Processing of granite for the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral, document analysis

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The idea for this article came up spontaneously. For quite a long time, on various Internet resources, in varying degrees of intensity and disputes, there has been a discussion of the technological structure of the period of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Official historians are forced to present more and more documents as arguments, alternativeists subject them to analysis and try to dispute. This article will summarize the material that concerns the processing of granite for the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral, because this topic is close to me.

So, to the point.

First document. This is a letter from a certain N. Bestuzhev published in the journal Son of the Fatherland in 1820, Part 65. No. 44.

I will briefly outline the essence. This letter is like a response from N. Bestuzhev to a certain M. G. on the pages of the magazine. Who is M. G. I do not know. What did this same M. G. also covered with darkness. But what is in the article by N. Bestuzhev is very interesting. At the very beginning of the article, N. Bestuzhev writes that 36 columns have been assigned for St. Isaac's Cathedral. That they are 36 feet long and about 6 feet thick. However, two of them are 10 inches longer and one foot thicker. What is 36 feet? It is 11 meters. And now what do we have in fact in St. Isaac's Cathedral. We have 48 columns at the bottom and 24 at the top. At the bottom there are columns 17 meters long and 114 tons in weight. The upper ones are 14 meters high and weigh 64 tons. The inconsistency. There is also inconsistency in the information that the two columns are 25 cm longer and 30 cm thicker. In fact, in the cathedral, all the columns are the same. What columns Bestuzhev writes about is completely unclear. By the way, if we calculate the estimated weight of the columns described by Bestuzhev, we get 75.5 tons.

What else is important here. This is a journal article from 1820. In the article Bestuzhev writes that the columns by Sukhanov have already been made. And what does the official history of our beloved Wikipedia write to us? And the fact that the Montferrand project with 4 colonnades (porticoes) was approved only in 1825. That only in June 1828, the drawings of the scaffolding for lifting the columns were approved. And all the columns were completely installed only in 1830. By the way, the same Wikipedia writes that the first column was installed back in March 1828, that is, 4 months before the approval of the project of forests for them. Oh, this Wikipedia, … Here are the scans, otherwise you will not believe it, and the officials rewrite Wikipedia very often. I think after this article there will also be a number of innovations.

We read further Bestuzhev. A lot of interesting. Lots of. Bestuzhev began his letter to the editorial office with the statement that there were 36 columns. However, further in the letter indicates that the cost of the column with delivery was 500 rubles and in total only 24 thousand rubles. That is, here Bestuzhev already means 48 columns, not 36. Again, there is a discrepancy. We read further. It turns out that the old way of cutting granite with the help of gunpowder charges is outdated, and now it is split like a log with wedges. Only Montferrand himself knew nothing about this, or rather did not write. Montferrand just pointed to the use of gunpowder, which, by the way, Wikipedia writes about, referring to G. N. Olenin.

We read further. Bestuzhev writes that holes were drilled every one and a half arshins to break out the boulders. That is, after about a meter. Bestuzhev also writes that a wedge was driven into each hole and 100 or 150 men with sledgehammers were used for this. Which at once both crashed, so the rock broke off. Now the math. 100 men every meter is 100 meters. And 150 men every meter is 150 meters. What kind of rocks did they split off? Please note that the scan from Wikipedia is spelled slightly differently. It says that the distance between the holes is 5-6 vershoks, that is, 22-29 cm. Apparently in 1824 Olenin had already taken into account the fact of the stupidity described by Bestuzhev four years earlier. However, this is another problem. How the men with sledgehammers were located in order to hit the holes at once with a step of an average of 25 cm. One stupidity replaces another. There is another specialist in granite cutting. This is a certain V. I. Serafimov. He writes that there were 10 vershoks between the holes, that is, the same 25 cm.

