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Biography Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin was born in the village of Stenshino, Tambov province. He came from a very noble noble family. His family, like the Romanov family, traced its origins to Andrei Kobyla. Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin was born in the village of Stenshino, Tambov province. He came from a very noble noble family. His family, like the Romanov family, traced its origins to Andrei Kobyla. In 1859, Lodygin entered the Tambov Cadet Corps. He studied to become a military engineer at the Moscow Junker School, which he graduated in 1867. In 1870 he moved to St. Petersburg. In 1859, Lodygin entered the Tambov Cadet Corps. He studied to become a military engineer at the Moscow Junker School, which he graduated in 1867. In 1870 he moved to St. Petersburg.

After retiring, he began to develop an incandescent lamp circuit. After retiring, he began to develop an incandescent lamp circuit. As a volunteer, he attended classes in physics, chemistry, and mechanics at the Technological Institute. As a volunteer, he attended classes in physics, chemistry, and mechanics at the Technological Institute. In 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 he applied for and received a patent. In 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 he applied for and received a patent. 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. 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 1872, Lodygin applied for the invention of an incandescent lamp, and in 1874 received a patent for his invention and the Lomonosov Prize from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Lodygin patents his invention in many countries: Austria-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Saxony, and even India and Australia. Later he founded the company “Russian Electric Lighting Partnership Lodygin and Co.” In 1872, Lodygin applied for the invention of an incandescent lamp, and in 1874 received a patent for his invention and the Lomonosov Prize from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Lodygin patents his invention in many countries: Austria-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Saxony, and even India and Australia. Later he founded the company “Russian Electric Lighting Partnership Lodygin and Co.” Since 1878, Lodygin has been back in St. Petersburg, working at various factories, improving his diving apparatus, and working on other inventions. Since 1878, Lodygin has been back in St. Petersburg, working at various factories, improving his diving apparatus, and working on other inventions.

For participation in the Vienna Electrotechnical Exhibition, Lodygin was awarded the Order of Stanislav, III degree, a rare occurrence among Russian inventors. For participation in the Vienna Electrotechnical Exhibition, Lodygin was awarded the Order of Stanislav, III degree, a rare occurrence among Russian inventors. Honorary electrical engineer ETI since 1899. But in 1884, mass arrests of revolutionaries began. He decides to go abroad. The separation from Russia lasted 23 years. Lodygin works in France and the USA, creates new incandescent lamps, invents electric furnaces, electric cars, builds 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. Honorary electrical engineer ETI since 1899. But in 1884, mass arrests of revolutionaries began. He decides to go abroad. The separation from Russia lasted 23 years. Lodygin works in France and the USA, creates new incandescent lamps, invents electric furnaces, electric cars, builds 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 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 a filament made of refractory metals, which he used in Paris for powerful lamps of 100...400 candles. In 1893, he turned to a filament made of refractory metals, which he used in Paris for powerful lamps of 100...400 candles. In 1894, he organized the lamp company Lodygin and de Lisle in Paris. In 1900, she participated in the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1906, in the USA, he launched a plant for the electrochemical production of tungsten. In 1894, he organized the Lodygin and de Lisle lamp company in Paris. In 1900, she participated in the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1906, a plant for the electrochemical production of tungsten, chromium and titanium was launched in the USA. chromium and titanium. Another important invention was the development of electric resistance and induction furnaces for melting metals, selenite, glass, hardening and annealing steel products, and producing phosphorus and silicon. Another important invention was the development of electric resistance and induction furnaces for melting metals, selenite, glass, hardening and annealing steel products, and producing phosphorus and silicon.

In 1895 Lodygin married journalist Alma Schmidt, the daughter of a German engineer. In 1895 Lodygin married journalist Alma Schmidt, the daughter of a German engineer. They had two daughters, Margarita and Vera. They had two daughters, Margarita and Vera. The Lodygin family moved to Russia in 1907. Alexander Nikolaevich brings a whole series of inventions in drawings and sketches. The Lodygin family moved to Russia in 1907. Alexander Nikolaevich brings a whole series of inventions in drawings and sketches. Lodygin teaches at the Electrical Engineering Institute and works in the construction department of the St. Petersburg Railway.

The First World War changes all plans, Lodygin begins to work on a vertical take-off aircraft. After the February Revolution of 1917, the inventor did not work well with the new government. Financial difficulties force the Lodygin family to leave for the USA. The First World War changes all plans, Lodygin begins to work on a vertical take-off aircraft. After the February Revolution of 1917, the inventor did not work well with the new government. Financial difficulties force the Lodygin family to leave for the USA. In March 1923, Lodygin died in Brooklyn. In March 1923, Lodygin died in Brooklyn.

