Physicist jacobi short article. Biography

Jacobi Boris Semenovich, known at first as a German, and then a Russian scientist in the field of physics, a talented electrical engineer and inventor.

The origins of the life path

The child, née Moritz Hermann von Jacobi, was born on a September day in 1801, in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam. The family of the future academician did not live in poverty.

The child's mother, Rachel Lehman, was a housewife, the family's father, Simon Jacobi, the personal banker of Frederick William III, the Kaiser of Prussia, provided a high income for the family.

This allowed the talented son to start his studies at the University of Berlin. Later he transferred to the University of Göttingen, where he graduated in physics and mathematics. True, at first I had to work in the Prussian construction department as an architect.

However, the unwitting architect was more drawn to physics. Therefore, he distinguished himself in improving the characteristics of water engines, and then more, following the fashion of that time and was completely seduced by electricity.

First invention

Passion for physics and craving for inventions called the young architect on the road. First, Moritz Jacobi found shelter with his younger brother, who taught at the University of Königsberg. Here he finally had the opportunity to plunge headlong into the problems of physical science.

The inquisitive physicist was especially interested in electromagnetism. He devoted his free hours to work on the electric motor. In contrast to the already existing similar inventions, he had to turn the working shaft constantly and directly. And this torque can be easily converted into other useful types of circulation.

In one of the issues of the Parisian academic journal for 1834, a small note was published about the designed new electric motor. Electromagnets were built into it for the moving and static parts. The switch was used for the first time unique design... Galvanic batteries were the source of electrical power for the electric motor.

Moving to Russia

Several prominent Russian scientists drew attention to Jacobi's developments and contributed to the invitation of a promising scientist to the University of Dorpat. Russia attracted foreign scientists with ample opportunities and generous funding. Jacobi hoped here to realize his dream of a perpetual motion machine, which in fact was impossible in practical Prussia.

In 1837 Professor Jacobi received an invitation from St. Petersburg. There they started looking for engines for the ships. One of the options considered was the Jacobi electric motor. After conducting the experiments, his work was appreciated. The scientist got into the development of a number of projects related to electromagnetism.

The Russian government intended to use them for military purposes. Such a reception pleased the scientist and Moritz Jacobi, reincarnated as a subject Russian Empire with the name Boris Semenovich Jacobi. From that time on, Russia became a second homeland for the German Jew, to which he had a sincere affection, as a subject and devoted citizen. In addition, Boris Yakobi forever linked himself with the new Fatherland by close family ties.

The fruits of activity in the new Fatherland

Manifold scientific research and the technical creativity of Boris Jacobi led to:

the discovery of electroplating, the method of applying the thinnest metal layer on the desired plane using electricity, laying the foundation for the development of electrochemistry;
the invention of a number of electrical resistance meters called "voltagometers";
significant constructive advances in telegraphy, Jacobi invented the direct-printing synchronous telegraph;
wiring cable lines in St. Petersburg, extended later to Tsarskoe Selo;
the development of galvanic batteries; creation of a new type of anti-ship, galvanic impact mines;
formation in sapper units Russian army electroplating units.

Unlike the less fortunate "prophets" of his Fatherland, Boris Jacobi received full fame. Awards, orders, medals from the World Exhibitions did not pass by our hero. Ten years before his death, he received the status of a hereditary nobleman of the Russian Empire.

At the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, he supervised the physics office and was a member of the Manufacturing Council in the Ministry of Finance. Heart attack interrupted the glorious life path Boris Semenovich Jacobi in 1874. His ashes rest on the Lutheran churchyard of Vasilievsky Island.

Jacobi Boris Semenovich - Russian physicist and electrical engineer. Jacobi was born on September 9, 1801 in Potsdam. At the age of 19 he entered the University of Berlin, but after a while he transferred to the University of Göttingen, after which he received a diploma in architecture. In 1835 he became professor of civil architecture at the University of Dorpat. In May 1834 Jacobi built his first working model of an electric motor, a "magnetic apparatus," as he called his motor. Accepted Russian citizenship in 1837.

