- Fyodor Pirotsky
Fyodor Apollonovich Pirotsky ( _ru. Фёдор Аполлонович Пироцкий; OldStyleDate|February 17|1845|March 1- OldStyleDate|February 28|1898|March 12) was a
Russia n engineer and inventor. According to some sources [ Korney Kolomnov, [http://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/nn/show/379/33668/ "Where the Tram Came From" (Откуда Есть Пошёл Трамвай)] , Zerkalo Nedeli, 379 ru icon.] [cite web| url=http://retro.tramway.ru/events/pirotsky.html| title=Ретро-трамвай петербургская классика :: Биография Фёдора Пироцкого| date=2006| language=Russian| accessdate=2007-07-17| ] [cite web| url=http://forum.metro.donetsk.ua/viewtopic.php?p=964&sid=ec9ee32fd66a0981fd74129316535e51| title=Форум донецкого метрополитена :: Просмотр темы - 3 сентября трамваю исполняется 125 лет| language=Russian| date=2005| accessdate=2007-07-17| ] he was the inventor of the world's first electrictram , other sources only claim that his invention was only the first in theRussian Empire [cite web| url=http://www.encspb.ru/persarticle.php?kod=9100| title=Пироцкий Ф.А. :: Энциклопедия Санкт-Петербурга| language=Russian| accessdate=2007-07-17| ] [cite web| url=http://www.cultinfo.ru/fulltext/1/001/008/089/310.htm| title=Пироцкий Фёдор Аполлонович| language=Russian| accessdate=2007-07-17| ] while the first electrical tram designed by Siemens worked for theBerlin Straßenbahn .Biography
Fyodor was born to the family of a military physician in
Lokhvytsia Uezd ofPoltava Gubernia (currently,Ukraine ). His family was of UkrainianCossack s ancestry.Fyodor graduated from the
Konstantin Cadet Corps (Konstantinovskiy Kadetskiy Korpus) andMikhail Artillery School (both inSaint Petersburg ) in 1866 and served inKiev with the Fortress Artillery. There he became a friend of a famous electrical engineerPavel Yablochkov and an enthusiast for applications of electrical energy.Work
In 1871 Pirotsky moved back to Saint Petersburg, where among other things he proposed a new type of
blast furnace . In 1874 he started experiments on Volkov Field in Saint Petersburg and in 1875 he put electrically powered railway cars on theSestroretsk railway. The electricity was transferred over a distance of approximately one kilometer. In his design rails were connected to a Gramme generator. Both rails were isolated from the ground, one rail served as a direct conductor and one as a reverse conductor.In 1880 he modified a city two-decker
horse tramway to be powered by electricity instead of horses, and on OldStyleDate|3 September|1880|August 22 the unusual form of public transport started to serve residents of Saint Petersburg amid the vocal protests of the owners of the horse-cars. The experiments continued until the end of September 1880. Some historians claim that this was the first electric tram in the world. Pirotsky did not have the money to continue his experiments, but his works stirred interest in electric trams around the world. Among people who met Pirotsky wasCarl Heinrich von Siemens who was very interested and asked many questions. In 1881 the brothers Siemens started producing their own design of electric trams commercially. The first permanent electric tram line using Siemens tram cars was opened in Berlin in 1881 and the first permanent tram line in the Russian Empire was opened in Kiev in 1892.Pirotsky continued to serve as an artillery officer. Among other things he installed the first underground electric cable in Saint Petersburg to transfer electricity from a cannon foundry to the Artillery School (1881). He also was the author of a project for centralizing the city's electricity production using underground cables, he proposed new constructions of blast furnaces and bakery ovens. In 1888 he retired with the rank of
colonel , lived on his military pension in the town of Aleshki (nowTsyurupyns'k ,Crimea ,Ukraine ) [cite web| url=http://www.auc.org.ua/city/info/history/?sid=418&ln=ua| title=АМУ| language=Russian| accessdate=2007-07-17| ] and died in 1898. Since no money was found on him when he died, the burial was paid for by a credit secured by the colonel's furniture.References
*Belkind L. D., Konfederatov I. Ya., Shneyberg Ya. A. (Белькинд Л. Д., Конфедератов И. Я., Шнейберг Я. А.), "История техники, М.— Л. (History of Engineering, Moscow-Leningrad)", 1956 ru icon.
External links
* [http://retro.tramway.ru/events/pirotsky.html Biography] ru icon
Persondata
NAME=Pirotsky, Fyodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Pirotsky, Fyodor Apollonovich; Пироцкий, Фёдор Аполлонович
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Russian/Ukrainian engineer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH=February 17 ,1845
PLACE OF BIRTH=Lokhvytsia Uezd ,Poltava
DATE OF DEATH=February 28 ,1898
PLACE OF DEATH=Tsyurupyns'k ,Ukraine
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