Inventions 1. Incandescent lamp. 1. Incandescent lamp. 2. In 1871, Lodygin created a project for an autonomous diving suit using a gas mixture consisting of oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen was to be produced from water by electrolysis 2. In 1871, Lodygin created a project for an autonomous diving suit using a gas mixture consisting of oxygen and hydrogen. Oxygen was supposed to be produced from water by electrolysis

3. A. N. Lodygin showed the advantages of using metal, in particular tungsten, wire for making an incandescent body and thus laid the foundation for the production of modern, much more economical incandescent lamps than carbon lamps of the early period. 3. A. N. Lodygin showed the advantages of using metal, in particular tungsten, wire for making an incandescent body and thus laid the foundation for the production of modern, much more economical incandescent lamps than carbon lamps of the early period. 4. A. N. Lodygin prepared the way for the successes of P. N. Yablochkov and, undoubtedly, had a strong influence on T. A. Edison and D. Swan, who, using the principle of operation of an incandescent lamp, approved by the works of A. N. Lodygin, turned this device into a consumer item. 4. A. N. Lodygin prepared the way for the successes of P. N. Yablochkov and, undoubtedly, had a strong influence on T. A. Edison and D. Swan, who, using the principle of operation of an incandescent lamp, approved by the works of A. N. Lodygin, turned this device into a consumer item.

The history of the light bulb is a whole chain of discoveries made by different people at different times. But Lodygin’s merits in this area are especially great. He was the first to propose using tungsten filaments in lamps (in modern light bulbs the filaments are made of tungsten) and twisting the filament in the shape of a spiral. He was also the first to pump air out of lamps, which increased their service life many times over. The history of the light bulb is a whole chain of discoveries made by different people at different times. But Lodygin’s merits in this area are especially great. He was the first to propose using tungsten filaments in lamps (in modern light bulbs the filaments are made of tungsten) and twisting the filament in the shape of a spiral. He was also the first to pump air out of lamps, which increased their service life many times over. Another invention of Lodygin, aimed at increasing the service life of lamps, was filling them with inert gas. Another invention of Lodygin, aimed at increasing the service life of lamps, was filling them with inert gas. The light bulb does not have one single inventor.

Conclusion The goal set at the beginning of the work has been achieved. Having studied the life path of a wonderful scientist, inventor and simply inquisitive and versatile person, which is A.N. Lodygin, we realized that the Tambov region gave the world a great man of whom we are truly proud. The goal set at the beginning of the work has been achieved. Having studied the life path of a wonderful scientist, inventor and simply inquisitive and versatile person, which is A.N. Lodygin, we realized that the Tambov region gave the world a great man of whom we are truly proud. And we are also proud that our homeland, the Tambo land, is so fertile in every sense of the word. And we are also proud that our homeland, the Tambo land, is so fertile in every sense of the word.

Literature and resources: Literature and resources: 1. Encyclopedia “Cyril and Methodius” 2. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. M: 1981 3. Ershov A.P. Computerization of school and mathematical education, Mathematics in school Tambov region. City information directory html

Alexander Nikolaevich Lodygin (1847-1923) - Russian electrical engineer. Invented and created a carbon incandescent lamp (1872, patent 1874). One of the founders of electrothermy. Lomonosov Prize. (1874).

Education, first job

Alexander Lodygin was born October 18 (October 6, old style) 1847, in the village of Stenshino, Petrovsky district, Tambov province, on his father’s estate. In 1867, as befits a member of a noble family, he graduated from the Moscow Military School, but soon retired. For some time he worked at the Tula Arms Factory as a hammer hammer and mechanic, and then moved to St. Petersburg.

Electricity

Lodygin came to the study of electricity and its application after his first work on a heavier-than-air aircraft - the “Lodygin electric plane”. At the end of 1860, he developed a project for a helicopter driven by an onboard electric motor. Having not received support in Russia, Lodygin proposed his project to France in 1870 and she accepted it. The implementation of the project was prevented by the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War.

Lodygin's main invention

Work on the electrical equipment of an aircraft led Lodygin to the creation of an electric incandescent lamp as the most suitable light source. In 1872 he applied, but it was not until 1874, after two years of Russian bureaucratic red tape, that he received the incandescent lamp franchise. Lodygin also patented his invention in Austria, Great Britain, France and Belgium. He submitted a patent application for a carbon incandescent lamp to America, but, being unable to pay the required patent fee, could not obtain a US patent.

