Pavel Matveyevich Obukhov

Pavel Matveyevich Obukhov

Pavel Matveyevich Obukhov ( Russian Павел Матвеевич Обухов ; born October 30 ^{. Jul} / 11. November  1820 ^greg. In Nizhnyaya Tura , † January 1 ^{. Jul} / 13. January  1869 ^{. Greg} in the village Pjatra in Bessarabia Governorate ) was a Russian mining engineer and metallurgy .

Life

Obuchow came from an old family of ironworkers . His grandfather Fyodor Obuchow worked as a hammer blacksmith and was recognized as a master because of his outstanding professionalism despite the lack of training. His father Matwei Obuchow began his career in 1801 as a clerk in the Votkinsk hammer mill , became chief master due to his skills and worked in the Serebrjansk iron foundry from 1822 . He renovated the local water systems and water wheels, for which he was appointed as a mining engineer in the mining cadet corps despite the lack of training . In 1835 he became director of Kushva -Eisengießerei the rank of major . He retired as a captain and became the overseer of the Votkinsk iron foundry. Obuchov's older brother Stepan Matwejewitsch (* 1807) studied at the Mining Cadet Corps Institute ( St. Petersburg State Mining University ), then worked in the Urals and in 1845 became supervisor of gold processing at the Nizhnyaya Tura plant .

Pawel Obuchow showed his technical talent at an early age and, when he was six , drew dams , hydropower plants and smelter furnaces . In 1832 he was accepted into the Mining Cadet Corps Institute . In 1843 he completed his training there as the best of his year with distinction (large gold medal) and was dismissed as a lieutenant in the mining cadet corps .

Obuchow began his career as a young engineer in the Berg-Blagodat works in the central Urals near Kuschwa . 1844-1846 he worked as a supervisor in the Serebryansk plant at Nizhny Tagil . Since this activity did not satisfy him, he successfully applied to the Mining Cadet Corps for a two-year scholarship abroad (with the obligation to serve for six years afterwards). With the scholarship he studied the new working methods in the coal and steel industry in Germany and Belgium with a focus on iron and copper production and mechanical engineering .

When he returned in 1848, Obukhov stayed in St. Petersburg for four months to write his travelogue and then resumed his work at the Serebryansk plant . At the end of this year he became the managing director of the Kushwa plant with a higher rank to staff captain . There he developed the plan to produce Damascus steel for weapons , with which he became the scientific legacy of PP Anossov . Although he was able to gather a group of talented and committed young people around him, the limited financial and technical possibilities prevented quick success. When he became managing director of the Jug Metallurgie plant in 1851 , he immediately began to carry out experiments in the manufacture of Damascus steel. 1853 he finally, a steel plate of 3/4 line prepare thickness at gun bombardment was not penetrate, while cuirasses double thickness of Slatoust -Metallurgie plant failed to 30%.

Experience of the Siege of Sevastopol 1854-1855 during the Crimean War showed that the existing glattrohrigen Bronze - cannons were outdated and new and more powerful of steel should be replaced. 1854 moved to Obukhov Zlatoust and was managing director of the Zlatoust weapons factory , which takes the previous cold weapons now firearms should produce. For this purpose, particularly strong steels were required that were only available abroad. Obuchow developed a process for the production of cast -steel in the crucible furnace . In 1857 he received the patent for the mass production of his high quality crucible steel. The process also made it possible to cast pipes. Initially, rifle barrels were experimented with, which were tested with an increased powder charge. While the Krupp rifles burst with an eightfold powder charge, the Zlatoust rifles withstood fourteenfold loads. After this success, the casting of cannon barrels began.

For his successful development Obukhov received another patent, a foreign delegation and an annual allowance of 600 rubles to his salary as well as the (Russian) Order of Saint Stanislaus 3rd class with the appointment of lieutenant colonel . He spent half a year in Germany and worked on his return based on its detailed analysis of the Krupp cast steel factory , a project for the production of steel protected directly in Russia, which he won the Order of Saint Anna was the third class. Tsar Alexander II personally ordered that the necessary funds be made available for this project. For the increased gun production, Obuchow did not recommend the remote Zlatoust because of the difficult and cost-driving transport conditions (with horse and cart from Zlatoust to Birsk and then by ship on the Belaja ). But the customers and especially the General Feldzeugmeister Grand Duke Michael Nikolayevich , the Tsar's uncle, insisted on Zlatoust. The Grand Duke Michael Nikolayevich factory was built in Slatoust in 1859, where the steel for the gun barrels was melted as early as 1860. The independent steel gun barrel production in Russia began. At the St. Petersburg firing range in 1860 a cannon made of Krupp steel, English steel and Zlatoust steel with the same bore was compared. While the foreign cannons did not reach the limit of 2,000 rounds, the Zlatoust cannon could fire 4017 rounds within four months. The Zlatoust cannon not only outperformed the Krupp cannon in terms of durability and strength, but was also cheaper and even more so than the English cannon. This opened the door to the use of cast steel for gun barrels for Russian artillery . The cannon won a gold medal at the London World's Fair in 1862 and is now in the St. Petersburg Artillery Museum.

