Nikolay Gavrilovich Slavyanov
The gold medal of the Russian Technical Society at the IVth Electric Exhibition.
The gold medal of the Russian Technical Society at the IVth Electric Exhibition.
Saint Petersburg Mining University
Nikolay Gavrilovich Slavyanov was born on May 5, 1854, in Nikolskoye, Zadonsk, Lipetsk, Russian Federation. Nikolay's father, Gavriil Nikolayevich Slavyanov, was part of the Volyn regiment, where he participated in the Crimean War, during the Battle of Malakoff (part of the Siege of Sebastopol) against French forces. His father retired in 1856 for health reasons. Nikolay's mother, Sofia Alekseyevna (née Shakhovskaya), was the daughter of a Kursk landowner.
Nikolay Gavrilovich graduated from the Voronezh gymnasium. From 1872, he studied at the Saint Petersburg Mining Institute (now Saint Petersburg Mining University). Immediately after graduating from the institute in 1877, he was sent to the private Votkinsk State Mining Plant, where he progressed from a trainee position to that of inspector of the mechanical and lathe shops, and then went on to become the chief mechanic of the plant.
Between 1881-1883, Nikolay Gavrilovich worked at the Omutninsk factories. Then he moved to Perm. From December 1883 until the end of his life, he worked at the Perm cannon factories, where he made most of his inventions.
In 1887, at the Perm cannon factory, Nikolay Gavrilovich opened a power plant that worked with dynamo machines and arc lamps. The power plant was assigned to illuminate the plant at night.
In Yekaterinburg, in the summer of 1887, a dynamo-car, arc lamps, and various of his electrical measuring instruments were exhibited at a two-week Ural-Siberian scientific and industrial exhibition.
Nikolay Gavrilovich died on 5 October 1897 from heart rupture. He was buried in the grounds of the Holy Trinity Church. In 1948 he was reburied near the Perm Polytechnic College named after N. G. Slavyanov.
In November 1888, Nikolay Gavrilovich made practical use of arc welding for metal, for the first time in the world. He chose not to call his method "welding" but rather "electric casting of metals".
In metallurgy, Nikolay Gavrilovich proposed a "vanishing method": in order to eliminate the leakage of molten base and electrode metal, the workpiece consisted of coke or quartz moulding. To protect against the harmful effects of the atmosphere, he proposed closing the welding site with slag, the thickness of which would not prevent the passage of electric current. He proposed an automatic regulator of the length of the welding arc, which he called an "electric smelting device," which enabled the use of a dynamo car in place of a storage battery.
In the autumn of 1877, Nikolay Gavrilovich married Varvara Vasilyevna Olderogge.
