To the history of electric lighting

This story begins with a topic very far from electricity, which confirms the fact that in science there are no secondary or unpromising for study. In 1644 Italian physicist E. Toricelli invented the barometer. The device was a glass tube about a meter long with a sealed end. The other end was dipped in a cup of mercury. In the tube, the mercury did not sink completely, but the so-called “Toricellian emptiness” formed, the volume of which changed due to weather conditions.

In February 1645 Cardinal Giovanni de Medici ordered that several such pipes be installed in Rome and kept under surveillance. This is surprising for two reasons. Toricelli was a student of G. Galileo, who in recent years has been disgraced for atheism. Secondly, a valuable idea followed from the Catholic hierarch and since then barometric observations have begun. In Paris, such observations began in 1666.

One fine day (or rather night) 1675g. French astronomer Jean Picard, carrying a barometer in the dark, saw mysterious lights in the "Toricellian emptiness." It was easy to verify Picard's observation, and so dozens of scientists repeated the experiment. It was observed that the brightness of the lights depended on the purity of the mercury and the presence of residual air in the void. And it's all. No one could understand why fire occurs in an isolated space. It was a real puzzle, the answer to which lasted for many years. ( 1 )

Sir Isaac and Francis Gauksby Sr.

December 5, 1703 the president of the English Academy of Sciences (Royal Society of London) is the great physicist Isaac Newton. On the same day, Francis Gauksby takes over as the operator of the academy. His responsibilities include the preparation and demonstration of experiments conducted by academics. This coincidence means that Newton knew who to take as his assistants. (2)

The London mechanic Gauksby, the owner of the workshop, by this time was considered a first-class designer of scientific instruments and tools, including the inventor of a new type of vacuum pump.

In those years, Newton worked on problems of optics. He and many other scientists were then interested in the phenomenon of the glow in the dark of various stones, fireflies, rotting wood. The glow of the barometer came up to this topic. They decided to test the hypothesis that light in the void of a barometer gives electricity from friction of mercury on glass. F. Gauksby decided to simulate this process. He took a hollow glass ball and pumped air out of it. I put the iron axis of the ball on the supports and, with the help of a belt transmission, brought it into rotation. When rubbing the ball with his palms, light appeared inside it, moreover, “so bright that it was possible to read words in capital letters. At the same time, the whole room was lit. The light seemed a strange magenta. ” (3). The barometric mystery was solved.

The British Encyclopedia calls Gauksby a scientist who is far ahead of his time, therefore unable to develop his ideas. In particular, the installation with a rubbed ball was the first electric machine. It was forgotten and decades later re-invented in Germany. But the scientists receiving a smoldering electric discharge played a big role in the development of the doctrine of electricity. Modern gas discharge lamps and neon signs have their reckoning from this time on.

As a paradox, we note another historical figure. London pharmacist Samuel Wall, according to some sources, Uncle Gauksby, as early as 1700, having a vague idea of ​​optics and electricity, said that he had extracted a spark from grated amber that made him think that its light and crackling represented the likeness of lightning and thunder . But his assumptions were immediately forgotten.They remembered when it turned out to be true. ( 4 )

Lord of lightning

Electricity lighting did not have to be invented. It was invented by nature itself and summer thunderstorms convince us of this. And the similarity of the spark with a lightning discharge after Wall was noted by more than one scientist. “I admit that I would have liked the idea very much,” one of them reasoned, “if it had been well proven, and the evidence for this is obvious” (5). But how to investigate the process taking place in the clouds and extremely dangerous for the life of the experimenter? After all, there were no planes, no balloons and even very tall buildings to get to the thunderclouds.

And the requisite of research instruments in the middle of the XYII century. was very meager. The electric charge was determined by an ordinary cork from a bottle suspended on a silk thread. Brought to a charged body, she was attracted to it, and when charged, it repelled. Physicists had on hand another device - a Leyden jar. It was a primitive capacitor. Water poured into the bottle was one of its plates with the withdrawal of contact from the neck. Another lining was the palm of the researcher. The experimenter checked the strength of the electric discharge on himself.

