Legendary person. V.G. Shukhov

February 2 marks the 75th anniversary of the death of the Russian genius Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov. Engineers and architects all over the world call him Russian Leonardo. The famous Shukhov Tower on Shabolovka is recognized as one of the architectural masterpieces of the Russian avant-garde and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. By the way, the unusual hyperboloid design inspired the writer Alexei Tolstoy to write the novel “The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin.”

And yet, today in Russia few people know about Shukhov. Perhaps in connection with the tower on Shabolovka. But he is included in the list of the 100 most outstanding engineers of all time. First of all, the mere enumeration of the areas of his activity is striking. In addition to various architectural structures, he created steam boilers, oil refineries, pipelines, nozzles, liquid storage tanks, pumps, gas tanks, water towers, oil barges, blast furnaces, metal floors of workshops and public buildings, grain elevators, railway bridges, aerial cableways roads, lighthouses, tram depots, refrigeration plants, landing stages, mines, etc. According to his designs, more than 500 bridges were built in our country; almost all major construction projects of the first five-year plans are associated with his name: Magnitka, Kuznetskstroy, Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, Dynamo Plant and even the rotating stage of the Moscow Art Theater, etc.

Today "RG" talks about six great creations of Vladimir Shukhov.

1. Tower on Shabolovka. This masterpiece by Shukhov was erected in 1919-1922. The Bolsheviks timed its construction to coincide with the opening of the Genoa Conference. It was important for the government of the RSFSR, which did not have international recognition. According to the original design, the tower was supposed to have a height of 350 meters, surpassing the famous Eiffel design by 50 meters. But a shortage of metal during the Civil War forced the height to be reduced to 160 meters. One day an accident occurred, and Shukhov was sentenced to suspended execution with a suspended sentence until the completion of the work. In 1922, radio broadcasting began.

Shukhov was the first in the world to use mesh shells and hyperboloid structures in construction. Due to this, his 350-meter-high tower should have weighed only 2,200 tons, which is more than three times less than the weight of Eiffel’s creation. Shukhov's ideas became a revolution in architecture, it acquired amazing lightness, and gained the opportunity to create a wide variety of structures, sometimes of bizarre shape.

2. The world's first hyperboloid design in Polibino. The world first became acquainted with the work of Vladimir Shukhov in the summer of 1896 at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition - the largest in pre-revolutionary Russia, which was held in Nizhny Novgorod. For it, the architect built eight pavilions with mesh ceilings and a hyperboloid tower, which became his calling card. It attracted the attention of not only the townspeople, but also the glass king Yuri Nechaev-Maltsev, who purchased it at the end of the exhibition and took it to his estate in Polibino, in the Lipetsk region. The 25-meter structure still stands there today.

3. GUM. Shukhov used an innovative approach to the floors and roofs of buildings in the Main Department Store (formerly Upper Trading Rows), built opposite the Kremlin. The glass roof of GUM is the work of a great master. Its construction took more than 800 tons of metal. But, despite such impressive figures, the semicircular openwork roof seems light and sophisticated.

4. Pushkin Museum named after A.S. Pushkin. The engineer was faced with a difficult task. After all, the project did not provide for electric lighting of the exposition. The halls were to be illuminated by natural light. Therefore, it was necessary to create durable roof coverings through which the sun's rays could enter. The three-tier metal and glass roof created by Shukhov is today called a monument to an engineering genius.

5. Kyiv railway station in Moscow. Construction was carried out for several years, from 1914 to 1918, in conditions of metal and labor shortages. When the work was completed, the glazed space above the platforms, 230 meters long, became the largest in Europe. The canopy of the Kievsky station was a metal-glass ceiling, which rested on steel arches. Standing on the platform, it’s hard to believe that a structure weighing about 1,300 tons towers above you!

6. Tower on the Oka. In 1929, on the low bank of the Oka River between Bogorodsk and Dzerzhinsk, according to Shukhov’s design, the world’s only multi-section hyperboloid power transmission towers were installed. Of the three pairs of structures that supported the wires, only one has survived to this day.

Shukhov’s creations were appreciated all over the world during his lifetime, but even today his ideas are actively used by famous architects. The best architects of the world - Norman Foster, Basminster Fuller, Oscar Niemeyer, Antonio Gaudi, Le Corbusier based their work on Shukhov's designs.

The most famous example of the use of Shukhov's patent is the 610-meter television tower in the Chinese city of Guangzhou - the world's tallest mesh hyperboloid structure. It was erected for the 2010 Asian Games to broadcast this important sporting event.

Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov , photograph 1891, author photo unknown, is in public domain.

Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov(August 16 (28), 1853 - February 2, 1939) - Russian and Soviet engineer, architect, inventor, scientist; Corresponding Member (1928) and Honorary Member (1929) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Labor. He is the author of projects and technical manager for the construction of the first Russian oil pipelines (1878) and an oil refinery with the first Russian oil cracking units (1931). He made outstanding contributions to the technology of the oil industry and pipeline transport.

V. G. Shukhov was the first in the world to use steel mesh shells for the construction of buildings and towers. Subsequently, high-tech architects, the famous Buckminster Fuller and Norman Foster, finally introduced mesh shells into modern construction practice, and in the 21st century, shells became one of the main means of shaping avant-garde buildings.

Shukhov introduced the form of a single-sheet hyperboloid of rotation into architecture, creating the world's first hyperboloid structures.

In 1876 he graduated with honors from the Imperial Moscow Technical School (now Moscow State Technical University) and completed a one-year internship in the USA.

Main areas of activity of V. G. Shukhov

Shukhov Tower on Shabolovka in Moscow, photo by the author Vaskin A.A.,Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5.

Design and construction of the first oil pipelines in Russia, development of theoretical and practical foundations for the construction of main pipeline systems.
Invention, creation and development of equipment and technologies for the oil industry, cylindrical oil storage tanks, river tankers; introduction of a new method of oil airlift.
Theoretical and practical development of the fundamentals of petroleum hydraulics.
Invention of a thermal oil cracking unit. Design and construction of an oil refinery with the first Russian cracking units.
Invention of original gas tank designs and development of standard designs for natural gas storage facilities with a capacity of up to 100 thousand cubic meters. m.
Invention and creation of new building structures and architectural forms: the world's first steel mesh shells and hyperboloid structures.
Development of methods for designing steel structures and structural mechanics.
Invention and creation of tubular steam boilers.
Design of large urban water supply systems.
Invention and creation of sea mines and platforms of heavy artillery systems, bateauports.

Member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Lenin Prize (1929). Hero of Labor (1932).

Development of the oil industry and thermal engines

Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov is the author of the project and chief engineer of the construction of the first Russian oil pipeline Balakhany - Black City (Baku Oil Fields, 1878), built for the oil company "Br. Nobel". He designed and then supervised the construction of oil pipelines of the Br. Nobel", "Lianozov and Co." and the world's first heated fuel oil pipeline. Working in the oil fields in Baku, V. G. Shukhov developed the basics of lifting and pumping oil products, proposed a method for lifting oil using compressed air - airlift, developed a calculation method and technology for constructing cylindrical steel tanks for oil storage facilities, and invented a nozzle for burning fuel oil.

In the article “Oil Pipelines” (1884) and in the book “Pipelines and Their Application in the Oil Industry” (1894), V. G. Shukhov gave precise mathematical formulas to describe the processes of oil and fuel oil flow through pipelines, creating the classical theory of oil pipelines. V. G. Shukhov is the author of the projects of the first Russian main pipelines: Baku - Batumi (883 km, 1907), Grozny - Tuapse (618 km, 1928).

In 1896, Shukhov invented a new water-tube steam boiler in horizontal and vertical versions (patents of the Russian Empire No. 15,434 and No. 15,435 dated June 27, 1896). In 1900, his steam boilers were awarded a high award - at the World Exhibition in Paris, Shukhov received a gold medal. Thousands of steam boilers were produced using Shukhov's patents before and after the revolution.

Around 1885, Shukhov began building the first Russian river barge tankers on the Volga. Installation was carried out in precisely planned stages using standardized sections at the shipyards in Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) and Saratov.

V.G. Shukhov and his assistant S.P. Gavrilov invented an industrial process for producing motor gasoline - a continuously operating tubular thermal cracking unit for oil (patent of the Russian Empire No. 12926 dated November 27, 1891). The installation consisted of a furnace with tubular coil heaters, an evaporator and distillation columns.

