In the history of domestic electrical engineering, the year 1893 was marked by two unrelated events. At this time, one of the world's first Electrotechnical Institute in St. Petersburg was founded and the power station at the Novorossiysk elevator was put into operation. It so happened that a year later the head of the department of electrical engineering of this institute M.A.Shatelen completely accidentally ended up in Novorossiysk and visited the elevator. He left here, shocked by what he saw. What struck the metropolitan professor?

It was difficult to surprise the most important specialist in electrical engineering in Russia. He himself was a physicist with an electrical specialization in 1888-1889, he improved his knowledge in France (the birthplace of Coulomb and Ampere) and, having a degree, went from working to chef in the company of Edison, the creator of the world's first district power station.

A little later in the journal "Electricity" No. 19-20 for 1895. his article appeared, where one could read the following: “Stations like Novorossiysk are of great importance in the spread of the use of electricity. When engineers and technicians see such stations, they can make sure that the use of electricity in power transmission is a very simple matter and they can defeat their prejudice against it. ”

The professor had too little time to get acquainted with the station and he himself could not prepare a full-fledged article, and this ended with the words: “It would be nice if the station organizer published the details of its construction and operation.” What reasons prevented the appearance of such an article in the journal at that time is unknown. But she still appeared, though in 1953.

The modern reader will probably be completely perplexed about the prejudices regarding electricity in those not so distant times. But that is exactly so. The average person did not always even want the introduction of electric light, considering it too bright and harmful to health. Among the specialists introducing this lighting, there was an irreconcilable confrontation on the power supply system of installations - direct or alternating current. This enmity has crossed all borders of industry competition, which is known to be the engine of progress ...

The name of Oleg Vladimirovich Losev today is known only to a narrow circle of specialists. What a pity: his contribution to science, to the development of radio engineering is such that it entitles this ascetic scientist to the grateful memory of his descendants.

Pupil of the fifth grade of the real school of the pre-revolutionary Tver Oleg Losev that quietly rummaged for an evening in his half-secret home radio laboratory, which he equipped with money saved from school breakfasts, and made another electric squeaker. And no one could have thought that in a modest polite boy who stood out among classmates by his deep understanding of physics, his love of experimentation, the personality of a purposeful researcher was formed.

It all began with a public lecture on wireless telegraphy, as they called radio at that time, which was delivered by the head of the Tver radio receiving station B. M. Leshchinsky. At fourteen, Oleg Losev makes the final choice: his calling is radio engineering ...

The article was written specifically for the 250th anniversary of the DISCOVERY of freezing mercury.

St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, opened in 1725. just had to become at the same time a leader in the study of the physics of cold. “The nature of our locality is surprisingly favorable for conducting experiments with the cold,” wrote G.V. Kraft, one of the first Petersburg professors. However, he immediately warned that in the nature of the cold there is a lot of unknown.“Until now, the aforementioned qualities are shrouded in such darkness that it took them several years to illuminate, and perhaps a whole life century was needed, and not only one, but many insightful gifts.” He was right.

The academies of England, Italy, France, Germany, Holland and even Sweden lay in a strip of mild climate. Technologically, it is easier to obtain high temperatures for experimental needs than cold. Even in antiquity, man could receive high temperatures sufficient for smelting iron ores. But before he learned to liquefy gases, getting low was very problematic. Only in 1665 physicist Boyle was able to reduce the temperature of the aqueous solution by only a few degrees. He achieved this by dissolving ammonia in water.

And why then did people need low temperatures? First of all, for scientists to calibrate thermometers used for meteorological measurements, where there are temperatures hitherto unknown to old-timers. It was the manufacturers of thermometers that began to select such substances and solvents that would lower the temperature of the solutions as much as possible. Such a composition was invented by the Dutch master of scientific instruments D. Fahrenheit. He recommended the use of crushed ice to which concentrated nitric acid would be added. In Russia, such a composition began to be called curious matter ...

Many people know that modern LEDs are more effective than incandescent lamps, and some models can argue with fluorescent lamps. But rarely does anyone think about what changes these technologies promise us.

Almost two trillion dollars - so many new LEDs will save earthlings in the next 10 years, provided they are widely implemented. In energy units, the savings will be expressed in 18.3 terawatt hours. Reducing CO2 emissions over this “LED” decade will be 11 gigatons, and oil consumption will drop by almost a billion barrels. And 280 average power plants can be closed.