Could one take on the most dangerous experiments with a set of such possibilities? Of course not! And the optimism of some scientists caused a bitter smile. But genius takes up the matter, and the task is simplified to primitivism. The solution is simple, convincing and even elegant.

To fall into the clouds, the great American B. Franklin uses a children's toy - a kite, launched in the wind into thunderclouds on a linen thread. Wet, it has excellent electrical conductivity. When the kite reached the thunderclouds, Franklin brought the lead of the Leyden jar to the string and charged it. That's all. She was charged and now experiments with the charge of the cloud could be carried out in her apartment. And the charge of this jar gave sparks of the same color, it was broken, it gave a specific smell, that is, it produced the same effects as the electricity received from the friction machine.

Franklin even determined that the clouds are electrified mainly by a negative charge. And it’s also simple. He charged one Leiden jar with a charge from a cloud, another from a rubbed glass ball. When he brought the cork on the silk thread to the first can, the cork pulled itself up and pushed off. Having brought her already charged to the second bank, I found that she was attracted by demonstrating that the lightning charge and glass (positive) electricity have different signs. (6)

These experiments, carried out in 1751, were so convincing that they left no shadow of doubt. And electric light would be dazzlingly bright if one could extend the spark of lightning from thousandths of a second (like lightning) to the time actually required for lighting.

Electric arc

In 1799 And Volta creates the first galvanic cell. The chemical energy of the element allowed the consumer to generate electricity for a considerable time, not like a Leiden bank. True charge potential was low. To obtain high voltages, scientists began to connect cells in series into batteries.

Petersburg academician V.V. Petrov soon assembled a battery with an electromotive force of the order of 2000 volts. Of course, in comparison with the potential of a thundercloud, this was not enough, but the discharge of artificial lightning could last minutes.

In one of the experiments, using charcoal as electrodes, Petrov received a very bright and long-lasting discharge when coal was brought together to 5-6 mm. It will then be called an electric arc. The scientist wrote that between the electrodes "there is a very white light or flame, from which these coals light up and from which the dark calm can be quite clearly illuminated." (7)

There is a direct indication of the use of the arc to illuminate human housing.The fact is that the archaic, now half-forgotten word SILENT according to V. Dahl means "room, chamber, chamber; every department of housing. ” Now this rare word can be heard in the hospital - the receiving ward, or in the Kremlin - the royal chambers.

However, these were no more than wishes. The complexity and cost of manufacturing a chemical current source were such that there was no question of any practical application of such lighting. And the first attempts to simply show it to the public were limited to showing the “sunrise” at the Paris Opera, organizing night fishing on the Seine or illuminating the Moscow Kremlin at coronation celebrations.

The difficulties in organizing electric lighting were insurmountable not only because of the lack of a reliable source of electricity, its cost and complexity in maintenance, but also due to the cumbersomeness of the matter, as evidenced by the event in Paris in 1859.

Architect Lenoir decided to use electric light in a trendy cafe under construction in the city center. This tempting idea, although it was not a question of value, could not be realized. According to calculations, it turned out that for the installation of 300 light sources, it would be necessary to build a huge building for batteries, equal to the cafe itself. ( 8 )

Generals are interested

Since 1745 an electric spark learned to set fire to alcohol and gunpowder. For half a century this ability has been demonstrated in universities, booths and schools, but has not found practical application. The reason for this was the difficulty of electrifying bodies with friction to produce a spark. It's one thing to get sparks in a dry, heated room or in the summer, but in practice? History has preserved such an incident.

We have already mentioned S. Wall, who suggested the similarity of lightning and spark. There is no doubt that he received a spark, but in the presence of members of the Royal Society of London, he could not repeat his own experience, so he was not elected a member of this Society.