At the same time, Serafimov points out another incredibly interesting feature. It turns out that the uniqueness of the Puterlax quarry is that the granite rock has horizontal layers, and the layers of granite are separated by a layer (attention !!!) of the earth half an inch thick. Wikipedia writes the same, citing Olenin (highlighted in yellow in the scan). Oh how. Tell me, how is this possible? You've seen something like this. Personally, I have not seen and cannot even imagine how this could appear in nature. According to official geology, granites are outcrops of igneous rocks. And they are formed at great depths under high pressure at high temperatures. Millions of years ago. It is strange that the roots of the granites in Puterlax have not yet grown, because the earth, after all, does not. Wikipedia, referring to Olenin, even gives the name of this feature of granite, and according to Wikipedia, the layer of earth between the layers of granite is called rupaz. The same Wikipedia, if you hammer in this very word rupaz in the search, gives a link to A. N. Chudinov's dictionary of 1910, where the word rupaz is interpreted as a word borrowed from a foreign language with the meaning of some iron tool for drilling a stone.

Let's go further. We read Bestuzhev again. Amazing facts are given. It turns out that a huge amount of 100 thousand rubles was allocated for the transportation of the columns (a cow cost about 20 rubles). Naturally, there were many suffering people to cut such a budget. Including foreign ones. And the drawings of the ships and other mechanisms have already been drawn. But then there was some kind of commerce adviser G. Zherbin, without the letter of the middle name, who for free, on his own money and without drawings, built ships and mechanisms and transported all the columns. I have highlighted this in yellow, like all the key points. Look carefully, I'm not making up anything. All that G. Zherbin needed was "common sense and experience." Well, their own denyuzhki naturally. And G. Zherbin built three ships. And what does Serafimov write there? And Serafimov writes that not three, but two ships were built. Also highlighted in yellow by me. What does Wikipedia write? But nothing. Wikipedia decided to silence this issue. This is understandable. The inconsistency.

Describing the ships of G. Zherbin, Bestuzhev also writes that the ships took on board 20-24 poods in weight. Nothing is clear here at all. 20 pounds is 320 kg. Maybe thousands of poods? Then 320 tons is more or less logical. Let's assume that Bestuzhev forgot to write the word "thousand" in the letter.

Further, Bestuzhev compares the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral with the Pompey Column, giving its dimensions. Pompey's Column in Alexandria in Egypt, a solid monolith of granite 20, 46 m long and weighing 285 tons (data from Wikipedia). Bestuzhev indicates its length at 63 feet and 1, 3/4 inches, which is equal to 19, 26 meters. The difference is 1.2 meters. The inconsistency. We are interested in something else. The number of Isaac's columns is already different from the one with which Bestuzhev began the letter. If at the beginning of the letter Bestuzhev indicated that the columns were 11 meters (36 feet) long, then why would he write a little lower that they are 6 feet and 3 1/4 inches shorter than the Pompeian one? In this case, the length of the columns is already 19, 26-1, 91 = 18, 26 m. Let me remind you that the actual length of the columns is 17 meters. And what about Serafimov? That's what.

Serafimov's columns are 7 sazhens, 2 arshins and 2, 5 vershoks long. We consider 7x2, 13 + 2x0, 71 + 2, 5x4.4 = 17, 43 m. If with capitals and bases, this is most likely close to the correct one.

Next, we read Bestuzhev. How the columns were unloaded. It turns out, again, if there had not been a Patriot (with a capital letter!) In the person of a "noble nobleman" without a surname, name and even initials, then no free unloading would have happened. Foreigners of different faith-fanatics would have swooped in, untied the towel, and would have ruined the treasury. And so everything is as it should be. Freebie and full lace. They brought the same peasants who cut the granite either with wedges, or with gunpowder, and they crossed themselves, shouted "Hurray" and even without some mother rolled the columns past the brass Peter, who had waved his hand at them, straight to the cathedral under construction. Where they lay for about 10 years until they were hoisted. Here it should be noted that the editorial board of the magazine apparently understood all the stupidity described by N. Bestuzhev and therefore made a note in this place with an asterisk and a link in which it indicated that the columns were unloaded exclusively by the forces of the naval crew, moreover, the guards, the columns are heavy and only the guards can do it. In general, I personally do not understand anything here. Magazine for 1820. According to official history, Montferrand does not yet know how many and what columns the cathedral will have, but they have already been cut down and brought. This fact is logically explained only by the fact that all the fiction on the construction of the cathedral, including the granite columns, at this time had only target designation in the form of a task and was just being formed into the status of documentary filmmaking, and for this it was not agreed and had a lot of inconsistencies …

We will finish with Serafimov and Bestuzhev. However, dear reader, do not relax. There is a cherry on top of the cake. In the fiction of granite processing, none of them excelled. There are many notable writers. And part-time comedians.

