Superiority in inventions

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

Who was the first to call on the phone? Who was the first to transmit the radiotelegram? Who was the first to take off on a plane? Who invented the bicycle? Different countries will give you different answers. Let's try to establish primacy among the great scientists-inventors.

Radio

The picture from top left to right shows - Alexander Popov, Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla and Heinrich Hertz. All of these eminent scientists are, to one degree or another, considered the inventors of radio. Of course, a Russian responds to the question "Who invented radio?" will certainly answer: "Popov!" And on May 7, on the Day of Radio, Russian students of radio engineering universities, workers of radio stations and radio amateurs, congratulating each other, say: "Popov is risen!" By the way, Radio Day is celebrated on May 7, because in 1895, on this day, Popov gave a lecture at St. Petersburg University, in which he substantiated the principle of radio communication.

In the United States, Tesla is considered the inventor of radio. In 1891, the genius Serb publicly demonstrated the principle of radio communication, and in 1893 he invented the mast antenna. In Germany, Hertz is considered to be the inventor of radio; for the first time in history, he was able to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves wirelessly over a distance using an antenna designed by him. Brazil (Landel de Mourou), India (Jagadisha Chandru Boche), and France (Edouard Branly) have their own radio discoverers. But Popov and Marconi were the first to bring the discoveries of other eminent scientists to marketable form. As they usually say in such cases: "The idea was in the air." By the way, Hertz, for example, believed that it was unlikely that his discovery could find practical application and therefore did not develop his amazing invention further. The discoveries of Popov and Marconi are separated by several months in 1895, and in general they invented head to head. Popov transmits the radiotelegram "Heinrich Hertz", Marconi transmits the radiotelegram "Viva l'Italia", Marconi receives a patent for a radio tuning system, Popov patents a "telephone receiver of dispatches", Marconi receives a Nobel Prize, Popov receives a prize from the Russian Technical Society. People love making ratings and lists, figuring out who is first, who is last, who is better, who is worse. So here, too, the controversy over who was the first to invent radio does not subside until now, but one thing is certain, science won.

Popov radio

Electric lamp

In the history of the light bulb, three names shine the brightest of all - Yablochkov (first on the left in the picture), Lodygin (center), Edison (far right).

Yablochkov amazed London and became a real scientific star by showing the British "Yablochkov's Candle" (an improved arc lamp, the principle of which practically simultaneously and without saying a word, was discovered by the Russian Petrov and the British Davy back in the early 19th century) in 1876. Two carbon electrodes, a graphite bridge and an interlayer of kaolin or gypsum between the rods - this is Yablochkov's light bulb. Such a "candle" burned much brighter than an ordinary candle, made noise like a dozen flies crammed into a jar, and worked for only 1-2 hours, but the success was deafening. Yablochkov transferred the rights to his invention to the French company in which he worked, and the French began to sell "Russian light" all over the world, while he himself worked to improve his brainchild. The Russian invention reached Russia almost later than everyone else, in October 1878.

For several decades, Yablochkov's lamps illuminated the streets of cities, but they were replaced by more practical incandescent lamps. It is interesting that the first incandescent lamp appeared back in 1840, but Lodygin again brought the device to a presentation. He proposed using a tungsten filament in an incandescent lamp and pumping air out of a glass bulb.

Edison undoubtedly contributed to the "lamp" business, but thanks to his business acumen and a certain skill in obtaining patents, his name in the west eclipsed the name of our compatriot. Lodygin, by the way, publicly accused Edison of plagiarism, but in America Edison is considered the inventor of the incandescent lamp, and in the USSR the incandescent lamp was called "Ilyich's lamp", although Lodygin was not Ilyich at all, but Nikolayevich, and Lenin did not invent a light bulb.

"Yablochkov's Candle".

