cadet corps as a cadet in the 71st Belevsky Infantry Regiment, and from 1866 to 1868 he studied at the Moscow Junker Infantry School.

In 1870, Lodygin retired and moved to St. Petersburg. Here he is looking for funds to create the flying machine he had planned with an electric motor (electric aircraft) and at the same time begins his first experiments with incandescent lamps. He also worked on a diving apparatus project. Without waiting for a decision from the Russian War Ministry, Lodygin writes to Paris and invites the republican government to use the aircraft in the war with Prussia. Having received a positive answer, the inventor goes to France. But the defeat of France in the war stopped Lodygin’s plans [ ] .

Returning to St. Petersburg, he attended classes in physics, chemistry, and mechanics as a volunteer. In 1871-1874 he conducted experiments and demonstrations of electric lighting with incandescent lamps at the Admiralty, Galernaya Harbor, on Odesskaya Street, and at the Technological Institute.

Lodygin, living in St. Petersburg, and the second creator of electric light, Yablochkov, in Moscow, knew about each other from numerous and noisy publications about themselves in the press, as well as from the stories of a mutual friend, also an electrical engineer-inventor, Vladimir Chikolev. We met at industrial exhibitions. Fate brought them together to work together only in 1878 - in St. Petersburg.

Initially, Lodygin tried to use iron wire as a filament. Having failed, he moved on to experiments with a carbon rod placed in a glass container.

In the 1870s, Lodygin became close to the Narodniks. In 1875-1878 he spent in the Tuapse colony-community of the populists. Since 1878, Lodygin was back in St. Petersburg, working at various factories, improving the diving apparatus, and working on other inventions. For participation in the Vienna Electrotechnical Exhibition, Lodygin was awarded the Order of Stanislav, 3rd degree. Honorary electrical engineer of the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute (1899).

In 1884, mass arrests of revolutionaries began. Among those wanted are Lodygin's acquaintances and friends. He decided to go abroad. The separation from Russia lasted 23 years. Lodygin worked in France and the USA, creating new incandescent lamps, inventing electric furnaces, electric cars, building factories and subways. Of particular note is the patents he received during this period for lamps with filaments made of refractory metals, sold in 1906 to the General Electric Company.

In 1884, he organized the production of incandescent lamps in Paris and sent a batch of lamps to St. Petersburg for the 3rd Electrical Engineering Exhibition. In 1893, he turned to filaments made of refractory metals, which he used in Paris for powerful lamps of 100-400 candles. In 1894, he founded the lamp company Lodygin and de Lisle in Paris. In 1900 he participated in the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1906, in the USA, he built and put into operation a plant for the electrochemical production of tungsten, chromium, and titanium. An important area of inventive activity is the development of electric resistance and induction furnaces for melting metals, melenite, glass, hardening and annealing of steel products, and producing phosphorus and silicon.

In 1895, Lodygin married journalist Alma Schmidt, the daughter of a German engineer. They had two daughters, in 1901 - Margarita, and in 1902 - Vera. The Lodygin family moved to Russia in 1907. Alexander Nikolaevich brought a whole series of inventions in drawings and sketches: methods for preparing alloys, electric furnaces, an engine, electrical devices for welding and cutting.

Lodygin also participated in political life. He wrote the article “ Open letter gg. members of the All-Russian National Club" (1910) and the brochure "Nationalists and Other Parties" (1912), published by the All-Russian National Club.

In March 1923 he died in

In the 20s of the last century, incandescent electric lamps appeared in the huts of Russian peasants. In the Soviet press they were nicknamed “Ilyich’s bulbs.” There was some slyness in this. At first, light bulbs in the USSR were mainly used by German companies - Siemens. The international patent belonged to the American company of Thomas Edison. But the true inventor of the incandescent lamp is Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin, a Russian engineer of great talent and dramatic fate. His name, little known even in his homeland, deserves a special entry on the historical tablets of the Fatherland.