Thirty years later, in 1923, a delegation from the Sinclair Oil company arrived in Moscow to obtain information about oil cracking, invented by Shukhov. The scientist, having compared his 1891 patent with American patents of 1912-1916, proved that American cracking plants repeat his patent and are not original. In 1931, according to the design and technical leadership of V. G. Shukhov, the Soviet Cracking oil refinery was built in Baku, where for the first time in Russia Shukhov’s patent for the cracking process was used to create installations for the production of gasoline.

Creation of building and engineering structures

V. G. Shukhov is the inventor of the world's first hyperboloid structures and metal mesh shells of building structures (patents of the Russian Empire No. 1894, No. 1895, No. 1896; dated March 12, 1899, declared by V. G. Shukhov 03/27/1895 -01/11/1896 ). For the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod, V. G. Shukhov built eight pavilions with the world's first mesh-shell ceilings, the world's first steel membrane ceiling (Shukhov Rotunda) and the world's first hyperboloid tower of amazing beauty ( was purchased after the exhibition by philanthropist Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsov and moved to his estate Polibino (Lipetsk region), preserved to this day). The shell of a hyperboloid of revolution was a completely new form, never before used in architecture. After the Nizhny Novgorod Exhibition of 1896, V. G. Shukhov developed numerous designs of various mesh steel shells and used them in hundreds of structures: floors of public buildings and industrial facilities, water towers, sea lighthouses, masts of warships and power line supports. The 70-meter mesh steel Adzhigol lighthouse near Kherson is the tallest single-section hyperboloid structure by V. G. Shukhov. The radio tower on Shabolovka in Moscow became the tallest of the multi-section Shukhov towers (160 meters).

“Shukhov’s designs complete the efforts of 19th century engineers in creating an original metal structure and at the same time point the way far into the 20th century. They mark significant progress: the core lattice of traditional spatial trusses, based on main and auxiliary elements, was replaced by a network of equivalent structural elements" (Schädlich Ch., Das Eisen in der Architektur des 19.Jhdt., Habilitationsschrift, Weimar, 1967, S .104).

Shukhov also invented arched roof structures with cable ties. The arched glass vaults of V. G. Shukhov’s coverings over the largest Moscow stores have survived to this day: the Upper Trading Rows (GUM) and the Firsanovsky (Petrovsky) Passage. At the end of the 19th century, Shukhov, together with his employees, drafted a new water supply system for Moscow.

In 1897, Shukhov built a workshop with spatially curved mesh sail-shaped steel shells of double-curvature floors for the metallurgical plant in Vyksa. This workshop has been preserved at the Vyksa Metallurgical Plant to this day. This is the world's first arched convex ceiling with double curvature.

Translucent three-tiered metal and glass roof of Academician V.G. Shukhov over the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin, photo by Arssenev,

From 1896 to 1930, over 200 steel mesh hyperboloid towers were built according to V. G. Shukhov’s designs. No more than 20 have survived to this day. The water tower in Nikolaev (built in 1907, its height with a tank is 32 meters) and the Adzhigol lighthouse in the Dnieper estuary (built in 1910, height - 70 meters) are well preserved.

V. G. Shukhov invented new designs of spatial flat trusses and used them in designing the coverings of the Museum of Fine Arts (Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), the Moscow Main Post Office, the Bakhmetyevsky Garage and other numerous buildings. In 1912-1917 V.G. Shukhov designed the floors of the halls and the landing stage of the Kievsky station (formerly Bryansk) in Moscow and supervised its construction (span width - 48 m, height - 30 m, length - 230 m).

While working on the creation of load-bearing structures, Shukhov made a significant contribution to the final design of the buildings and unwittingly acted as an architect. In the architectural appearance of the pavilions of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896, GUM and the Kyiv Station, Shukhov’s authorship determined the most impressive features of the buildings.

During the First World War, V. G. Shukhov invented several designs of sea mines and platforms of heavy artillery systems, and designed the bathoports of sea docks.

Construction in 1919-1922. towers for the radio station on Shabolovka in Moscow was the most famous work of V. G. Shukhov. The tower is a telescopic structure 160 meters high, consisting of six mesh hyperboloid steel sections. After an accident during the construction of a radio tower, V. G. Shukhov was sentenced to death with a suspended sentence until the completion of construction. On March 19, 1922, radio broadcasts began and V.G. Shukhov was pardoned.

Regular broadcasts of Soviet television through transmitters at the Shukhov Tower began on March 10, 1939. For many years, the image of the Shukhov Tower was the emblem of Soviet television and the screensaver of many television programs, including the famous “Blue Light”.

Now the Shukhov Tower is recognized by international experts as one of the highest achievements of engineering art. International scientific conference “Heritage at Risk. Preservation of 20th Century Architecture and World Heritage,” held in April 2006 in Moscow with the participation of more than 160 specialists from 30 countries, in its declaration named the Shukhov Tower among seven architectural masterpieces of the Russian avant-garde recommended for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

In 1927-1929 V.G. Shukhov, taking part in the implementation of the GOELRO plan, surpassed this tower structure by building three pairs of mesh multi-tiered hyperboloid supports for crossing the Oka River of the NiGRES power line in the area of the city of Dzerzhinsk near Nizhny Novgorod.

The Shukhov Towers in Moscow and on the Oka River are unique monuments of Russian avant-garde architecture.

The last major achievement of V.G. Shukhov in the field of construction technology was the straightening of the minaret of the ancient Ulugbek madrasah in Samarkand, which tilted during an earthquake.

last years of life

The last years of Vladimir Grigorievich’s life were overshadowed by the repressions of the 30s, constant fear for his children, unjustified accusations, the death of his wife, and leaving service under pressure from the bureaucratic regime. These events undermined his health and led to disappointment and depression. His last years are spent in solitude. He received only close friends and old colleagues at home, read and reflected.

Photo gallery of designs

Shukhovsky metal-glass landing stage of the Kievsky railway station in Moscow, photo by Kucharek, 19 August 2006 (UTC),is in public domain.

Metal-glass floors of GUM designed by Shukhov, Moscow, 2007, photo by Donskoy, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

Named in honor of Shukhov and bear his name

Hyperboloid mesh towers corresponding to the patent of V. G. Shukhov, built in Russia and abroad.
Belgorod State Technological University named after V. G. Shukhov
Shukhov Street in Moscow (Former Sirotsky Lane). Renamed in 1963. On it (the street) there is the famous Shukhov radio tower.
Street in Tula
Park in the city of Grayvoron
School in the city of Grayvoron
Gold medal named after V. G. Shukhov, awarded for the highest engineering achievements
Shukhov Tower in Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Auditorium named after Shukhov at the Moscow Architectural Institute

Memory

On December 2, 2008, a monument to Vladimir Shukhov was unveiled on Turgenevskaya Square in Moscow. The team of authors who worked on the monument was headed by Salavat Shcherbakov. Shukhov is immortalized in bronze, in full growth with a roll of drawings and a cloak draped over his shoulders. Bronze benches are installed around the monument. Two of them are in the form of a split log with a vice, hammers and other carpentry tools lying on them; another one is a structure of wheels and gears.
On the territory of TsNIIPSK named after. A bust of Shukhov was erected by N.P. Melnikov.
In 1963, a USSR postage stamp dedicated to Shukhov was issued.

Publications

Shukhov V.G., Mechanical structures of the oil industry, “Engineer”, volume 3, book. 13, No. 1, pp. 500-507, book. 14, No. 1, pp. 525-533, Moscow, 1883.
Shukhov V. G., Oil pipelines, “Bulletin of Industry”, No. 7, pp. 69 - 86, Moscow, 1884.
Shukhov V.G., Direct pumps and their compensation, 32 pp., “Bul. Polytechnic Society", No. 8, appendix, Moscow, 1893-1894.
Shukhov V.G., Pipelines and their application to the oil industry, 37 pp., Ed. Polytechnic Society, Moscow, 1895.
Shukhov V.G., Direct action pumps. Theoretical and practical data for their calculation. 2nd ed. with additions, 51 pp., Ed. Polytechnic Society, Moscow, 1897.
Shukhov V. G., Rafters. Research of rational types of rectilinear trusses and the theory of arched trusses, 120 pp., Ed. Polytechnic Society, Moscow, 1897.
Shukhov V.G., The combat power of the Russian and Japanese fleets during the war of 1904-1905, in the book: Khudyakov P.K. “The Path to Tsushima”, pp. 30 - 39, Moscow, 1907.
Shukhov V. G., Note on patents on the distillation and decomposition of oil at elevated pressure, “Oil and shale economy”, No. 10, pp. 481-482, Moscow, 1923.
Shukhov V.G., Note on oil pipelines, “Oil and shale economy”, volume 6, no. 2, pp. 308-313, Moscow, 1924.
Shukhov V.G., Selected works, volume 1, “Structural mechanics”, 192 pp., ed. A. Yu. Ishlinsky, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 1977.
Shukhov V.G., Selected works, volume 2, “Hydraulic engineering”, 222 pp., ed. A. E. Sheindlina, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1981.
Shukhov V.G., Selected works, volume 3, “Oil refining. Thermal engineering", 102 pp., ed. A. E. Sheindlina, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1982.