With the advent of galvanic cells, the situation has changed. At any time it was guaranteed to receive a spark. Then the military paid attention to her. Russian officer and diplomat P.L. Schilling in 1812 made the first underwater explosion of a powder charge, which is almost impossible to do in another way.

General K.A.Schilder invested a lot of energy to introduce electric mine blasting into the army’s practice, who used his workable electrical fittings for explosions - fuses, contact devices, disconnectors. He also made the observation that electric arson can be done with one wire, using instead of another, the electrical conductivity of land and water.

Given the possibilities of electricity in 1840. The Military Engineering Department created the Technical Galvanic Institution, in which military personnel trained in the use of electrical appliances, and also performed research and design functions. A world-class physicist B.S. Jacobi was connected to the military-electric problems, whose role can hardly be overestimated in the development of a new direction of military science.

Technical Galvanic institution can be proud of its graduate in 1869. P.N. Yablochkov, who introduced the use of alternating currents, transformers and arc lamps under the name "Russian Light" into world practice, but this will be later, and now electric fuses are part of the practice of the Russian army and are widely used in the war in the Caucasus - Chechnya and Dagestan . Sometimes the army also fulfills the orders of civilian departments - it cleans the river Narva or Kronstadt harbor with explosions from ice jams. ( 9 )

Mine war

The Crimean War broke out in 1853. The coalition of Western countries has once again intervened in the affairs of countries that lie far from their borders, without giving Russia peaceful development opportunities. The main events unfolded on the Black Sea. The allies are already using steam against the Russian sailing fleet, and rifles are used against Russian smoothbore guns.Our compatriots had to drown the fleet in order to prevent enemy steamships from entering the bays of Sevastopol. As for the rifles of the aggressor, the bullets from them hit with impunity from distances inaccessible to Russian guns. It is bad to be a technically backward country. And this experience was somehow not taken into account by our modern reformers.

During the siege by the enemy of Sevastopol, it was necessary to erect a medieval engineering defense - ditches, bastions, protective walls. Then the chances of shooters equalized. In close combat, guns were also suitable, and the strength of the Russian bayonet was known to everyone. Opponents were afraid to approach fortifications. Then the allies began a mine war. What it is?

To avoid losses under the walls of the besieged fortress, sappers of the attacking army lay galleries, pits, glades under the ground. They dig holes under the very walls of fortifications, lay explosives and undermine them. Defenders perish, and destroyed structures are easier to take. Defenders are waging a countermine war. And all this is associated with a large number of underground work.

When defending Sevastopol, sappers of Russia carried out a large number of earthworks. For seven months of the underground mine war, the defenders laid 7 km of communications underground. And all with a shovel and pickaxe without ventilation. These were mostly burrows. Engineer A.B.Melnikov, the head of underground work, friends jokingly called "Ober-mole".

Lack of ventilation is usually compounded by the smoky air of the battlefield. A burn of gunpowder and smoke, containing carbon monoxide dangerous to humans, are worse than bullets. Sappers have the so-called mine sickness. Here are the symptoms of its serious manifestation: "The patient suddenly falls, his breathing stops and death occurs when the unconscious and seizures occur." ( eleven )

Forced ventilation in war conditions is impossible to organize. Increasing the diameters of holes means losing time. There was only one reserve: coverage of underground work. Usually sappers used candles. They also served as sources of fire in case of undermining, but they could also be used to delay time in order to enable the sapper to leave the affected area. A path from gunpowder was poured to the charge and a candle cinder was inserted into it. When he burned out - there was an explosion. It is clear that work with gunpowder and open fire led to large losses from accidents

But not only this was a bad open fire. Here is what is written in a chemistry textbook of the time: “A man burns 10 g of carbon with his breath every hour. The burning of a candle, lamp and gas changes the composition of air in the same way as a person’s breathing. ” ( 12 ). If you use a light source that does not consume oxygen, ventilation problems for sappers would be half solved. Such light could be created using electricity. And the military had all the prerequisites for this. The source of electricity they had was idle almost all the time, except for seconds to undermine.

