Jacobi boat

The Jacobi boat , tested in 1839, was the first watercraft powered by an electric motor; the electric motor was powered by a battery.

Jacobi direct current motor

history

On September 13, 1839, Moritz Hermann von Jacobi carried out the first successful experiments with a converted rowing boat on the St. Petersburg canals and the Neva in order to investigate an electric drive. It was the world's first functional electric boat . A commission of seven scientists and engineers appointed by the Minister of Public Education was supposed to check whether it was possible for Jacobi to drive a boat on the Neva with an electric drive system consisting of galvanic elements with electrodes made of zinc-copper, a DC motor and paddle wheels without the help of To propel steam or human power.

Jacobi undertook another test drive in the following years with a DC motor that he had optimized and improved galvanic cells from William Grove . With around 1 kW, the motor has around three times the power of the first machine. In the galvanic cell, designed as Grove elements , 64 cells with zinc-platinum electrodes were used. This allowed a speed of around 4 km / h. Further technical improvements to the electric drive motor, which Jacobi carried out in the following years, made further trips necessary in October 1841.

technical description

Direct current motor improved by Jacobi to drive the first electric boat in September 1839

A rowing boat 8 meters long and 2.6 meters wide was made available by the navy, which Jacobi and his assistant equipped with paddle wheels and a drive shaft. Jacobi had further developed his first motor from 1834 for the electric boat. The stator now consisted of a total of 24 horseshoe-shaped electromagnets and the rotor had 12 cylindrical coils. The electric current for the electric motor was generated in galvanic cells . Jacobi's galvanic cells were the first application of the voltaic column in ship technology. The galvanic element consisted of 320 pairs of copper and zinc plates stacked side by side, each pair of plates forming a galvanic cell, the spaces between which were filled with pieces of leather soaked in electrolyte . The panels weighed a total of about 200 kg and were placed on the side walls of the boat.

Test results

During the tests, after some initial problems with the propulsion system, it was found that the boat manned by 12 people (other source 14 people) could travel in calm water with no current at a speed of 3 to 4 km / h without restriction. Although the test only related to calm water , tests on the Neva showed that the electric boat could also go against the current. Thus the main question that electro-magnetism can be used as a driving force was answered with yes.

Other results documented by the commission were new insights into magnetism and the forces of electricity with special emphasis on the electric motor and the primary cells that emit electricity.

literature

Use of electro-magnetism as a driving force for shipping. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 71, 1839, Miszelle 2, pp. 411-413.
Photos with details of Jacobi's replica electric motor: at: eti.kit.edu

Individual evidence

↑ Peer Hempel: German-speaking physicists in old St. Petersburg: Georg Parrot, Emil Lenz and Moritz Jacobi in the context of science and politics. (Writings of the Federal Institute for East German Culture and History, Volume 14). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56446-3 .
↑ The first effective electric motor. on: historischer-elektromaschinenbau.de

[1] Peer Hempel: German-speaking physicists in old St. Petersburg: Georg Parrot, Emil Lenz and Moritz Jacobi in the context of science and politics. (Writings of the Federal Institute for East German Culture and History, Volume 14). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-486-56446-3 .

[elet1-2] The first effective electric motor. on: historischer-elektromaschinenbau.de