1861 Obukhov Corresponding member of the gunnery Committee of the General Administration of artillery . From 1861 to 1863 he was mining chief of the Slatoust works and then received the Order of Saint Anne, 2nd class. He was promoted to colonel and was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir 4th grade. He was also entitled to 35 kopecks for every pud of his cast steel, which made him a rich man. He stayed in St. Petersburg and advised Admiral NK Krabbe on the production of naval guns in the Urals. The Krupp-Gussstahlfabrik offered him a high office, which he refused.

In 1861 Obuchow signed a contract with the entrepreneur N. I. Putilow for increased production of cast steel for artillery guns. Admirals NK Krabbe and JW Putyatin proposed a project to establish a new cast steel factory for the production of guns for the fleet , but this was rejected by Finance Minister Michael von Reutern . In 1863 Obuchow received the order for the construction of a cannon steel factory with funds from the Navy Ministry, so that he founded the PM Obuchow cooperative with NI Putilow, the businessman SG Kudryavzew and himself as members. Prince Peter von Oldenburg left the premises of the former Alexander-Manufaktur cotton mill not far from St. Petersburg on the banks of the Neva near the Nikolaibahn to the cooperative for 72 years free of charge . The Obuchow factory was established here in 1863 (after the October Revolution the Bolshevik factory ) with the first steel casting in 1864. In 1865 the cooperative dissolved. Putilov founded his own company (the future Putilov plant ). In the Obuchow plant Obuchow headed the metallurgical production until 1868 and continued his investigations into steel production, after which he was appointed to the Real State Council. Since his time in Slatoust he was haunted by the problem of casting defects ( blowholes , embrittlement , cavities), which only his successor DK Tschernow was able to solve.

In the autumn of 1868 Obuchow gave up work in his factory for health reasons and went abroad to take a cure, but this did not slow down the development of his consumption . He died in the governorate of Bessarabia and was buried in St. Petersburg in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky monastery . A large part of his fortune went to the plant to build a hospital, a home for old workers, a school and scholarships for children of masters for a higher technical education. The St. Petersburg steelworks was named Obuchow-Stahlwerk in 1869 after Putilov's proposal . In 1886 the factory was taken over by the Naval Office. In 1871 the Naval Office no longer saw the need to buy Krupp gun barrels, so that the Russian warships were now only equipped with Russian-made guns. Obukhov guns were shown at the Political Exhibition in Moscow in 1872 and at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873 . In 1908, the factory delivered guns of all calibres to the Naval Office and the Army Office as well as mines, torpedoes and other armaments. In the Russian military, the abbreviation LSP or LSPO was used for Pawel Obuchow cast steel.

literature

• JN Sorokin: PM Obukhov's role in the development of the Russian steel industry . Institute for the History of Science and Technology, 1955, Volume 3 (Russian).
• Obukhov Pawel Matveyevich (Russian, accessed April 19, 2016).
• Obukhov Pawel Matveyevich (1820–1869) (Russian, accessed April 19, 2016).
• Obukhov Pawel Matveyevich (Russian, accessed April 19, 2016).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Great Soviet Encyclopedia : Obukhov, Pavel Matveevich (accessed April 19, 2016).
2. ↑ Obuchow Pawel Matwejewitsch (Russian, accessed April 17, 2016).
3. ^ The first Russian steel cannon (Russian, accessed April 19, 2016).
4. ↑ Alexander Vershinin: The Obukhov State Plant: Funded from an engineer's own pocket (accessed April 19, 2016).
5. ^ Firearms collection from the holdings of the Cherepovets Museum Association (Russian, accessed on April 19, 2016).