Inventions of V. G. Shukhov

1. A number of early inventions and technologies of the oil industry, in particular, technologies for the construction of oil pipelines and reservoirs, are not formalized by privileges and are described by V. G. Shukhov in the work “Mechanical structures of the oil industry” (magazine “Engineer”, volume 3, book 13, No. 1, pp. 500-507, book 14, No. 1, pp. 525-533, Moscow, 1883) and subsequent works on structures and equipment of the oil industry.
2. Apparatus for continuous fractional distillation of oil. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 13200 dated December 31, 1888 (co-author F.A. Inchik).
3. Airlift pump. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 11531 for 1889.
4. Hydraulic reflux condenser for distillation of oil and other liquids. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 9783 dated September 25, 1890 (co-author F.A. Inchik).
5. Cracking process (installation for oil distillation with decomposition). Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 12926 dated November 27, 1891 (co-author S. P. Gavrilov).
6. Tubular steam boiler. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 15434 dated June 27, 1896.
7. Vertical tubular boiler. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 15435 dated June 27, 1896.
8. Mesh coverings for buildings. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 1894 dated March 12, 1899. Cl. 37a, 7/14.
9. Mesh arched coverings. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 1895 dated March 12, 1899. Cl. 37a, 7/08.
10. Hyperboloid structures (openwork tower). Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 1896 dated March 12, 1899. Cl. 37f,15/28.
11. Water tube boiler. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 23839 for 1913. Class. 13a, 13.
12. Water tube boiler. USSR Patent No. 1097 for 1926. Class. 13a,13.
13. Water tube boiler. USSR Patent No. 1596 for 1926. Class. 13a, 7/10.
14. Air economizer. USSR Patent No. 2520 for 1927. Class. 24k, 4.
15. A device for releasing liquid from vessels with lower pressure into a medium with higher pressure. USSR Patent No. 4902 for 1927. Class. 12g,2/02.
16. Cushion for sealing devices for pistons of dry gas tanks. USSR Patent No. 37656 for 1934. Class. 4 s, 35.
17. A device for pressing sealing rings for pistons of dry gas tanks against the tank wall. USSR Patent No. 39038 for 1938. Class. 4 s.35

Literature

The Shukhov Tower in Moscow is currently inaccessible to tourists, photo by Maxim Fedorov, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

Arnautov L. I., Karpov Y. K. The story of a great engineer. - M.: Moscow worker, 1978. - 240 p.
Shammazov A. M. et al. History of the oil and gas business in Russia. - M.: Chemistry, 2001. - 316 p. - ISBN 5-7245-1176-2
Khan-Magomedov S. O. One hundred masterpieces of the Soviet architectural avant-garde. - M.: URSS, 2004. - ISBN 5-354-00892-1
V. G. Shukhov (1853-1939). The art of construction. / Rainer Graefe, Ottmar Perchi, F.V. Shukhov, M.M. Gappoev, etc. - M.: Mir, 1994. - 192 p. - ISBN 5-03-002917-6.
Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov. The first engineer of Russia. / E. M. Shukhova. - M.: Publishing house. MSTU, 2003. - 368 p. - ISBN 5-7038-2295-5.
V. G. Shukhov - an outstanding engineer and scientist: Proceedings of the Joint Scientific Session of the USSR Academy of Sciences, dedicated to the scientific and engineering creativity of honorary academician V. G. Shukhov. - M.: Nauka, 1984. - 96 p.
Documentary heritage of the outstanding Russian engineer V. G. Shukhov in the archives (interarchival reference book) / Ed. Shaposhnikov A. S., Medvedeva G. A.; Russian State Archive of Scientific and Technical Documentation (RGANTD). - M.: Publishing house. RGANTD, 2008. - 182 p.

Peter Gössel, Gabriele Leuthäuser, Eva Schickler: “Architecture in the 20th century”, Taschen Verlag; 1990, ISBN 3-8228-1162-9 and ISBN 3-8228-0550-5
“The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span”, “The Engineer”, No. 19.3.1897, P.292-294, London, 1897.
Elizabeth C. English, "Invention of Hyperboloid Structures", Metropolis & Beyond, 2005.
William Craft Brumfield, "The Origins of Modernism in Russian Architecture", University of California Press, 1991, ISBN 0-520-06929-3.
“Arkhitektura i mnimosti”: The origins of Soviet avant-garde rationalist architecture in the Russian mystical-philosophical and mathematical intellectual tradition", Elizabeth Cooper English, Ph. D., a dissertation in architecture, 264 p., University of Pennsylvania, 2000 .
Karl-Eugen Kurrer, "The History of the Theory of Structures: From Arch Analysis to Computational Mechanics", 2008, ISBN 978-3-433-01838-5

“Vladimir G. Suchov 1853-1939. Die Kunst der sparsamen Konstruktion.”, Rainer Graefe, Ph. D., und andere, 192 S., Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, 1990, ISBN 3-421-02984-9.
Jesberg, Paulgerd Die Geschichte der Bauingenieurkunst, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart (Germany), ISBN 3-421-03078-2, 1996; pp. 198-9.
Ricken, Herbert Der Bauingenieur, Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin (Germany), ISBN 3-345-00266-3, 1994; pp. 230.

“Vladimir G. Shukhov e la leggerezza dell"acciaio", Fausto Giovanardi, Borgo San Lorenzo, 2007.

Picon, Antoine (dir.), "L"art de l"ingenieur: constructeur, entrepreneur, inventor", Éditions du Center Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1997, ISBN 2-85850-911-5.

Notes

Retina
First Russian oil pipeline
Oil pipeline Grozny - Tuapse
Oil pipeline Baku - Batumi
Cracking
Refinery
Airlift
Shukhov oil storage tanks
Shukhov steam boilers
Rotunda Shukhov
Shukhov Tower
First hyperboloid tower
Shukhov Tower on the Oka River
Adzhigol lighthouse
Hyperboloid structures
Hyperboloid masts of ships
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin
Kyiv railway station
Petrovsky passage
Garage on Novoryazanskaya street
Bakhmetevsky garage
Moscow Gas Plant
Miussky tram park
Zamoskvoretsky tram park
All-Russian Exhibition 1896
Shell slabs
TsNIIPSK im. N. P. Melnikova
The building of the Moscow International Bank
Vyksa

source: article in Russian-language Wikipedia as of the date of publication ru.wikipedia.org

Shukhov Vladimir Grigorievich(August 16 (28), 1853 - February 2, 1939) - engineer, architect, inventor, scientist; Corresponding Member (1928) and Honorary Member (1929) of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Labor. He is the author of projects and technical manager for the construction of the first Russian oil pipelines (1878) and an oil refinery with the first Russian oil cracking units (1931). He made outstanding contributions to the technology of the oil industry and pipeline transport.

Shukhov introduced the form of a single-sheet hyperboloid of rotation into architecture, creating the world's first hyperboloid structures. Later, hyperboloid structures were used in their work by such famous architects as Gaudi, Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer.

In 1876 he graduated with honors from the Imperial Moscow Technical School (now Moscow State Technical University) and completed a one-year internship in the USA.

Biography

Vladimir graduated from school in St. Petersburg and in 1871 entered the Imperial Moscow Technical School in Moscow (now Moscow State Technical University - MSTU). It was distinguished by a progressive curriculum and a high level of teaching, especially in the fields of mathematics and mechanics. In addition, its feature was the close connection between theory and practice, which was carried out, among other things, in the process of thorough professional training in various technological workshops. The knowledge gained at the Imperial Moscow Technical School (IMTU) became for Shukhov the basis for his future scientific and practical work. Throughout his future life he was associated with IMTU. The institute's Polytechnic Society awarded him the title of Honorary Member in 1903 and published several of his works.