Yes, professors Jung Kyu Kim and Fred Schubert from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute approached the forecast of the future of solid-state lighting systems. They tried to go beyond the scope of saving electricity "for one house" and imagine what our world will be like, in which LEDs will become much more widespread ...

Lightning always awakened a person’s imagination and desire to know the world. She brought fire to the earth, having tamed which, people became more powerful. We do not yet count on the conquest of this formidable natural phenomenon, but would like "peaceful coexistence." After all, the more perfect the equipment we create, the more dangerous atmospheric electricity is for it. One of the methods of protection is to preliminarily, using a special simulator, assess the vulnerability of industrial facilities for the current and electromagnetic field of lightning.

Loving the storm in early May is easy for poets and artists. The power engineer, signalman or astronaut will not be delighted from the beginning of the thunderstorm season: he promises too much trouble. On average, each square kilometer of Russia annually accounts for about three lightning strikes. Their electric current reaches 30,000 A, and for the most powerful discharges it can exceed 200,000 A. The temperature in a well-ionized plasma channel of even moderate lightning can reach 30,000 ° C, which is several times higher than in the electric arc of the welding machine. And of course, this does not bode well for many technical facilities. Fires and explosions from direct lightning are well known to specialists. But the townsfolk clearly exaggerate the risk of such an event ...

Recently, in the chandelier of one of the institutions of Bucharest, Edison's bulb was found miraculously discovered. To the surprise of those present, when it was turned on, it caught fire, but not instantly, as we used to, but flared up to a full glow for more than a minute. But this was not a defect of the bulb, although its service life was about 80 years ...

The path to creating a modern incandescent lamp, which seems elementary in design, was not very simple. To increase the light output, its thread had to be heated to very high temperatures, but then it, even isolated from the air, quickly evaporated, and the light bulb “burned out”.

Inventors were looking for material that could withstand high temperatures. Metals were proposed: osmium, tantalum and tungsten, as well as carbon ...

In modern electric power industry, radio engineering, telecommunication, automation systems, transformer is widely used, which is rightfully considered one of the common types of electrical equipment. The invention of the transformer is one of the great pages in the history of electrical engineering. Almost 120 years have passed since the creation of the first industrial single-phase transformer, the invention of which was worked from the 30s to the mid 80s of the XIX century, scientists, engineers from different countries.

Nowadays, thousands of various designs of transformers are known - from miniature to giant, for the transportation of which special railway platforms or powerful floating equipment are required.

As you know, when transmitting electricity over a long distance, a voltage of hundreds of thousands of volts is applied. But consumers, as a rule, cannot use such huge voltage directly. Therefore, the electricity generated at thermal power plants, hydroelectric power stations or nuclear power plants undergoes transformation, as a result of which the total power of transformers is several times higher than the installed capacity of generators in power plants. Energy losses in transformers should be minimal, and this problem has always been one of the main ones in their design.

The creation of a transformer became possible after the discovery of the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction by outstanding scientists of the first half of the XIX century. Englishman M. Faraday and American D. Henry. The experience of Faraday with an iron ring, on which two windings isolated from each other were wound, the primary connected to the battery, and the secondary with a galvanometer, the arrow of which deviated when the primary circuit was opened and closed, is widely known. We can assume that the Faraday device was a prototype of a modern transformer. But neither Faraday nor Henry were the inventors of the transformer. They did not study the problem of voltage conversion, in their experiments the devices were fed with direct rather than alternating current and acted not continuously, but instantly at the moment the current was turned on or off in the primary winding ...

A serious scientific experiment is chaotic, like war. The researcher often does not understand what is happening. The data obtained, as well as information from front-line intelligence, are usually contradictory. Further experiments have to be carried out “by touch” to obtain new facts. But in the end, the picture becomes clearer and then the “backdating” experimenter in the report describes a clear and precise sequence of his steps towards the goal, without mentioning the wrong ones. The main results of the experiments quite often lie not where the scientist was striving. However, the progress report looks like a triumphal procession from one truth to another, whether he wants it or not. Unfortunately, historians of science later work with such materials, which of course affects the quality of their work.

I would like to recall the story of one discovery that happened almost three centuries ago, which is now considered quite natural and taken for granted. Its authors are almost forgotten, but its significance for physics is no less than the voyage of Columbus to geography ...