Konstantin Iwanowitsch Konstantinow

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Konstantin Iwanowitsch Konstantinow (1858)

Konstantin Ivanovich Konstantinov ( Russian Константин Иванович Константинов ; born April 6 . Jul / 18th April  1818 greg. In Warsaw , † January 12 jul. / 24. January  1871 greg. In Nikolayev ) was a Russian artillery officer of the Imperial Russian Army , Engineer and rocket pioneer .

Life

Konstantinow was the illegitimate son of the Grand Duke and Governor of the Kingdom of Poland Konstantin Pawlowitsch and the French actress Clara-Anna de Loran. Since the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich remained childless in his two marriages, he spared no expense in bringing up his illegitimate children, so the Children Konstantin and Konstanzia received music lessons from young Chopin in the Belvedere in Warsaw . The adjutant of the Grand Duke, Prince Ivan Alexandrowitsch Golitsyn, served as the children's foster father. When Grand Duke Konstantin Pawlowitsch left Poland during the Polish November Uprising and died of cholera in Vitebsk in 1831 , Prince Golitsyn went to St. Petersburg with his foster son Konstantin Ivanovich and his mother De Loran .

In January 1834 Konstantinov was accepted as a Junker in the St. Petersburg Michailartilleriechule. He was a student with Georg von Wessel and graduated in 1836 as fourth best. He then continued to study there in the higher classes, which later became the Mikhail Artillery Academy.

In 1838 Konstantinov became the commander of the master school for powder and saltpeter matters (today the school of pyrotechnics ). In 1840 he was sent abroad to acquire further knowledge. Until 1844 he found out about the artillery in Austria-Hungary , England , Belgium , the Netherlands , Prussia and France . During this trip he made his first invention by building an electro-ballistic device with the help of Charles Wheatstones and Louis Clément François Breguet . To do this, he invented a chronoscope for measuring small time intervals. After his return in 1844 he developed a method for measuring the speed of artillery projectiles at the master school for powder and saltpeter matters. He introduced pyrotechnic improvements, such as a pyrotechnic photometer and a new parachute shape for flares . From 1846 he worked his way into rocket technology . His first contribution in this area was a pioneering act: a pendulum to measure the acceleration of a rocket . During the demonstration of the pendulum on the rocket firing range on the St. Petersburg Volkovo Field, the accuracy of the measurements and the simple evaluation were admired by the members of the Military Science Committee.

In 1849 Konstantinov became head of the powder factory on the Ochta (tributary of the Neva ), where he set up a missile department. There he built military rockets with a caliber of 106 millimeters and rocket launchers for the simultaneous launch of 36 rockets. From 1850 he carried out studies to increase the range and improve the accuracy of the missiles. In March 1850 Polkownik Konstantinov by the Most High ukase appointed commander of the St. Petersburg missile factory, which was the first Russian industrial enterprises for the production of military missiles. From 1853 to 1855 several thousand rockets were produced for use in the Crimean War . In 1855 he was sent to Reval with a missile force to ward off a possible enemy landing . In the same year the artillery lieutenant Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was transferred from Sevastopol to the St. Petersburg missile factory, and after that he was often a guest at Konstantinov's house.

From 1853 onwards, Konstantinov's interest in aviation grew . His article on balloons and their use appeared in the artillery journal . With his thorough work on aviation, he first introduced the history of this new science to the Russian press. In it, he was also the first to consider the use of rockets to move and control balloons. In 1857 he published an analysis of all proposals for underwater shipping, including the proposals of the engineer general Karl Andrejewitsch Schilder for the use of rockets on the world's first all-metal submarine . From 1857–1858 Konstantinov found out about the state of rocket technology abroad. During this time he developed the project for a new missile factory for automated missile manufacture, which passed the examination by the Imperial Special Commission. He traveled repeatedly to France to order equipment for the new factory. He chose the city of Nikolayev as the location for the new factory.

In 1860 Konstantinov gave a lecture on military missiles at the Mikhail Artillery Academy. In 1861 the lecture in Paris was published in French . In 1864 the lecture was translated from French into Russian and published in Russia . The book was the world's first fundamental monograph on this technique. Konstantinov received the Mikhailartillery Academy award for this.

In 1861 Konstantinov was promoted to lieutenant general. In 1862 he presented a new rocket system with a 2- inch rocket, rocket launcher and matchstick , which was adopted by the Russian army after approval. From 1864 he directed the construction of the new rocket factory in Nikolayev. From 1867 he lived in Nikolajew in order to be able to direct the work directly. He founded a department of the Russian Chemical Society there and became its first chairman. He brought his vast personal library to Nikolayev, as well as the majority of his equipment. He published a number of articles in the Nikolayev Messenger . At the end of 1870 the construction of the new rocket factory was not yet fully completed, so that Konstantinov could no longer see the opening.

A book about the rocket pioneer Konstantinow was written in 1948 by Ivan Issidorowitsch Gwai , who was involved in the development of the Katyusha rocket launcher . In 2003 the Post of Ukraine issued a Konstantinov commemorative stamp . There is Konstantinov Street in Moscow .

The crater of the moon Konstantinov was named after Konstantinov .

Honors, prizes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Константинов Константин Иванович . In: Brockhaus-Efron . tape XVI , 1895, p. 49 ( Wikisource [accessed July 5, 2018]).
  2. ↑ a b c d Константинов, Константин Иванович . In: Русский биографический словарь . tape 9 , 1903, pp. 114–115 ( Wikisource [accessed July 5, 2018]).
  3. ↑ a b Пионер ракетной техники (accessed July 5, 2018).
  4. ↑ Б. ЛЯПУНОВ: К. И. Константинов . In: Техника-молодежи . No. 12 , 1947 ( archive.org [accessed July 6, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Тихонов С. Г .: Оборонные предприятия СССР и России, Т.  1 . ТОМ, Moscow 2010, ISBN 978-5-903603-02-2 , p. 101 .
  6. ^ KI Konstantinoff: Bull market of the artillery de campagne russe . St. Petersburg 1856.
  7. ^ KI Konstantinoff: Lectures sur les fusées de guerre . Paris 1861.
personal data
SURNAME Konstantinow, Konstantin Ivanovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Константинов, Константин Иванович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian artillery officer and engineer
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1871
Place of death Nikolayev