In 1839, Jacobi, together with Academician Emily Christianovich Lenz (1804-1865), built two improved and more powerful electric motors. One of them was installed on a large boat and rotated its paddle wheels. During the tests, a boat with a crew of fourteen people rose against the current of the Neva, fighting against the headwind. This structure was the world's first electric vessel. Another Jacobi-Lenz electric motor rolled a cart on the rails, in which a person could be.

A great success came to the scientist at the age of 37. It was then that he invented electroforming - obtaining metal copies from a metal and non-metal original by electrolysis, i.e. decomposition of substances when passing through them constant electric current, with the help of which the interiors of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Hermitage, the Winter Palace were later decorated, copper copies were made from forms for printing money, as well as geographical maps, postage stamps, art prints.

Jacobi designed the first writing apparatus in 1839. A feature of the first writing apparatus designed by the scientist was that instead of a multiplier, an electromagnet was used in it, which operated a pencil using a system of levers. Signals were recorded on a porcelain board, which moved on a carriage under the action of a clock mechanism. With the help of this apparatus, the inhabitants of the Winter Palace, the General Staff Building and Tsarskoye Selo were successfully exchanging information.

This scientist did a lot to create domestic electrical equipment. He built a number of electrical devices, for example, a voltmeter, a wire resistance standard, several designs of galvanometers, and a resistance regulator. Jacobi's works concerning the organization of electrical engineering education were of great importance for Russia. In the early 1840s, he compiled and read the first courses in applied electrical engineering, prepared a program of theoretical and practical studies.

The last work of B.S. Jacobi in the field of apparatus engineering dates back to 1854, when he created a new telegraph apparatus for communication on large steamers between the captain's cabin and the engine room. But the apparatus engineering was not limited to Jacobi's activities in the field of telegraphy. He made an outstanding contribution to the construction of electromagnetic telegraph lines and to the solution of the question of the stability and reliability of telegraphy. Jacobi developed and improved a method for igniting mines at a distance with an electric current and supervised the application of this method in the Kronstadt fortress during Crimean War.

Boris S. YAKOBI

The works of the Russian inventor, scientist, academician Boris Semenovich Jacobi formed the basis of the modern theory of electromagnetic machines. Jacobi discovered a completely new field of technology - electroplating.

"The name ... Boris Semenovich Jacobi is well known as the name of the inventor of electroplating, a pioneer in the field of electromagnetic telegraphy, the designer of the first electric motor, which was used in boat movement, etc. Jacobi is known less as one of the first organizers of the international metric service and even less , as a proactive worker in the field of electrical measurements, who contributed to the improvement of methods of electrical measurements and the improvement of electrical measuring instruments through his work, "wrote a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, electrical engineer M. A. Shatelen.

Boris Semenovich (Moritz Hermann) Jacobi was born on September 9, 1801 in Potsdam. Jacobi's father was the personal banker of King Friedrich Wilhelm. Jacobi's younger brother, Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, later became an outstanding German mathematician. (He is one of the founders of the theory of elliptic functions, he is the author of discoveries in the field of number theory, linear algebra, and many other branches of mathematics.)

Boris Yakobi received his education at the University of Götgingen, according to the wishes of his parents - as an architect. In 1835 Jacobi became professor of civil architecture at the University of Dorpat. ...

But Boris Jacobi, in addition to architecture, had another passion - to conduct experiments with electricity. In May 1834 Jacobi built his first working model of an electric motor, a "magnetic apparatus," as he called his motor. In November 1934, he ruled to the Paris Academy of Sciences with a manuscript describing the electric motor he had invented. On December 1, his achievement was reported at a meeting of the Academy, and on December 3, his note was published.

But the name Jacobi is better known in connection with the practical applications of electrolysis, the laws of which were established by the great English scientist Faraday, with whom Jacobi was in friendly correspondence.

