Describing Ivan Petrovich Kulibin, the encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius (KM) states with restraint: “Russian self-taught mechanic (1735-1818). Invented many different mechanisms. Improved glass polishing for optical instruments. He developed a project and built a model of a single-arch bridge across the river. Neva with a span of 298 m. He created a “mirror lantern” (prototype of a searchlight), a semaphore telegraph and many others.

When reading this paragraph, an unprepared person gets the feeling that Kulibin was still a pretty decent inventor (over there, he also has a lantern, and a semaphore, and even “many others”). But on the other hand, just a mechanic (like a locksmith), and even self-taught.

You can’t put next to a highly learned European of the Renaissance.

Therefore, breaking the tradition of writing essays and scientific articles devoted to some personalities, I will start not with biographical data, but with a riddle.

So, it is known that Ivan Kulibin, who was born on the Volga and from childhood saw the hard work of barge haulers, invented a self-propelled barge. Which (attention!) She went against the flow of the river, using the very (you won’t believe it!) The flow of the river as a driving force.

Yes, it's not a mistake or a typo. Kulibin really created a barge that, using only the force of the current, went ... against the current.

It seems incredible. Impossible. Contradicts the basic laws of physics.

Judge for yourself: even if you achieve that a heavy barge has a zero coefficient of friction on the water (which is impossible!), then the ship would at best remain in place. It would not drift downstream to the lower reaches of the river.

And then the barge went UP under its own power.

It's just some kind of perpetual motion machine!

The Paris Academy of Sciences would refuse to consider such a project, because it is impossible, because it is never possible!

But Kulibin did not provide a project, but a real barge. Which, with a large crowd of people, was indeed launched and ACTUALLY, in front of everyone, went against the current, without using any external forces.

Miracle? No, reality.

And now that you know this, try for yourself (after all, we are residents of the 21st century, armed with knowledge and favored by technical progress) to figure out how a self-taught mechanic (!) Of the 18th century achieved such an amazing effect using the simplest and most accessible materials.

While you're thinking, to sharpen your thought processes, here are a few fundamental principles of invention. Developed, of course, in the XXI century.

A technical solution is considered ideal if the desired effect is achieved "for nothing", without the use of any means.

A technical device is considered ideal when there is no device, but the action that it should do is being performed.

The way in which the technical solution is carried out is ideal when there is no energy and time consumption, but the required action is carried out, moreover, in a regulated manner. That is, as much as you need and only when you need it.

And finally: The substance used in technical solution, is considered ideal when the substance itself is absent, but its function is performed in full.

Don't you think that the village-bearded man-bast-worker, or rather, the self-taught mechanic Ivan Kulibin knew how to find exactly IDEAL solutions? Impossible from the point of view of the Paris Academy of Sciences?

Alexandre Dumas' book The Count of Monte Cristo vividly depicts how the titular character intercepted and distorted information transmitted by semaphore telegraph from the Spanish theater of operations to Paris. The result was the collapse of the stock exchange and the grandiose ruin of one of the most powerful bankers - the enemies of the count.

Nothing surprising. Whoever owns the information owns the world.

I would only like to emphasize that this same semaphore telegraph was invented by Ivan Petrovich Kulibin.

Now about the spotlight.

Let's not forget that by the grace of Her Imperial Majesty Catherine II, the son of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believer merchant Ivan Kulibin was called to the capital and there, for 32 years (from 1769 to 1801), he was in charge of the mechanical workshops of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Petersburg is a nautical city. So, the supply of light signals in it is extremely important. There are beacons that orient ships and protect them from running aground, and the transfer of information from ship to ship ...

Until the era of Kulibin, ships used multi-colored pennants raised on masts and a hand-held semaphore (a dashing sailor with flags) to transmit signals. It is clear that it was possible to see this beauty only during the day. Fires were lit at the lighthouses at night.

But on a wooden ship, open fire is too dangerous, so at sea, only a candle or a wick floating in a bowl of oil could be used for lighting. It is clear that the power of light from such sources is low and is not suitable for transmitting signals over any decent distance. So at night the ships plunged into darkness and informational silence.

Having studied the problem, the self-taught mechanic Kulibin in 1779 designed his famous lantern with a reflector, which gave powerful light with a weak source. The importance of such a searchlight in a port city can hardly be overestimated.

Victor Karpenko in his book "Mechanic Kulibin" (N. Novgorod, publishing house "BIKAR", 2007) describes the event as follows:

“Somehow, on a dark autumn night, a fireball appeared on Vasilyevsky Island. It illuminated not only the street, but also the Promenade des Anglais. Crowds of people rushed into the light, making prayers.

It soon became clear that it was a lantern that was hung by the famous mechanic Kulibin from the window of his apartment, which was located on the fourth floor of the Academy.”

The lanterns were in great demand, but Kulibin was a bad businessman and the orders went to other craftsmen who made more than one fortune on this.