In 1876, Shukhov graduated with honors from IMTU, receiving a diploma in mechanical engineering. Even then he attracted attention with his outstanding abilities. Upon completion of his studies, the young specialist was offered a position as an assistant with the famous mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev. In addition, the school management invited him to accompany one of the teachers on a trip to America. Shukhov rejected an offer related to a scientific career and took part in a trip, the purpose of which was to collect information about the latest technical achievements of the United States. Shukhov visited the World Exhibition in Philadelphia, where he was delighted with numerous technical innovations. Shukhov also visited machine-building plants in Pittsburgh and studied the organization of American railway transport.

Returning from America to St. Petersburg, Shukhov became a designer of locomotive depots for the Warsaw-Vienna railway company. Two years later (1878), Shukhov went to work in the company of engineer-entrepreneur Alexander Bari, whom he met during a trip to the USA. Shukhov moved to Baku, where the Bari company carried out construction and engineering work in oil fields. This is where his amazing creative energy manifested itself. Shukhov became the author of the project and the chief engineer of the construction of the first oil pipeline in Russia, 10 km long. The customer was a financial giant - the Nobel Brothers company. He designed the second oil pipeline the following year, and the world's first pipeline for preheated fuel oil was built by him a little later. Along with extensive work on the design and construction of the oil pipelines mentioned here and subsequent ones, Shukhov had to solve problems that arose during the production, transportation and refining of oil. All equipment for oil production and refining was extremely primitive at that time. The extracted oil was stored in open pits and transported in barrels on carts and ships. Only kerosene, used for lighting, was obtained from oil. At that time, fuel oil and gasoline were industrial wastes obtained during the distillation of oil into kerosene. Fuel oil was not used as fuel due to the lack of effective technology for its combustion, and polluted the environment, accumulating in numerous pits. The gasoline produced during the production of kerosene simply evaporated. The gasoline engine was invented only in 1883. Oil field areas were poisoned by oil and fuel oil that seeped into the soil from pits.
In 1878, Shukhov developed an original design for a cylindrical metal tank for storing oil. A year later, oil was no longer stored in pits. In 1879 he patented a nozzle for burning fuel oil. After the introduction of the Shukhov nozzle, fuel oil began to be used as fuel. Mendeleev published an image of Shukhov's nozzle on the cover of his book “Fundamentals of Factory Industry” (1897) and highly praised Shukhov's contribution to the use of fuel oil as a fuel. In subsequent years, numerous new developments were made, including the creation of various pumps for lifting oil from wells, the invention of an airlift (gas lift), and the design and construction of oil tankers and installations for fractional distillation of oil. The world's first industrial installation for continuous thermal cracking of oil was designed (patent of the Russian Empire No. 12926 dated November 27, 1891). Shukhov became the author and chief engineer of the projects of the first Russian main oil pipelines: Baku-Batumi (883 km, 1907) and later Grozny-Tuapse (618 km, 1928). Thus, Shukhov made a significant contribution to the development of the Russian oil industry.

In 1880, Shukhov became the chief engineer of the Bari design bureau in Moscow. 130 oil tanks had already been built, and by 1917 over 20 thousand had been built. These were the first economical metal containers of this kind in general. Instead of the heavy rectangular storage tanks used at that time in the USA and other countries, Shukhov developed cylindrical tanks laid on a sand bed with a thin bottom and stepped wall thickness, which sharply reduced material consumption. This design principle has survived to this day. All tanks met a certain standard, their equipment was unified. Later, mass production of similar tanks for water, acids and alcohol was established, as well as the construction of silo elevators.

In addition to his office, Bari opened a plant for the production of steam boilers in Moscow, and soon branches of the company appeared in major cities, so that the company covered a large territory of Russia with its activities. Shukhov invented a new water-tube boiler in horizontal and vertical design (patents of the Russian Empire No. 15,434 and No. 15,435 dated June 27, 1896). In 1900, steam boilers were awarded a high award - at the World Exhibition in Paris, Shukhov received a gold medal. Thousands of steam boilers were produced using Shukhov's patents before and after the revolution.

Shukhov began building the first Russian tankers around 1885 (the first German ocean tanker with a displacement of 3000 tons was built in 1886). Shukhov designed oil barges that had the most suitable shape for currents, as well as a very long and flat hull design. Installation was carried out in precisely planned stages using standardized sections at the shipyards in Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) and Saratov.

When a competition was announced in 1886 in connection with the creation of a water supply system in Moscow, the Bari company took part in it. Even before this, Shukhov, using his experience in the construction of reservoirs and pipelines and using new modifications of pumps, laid a water supply system in Tambov. Based on extensive geological research, Shukhov and his collaborators over the course of three years drafted a new water supply system for Moscow.

Since 1890, Shukhov has been solving new problems in the construction business, without, however, leaving other extremely diverse areas of his activity without attention. The Bari company took part in the creation of the Russian railway network, starting with the construction of bridges. Later many other construction orders were received. In 1892, Shukhov built his first railway bridges. In subsequent years, 417 bridges were built according to his designs on various railway lines. To cope with such a volume of work, organize urgent design and economical construction, Shukhov again chooses the path of standardization. Many of the production and installation methods developed by Shukhov were first tested in bridge construction.

Simultaneously with the construction of bridges, Shukhov begins to develop floor structures. At the same time, he pursued the goal of finding structural systems that could be manufactured and constructed with minimal costs of material, labor and time. Shukhov managed to design and practically implement designs for a wide variety of coatings, distinguished by such fundamental novelty that only this would have been enough for him to take a special, honorable place among the famous civil engineers of that time. Until 1890, Shukhov created exclusively lightweight arched structures with thin inclined ties. And today these arches serve as load-bearing elements of glass vaults over the largest Moscow stores: GUM (former Upper Trading Rows) and Petrovsky Passage.

In 1895, Shukhov applied for a patent on mesh coverings in the form of shells. This meant meshes made of strip and angle steel with diamond-shaped cells. Long-span lightweight hanging roofs and mesh vaults were made from them. The development of these mesh coverings marked the creation of an entirely new type of load-bearing structure. Shukhov was the first to give a hanging covering a finished form of a spatial structure, which was used again only decades later. Even compared with the then highly developed metal vault design, its reticulated vaults, formed from only one type of core element, represented a significant advance. Christian Schedlich, in his seminal study of metal building structures of the 19th century, notes the following in this regard: “Shukhov’s designs complete the efforts of 19th century engineers in creating an original metal structure and at the same time point the way far into the 20th century. They mark significant progress: the core lattice of traditional spatial trusses, based on main and auxiliary elements, was replaced by a network of equivalent structural elements” (Schadlich Ch., Das Eisen in der Architektur des 19.Jhdt., Habilitationsschrift, Weimar, 1967, S .104). After the first experimental buildings (two mesh vaults in 1890, a hanging roof in 1894), Shukhov first presented his new floor designs to the public during the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896. The Bari company built a total of eight exhibition pavilions of quite impressive size. Four pavilions had hanging roofs, the other four had cylindrical mesh vaults. In addition, one of the halls with a mesh hanging covering had a hanging covering made of thin tin (membrane) in the center, which had never been used in construction before. In addition to these pavilions, a water tower was built, in which Shukhov transferred his grid to a vertical lattice structure of a hyperboloid shape.