When an electric current passes through solutions of acids or salts, the constituent parts of these chemically complex bodies are released on the conductor electrodes that supply electric current to this solution. Here, these parts either react with the solvent (water) or with the substance of the electrode, or are deposited on the electrode in the form of a continuous layer. The latter takes place when the majority of metals are precipitated at the cathode - an electrode connected to the negative pole of the electric current source.

To set in motion electromagnetic machines, Jacobi was given in sources of electric current and subjected to careful study a number of galvanic cells. Working with an element in which copper was deposited on the electrode, he drew attention to the fact that this deposition occurred in an even layer, which could then be completely torn off the electrode. The shape of the surface of the copper sheet obtained in this way fully and accurately reproduced all the irregularities and features of the electrode surface.

In the summer of 1936, he happened to observe this amazing ability copper particles are deposited on the surface of the negative electrode. Jacobi used a copper plate as an electrode, on which his name was engraved, and saw that the leaf, torn from the electrode, was a negative imprint of a tablet with an inscription. He immediately appreciated the technical significance of the fact and already deliberately very successfully removed a copy from a copper penny. Jacobi called this technique "electroforming" and began to promote its dissemination and application in practice in every possible way.

His works in the field of "pure and applied electrology" interested the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, and in 1837 Jacobi was sent there for an indefinite period. In 1839 he received the position of an adjunct at the Academy, in 1842 - the position of extraordinary, and, finally, in 1847 - an ordinary member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1838, he submitted to the Academy of Sciences a memorandum on his discovery of electroforming, and in 1840, he wrote a guide to electroforming: "Electroforming or a method for producing copper products from copper solutions using galvanism".

Jacobi was the first to establish the technical feasibility and practical significance of the electrolytic deposition of metals. Thus, Jacobi is the inventor of electroplating in general and the founder of modern electrochemistry.

Thanks to the energy of Jacobi, electroforming quickly found practical application in Russia - in the manufacture of accurate and in all similar cliches for printing government papers, including banknotes, which could not be achieved by simple engraving cliches.

All my long life and Jacobi devoted all his energies to serving Russia and its industrial development. He perfectly understood the significance of the discovery of electroforming and until the end of his life, despite all the difficulties, fought for the introduction of electroforming into Russian industry. Jacobi was tempted by the fact that in another country he could have much better use of the rights of an inventor. But he believed that electroforming belongs exclusively to Russia: "This invention belongs exclusively to Russia and cannot be challenged by any other invention outside of this ..." Here, it was discovered and developed here! "

Distinctive feature Jacobi was his modesty. He never emphasized or advertised his many years of work, which have a huge scientific and practical significance... Although Jacobi held a prominent official position and received the Demidov Prize of 25,000 rubles for the invention of electroplating in 1840, and a large gold medal and a prize at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, he did not earn much money. Dying, this major inventor was forced to appeal to the government with a request not to leave his family in need.

And yet B.S., Jacobi, in comparison with other Russian inventors-electrical engineers of the XIX century. - A. N. Lodygin, P. N. Yablochkov, exceptionally lucky. People in power were interested in his work, up to the Emperor Nicholas I. He was provided with all the conditions and means for work. The practical implementation of his inventions was carried out, on the one hand, by the "EXPEDITION of preparing state papers", on the other hand, by a special electroplating workshop, where many wonderful works of art were made with the participation of Jacobi.

So, for the statues and bas-reliefs of St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Hermitage, the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the Winter Palace, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and for some other products, the workshop laid siege to 6749 pounds of copper by means of a galvanic path! For the gilding of the domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Peter and Paul Cathedral and several other small domes and the gilding of various products, this workshop used 45 poods 32 pounds of gold.

Based on the laws and ideas of Ampere and Faraday, supplemented by his own research carried out by him in the late 1830s. Together with Academician E. H. Lenz, Jacobi in 1839 built the first magnetoelectric motor, driving a boat with fourteen people on the Neva River against its current, and thus proved the possibility of practical use of electric motors with continuous rotary motion.

On the basis of these experiments, as well as his earlier research in the field of "application of electromagnetism to the motion of machines" Jacobi created the theory of electromagnetic machines.