There was a certain Mevius. Mevius is a dynasty, most of which are associated with metallurgy and mining. By the way, some of this dynasty are quite respected people who have achieved high ranks and respect. The ancestor of the dynasty was one of the Lutheran shepherds who, by the will of fate, ended up in Russia. Here is one of the sons of this pastor who composed a very curious opus, in which he substantiated the possibility of producing large masses of granite in quarries by the fact that granite is still soft in nature. Until they knocked him out. And only after 4-5 days, the breakaway lump really turns to stone. Most interestingly, the myth of soft granite has become widespread in 19th century fiction. Wandered from author to author. I will not post all of them here in the form of quotes, it makes no sense. And by this, just a scan. In this case, the author of the pearl is a certain Andrei Glebovich Bulakh, by the way a professor, doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences, and his work is called "Stone decoration of Petersburg".

Here, for example, is the primary source, the same Mevius, again without a name and without initials. It is only known that the second lieutenant. Excerpt from the article "State granite breaking in Puterlax" in the Mining Journal for 1841.

Professor Bulakh, as you can see, writes about nanotechnology at the beginning of the 19th century. How can it be without nanotechnology, without them in any way, this is understandable. Granite after all. In the 19th century, according to Bulakh, they knew very well about the relaxation of the granite crystal lattice, which was later forgotten for some reason. This fact intrigued me a lot, and at one time I was not too lazy to apply to Yuri Borisovich Marina at the Mining University in St. Petersburg. This is also a professor and also a doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences. Only apparently real, honest. He laughed very hard and for a long time when I started asking him questions about soft granite (by the way, we ended the conversation with his unceasing laugh, apparently he will remember this for a long time). He told what and how it really is.

1. At great depths, there are granites, or rather, some of their locations have a loose fractured structure saturated with moisture. This does not affect the hardness of the granite itself, as a chemical element, in any way, but some looseness really takes place and the passage of such layers by drilling rigs really happens a little easier.

2. On the surface there are local outcrops of such flooded (water-saturated) loose (cracked) rocks. Yuri Borisovich even named several such open pits and deposits to me. As it is not surprising, but it is these outputs that are in demand among crushed stone procurers. A distinctive feature of such locations is the natural horizontal cracks in the granite massifs. Chemistry or, more correctly, physics is simple here. In fact, these are those layers of granite that were formed outside the incubator conditions (in terms of pressure, temperature and humidity) and in this form were squeezed into the upper layers by tectonic movements. And the second is natural erosion in addition to the first factor. Water flows along microcracks, accumulates, and so on, in general, natural erosion processes. There are not and cannot be any half-inch layers of earth in the horizontal cracks.

3. It is impossible to manufacture high-quality granite products from such loose granite, such as the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral. Once again - IMPOSSIBLE !!! Yuri Borisovich answered categorically, impossible. I asked twice.

4. He does not know any fluid, wave and other Renaissance-crystalline processes. Despite the fact that Yu. B. Marin is the head of the department of crystallography, mineralogy and petrography. Once again - CRYSTALOGRAPHY. Granite is absolutely hygroscopic, chemically neutral, crystal lattices are stable, moreover, they are different (all components of granite have their own crystal lattices with different properties). There are no processes that could lead to a change in the hardness and other characteristics of granite within 4-5 days and cannot be. Yuri Borisovich only admitted the possibility of some sedimentary hardening of loose (fractured and wetted) granite fractions in intervals measured by weeks or months.

If there are any doubters, there is a direct road to the Mining University.