Lodygin's lamp

In Alexander Lodygin’s lamp, the current was heated by a thin rod of retort coal located under a glass cover. The service life of the first lamps was only 30-40 minutes. Subsequently, the inventor used several rods in the lamp, which were turned on one after another as it burned, and then pumped out air and glowed in a vacuum. All improvements of this kind have made it possible to increase the service life of an incandescent lamp to 700-1000 hours of operation without burning out.

The success of the incandescent lamp

In 1873, A. Lodygin repeatedly publicly demonstrated methods of using the lamps he invented for practical purposes - ship and industrial lighting, street lighting, etc. The principle of the electric incandescent lamp was known before him, but Alexander Nikolaevich, having given a more advanced lamp design, turned it from a physical device into a practical means of lighting. For the invention of the lamp, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences awarded him the Lomonosov Prize in 1874.

Implementation of the invention

Alexander Lodygin's attempts to commercially use the incandescent lamp he invented ended in failure due to lack of funds. The American inventor Thomas Edison became interested in samples of Lodygin's lamps, brought to the United States by an officer who was the receiver of cruisers built there by order of the Russian naval department. Having started to improve various designs of electric incandescent lamps, Edison in 1879 created a lamp with a carbon filament.

Further activities

In the 1890s, Lodygin invented several types of lamps with metal filaments. He has priority in the use of tungsten for the manufacture of filaments. Lodygin's molybdenum and tungsten lamps were demonstrated at the Paris Exhibition of 1900. Lodygin also designed electric heating devices, respirators with an electric source of oxygen for breathing, electric furnaces for smelting metals and ores, as well as for heat treatment. Lodygin was one of the founders of the electrical engineering department of the Russian Technical Society and the Electricity magazine.

Lodygin's move abroad

Not having material resources and not finding opportunities to continue work in Russia, A. N. Lodygin in 1884 decided to finally go abroad. After working for several years in Paris, he moved to the USA in 1888. His interests increasingly focused on the use of electricity in metallurgy. Lodygin's financial position became stronger, and he began to enjoy greater authority as a specialist. Nevertheless, at the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, he returned to Russia to apply his extensive knowledge as an engineer in his homeland. Here he encountered the same conservatism and the same technical backwardness. For him, there was only a position as manager of city tram substations in St. Petersburg. In addition to the issues of operating trams, during this period he was also interested in the problems of electrification of handicrafts. Feeling superfluous, Lodygin returned to the USA in 1916, where he was exclusively engaged in the design of electric furnaces.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ladygin was born in the village of Stenshino, Lipetsk district, Tambov province (now Petrovsky district, Tambov region). He came from a very old and noble noble family (his family, like the Romanov family, traced its origins to Andrei Kobyla). His parents are poor nobles, Nikolai Ivanovich and Varvara Alexandrovna (nee Velyaminova).

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 named after Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, which was located in Tambov, then was transferred to Voronezh with the characteristic: “Good, responsive, diligent." And in 1861 the whole Lodygin family moved to Tambov. In 1865, Lodygin was released from the Cadet Corps as a cadet into 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 conceived (electroplane) and at the same time begins his first experiments with incandescent lamps. Work is also underway on a diving apparatus project. Without waiting for a decision from the Russian War Ministry, Lodygin writes to Paris and proposes that the republican government 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 at the Technological Institute 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.

Initially, Ladygin 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 1872, Ladygin 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 the company “Russian Electric Lighting Partnership Lodygin and Co.”

In the 1870s, Ladygin became close to the populists. He spent 1875-1878 in the Tuapse colony-community of populists. Since 1878, Lodygin has been back in St. Petersburg, working at various factories, improving his diving apparatus, and working on other inventions. For participation in the Vienna Electrotechnical Exhibition, Lodygin was awarded the Order of Stanislav, III degree - a rare occurrence among Russian inventors. Honorary Electrical Engineer ETI (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. Ladygin 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 organized 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.

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.”

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.

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 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.

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 a modern lamp shape, a screw base with a socket, a plug, a socket, and a 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

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. Since then, many have tried to tame the glow of various materials through which electric current is passed. 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 in a horizontal plane, the other lifted it upward. 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. The matter ended with bruises. According to family tradition, he joined the military, studying in the Tambov and Voronezh cadet corps, served as a cadet in the 71st Belevsky regiment and graduated from the Moscow cadet 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 retired and got a job at the Tula Arms Plant as a simple hammer hammer; 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 of a large number of light sources in 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, two street lamps replaced kerosene lamps with 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, the 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, 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 until Lodygin's patents expired, 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 Electrical Engineering Institute, a post in the Construction Administration of the St. Petersburg Railway, and business trips on plans for the electrification of individual provinces. Immediately after the outbreak of World War II, he submitted an application to the War Department 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.