The laws electromagnetic motors set out by him in articles published in 1840 and 1850. Jacobi shattered the then widespread illusions about the possibility of a very significant increase in useful work due to the electric current of a given power through further improvement and restructuring of electromagnetic machines. He proved that if such a restructuring leads to a gain in engine speed, then this gain will inevitably be accompanied by a loss in strength, and vice versa - a gain in strength will lead to a decrease in speed. Before Jacobi, this position was recognized only in the field of pure mechanics.

Jacobi's scientific and technical work was very diverse. He created a number of devices for measuring electrical resistance, calling them "voltameters". In an effort to introduce unity in the measurement of electric current, Jacobi prepared his own conventional standard of resistance (made of copper wire) and sent copies of it to a number of physicists.

In 1852 Weber determined the value of resistance of Jacobi standards in absolute units. Thus, the measurements made using these standards could be converted into generally accepted units. One of the ways to measure the strength of the electric current is to determine the amount of substance deposited on the electrodes by current during electrolysis for one second in a device called a "voltameter". Jacobi first improved the voltameter, moving from the electrolysis of water to the deposition of copper, then found out the drawback of this method and proposed the now accepted method of deposition in the voltameter of silver from a solution of silver nitrate.

| Jacobi connected the Winter and Tsarskoye Selo palaces by telegraph (with underground wiring), invented and built for this line, as well as for telegraph communication between the Winter Palace and the General Headquarters, several new peculiar telegraph devices, conducted a study of the resistance of liquid conductors and their polarization, invented the so-called a contraband that makes wiring possible over poorly insulated wires;

built galvanometers of new types; invented an apparatus for separating and measuring the density of liquids of various specific gravity (this apparatus has found application as a testing device in distilleries).

Boris S. YAKOBI

In the summer of 1936, he observed this amazing ability of copper particles to deposit on the surface of a negative electrode. Jacobi used a copper plate as an electrode, on which his name was engraved, and saw that the leaf, torn from the electrode, was a negative imprint of a tablet with an inscription. He immediately appreciated the technical significance of the fact and already deliberately very successfully removed a copy from a copper penny. Jacobi called this technique "electroforming" and began to promote its dissemination and application in practice in every possible way.

Jacobi devoted his entire long life and all his energies to serving Russia and its industrial development. He perfectly understood the significance of the discovery of electroforming and until the end of his life, despite all the difficulties, fought for the introduction of electroforming into Russian industry. Jacobi was tempted by the fact that in another country he could have much better use of the rights of an inventor. But he believed that electroforming belongs exclusively to Russia: "This invention belongs exclusively to Russia and cannot be challenged by any other invention outside of this ..." Here, it was discovered and developed here! "

Jacobi's hallmark was his modesty. He never emphasized or advertised his many years of work, which are of great scientific and practical importance. Although Jacobi held a prominent official position and received the Demidov Prize of 25,000 rubles for the invention of electroplating in 1840, and a large gold medal and a prize at the Paris Exhibition in 1867, he did not earn much money. Dying, this major inventor was forced to appeal to the government with a request not to leave his family in need.

Based on the laws and ideas of Ampere and Faraday, supplemented by his own research carried out by him in the late 1830s. Together with Academician E. H. Lenz, Jacobi in 1839 built the first magnetoelectric engine, driving a boat with fourteen people on the Neva against its current, and thus proved the possibility of practical use of electric motors with continuous rotational motion.

On the basis of these experiments, as well as his earlier research in the field of "application of electromagnetism to the motion of machines" Jacobi created the theory of electromagnetic machines.

The laws of electromagnetic motors were set forth by him in articles published in 1840 and 1850. At the same time, Jacobi shattered the illusions widespread at that time about the possibility of a very significant increase in useful work due to an electric current of a given power through further improvement and restructuring of electromagnetic machines. He proved that if such a restructuring leads to a gain in engine speed, then this gain will inevitably be accompanied by a loss in strength, and vice versa - a gain in strength will lead to a decrease in speed. Before Jacobi, this position was recognized only in the field of pure mechanics.