The experience of the Crimean War showed that the electric method of detonation used by Russian miners was more reliable and convenient than the fire method used by the Allies. For example, the number of failures in the explosions of Russian miners was only 1%, and that of the enemy 22%.

For the introduction of electric lighting underground remained for a few. It was necessary to deal with this issue closely. And this could be done only after the end of the war.

The first attempts to introduce

Russia's defeat in the Crimean War and the success of the mine war in it convinced the generals of the need for leadership in the field of the use of electricity in military affairs. Since 1866 the first attempts to use electric lighting underground begin. The use of electric arc bright light for underground work was reckless. The only possible way at that time was lighting using Geisler tubes. This is still exhibited in the Polytechnic Museum of Moscow. What it is?

After inventing the mercury pump, the German inventor Heinrich Geisler founded a workshop of scientific instruments in Bonn as a glassblower. Since 1858 he began mass production of glass tubes of various configurations and sizes with two electrodes into a vacuum space filled with different rarefied gases. In the electric field, they shone in different colors (different gas composition) even from an ordinary electrophore machine. (Recall the discovery of Gauksby). With the widespread introduction of galvanic cells, the tube could be ignited from them, but with the help of induction coils, which increased the voltage to high potentials.

The tubes were high quality, manufactured in large quantities and therefore received the name of the tube manufacturer. They found application for demonstration purposes of the physics rooms of gymnasiums and universities. And also for scientific purposes in gas spectroscopy. The engineering department attempted to illuminate underground work using such tubes

We have at our disposal the results of the first such attempts. Bunsen elements and a Rumkorf induction coil were used. The supply voltage of the coil and the frequency of the tube current, as well as the length of the supply wires, changed. The tests were carried out underground in the real conditions of the Ust-Izhora camp.

The tube gave “a whitish, flickering light. On the wall at a distance of a meter a spot was formed of such brightness that it was possible to distinguish between printed letters and written ones, but it is difficult to read. ”

The dampness quite explainable in the field strongly influenced the test results. The high voltage was felt by the testers in the form of electric shocks. Rumkorff's coil became damp and unstable. The contact of the self-interrupter incessantly burned, and stripping was required. Here is the conclusion of the sapper engineers: “These circumstances cast doubt on the success of the Geisler tube, both in the low light and in the complexity with which these devices must be handled.”

So the Geisler tubes were sentenced, but it was not final for the use of electricity at all. Optimistic notes are also heard in the test report: "Geisler tubes gave little hope of their successful application to work in mine galleries, at the same time engaged in finding a more reliable means." Lieutenant Colonel Sergeev, for example, “suggested using a device like the lighting apparatus he proposed to test the channels in the guns. The device is based on the incandescence of platinum wire ”(13).

Need is the Way to Invention

Trunks of artillery pieces after multiple shots under the influence of powder gases unevenly wear out. For their troubleshooting, the “Device for inspecting the bore” has long been used. The instrument kit included a mirror mounted on a ramrod about 2 meters long and candles on a special pin. The process boiled down to the fact that with the help of a candle a section of the trunk was illuminated, and its condition was visible by reflection in the mirror.

It is clear that such a responsible control (and the trunks sometimes happen to burst) in the incorrect reflection of the vibrating candle flame could not be of high quality. Therefore, a hot platinum wire at the same brightness as a candle, but giving steady light, was preferable. The lighting apparatus of V.G.Sergeev was not preserved, although a device for "inspection of the trunk channels" is in the funds of the Museum of Artillery of St. Petersburg. It's a shame, but the first lamp on the principle of incandescent has not been preserved and there is no information about it.

The idea of ​​using a hot platinum thread to illuminate underground work was supported by the command and ordered to bring it to life by the same Sergeyev. He headed the workshops of the Sapper battalion, so there were no difficulties in the manufacture of samples. The situation was simplified by the fact that by the end of the war in Russia new, more powerful explosives were developed, some of them did not explode from the flame.To initiate an explosion, they began to use a small charge of gunpowder with a directed explosion, which served as a detonator.

