Andrey Nartov

Andrey Nartov

Andrey Konstantinovich Nartov (Russian: Андрей Константинович Нартов) (1683—1756) was a Russian scientist, military engineer, inventor and sculptor. He was a personal craftsman of Peter I of Russia, and later a member of the Russian Academy of Science.

Since 1705 Nartov worked in the lathe workshop at Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation in Sukharev Tower, Moscow. In 1712-1725 Nartov worked in the newly-founded Saint Petersburg, at the palace workshop of the Tsar Peter the Great. There he constructed many lathes of different types and made a number of innovations. Of special value was his copying lathe for the purpose of ornamental turning, which allowed to make an ornaments with the same precision as a handicraft work of that time.

In 1718 Nartov invented what might have been the first lathe with a mechanic cutting tool-supporting carriage and a set of gears (also known as compound rest or slide rest).^[1]

In 1718-1719 Nartov travelled to England and France and demonstrated his lathes. In the letters to Russia, addressed to Peter I, Nartov wrote that nowhere in Europe he could found the lathe masters comparable to Russian ones. On his way back to Russia, he taught lathe-working to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I.

After the death of Peter I in 1725 Nartov went to work at the Moscow Mint, where he supervised a modernisation of the machinery. In 1727 Nartov wrote a book about Peter the Great, containing many interesting historic details of the scenes that Nartov witnessed when he worked at the palace workshop together with the Tsar. That book became the source of many historical anecdotes about Peter the Great.

In 1735 Nartov was elected a member of the Russian Academy of Science, where he was one of the few Russians amongst many Germans and other foreigners. Since 1736 and to the end of his life Nartov was a head of the Academy's lathe workshop.

Among other inventions of Nartov are such things as unique fast-fire battery on a rotating disc, a screw mechanism for changing the artillery fire angle, a gauge-boring lathe for cannon-making, an early telescopic sight and other things. He also supervised the building of a device intended to lift the gigantic Tsar Bell onto a bell-tower.

External links

• Nartov Andrey Konstantinovich (Russian)
• Nartov's biography at hronos.km.ru (Russian)

References

1. ^ Nartov's biography (Russian)

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Persondata
Name	Nartov, Andrey Konstantinovich
Alternative names
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Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	1756
Place of death