Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin, known after immigration to US as Alexandre de Lodyguine (russian: Александр Николаевич Лодыгин; 18 October 1847 – 16 March 1923) was a Russian electrical engineer and inventor, one of the inventors of the

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxid ...

. Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin was born in Stenshino village,

Tambov Governorate Tambov Governorate was an administrative unit of the Russian Empire, Russian Republic, and later the Russian SFSR, centred around the city of Tambov. The governorate was located between 51°14' and 55°6' north and between 38°9' and 43°38' east ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. His parents were of a very old and noble family (descendants of Andrei Kobyla like

Romanov The House of Romanov (also transcribed Romanoff; rus, Романовы, Románovy, rɐˈmanəvɨ) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after the Tsarina, Anastasia Romanova, was married to ...

s), but of very moderate means. He studied at the

Tambov Tambov (, ; rus, Тамбов, p=tɐmˈbof) is a city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, central Russia, at the confluence of the Tsna and Studenets Rivers, about south-southeast of Moscow. Population: 280,161 ( 2010 Census); 29 ...

Cadet School (1859–1865). Then he served in the ''71st Belev regiment'', and in 1866–1868 studied at the Moscow Infantry School. Soon after graduation from his military school he retired from the military and worked as a worker at the Tula weapons factory.

Timeline

*1872: He decided to go to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

to attend lectures at Saint Petersburg Institute of Technology and to start working on an ''electrical helicopter'' (''electrolyot''). The electrical helicopter would need some sort of artificial lighting that would have to be electrical. He decided to start his helicopter work by developing a source of electrical light for it. *1872: He applied for a Russian

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

for his filament lamp. He also patented this invention in Austria,

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, France, and Belgium. For a filament, Lodygin used a very thin

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon mak ...

rod, placed under a bell-glass. *August 1873: He demonstrated prototypes of his electric filament lamp in the physics lecture hall of the Saint Petersburg Institute of Technology. *1873–1874: He conducted experiments with electric lighting on ships, city streets, etc. *11 July 1874: He was granted the Russian

, as patent number 1619. *In 1874, the Petersburg Academy of Sciences awarded him with a Lomonosov Prize for his invention of the filament lamp. That same year, Lodygin established the Electric Lighting Company, A.N. Lodygin and Co. *1875: From here on he was very interested in the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

ideas of the Narodniks. *1880s: After Narodniks killed Emperor Alexander II of Russia, there were repressions against their organization. *1884: As a result, he had to emigrate from Russia to France and United States. *1895: He married the German reporter Alma Schmidt, the daughter of an electrical engineer. *1890s: He invented a few types of filament lamps with metallic filaments; some say he was the first scientist to use a

tungsten Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...

filament. He got a patent for lamps with tungsten filaments (US Patent No. 575,002 ''Illuminant for Incandescent Lamps'', Application on 4 January 1893) and sold it to

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

(1906), who began the first industrial production of such lamps. *1899: Petersburg Institute of Electrical Engineering awarded Lodygin with the

honorary title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

of electrical engineer. *1907: Lodygin returned to Russia. He continued work on a series of his inventions, including a new type of electrical motor, electrical

welding Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as bra ...

, tungsten alloys, electrical ovens and

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ...

furnaces. He taught at Petersburg Institute of Electrical Engineering and worked for the Petersburg railroad. *1914: He was sent by the Ministry of Agriculture to develop plans for electrification of

Olonets Olonets (russian: Оло́нец; krl, Anus, olo, Anuksenlinnu; fi, Aunus, Aunuksenkaupunki or Aunuksenlinna) is a town and the administrative center of Olonetsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located on the Olonka River to t ...

and Novgorod governorates. *After the February Revolution Lodygin emigrated to United States. Because of health problems he declined a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

offer to work for their State Plan for Electrification of Russia (1918). *1923: He died in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in New York. He invented an

before

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

, but it was not commercially profitable. The lamp with a tungsten filament is indeed the only design used now, but in 1906 they were too expensive. Several Lodygin's ideas were implemented much later, even after his death. In 1871 Lodygin proposed an autonomous diving apparatus that consisted of a steel mask,

natural rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

costume, accumulator battery and a special apparatus for

electrolysis of water Electrolysis of water, also known as electrochemical water splitting, is the process of using electricity to decompose water into oxygen and hydrogen gas by electrolysis. Hydrogen gas released in this way can be used as hydrogen fuel, or remi ...

. The diver was supposed to breathe the

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...

mix obtained by electrolysis of water. The invented diving apparatus was very similar to modern scuba equipment His ideas for an electrical helicopter were used many years later by

Igor Sikorsky Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky (russian: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский, p=ˈiɡərʲ ɪˈvanəvitʃ sʲɪˈkorskʲɪj, a=Ru-Igor Sikorsky.ogg, tr. ''Ígor' Ivánovich Sikórskiy''; May 25, 1889 – October 26, 1972)Fortie ...

References

External links

Site of Lodygin's museum in Tambov
* https://web.archive.org/web/20150131215052/http://home.frognet.net/~ejcov/lodyguine.html (with a list of US Patents) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lodygin, Alexander 1847 births 1923 deaths People from Tambov Oblast People from Lipetsky Uyezd Russian nobility Russian inventors Russian electrical engineers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American inventors Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology alumni Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (Russian), 3rd class