The structures received a wide response, even the foreign press reported in detail about Shukhov’s designs (“The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span”, The Engineer, London, 83, 1897, 19.3. – P. 292-294). The high technical perfection of the structures was surprising. The surviving photographs show buildings that are quite inconspicuous in appearance. However, the interior spaces under the soaring network of hanging ceilings and filigree mesh vaults of various lengths look exceptionally impressive. The frankness with which the metal frame supports and supporting structures are displayed enhances the aesthetic appeal of this architecture for today's viewer. The confidence in handling new, unusual building forms stems from the ability to create a varied, visible sequence of spaces with skylights using the same building elements that is striking. Subsequently, most of the exhibition buildings were sold. The success of the exhibition can certainly be explained by the fact that in subsequent years Shukhov received many orders for the construction of factory workshops, covered railway platforms and water towers. In addition, Moscow architects increasingly began to involve him in the design of construction projects. Mesh vaults were used in a number of cases as coverings for halls and workshops. In 1897, Shukhov built a workshop with spatially curved mesh shells for the metallurgical plant in Vyksa, which, compared to conventional single-curvature vaults, meant a significant structural improvement. This bold floor design, an early precursor to modern mesh shells, has fortunately survived to this day in the small country town.
The greatest commercial success was the hyperboloid-shaped tower design exhibited in Nizhny Novgorod. Shukhov patented this invention shortly before the opening of the exhibition. The hyperboloid rotation shell was a completely new construction form that had never been used before. It made it possible to create a spatially curved mesh surface from straight, obliquely installed rods. The result is a lightweight, rigid tower structure that can be designed and constructed simply and elegantly. The Nizhny Novgorod water tower carried a tank with a capacity of 114,000 liters at a height of 25.60 m to supply water to the entire exhibition area. On the forecastle there was a viewing platform, which could be reached by a spiral staircase inside the tower. This first hyperboloid tower remained one of the most beautiful building structures in Shukhov. It was sold to the wealthy landowner Nechaev-Maltsev, who installed it on his Polibino estate near Lipetsk. The tower still stands there today. The lightning-fast increase in demand for water towers due to accelerated industrialization brought many orders to the Bari company. Compared to conventional ones, the Shukhov mesh tower was more convenient and cheaper in terms of construction technology. Hundreds of water towers were designed and built by Shukhov according to this principle. The large number of towers led to a partial typification of the general structure and its individual elements (tanks, stairs). However, these mass-produced towers exhibit an astonishing variety of shapes. Shukhov with undisguised pleasure used the property of a hyperboloid to take a variety of shapes, for example, changing the position of the braces or the diameters of the upper and lower edges.

And each tower had its own appearance, different from other ones, and its own load-bearing capacity. The complex, also structurally, task of installing heavy tanks at the height required in each specific case, without visually overwhelming the extremely light structure, was always solved with an amazing sense of form. The Adzhigol lighthouse tower has the highest height among hyperboloid towers of this type - 68 meters. This beautiful structure has been preserved and is located 80 kilometers southwest of Kherson.

For the Moscow Main Post Office, built in 1912, Shukhov designed a glass covering of the operating room with overhead light. For this purpose, he invented a horizontal (flat) spatial truss, which can be considered as a predecessor of the spatial trusses made of seamless pipes developed in the forties by K. Waksman and M. Mengeringhausen.

Shukhov always found time to study Russian and foreign specialized literature, maintain an active exchange of opinions with colleagues, and also indulge in his passion - photography.
Since 1910, the Bari company began to carry out military orders. Shukhov and participated in the development of sea mines, platforms for heavy guns and bateauports of sea docks.

The last significant work performed by Shukhov before the revolution was the landing stage of the Kyiv (then Bryansk) station in Moscow (1912-1917, span width - 48 m, height - 30 m, length - 230 m). The design of the entire station structure belonged to Ivan Rerberg. Shukhov used exclusively rational editing techniques. The entire installation process was recorded in photographic documentation. A similar project by Shukhov for a three-span covering over the tracks and covering the passenger hall of the Kazan railway station (architect A. Shchusev, 1913-1926) remained unrealized.

After the revolution of 1917, the situation in Russia changed dramatically. Bari emigrated to America. The company and plant were nationalized, the workers elected chief engineer Shukhov as the head of the company. At the age of 61, Shukhov found himself in a completely new situation. The Bari construction office was transformed into the Stalmost organization (currently it is the research design institute “TsNII Proektstalkonstruktsiya”). The Bari steam boiler plant was renamed “Parostroy” (now its territory and the surviving structures of Shukhov are part of the Dynamo plant). In 1917-1918 Various types of tanks, floors, bridge structures, boreholes and pipelines, hyperboloid water towers, gas tanks, main pipeline supports, cranes and much more were built and manufactured.

Shukhov received one of the most important construction orders shortly after the formation of Soviet Russia: the construction of a tower for the radio station on Shabolovka in Moscow. Already in February 1919, Shukhov presented the initial design and calculations for a tower 350 meters high. However, the country did not have the required amount of metal for such a tall structure. In July of the same year, Lenin signed the Resolution of the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense, which provided for the construction of a smaller, 150-meter version of this tower. Lenin made sure that the required metal was issued from the reserves of the military department. Construction work began already in the late autumn of 1919.

The tower was a further modification of the mesh hyperboloid structures and consisted of six blocks of the appropriate shape. This type of construction made it possible to construct the tower using an original, surprisingly simple “telescopic” installation method. Inside the lower support section of the tower, elements of subsequent blocks were mounted on the ground. With the help of five simple wooden cranes, which were always located on the upper section during the construction of the tower, the blocks were lifted to the top one by one. In mid-March 1922, the radio station tower was put into operation. This incredibly light, openwork tower with details that captivate with its simplicity and unique shape is an example of brilliant design and the height of the art of construction.

The construction of the Shukhov Tower caused general delight. Alexey Tolstoy, inspired by the construction of the tower, creates the novel “Engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid” (1926).

Nine years later, Shukhov surpassed this tower design by building three pairs of mesh multi-tiered hyperboloid supports for crossing the Oka power line of the NIGRES near Nizhny Novgorod. Their height was 20, 69 and 128 meters, the length of the passage was 1800 meters. And although the supports had to withstand the weight of multi-ton electrical wires, taking into account the freezing of ice, their design is even lighter and more elegant, and the stepwise change of mesh structures from bottom to top follows certain rules. This significant monument of technical thought was built on the Oka River away from the main highways.

In 1924, an American delegation, visiting Moscow, paid a visit to Shukhov. Several years before this visit, the American company Sinclair Oil protested the sole right assigned to the Rockefeller concern Strandart Oil to discover oil cracking. She pointed out that the patent of the American engineer Barton used by the Standard Oil concern was a modified patent of Shukhov. The delegation came to verify this claim. Shukhov proved to the Americans that Barton's method was in fact only a slightly modified modification of his 1891 patents. In this regard, a long chain of lawsuits began in America. It eventually ended with a settlement agreement between American firms to avoid having to buy a patent from the young Soviet state.

At the age of 79, Shukhov witnessed the implementation of a project for complete oil refining that he had developed in his youth. In his presence, the Soviet Cracking plant was put into operation in Baku in 1932. In the first weeks of its work, Shukhov himself monitored the progress of production.
During these years, Shukhov took an active part in the scientific and political life of the Soviet republic. From 1918 he was a member of the State Committee for the Oil Industry, and in 1927 he became a member of the Soviet government. In 1928, Shukhov was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1929 he became an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In the same year he became a member of the Moscow City Council. In the last years of his life, Vladimir Grigorievich led a solitary life and received only friends and old work comrades. In February 1939, Shukhov died and was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Shukhov's latest work in the field of construction technology was the preservation of an architectural monument. The minaret of the famous Ulugbek madrasah in Samarkand, whose construction dates back to the 15th century, tilted after the earthquake, so that there was a threat of its collapse. Shukhov presented an unusual project. With its help, the tower on a kind of rocker arm of Shukhov's design was straightened and brought into a state of balance. This hard work was successfully completed not only according to Shukhov’s project, but also under his leadership. We can only wish that the buildings of the outstanding engineer were restored and preserved with the same care and with the same skill.

Bibliography

Shukhov V.G., Mechanical structures of the oil industry, “Engineer”, volume 3, book. 13, No. 1, pp. 500-507, book. 14, No. 1, pp. 525-533, Moscow, 1883.
Shukhov V. G., Oil pipelines, “Bulletin of Industry”, No. 7, pp. 69 - 86, Moscow, 1884.
Shukhov V.G., Direct pumps and their compensation, 32 pp., “Bul. Polytechnic Society", No. 8, appendix, Moscow, 1893-1894.
Shukhov V.G., Pipelines and their application to the oil industry, 37 pp., Ed. Polytechnic Society, Moscow, 1895.
Shukhov V.G., Direct action pumps. Theoretical and practical data for their calculation. 2nd ed. with additions, 51 pp., Ed. Polytechnic Society, Moscow, 1897.
Shukhov V. G., Rafters. Research of rational types of rectilinear trusses and the theory of arched trusses, 120 pp., Ed. Polytechnic Society, Moscow, 1897.
Shukhov V.G., The combat power of the Russian and Japanese fleets during the war of 1904-1905, in the book: Khudyakov P.K. “The Path to Tsushima”, pp. 30 - 39, Moscow, 1907.
Shukhov V. G., Note on patents on the distillation and decomposition of oil at elevated pressure, “Oil and shale economy”, No. 10, pp. 481-482, Moscow, 1923.
Shukhov V.G., Note on oil pipelines, “Oil and shale economy”, volume 6, no. 2, pp. 308-313, Moscow, 1924.
Shukhov V.G., Selected works, volume 1, “Structural mechanics”, 192 pp., ed. A. Yu. Ishlinsky, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow, 1977.
Shukhov V.G., Selected works, volume 2, “Hydraulic engineering”, 222 pp., ed. A. E. Sheindlina, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1981.
Shukhov V.G., Selected works, volume 3, “Oil refining. Thermal engineering", 102 pp., ed. A. E. Sheindlina, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 1982.