Many of us in infancy see the moderately bright and warm light of a light bulb with a hot tungsten spring even earlier than the light of the sun. Of course, this was not always the case. The electric lamp has many fathers, starting with Academician Vasily Petrov, who lit an electric arc in his laboratory in St. Petersburg in 1802. Tame the glow of various materials through which you pass electricity, many have tried since then. Among the “tamers” of electric light are the now half-forgotten Russian inventors A.I. Shpakovsky and V.N. Chikolev, German Goebel, Englishman Swan. The name of our compatriot Pavel Yablochkov, who created the first mass-produced “electric candle” on coal rods, which instantly conquered European capitals and was nicknamed in the local press the “Russian Sun”, has risen as a bright star on the scientific horizon. Alas, having sparkled dazzlingly in the mid-1870s, Yablochkov’s candles went out just as quickly. They had a significant flaw: burnt coals had to be quickly replaced with new ones. In addition, they gave such a “hot” light that it was impossible to breathe in a small room. This way it was possible to illuminate only streets and spacious rooms.

The person who first thought of pumping air out of a glass lamp bulb, and then replacing coal with refractory tungsten, was a Tambov nobleman, a former officer, a populist and an engineer with the soul of a dreamer, Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin.

The American inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Alva Edison, ironically born in the same year (1847) as Lodygin and Yablochkov, surpassed the Russian creator, turning out to be the “father of electric light” for the entire Western world.

To be fair, it must be said that Edison came up with the modern form of the lamp, a screw base with a socket, a plug, a socket, and fuses. And in general he did a lot for the widespread use of electric lighting. But the bird-idea and the first “chicks” were born in the head and St. Petersburg laboratory of Alexander Lodygin. Paradox: the electric lamp became a by-product of the realization of his main youthful dream - to create an electric plane, “a heavier-than-air flying machine with electric propulsion, capable of lifting up to 2 thousand pounds of cargo,” and in particular bombs for military purposes. "Letak", as he called it, was equipped with two propellers, one of which pulled the device into horizontal plane, the other lifted up. The prototype of a helicopter, invented half a century before the invention of another Russian genius, Igor Sikorsky, long before the first flights of the Wright brothers.

Oh, he was a man of an enchanting and very instructive fate for us - Russian descendants! The impoverished nobles of the Tambov province, the Lodygins, descended from the Moscow boyar of the times of Ivan Kalita, Andrei Kobyla, a common ancestor with the royal house of the Romanovs. As a ten-year-old boy in the ancestral village of Stenshino, Sasha Lodygin built wings, attached them to his back and, like Icarus, jumped from the roof of the bathhouse. It ended with bruises. According to family tradition, he joined the military, studying in Tambov and Voronezh cadet corps, served as a cadet in the 71st Belevsky Regiment and graduated from the Moscow Junker Infantry School. But he was already irresistibly drawn to physics and technology. To the bewilderment of his colleagues and the horror of his parents, Lodygin resigned and got a job at Tula Armory a simple hammerman, fortunately he was naturally distinguished by considerable physical strength. To do this, he even had to hide his noble origin. So he began to master the technology “from below”, at the same time earning money to build his own “flight”. Then St. Petersburg - work as a mechanic at the metallurgical plant of the Prince of Oldenburg, and in the evenings - lectures at the University and the Institute of Technology, lessons in metalworking in a group of young "populists", among whom his first love was Princess Drutskaya-Sokolnitskaya.

The electric plane is thought out to the smallest detail: heating, navigation, a lot of other devices that have become, as it were, a sketch of engineering creativity for life. Among them was a seemingly minor detail - an electric light bulb to illuminate the pilot's cabin.

But while this is a trifle for him, he makes an appointment with the military department and shows the generals the drawings of the electric aircraft. The inventor listened condescendingly and put the project in a secret archive. Friends advise the upset Alexander to offer his “letak” to France, which is fighting Prussia. And so, having collected 98 rubles for the trip, Lodygin goes to Paris. In an overcoat, oiled boots and an untucked red shirt. At the same time, under his arm, the Russian fellow has a roll of drawings and calculations. At a stop in Geneva, the crowd, excited by the strange appearance of the visitor, considered him a Prussian spy and already dragged him to hang from a gas lamp. Only the intervention of the police saved him.