Telephone

Scotsman Alexander Bell (pictured left) was considered the father of the telephone for over 120 years, from the moment he patented the "talking telegraph" in March 1876 until 2002, when it was officially proven that the telephone was invented by Italian Antonio Meucci (pictured right). Moving from Florence to the United States, Meucci patented a telephone in 1860 and described his invention in a local newspaper, telling readers about the sound coming through wires. Meucci constantly invented and invented something, in this he had an undoubted talent, but he could not profitably sell inventions at all. Documents and diagrams on a telephone from him, almost for a song, was bought by one company and promised cooperation and financial assistance in further inventions. However, later it turned out that the documents were lost, and the Italian, roughly speaking, was "thrown over". In 1876, the whole world learned about Bell's great invention, then Meucci tried to sue the company that stole his idea, but he simply did not have the money for it. They also say that Meucci was let down by his poor knowledge of English (by the way, because of disgusting English, the Americans at first did not accept Zworykin's patent on TV) and a soft character. Meucci died in poverty and obscurity, even now, despite the resolution of the US Congress recognizing Meucci's merits, the majority considers Bell to be the first and only inventor of the telephone. However, Bell might not have known about Meucci's discovery and independently came up with the idea of a telephone, but Meucci's name is worth knowing and remembering, after all, the difference of 16 years is a serious argument in his favor.

Alexander Bell demonstrates the phone.

Airplane

Behind every great invention there are not one or even five surnames, but not less than several dozen names of scientists. So it is in aviation. The British Kayleigh, Henson, Stringfellow, the French Ader, Brie, du Temple and many others, along with the Wright brothers, Mozhaisky and Dumont, paved the way for modern aircraft construction.

In Russia, naval officer Alexander Mozhaisky (far right in the picture) was the first to design and build an airplane in 1885. The flight was unsuccessful, but they say that Mozhaisky managed to get off the ground for a short time. Before Mozhaisky, only du Tamplu managed to do this.

The Wright brothers' plane (Wilbur is far left, Orville is second from left), which they flew on December 17, 1903, had an internal combustion engine. On that day, they made 4 successful flights, the shortest of which lasted 12 seconds, and the longest 59 seconds, in total they flew 260 meters.

Neither Mozhaisky nor Wright could take off in their aircraft on their own, they had to be dispersed and pushed with something, they could not turn in flight and flew only with a headwind. The first person who was able to independently take off from a flat surface, turn around in the air and land on the chassis was a Brazilian-born Frenchman Alberto Santos-Dumont (second from right). He managed to fly 60 meters on October 23, 1906 in an airplane that looked like several large kites sewn together and mounted on a bicycle. The plane was called "Bird of Prey".

Mozhaisky's plane.

A bike

In Russia, it is believed that the bicycle was invented by the serf Efim Artamonov. Allegedly, he was a blacksmith and worked at the Demidovs' metallurgical plant in the Urals. And at his leisure, he built a metal bicycle and rode it through the village, thereby frightening the local residents. The blacksmith was whipped, but then the owner found out about the curiosity, gave free Efim and his family and blessed him to travel on a bike from Yekaterburg to Moscow for the coronation of Alexander I. free. Historians have long denied this story, since absolutely no reliable evidence was found, and the bicycle, which is exhibited in the Nizhny Tagil Museum, turned out to be made of steel, the composition of which was not known until the 70s of the XIX century, and Artamonov's bike ride took place, according to legend, in 1801. Nevertheless, a monument to Efim Artamonov was erected in Yekaterburg as the first inventor of the bicycle. It is believed that this bike was invented in 1948 during the struggle against cosmopolitanism, and then was replicated thanks to the TSB.

The first bicycle is considered a trolley, which is named after its inventor Karl Drez (on the right in the picture). In 1817, the German Drez built a cross between a bicycle and a scooter. The trolley had no pedals and the cyclist moved, striding widely on the ground. Then the bicycle was reinvented more than once. The first pedal bicycle was invented by the Frenchman Pierre Michaud. And to all of us the well-known bicycle design appeared in 1885 thanks to the Englishman John Starley.

Runbike Karl Drez.