By the way, the example with Bulakh is very indicative. Old fiction has magical effects. If someone once wrote something a long time ago, even outright stupidity or a lie, after a while all this writing acquires the status of an unshakable truth and, as it turned out, even doctors of sciences cannot admit the thought that there is an obvious stupidity or lie written there. … Indeed, what is written with a pen cannot be cut down with an ax. And to justify this stupidity, subsequent authors in different statuses of scientific degrees are forced to invent incomprehensible excuses, in the case of Professor A. G. Bulakha is a kind of relaxation. They hit a pebble and for 4-5 days its crystal lattice relaxes.

Well, after the cherry, one more berry. The last one, otherwise I will tire you. This same Mevius, who has the rank of second lieutenant, but does not have a name and patronymic, was born not only of a pearl about soft granite. He also described the process of drilling holes in granites with a depth of 8.5 meters. With a hole diameter of 2.5 cm. I'm not kidding. Have you ever drilled holes in a concrete wall with a hammer drill? If you have drilled, then you probably know what it is and what limitations a hammer drill and drills have. A small hole can be drilled easily and quickly, like in oil. A hole thicker and deeper is already heavier, and if you need a hole, say 2.5 cm in diameter and a depth of 1 meter, you will need a special powerful tool. Moreover, if the drill tip breaks inside the hole and gets stuck, then the worker runs the risk of getting his hands broken or simply turns like a top on this very perforator. That is why now, at industrial facilities and in granite quarries, special motor vehicles with a pneumatic drive are used for drilling holes. And with vacuum suction of flour and crumbs. Mevius is simple. Two men, one holding an iron rod, the other hammering at it with a sledgehammer, and so on until they make a hole. If you need deep, for example 8, 5 meters, then two men are not enough, you need a third. The third will, together with the second, swing a 13 kg sledgehammer. He does not describe how flour and crumbs will be sucked out of a hole 8, 5 meters deep. And for some reason, Mevius writes that besides rapakivi. And the columns of Isaac, the Alexander Column, are just rapakivi granite.

The step of the holes in the monolith for the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral was, according to Bestuzhev and Serafimov, 25 cm. And when the Alexander's column was cut down, everything was much more serious. There they punctured holes in a continuous row along the entire perimeter. Don't believe me? Here is a screen from the work of another professor, V. V. Ewald, a book called "Building materials. Their preparation, properties and tests", 1930.

In this case, a little arithmetic. According to the official version, a piece of the carved-out parallelepiped for the Alexander Column was about 30 meters long and 4.5 meters thick. If we take for the calculation the diameter of the holes at 2.5 cm (as described by the same Mevius), then it is not difficult to count the number of holes. This is a total of 1540 pieces. Multiply by a depth of 4.5 meters and we get almost 7 kilometers. Even if the holes were drilled with a small indent, because everyone understands that it will not work to drill close to the holes, the drill will lead away, you need a small indent with a step of the same 2.5 cm, then a total of 3.5 km of drilled holes will turn out. Manually.

I will end on this. In this article, I have summarized the information regarding the processing of granite to the extent that is presented in the materials of the 19th century in relation to the manufacture of the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral. That is, what is of the greatest interest. These are of course not all authors, but the main ones. All subsequent authors of the 19th and 20th centuries cited corny, or to one degree or another relied on these sources in their presentation. I am absolutely convinced that in the first third of the 19th century there was no production of granite for the columns. This is fiction. Yes, of course, a lot was done in the 18th and 19th centuries. And embankments were made out in granite, and the foundations of buildings were built from granite blocks, and forts, and so on and so forth. The scope of work was great. Including difficult work. Both in terms of configuration and quality (grinding, polishing, etc.). Both Mevius, Bestuzhev and Olenin, to one degree or another, describe the work actually carried out in the quarries. But all these items did not have megalithic dimensions. Everything they describe in relation to the columns of St. Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexander Column is just a political order. And there was no technological base for this. Hence the mass of inconsistencies and outright stupidity. And even there was no such expediency. And now she's gone. But once was. For a long time. In the era of antiquity, the inheritor of which are the iconic buildings of St. Petersburg, which include St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Alexander Column, the Atlanteans of the Hermitage (and the Winter Palace itself), etc., etc. I wrote about this in my previous articles.

On this I take my leave. Thanks to everyone who has read it.