Surprisingly, the unknown Russian not only receives an audience with the super-busy French Minister of War Gambetta, but also permission to build his apparatus at the Creuzot factories. With 50,000 francs to boot. However, soon the Prussians enter Paris, and the unique Russian has to return to his homeland, having slurped unsaltedly.

Continuing to work and study, Lodygin in St. Petersburg already purposefully took up electric lighting. By the end of 1872, after hundreds of experiments, the inventor, with the help of the mechanics of the Didrichson brothers, found a way to create rarefied air in a flask, where coal rods could burn for hours.

In 1872, Lodygin applied for the invention of an incandescent lamp, and in 1874 he received a patent for his invention (privilege No. 1619 dated July 11, 1874) and the Lomonosov Prize from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Lodygin patented his invention in many countries: Austria-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Saxony, and even India and Australia. He founded withVasily Didrikhson company “Russian Partnership for Electric Lighting Lodygin and Co.” At the same time, Lodygin managed to solve the old problem of “fragmentation of light”, i.e. inclusion large number light sources into the circuit of one electric current generator.
But the talent of an inventor and an entrepreneur are two different things. And the latter, unlike his overseas colleague, Lodygin clearly did not possess. The businessmen who flocked to the Lodygin world in his “shareholder”, instead of vigorously improving and promoting the invention (as the inventor had hoped for), embarked on unbridled stock exchange speculation in the hope of future super-profits. The logical ending was the bankruptcy of the company.

On an autumn evening in 1873, onlookers flocked to Odesskaya Street, on the corner of which Lodygin’s laboratory was located. For the first time in the world on two street lamps kerosene lamps were replaced by incandescent lamps, which emitted a bright white light. Those who came were convinced that reading newspapers was much more convenient this way. The action created a sensation in the capital. Fashion store owners lined up for new lamps. Electric lighting was successfully used during the repair of caissons at the Admiralty Docks. The patriarch of electrical engineering, the famous Boris Jacobi, gave it a positive review. As a result, Alexander Lodygin, with a two-year delay, received the Privilege of the Russian Empire (patent) for “Method and apparatus for cheap electric lighting,” and even earlier received patents in dozens of countries around the world. At the Academy of Sciences he was awarded the prestigious Lomonosov Prize.
He spent 1875-1878 in the Tuapse colony-community of populists. For three years famous inventor disappears from the capital, and no one except close friends knows where he is. And he, together with a group of like-minded “populists”, creates a colony-community on the Crimean coast. On the purchased section of the coast near Tuapse, neat huts grew up, which Alexander Nikolaevich did not fail to illuminate with his lamps. Together with his comrades, he lays out gardens and goes on feluccas to fish in the sea. He's truly happy. However local authorities, frightened by the free settlement of St. Petersburg guests, they find a way to ban the colony.
Since 1878, Lodygin was again in St. Petersburg, working at various factories, improving the diving apparatus, and working on other inventions.
At this time, after the wave of revolutionary terror, arrests of “populists” are taking place in both capitals, among whom Lodygin’s close acquaintances are increasingly found... He is strongly advised to go abroad for a while out of sin. “Temporary” departure lasted for 23 years
In 1884, he organized the production of incandescent lamps in Paris - the lamp company Lodygin and de Lisle - and sent a batch of lamps to St. Petersburg for the 3rd Electrical Engineering Exhibition.

In 1884, Lodygin was awarded the Order of Stanislav, 3rd degree, for the lamps that won the Grand Prix at an exhibition in Vienna. And at the same time, the government begins negotiations with foreign companies about a long-term project for gas lighting in Russian cities. How familiar this is, isn't it? Lodygin is discouraged and offended.

The foreign odyssey of Alexander Lodygin is a page worthy of a separate story. Let us only briefly mention that the inventor changed his residence several times in Paris and in different cities of the USA, worked in the company of Edison’s main competitor - George Westinghouse - with the legendary Serbian Nikola Tesla. In Paris, Lodygin built the world's first electric car, in the USA he supervised the construction of the first American subways, factories for the production of ferrochrome and ferrotungsten. In general, the United States and the world owe him the birth of a new industry - industrial electrothermal processing. Along the way, he invented many practical “little things”, such as an electric furnace, an apparatus for welding and cutting metals. In Paris, Alexander Nikolaevich married the German journalist Alma Schmidt, who later bore him two daughters.