The design of such a charge detonator was proposed in 1865. D.I. Andrievsky. In this fuse, iron filings were used to form a cumulative excavation. (Fig. 1). Gunpowder was set on fire by a platinum thread, heated by a current. Without gunpowder and iron filings, this fuse was an elementary electric flashlight with a conical reflector.

However, it was impossible to use the lamp in this form. Not only could it cause an explosion when a charge was placed in the hearth, like a candle. But to work in places where there is swamp gas, it was necessary to surround it with an explosion-proof Davy net, as was done in mining lamps. Or come up with something else. V.G.Sergeev refuses the grid.

Drawings of Sergeyev’s lamp were not preserved, but there is a rather detailed description made by Belenchenko’s staff captain. Here is a short text: “The lantern consists of a copper cylinder with a diameter of 160 mm, closed on the front side with glass. Another cylinder is soldered to the edges of the notch, which goes inside the first. On the glass side of the outer cylinder, the inner is covered by flat-convex glass. A reflector is inserted into the inner cylinder. The insulated wires terminate in the reflector with two posts, between which a platinum wire is placed, curved by a spiral. ” We have made the alleged appearance of the lantern according to this description. (Fig. 2) The space between the cylinders and the glasses was filled with glycerin to cool the lamp.

 

Fig. 1. Intermediate charge-detonator D.I. Andrievsky. 1 — iron filings, 2 — gunpowder. Fig. 2. The final version of the lamp V.G.Sergeeva with a hot thread.

Tests conducted in August 1869 showed that “the main convenience of a flashlight when used in mine galleries is that it can illuminate work where the candle does not light (!!!) and is convenient when digging the ground”, that is, during heavy physical work, as it burns "Does not spoil the air."

One battery of Grove cells illuminated from 3 to 4 hours. At first, the lantern was cooled by water, but when it was heated, air bubbles floated between the glasses and worsened the quality of the light beam. The light beam gave light of such strength that "it was possible to read from the lamp at a distance of two fathoms (more than 2 meters)." (16)

Sergeyev’s lantern was adopted and existed in 1887, when the great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev rose in the balloon of the Sapper battalion to observe a solar eclipse. (The balloon was filled with hydrogen and was explosive).

Alas, the fate of the first incandescent lamp, which has found practical application in Russia, is not known, although the design was promising and modern mining lamps in principle are no different from Sergeyev’s lantern, unless the miners carry a power source with them. (17).

Instead of a conclusion

Electric lighting was not only in Russia. Almost all designers began their work in the field of creating incandescent bulbs with incandescent platinum wire. But it has a low melting point; therefore, it is uneconomical.

Inventors proposed to glow coal in airless space, then refractory metals: tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum ...

Then it turned out that a special glass was needed for the bulbs so that the thermal coefficient of linear expansion of it coincided with the same as that of the input metal, otherwise the lamp was depressurized. At high temperatures, the heated thread evaporated, so the bulbs were short-lived. They began to make gas-filled ...

It is clear that the semi-handicraft workshops of Russian inventors could not carry out a lot of research, design and technological work. And the matter was at a standstill, although in Russia there were inventors of the first magnitude, it suffices to recall Yablochkov and Lodygin.They simply did not have much money for this.

And here is Edison, having created in 1879. his design of the foot, already owned by the mighty company "Edison & Co." Therefore, he was able to bring the matter of introducing incandescent bulbs to the final. The shareholders of the Russian lamp factories preferred to import all the basic semi-finished products, like glass, tungsten, molybdenum from abroad, instead of equipment costs. Mostly from Germany. Therefore, they entered the First World War, not being able to make radio tubes. In those days, the joke was widespread that "in a Russian light bulb only Russian air, and that is all deflated." By the way, it was deflated poorly, for the radio tube could not work with such a vacuum. ” (18)

It wouldn’t work out the same with nanotechnology.