Inventions of V. G. Shukhov

A number of early inventions and technologies of the oil industry, in particular, technologies for the construction of oil pipelines and reservoirs, are not formalized by privileges and are described by V. G. Shukhov in the work “Mechanical structures of the oil industry” (magazine “Engineer”, volume 3, book 13, number 1 , pp. 500-507, book 14, No. 1, pp. 525-533, Moscow, 1883) and subsequent works on structures and equipment of the oil industry.
Apparatus for continuous fractional distillation of oil. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 13200 dated December 31, 1888 (co-author F.A. Inchik).
Airlift pump. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 11531 for 1889.
Hydraulic reflux condenser for the distillation of oil and other liquids. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 9783 dated September 25, 1890 (co-author F.A. Inchik).
Cracking process (installation for oil distillation with decomposition). Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 12926 dated November 27, 1891 (co-author S. P. Gavrilov).
Tubular steam boiler. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 15434 dated June 27, 1896.
Vertical tubular boiler. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 15435 dated June 27, 1896.
Mesh coverings for buildings. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 1894 dated March 12, 1899. Cl. 37a, 7/14.
Mesh arched coverings. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 1895 dated March 12, 1899. Cl. 37a, 7/08.
Hyperboloid structures (openwork tower). Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 1896 dated March 12, 1899. Cl. 37f,15/28.
Water tube boiler. Privilege of the Russian Empire No. 23839 for 1913. Class. 13a, 13.
Water tube boiler. USSR Patent No. 1097 for 1926. Class. 13a,13.
Water tube boiler. USSR Patent No. 1596 for 1926. Class. 13a, 7/10.
Air economizer. USSR Patent No. 2520 for 1927. Class. 24k, 4.
A device for releasing liquid from vessels with lower pressure into an environment with higher pressure. USSR Patent No. 4902 for 1927. Class. 12g,2/02.
Cushion for sealing devices for pistons of dry gas tanks. USSR Patent No. 37656 for 1934. Class. 4 s, 35.
A device for pressing sealing rings for pistons of dry gas tanks to the tank wall. USSR Patent No. 39038 for 1938. Class. 4 s.35
A device for pressing sealing rings for pistons of dry gas tanks to the tank wall. USSR Patent No. 39039 for 1938. Class. 4 s.35

The world's first hyperboloid Shukhov tower,

“His technical ideas brought world recognition to the Russian engineering school and remain relevant to this day.”

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia

“The first oil pipeline, pumps for pumping oil, the first pipeline for transporting kerosene and tanks for storing petroleum products, the first tank barges, oil refining and the creation of cracking - all this is V. G. Shukhov. We, in fact, are developing his engineering ideas when today we increase production, lay pipelines, build a tanker fleet, and increase the depth of oil refining.”

Vagit Alekperov, president of the oil company Lukoil

Film for the 165th anniversary of V.G. Shukhov: "Engineer Shukhov. Universal genius"

Plan of events dedicated to the celebration of the 165th anniversary
since the birth of V.G. Shukhova(download)

Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov was born on August 16 (28), 1853 in the small and quiet provincial town of Grayvoron, then Belgorod district of Kursk province. His father, Grigory Petrovich Shukhov, came from a family in which for many generations men were officers in the Russian army. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Kharkov University, which was considered one of the best after St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kyiv. Thanks to his education, decisive and strong character, honesty, hard work and charm, Grigory Petrovich quickly made a brilliant career.

Already at the age of 29, he was promoted to titular councilor and received a bronze medal on the Vladimir Ribbon in memory of the Crimean War of 1853-1856. (It is interesting that G.P. Shukhov, being a very young man, barely in his thirties, was for some time a mayor in the city of Grayvoron). Eight years later, Grigory Petrovich was transferred to work in St. Petersburg, where he was soon promoted to court councilor.

V. G. Shukhov’s mother, nee Vera Pozhidaeva, was the daughter of second lieutenant Kapiton Pozhidaev, who had a small estate in the Shchigrovsky district of the Kursk province.

His parents instilled in their son dedication, hard work, insight and a thirst for knowledge. In 1864, at the age of eleven, Volodya Shukhov entered the St. Petersburg gymnasium. Where he studied before this is not known for certain, most likely in Kursk and Kherson gymnasiums, but it is possible that only in Kursk. At the gymnasium, Vladimir studied well and showed ability in the exact sciences, especially mathematics. One day in class, he proved the Pythagorean theorem in a way that he himself invented. The teacher noted the originality of the proof, but gave a bad mark for deviating from dogma.

Vladimir graduated from high school in 1871 with an excellent certificate. The choice of profession was clear. In addition to outstanding mathematical abilities, Volodya Shukhov already had a dream by that time to become an engineer, to contribute through practical activities to the development of Russia and the prosperity of his country.

On the advice of his father, Vladimir enters the Imperial Moscow Technical School. In those years, it was an educational institution that provided the opportunity to receive fundamental physics and mathematics training, acquire in-depth knowledge in other theoretical disciplines and at the same time master the applied crafts so necessary for a practicing engineer. The training programs here were compiled on the basis of educational and practical courses of the St. Petersburg Institute of the Corps of Railway Engineers - the most advanced educational institution in Europe. Having passed the entrance exams to the school, Vladimir Shukhov was enrolled in the “state-owned pupils” and lived independently in state-owned dormitories, occasionally visiting his parents, who lived in Warsaw at that time.

Studying at the school was not easy, the atmosphere here was difficult: strict regime, barracks discipline, petty supervision, infringement of basic rights. But rigor was not an end in itself, but encouraged diligent and conscientious study. Pupils were required to have an excellent mastery of the fundamentals of physical and mathematical knowledge, on the basis of which an engineer has everything for his further independent growth. Accustomed by his parents to an independent and modest life, Vladimir Shukhov persistently studied physics and mathematics, worked in the reading room, drafting, carpentry and metalworking workshops. The successes of V. Shukhov were noticed and appreciated by his teachers at the school, famous scientists: associate professor in the department of analytical mechanics N. E. Zhukovsky, professor in the department of mathematics A. V. Letnikov, honorary member of the pedagogical council academician P. L. Chebyshev, who became famous for his work on number theory, probability theory, and theoretical mechanics.

In 1876, V. Shukhov graduated from college with honors and a gold medal. In recognition of his outstanding abilities, he was exempted from defending his thesis project. Academician P. L. Chebyshev makes a flattering offer to the young mechanical engineer for joint scientific and pedagogical work at the university. However, Vladimir Grigorievich is more attracted not by theoretical research, but by practical engineering and inventive activity, the dreams of which are so close to coming true. He refuses the offer, and as part of a scientific delegation, as an incentive, he is sent by the School Council to familiarize himself with the achievements of industry in America at the World Exhibition, held in honor of the centenary of the independence of the United States. The exhibition opened in Philadelphia, in Fairmount Park, on the shores of a picturesque lake in May 1876.

The trip to the United States played a decisive role in the life of V. G. Shukhov. At the exhibition, he met Alexander Veniaminovich Bari, who had already lived in America for several years, participated in the construction of the main and other buildings of the World Exhibition, managing all the “metal work”, for which he received the Grand Prix and a gold medal. It was A.V. Bari who received the Russian delegation in America, assisted it in getting to know the country and the exhibition, helped in the purchase of equipment, tools and product samples for the workshops of the technical school, showed the delegation members Pittsburgh metallurgical plants, railways and the latest American technology .

Returning from America in 1877, V.G. Shukhov went to work in the drawing bureau of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway Administration in St. Petersburg. After the vivid impressions of the overseas trip, gray everyday life began, working on drawings of railway embankments, station buildings, and locomotive depots. These skills were later very useful, but working without the opportunity for creativity, under the yoke of inert bosses, was depressing. Under the influence of a friend of the Shukhov family, surgeon N.I. Pirogov, he entered the Military Medical Academy as a volunteer.

In the summer of the same year, A.V. Bari and his family returned to Russia, remaining a citizen of the North American states. He understood that Russia was on the verge of rapid industrial development and planned to achieve quick success here, relying on his abilities. Having become the chief engineer of the Nobel Brothers Partnership, he began organizing a bulk oil transportation and storage system.