Lodygin did not stop improving his lamp, not wanting to give up the palm to Edison. Bombarding the US Patent Office with his new applications, he considered the work with the lamp completed only after he patented the tungsten filament and created a series of electric furnaces for refractory metals.

However, in the field of patent chicanery and business intrigue, the Russian engineer was unable to compete with Edison. The American patiently waited for Lodygin's patents to expire, and in 1890 he received his own patent for an incandescent lamp with a bamboo electrode, immediately opening its industrial production.

In the story “about the incandescent lamp” there is a place for both detective work and reflection on the Russian mentality. After all, Edison began working on light bulbs after midshipman A.N. Khotinsky, sent to the United States to receive cruisers built by order of the Russian Empire, visited Edison’s laboratory, giving the latterLodygin incandescent lamp.(In 1877, naval officer A. N. Khotinsky received cruisers in America, built by order of the Russian Empire. When he visited T. Edison’s laboratory, he gave the latter a Lodygin incandescent lamp and a “Yablochkov candle” with a light crushing circuit. . According to unverified data, it seems like 10,000 evergreens.
Lodygin's lamps and Yablochkov's candle were installed on one of the cruisers as tests. Edison patented Lodygin’s lamp, but used coal from burnt bamboo as an incandescent filament.
Yablochkov spoke out in print against the Americans, saying that Thomas Edison stole from the Russians not only their thoughts and ideas, but also their inventions. ProfessorV. N. Chikolevwrote then that Edison’s method is not new and its updates are insignificant. The trick is that Lodygin patented an incandescent lamp with a tungsten filament, but sold the patent in 1906 to General Electric, which actually belonged to Edison. In principle, Edison is the same type of businessman as Jobs and Gates - talented administrators and businessmen who haven’t invented a damn thing.)
Having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, the American genius could not achieve Lodygin’s success for a long time, and then for the same long time could not bypass his international patents, which the Russian inventor could not maintain for years. Well, he didn’t know how to accumulate and increase his earnings! Thomas Alvovic was as consistent as a steamroller. The last obstacle to the world monopoly on electric light was the Lodygin patent for a lamp with a tungsten filament. Edison was helped in this by... Lodygin himself. Longing for his homeland and without the means to return, in 1906, through Edison’s dummies, the Russian engineer sold the patent of his lamp to General Electric, which by that time was already under the control of the American “king of inventors,” for a pittance. He did everything so that electric lighting would be considered “Edisonian” throughout the world, and Lodygin’s name would disappear into the back streets of special reference books, like some kind of interesting artifact. These efforts have since been carefully supported by the American government and all “civilized humanity.”

In Russia, Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin received moderate recognition of his merits, lectures at the Electrotechnical Institute, a post in the Construction Department of the St. Petersburg railway, business trips on plans for the electrification of individual provinces. Immediately after the outbreak of the World War, he filed a War Department application for a "cyclogyro" - an electric vertical take-off aircraft, but was refused.

Already in April 1917, Lodygin proposed to the Provisional Government to complete the construction of his almost finished electric plane and was ready to fly to the front on it himself. But they again brushed him aside like an annoying fly. The seriously ill wife left with her daughters to visit her parents in the USA. And then the elderly inventor chopped up the body of his “letak” with an ax, burned the drawings and, with a heavy heart, on August 16, 1917, followed his family to the USA.

Alexander Nikolaevich rejected a belated invitation from Gleb Krzhizhanovsky to return to his homeland to participate in the development of GOELRO for a simple reason: he no longer got out of bed. In March 1923, when electrification in the USSR was in full swing, Alexander Lodygin was elected an honorary member of the Society of Russian Electrical Engineers. But he did not find out about this - the welcome letter arrived in New York only at the end of March, and on March 16 the addressee died in his Brooklyn apartment. Like everything around, it was brightly lit by Edison bulbs.