Jacobi developed and improved a method for igniting mines at a distance with an electric current and led the application of this method in the Kronstadt fortress during the Crimean War. In his declining years, Jacobi was in charge of the Physics Office of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He created teams of military galvanizers, on the basis of which the higher electrical engineering school of Russia grew up. In 1872, upon his return from Paris, where he actively participated as a Russian delegate in the work of the International Commission for the Establishment of the Monotonous international system measures and weights, Jacobi began to have heart attacks (seizures), the first symptoms of which were back in 1870. He fell ill. Heart attacks began to recur, and on the night of March 10-11, 1874 Boris Semenovich Yakobi died. Shortly before his death, Jacobi wrote:

The cultural and historical significance and development of nations are valued at the merit of the contribution that each of them makes to the common treasury of human thought and activity. Therefore, the undersigned turns with a feeling of satisfied consciousness to his thirty-seven years of scientific activity, entirely devoted to the country, which he used to consider the second fatherland, being connected with it not only by the duty of citizenship and close family ties, and the personal feelings of a citizen.

The undersigned is proud of this activity because, while it turned out to be fruitful in the common interest of all mankind, at the same time it brought immediate and substantial benefit to Russia ... "

During the installation of memorial plaques on the house where outstanding Russian academicians lived, in 1949, in his opening speech, the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician S. I. Vavilov said: “The name of Jacobi will forever remain in history in connection with the electroplating invented by him, application in technology ... "

Many scientists and inventors, making their discoveries, turn science on its head, changing the principles of the worldview and creating new completely new directions. But there are scientists who not only discover something incredible and new, but also bring their discoveries to practical application. One of these scientists was Boris Semenovich Jacobi. His writings became the basis modern theory electromagnetic machines and thanks to him was born new area in technology - electroplating.

Boris Semenovich was born at the dawn of the 19th century on September 9, 1801 in German Potsdam. The father of the future scientist was the personal banker of Friedrich Wilhelm. At the University of Göttingen, Jacobi was educated as an architect - it was the will of his parents. At 34, he is already a professor of civil architecture at the University of Dorpat. However, architecture was not in the plans of the future scientist, he gravitated towards electronics. In 1834 he builds his first model of an electric motor and sends the drawings to the Paris Academy of Sciences.

His scientific works in the field of "pure and applied electrology" allowed Boris Semenovich in 1837 to move to St. Petersburg at the Academy of Sciences in the place of an adjunct. At the Academy of Sciences in the late 30s, he conducts experiments on electrolysis, based on the laws of Henri Ampere and Michael Faraday . In addition to the achievements of great scientists with their own research and developments, Jacobi, together with Academician E. H. Lenz, in 1839 build the first magnetoelectric motor. In this they prove the practical use of motors with continuous rotary motion. In 1842, Jacobi was already an extraordinary member, and after another 5 years - an ordinary member of the Academy of Sciences.

In 1840 and 1850 he published articles in which he outlined the laws of the theory of electromagnetic machines that he created. Jacobi refuted the hitherto existing opinion that the restructuring and improvement of machines, as well as an increase in electric current, would lead to a significant increase in the useful work of electrical machines. He proved that increasing the speed of an engine by improving its design will lead to an inevitable reduction in power. Conversely, a gain in power will result in a loss in speed.

Boris Semenovich also carried out very thorough research in the field of electrolysis. In order to set his electric machines in motion, he studied quite thoroughly and tried to modernize the galvanic cells. In the course of these experiments, he accidentally discovered the electroplating method of applying copper, which was used to decorate many statues and bas-reliefs.

On account of Boris Semenovich Jacobi, there are also several instruments for measuring the electrical resistance of materials, which he himself called "voltameters". Is it really very similar to today's voltmeters? He also developed his own standard for the magnitude of resistance. except scientific discoveries Jacobi worked very hard on practical application their own and other people's inventions. He used underground wiring to establish telegraph communication between palaces in St. Petersburg. Conducted large-scale research to measure the resistance of liquid