Having perspicaciously appreciated the creative potential of V. G. Shukhov back in America, A. V. Bari invited him to take over the management of the company’s branch in Baku, the new center of the rapidly developing Russian oil industry. In 1880, A.V. Bari founded his construction office and boiler plant in Moscow, inviting V.G. Shukhov to the position of chief designer and chief engineer. Thus began a fruitful union between a brilliant manager and a fantastically talented engineer. It lasted 35 years and brought great benefits to Russia.

Inviting V. G. Shukhov to cooperate, A. V. Bari received a young (25 years old), not burdened with prejudices, engineer with excellent characteristics, decent, fluent in three languages (English, French, German), pleasant appearance and excellent upbringing.

V. G. Shukhov, in the person of A. V. Bari, found an exceptional partner - an educated and cultured person with experience of entrepreneurial activity in America, a competent engineer, capable of objectively evaluating ideas and proposals, able to communicate on equal terms with both foreign entrepreneurs and major industrialists Russia. The Shukhov-Bari alliance was mutually beneficial and therefore long-term and fruitful.

In 1880, V. G. Shukhov was the first in the world to carry out industrial flaring of liquid fuel using a nozzle he invented, which made it possible to effectively burn fuel oil, which was previously considered a waste product from oil refining. The young engineer made calculations and supervised the construction of Russia's first oil pipeline from the Balakhani oil fields to Baku. In 1891, V. G. Shukhov developed and patented an industrial installation for the distillation of oil with decomposition into fractions under the influence of high temperatures and pressures. The installation for the first time provided for cracking in the liquid phase.

Nature unusually generously endowed Vladimir Grigorievich with bright, multifaceted talents. The simple enumeration of the areas of his activity amazes the imagination. According to Shukhov’s system, steam boilers, oil refineries, pipelines, nozzles, tanks for storing oil, kerosene, gasoline, alcohol, acids, etc., pumps, gas tanks, water towers, oil barges, blast furnaces, metal floors of workshops and public buildings were created , grain elevators, railway bridges, aerial cableways, lighthouses, tram depots, refrigeration plants, landing stages, boat ports, mines, etc.

The geography of distribution of the inventions of this remarkable engineer in Russia is no less extensive. Steam boilers of his system and tanks for various purposes have found application from Baku to Arkhangelsk, from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. V. G. Shukhov is the creator of the oil tanker fleet in Russia. Accurate drawings were created based on his designs in Moscow. The assembly of steel barges with a length of 50 to 130 m was carried out in Saratov and Tsaritsyn. Until 1917, 82 barges were built.

As a result of research by V. G. Shukhov and his colleagues (E. K. Knorre and K. E. Lembke), a universal method for calculating water pipelines was created. After testing the project during the reconstruction of the water supply system in Moscow, the Bari company carried out the construction of water pipelines in Tambov, Kharkov, Voronezh and other cities of Russia.

According to the designs of V. G. Shukhov, about 200 towers of original design were built in our country and abroad, including the famous Shabolovskaya radio tower in Moscow. It is interesting that, having received an order in 1919 by order of the Council of People's Commissars, Vladimir Grigorievich proposed a project for a radio mast of nine sections with a total height of about 350 meters. This exceeded the height of the Eiffel Tower, which is 305 meters high, but at the same time the Shukhov Tower was three times lighter. An acute shortage of metal in the devastated country did not allow the implementation of this project, which could have become a monument to engineering art. The project had to be changed. The existing tower of six hyperboloid sections with a total height of 152 meters was erected using the unique “telescopic installation” method invented by Shukhov. For a long time, the tower remained the tallest structure in Russia.

Under the leadership of V.G. Shukhov, about 500 bridges were designed and built (across the Oka, Volga, Yenisei, etc.). Few people know that he designed the rotating stage of the Moscow Art Theater. According to the project of V.G. Shukhov and under his leadership, the preservation of an architectural monument of the 15th century was carried out - the minaret of the famous madrasah in Samarkand. The tower tilted heavily after the earthquake, and there was a danger of it falling. In 1932, a competition for projects to save the tower was announced. Shukhov presented an unusual project and became not only the winner of the competition, but also the leader of the work to save the minaret.

But let's go back to the 19th century. During 15 years of work in the “Construction Office” (1880-1895), V. G. Shukhov received 9 privileges (patents) that are important to this day: horizontal and vertical steam boilers, an oil barge, a steel cylindrical tank, a hanging mesh covering for buildings , arched covering, oil pipeline, industrial cracking plant, openwork hyperboloid tower, which received great resonance in the world after the All-Russian Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod.

This exhibition became the largest event in the cultural, industrial and technical life of the country and a true triumph of the engineering thought of V. G. Shukhov. More than four hectares of buildings and pavilions were covered and built up with his structures, turning each pavilion into a new achievement of Russian science and technology. In total, V. G. Shukhov designed eight exhibition pavilions with an area of about 27,000 m². Four pavilions had hanging coverings, the same number were covered with mesh shells with a span of 32 m. V. G. Shukhov’s designs were ahead of their time by at least 50 years. The suspended roof of the elevator in Albany (USA) appeared only in 1932, and the covering in the shape of an overturned truncated cone in the French Pavilion in Zagreb (Yugoslavia) - in 1937.

The greatest commercial success was the hyperboloid-shaped tower design exhibited in Nizhny Novgorod. Shukhov patented this invention shortly before the opening of the exhibition. The hyperboloid rotation shell was a completely new construction form that had never been used before. It made it possible to create a spatially curved mesh surface from straight, obliquely installed rods. The result is a lightweight, rigid tower structure that can be designed and constructed simply and elegantly. The Nizhny Novgorod water tower carried a tank with a capacity of 114,000 liters at a height of 25.60 m to supply water to the entire exhibition area. On the forecastle there was a viewing platform, which could be reached by a spiral staircase inside the tower. This first hyperboloid tower remained one of the most beautiful building structures in Shukhov. It was sold to the wealthy landowner Nechaev-Maltsev, who installed it on his Polibino estate near Lipetsk. The tower still stands there today. The lightning-fast increase in demand for water towers due to accelerated industrialization brought many orders to the Bari company. Compared to conventional ones, the Shukhov mesh tower was more convenient and cheaper in terms of construction technology. Hundreds of water towers were designed and built by Shukhov according to this principle. The large number of towers led to a partial typification of the general structure and its individual elements (tanks, stairs). However, these mass-produced towers exhibit an astonishing variety of shapes. Shukhov with undisguised pleasure used the property of a hyperboloid to take a variety of shapes, for example, changing the position of the braces or the diameters of the upper and lower edges.

The engineer Shukhov, who had already gained fame by that time, began building the first Russian tankers around 1885 (the first German ocean tanker with a displacement of 3000 tons was built in 1886). Vladimir Grigorievich designed oil barges that had the most suitable shape for currents, as well as a very long and flat hull design. The installation was carried out in precisely planned stages using standardized sections at the shipyards in Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) and Saratov.>

Simultaneously with the construction of bridges, the Russian engineer begins to develop floor structures. At the same time, he pursued the goal of finding structural systems that could be manufactured and constructed with minimal costs of material, labor and time. V.G. Shukhov managed to design and practically implement designs for a wide variety of coatings, distinguished by such fundamental novelty that only this would have been enough for him to take a special, honorable place among the famous civil engineers of that time. Until 1890, he created exclusively light arched structures with thin inclined ties. And today these arches serve as load-bearing elements of glass vaults over the largest Moscow stores: GUM (former Upper Trading Rows) and Petrovsky Passage.

In 1895, Shukhov applied for a patent on mesh coverings in the form of shells. This meant meshes made of strip and angle steel with diamond-shaped cells. Long-span lightweight hanging roofs and mesh vaults were made from them. The development of these mesh coverings marked the creation of an entirely new type of load-bearing structure. Vladimir Grigorievich was the first to give a hanging covering a finished form of a spatial structure, which was used again only decades later. Even compared with the then highly developed metal vault design, its reticulated vaults, formed from only one type of core element, represented a significant advance. Christian Schedlich, in his seminal study of metal building structures of the 19th century, notes the following in this regard: “Shukhov’s designs complete the efforts of 19th century engineers in creating an original metal structure and at the same time point the way far into the 20th century. They mark significant progress: based on basic and auxiliary elements - the rod lattice of the traditional spatial trusses of that time - was replaced by a network of equivalent structural elements" (Schadlich Ch., Das Eisen in der Architektur des 19.Jhdt., Habilitationsschrift, Weimar, 1967, S.104). After the first experimental buildings (two mesh vaults in 1890, a hanging roof in 1894) V.G. During the All-Russian Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896, Shukhov first presented his new floor designs to the public. The Bari company built a total of eight exhibition pavilions of quite impressive size. Four pavilions had hanging roofs, the other four had cylindrical mesh vaults. In addition, one of the halls with a mesh hanging covering had a hanging covering made of thin tin (membrane) in the center, which had never been used in construction before. In addition to these pavilions, a water tower was built, in which the engineer transferred his grid to a vertical lattice structure of a hyperboloid shape.

The more you learn about the affairs and works of V.G. Shukhov, the more you are amazed at the genius of this Russian engineer and scientist. It seems that so many of his unique inventions and projects have already been listed here. But this list can go on and on. We have not yet mentioned the lighthouses of his design, nor the floating gates of the dry dock, nor the platforms for heavy guns, nor the tram depots... However, no matter how the author tries to make the list complete, much will still remain outside the list. Moreover, many of Vladimir Grigorievich’s developments are such that even if they were the only ones that the engineer did, his name would still remain forever in the history of science and engineering.

Speaking about V. G. Shukhov and his works, we constantly have to repeat the words “first”, “for the first time” and add the most vivid epithets. It is also necessary to speak about him as a person using superlatives. His colleagues, partners, associates, and friends always spoke of Vladimir Grigorievich with excellent warmth and love. His life, seemingly devoted only to work, was in fact bright and multifaceted. For many years he communicated with remarkable contemporaries from different fields of activity - scientists, engineers, architects, doctors, artists, was fond of cycling, chess, photography, was friends with O. Knipper-Chekhova and her noisy acting circle, loved listening to F. Chaliapin , read poetry, design furniture. Colleagues wrote to him in a greeting addressed to him in 1910: “We will not touch on your inventions here: they are known throughout Russia and even beyond its borders, but we cannot pass over in silence the fact that, playing such a huge role in life and growth of the entire enterprise, you have always been an accessible and sympathetic not only boss, but also a comrade and teacher. Everyone could calmly bring their grief and their joys to you in the confidence that everything would find a lively response from you...”

Photography occupied a special, and perhaps one of the main places in the life of the great Russian engineer, designer and scientist Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov. The constant search for new ways to solve technical problems was also characteristic of Shukhov when working with a camera. His photographic interests are multifaceted: documentary-genre photography, photographs of engineering structures, city landscapes, pictures of Moscow life and the life of the Russian province of the late nineteenth - early twentieth centuries and portraits. The original free view of the Russian intellectual and scientist on the surrounding reality of Russia is interesting because Vladimir Grigorievich took photographs not for publication, not by order, but for himself and his environment. Shukhov was well versed in literature and art, knew five foreign languages, was a widely educated person, and the height of his development is reflected in the depth of his photographic works. He had the rare ability to see the uniqueness and originality of his surroundings and capture it with his camera.

In 1895, V.G. Shukhov met the famous Russian photographer Andrei Osipovich Karelin in Nizhny Novgorod. Then Vladimir Grigorievich supervised the construction of the unique steel mesh floors he invented for the pavilions of the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896. Karelin photographed the stages of construction of the world's first steel mesh shells of the Shukhov pavilions and the world's first hyperboloid structure - the steel mesh shell of the Shukhov water tower. Communication with Andrei Karelin aroused in Vladimir Shukhov a keen interest in artistic photography as a matter that requires serious art.

In his photographic work, the experimenter discovered new directions decades before their heyday in the world of photography. Serious genre photographs from the beginning of the century are a rarity. Documentary genre photography was recognized as an art in the forties of the twentieth century. Moscow of that time through the eyes of Shukhov is not standard postcards, but a life-filled story about the city, about its inhabitants, their holidays and everyday life. The Shukhov family chronicle is a description of the everyday life of the pre-revolutionary era of Russia: ice skating, children's lessons at home, country life, portraits of acquaintances, interiors of that time.

Shukhov's photo chronicles are reminiscent of the works of Cartier-Bresson, only Vladimir Grigorievich shot almost half a century earlier. His reporting subjects include elections to the State Duma, revolutionary events at Krasnaya Presnya, the opening of a monument to Gogol in Moscow, the construction of the Kievsky station (formerly Bryansk), a religious procession in the Kremlin, car racing at the Moscow Hippodrome, the life of the Yalta port and much more.

Photographs of high-rise works during the construction of the Kievsky railway station can be attributed to the classics of Russian constructivism. Alexander Rodchenko photographed the Shukhov Tower on Shabolovka, Andrei Karelin photographed the construction of the Shukhov Pavilion at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair - but in addition to these famous photographers, V. G. Shukhov himself photographed all this. Photographs of unique structures taken by their creator himself are doubly unique.

All major construction projects of the first five-year plans are associated with the name of V. G. Shukhov: Magnitka and Kuznetskstroy, the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant and the Dynamo Plant, the restoration of objects destroyed during the civil war and the first main pipelines, and much more. In 1928, Vladimir Grigorievich was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1929 - its honorary member. V.G. Shukhov’s attitude towards the new government and what was happening in the country after 1917 was, to put it mildly, ambiguous. But, remaining a true Russian patriot, he rejected many flattering offers to go to Europe, to the USA. He transferred all rights to his inventions and all royalties to the state. Back in 1919, his diary wrote: “We must work regardless of politics. Towers, boilers, rafters are needed, and we will be needed.”

The last years of Vladimir Grigorievich’s life were overshadowed by the Inquisition of the 30s, constant fear for his children, unjustified accusations, the death of his wife, and leaving service due to the hated bureaucratic regime. All this undermined my health and led to disappointment and depression. His last years are spent in solitude. He received only close friends and old colleagues at home, read and reflected.

On October 3, 2001, on the territory of the Belgorod State Technological Academy of Building Materials, the grand opening of a monument to the outstanding engineer of the 20th century, our fellow countryman V. G. Shukhov, took place. The authors (sculptor A. A. Shishkov, architect V. V. Pertsev) created the monument at the request of the public and the regional administration to perpetuate the memory of an outstanding fellow countryman. In the spring of 2003, almost immediately after the academy received university status, by decree of the head of the administration of the Belgorod region, BSTU was named after V. G. Shukhov.

The polytechnic activity of Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov, manifested in ingenious engineering developments related to a wide variety of fields, has no analogues in the world. Our fellow countryman V.G. Shukhov belongs to that brilliant galaxy of domestic engineers whose inventions and research were far ahead of their time and changed the direction of development of scientific and technological progress for decades to come. The scale of engineering achievements of V. G. Shukhov is comparable to the contributions to science of M. V. Lomonosov, D. I. Mendeleev, I. V. Kurchatov, S. P. Korolev. It was these names that created authority and ensured global recognition of Russian science. Already during his lifetime, contemporaries called V. G. Shukhov the Russian Edison and “the first engineer of the Russian Empire,” and in our time, Vladimir Grigorievich is included in the list of one hundred outstanding engineers of all times and peoples. And even in such a list it can rightfully occupy the first lines.

Today in Russia, probably everyone is familiar with the name of the American inventor Edison, but only a few know V.G. Shukhov, whose engineering and inventive gift is incomparably higher and more significant. The reason for ignorance is the unforgivable sin of many years of silence. We are obliged to eliminate the lack of information about our outstanding fellow countryman. V. G. Shukhov is for us and for the whole world the personification of genius in the art of engineering, just as A. S. Pushkin is rightfully recognized as the poetic genius of Russia, P. I. Tchaikovsky is its musical pinnacle, and M. V. Lomonosov - a scientific genius. In the work of Vladimir Grigorievich, intuitive insight and fundamental scientific erudition, subtle artistic taste and ideal engineering logic, sober calculation and deep spirituality are organically combined.

Today, when the 21st century is outside the window, the memory of Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov, a wonderful man and a brilliant engineer, is alive and fresh. For new and new generations of Russian engineers and researchers, he was and remains a symbol of engineering genius and an example of service to his work, his Fatherland.

From now on, the university square is overshadowed by a sculptural statue of Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov. Embodied in metal, it will remind future engineers of the great deeds of the sons and daughters of Russia, that the Motherland still needs talented engineers and devoted patriots, and it will always be a symbol of the indestructibility of thought and the inevitable revival of Russia.