Automobile

Leonardo da Vinci is considered to be the first inventor of the wheelchair in history. True, the Florentine used it for military purposes and, as they now say, was the prototype of the modern tank.

The device, protected from all sides by “armor” made of wood (modern bullets and shells were not known in the Middle Ages), moved due to the muscular strength of several people who sat inside and rotated the levers. (Like a crooked starter).

Alas, having studied the drawings of Leonardo, modern experts evaluated the invention as follows:

David Fletcher, British tank historian:

“Yes, at first it seems that nothing will come of it. There must be people inside, turning the handles so that the wheels turn and the colossus moves from its place, God knows how heavy. I would say that it is physically almost impossible.

In order for this to move, you need a battlefield as flat as a table. Stone - and it will stop. Mole hole - and again stop. The enemy will die of laughter before this thing reaches him.

But this is only at first sight. From the second - the soldiers (!) of the British army noticed that there was a fundamental error in the drawing.

The gears on the wheels are in the wrong place,” said one of those who were put inside the Leonard tank and forced to turn the handles. - With this device, the front wheel spins backwards, and the rear wheel forwards. So this needs to be fixed - rearrange the gears. Then both wheels will simultaneously move in the same direction.

As you can see, Leonardo's invention contained fundamental design flaws. Moreover, even after their elimination, the mechanism could only be used in laboratory conditions on a perfectly flat surface, which cannot be found in real life.

Now let's look at the inventions of Ivan Kulibin.

The Polytechnic Museum of Moscow has several smaller copies of a self-propelled carriage. Those (not copies, but real products) were made in the mechanical workshops of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, which were led by Kulibin, and were quite widely used for aristocratic walks.

Museum staff emphasize that the Kulibino self-running cart had all the parts of a modern car: a gearbox, a brake, a cardan mechanism, a steering wheel, rolling bearings ... The only similarity with Leonard's invention is that this design was set in motion also due to human muscles. The driver pedaled with his feet, his efforts spun the heavy flywheel ... and after a short period of time, the bicycle carriage, which had an enviable carrying capacity, could develop a decent speed. The driver was only required to firmly hold the steering wheel and keep the flywheel in constant rotation.

Bridges

Settling under the patronage of the Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza, Leonardo positioned himself as a military engineer.

“I can create light strong bridges,” he said, “that will be easy to transport during the pursuit. Or, God forbid, fleeing from the enemy. I also came up with a method of besieging castles, in which the first thing is to drain the moat with water.

And the duke accepted him into service. However, as a sane person (encyclopedias report that under him “Milan became one of the strongest states in Italy, the center of science and art”), he instructed the new employee not to build bridges of a new design, but something much more modest. He entrusted Leonardo (Can you drain? - Drain!) to drain the Duchess's bathroom.

Encyclopedia KM says:

“In the 1770s. Kulibin designed a wooden single-arch bridge across the Neva with a span of 298 m (instead of 50-60 m, as was built at that time). In 1766 he built a 1/10 life-size model of this bridge. It was tested by a special academic commission. The project was highly appreciated by the mathematician L. Euler, who checked the correctness of his theoretical formulas using the Kulibin model.”

It is very interesting to mention that the famous Euler did not carry out calculations for a self-taught Russian, but checked HIS calculations using his model. He was a smart man, he understood that "practice is the criterion of truth."

Question: why, in fact, did Kulibin need to invent such a bridge unusual shape? Thank God, there are many bridge designs from ancient times ...

The fact is that St. Petersburg is a large port. And to this day it accepts ships of large tonnage and displacement. In order for these huge ships to enter the city, the main bridges of St. Petersburg were made drawbridges.

And the single-arch bridge that Kulibin proposed seemed to hover over the Neva, touching the ground at only two points - on the right and left banks.

IT WOULD NOT NEED TO BE BREEDED!

Kulibin's bridges, if their project were adopted, would allow ocean-going ships to enter the port not only at night, but at any time of the day! And no costs for maintenance and repair of adjustable mechanisms.

Clock

It is well known that Ivan Kulibin's metropolitan career began with the fact that during the visit of Empress Catherine II to Nizhny Novgorod, she was presented with a watch made by the master. They were the size of a goose egg and contained (in addition to the clock itself) nothing less than an automatic theater, a music box and the mechanism that controlled it all. In total, the “egg figure”, which is now a pearl in the Hermitage collection, contains 427 details.

Here is how this amazing watch is described in Viktor Karpenko's book:

“They beat every hour, half and even a quarter of an hour. At the end of the hour, the folding doors in the egg opened, revealing a gilded chamber. Opposite the doors stood an image of the Holy Sepulcher, into which a closed door led.

On the sides of the coffin stood two warriors with spears. Half a minute after the doors of the chamber were opened, an angel appeared. The door leading to the coffin opened, and standing warriors fell to their knees. The myrrh-bearing women appeared and the church verse “Christ is Risen!”, Accompanied by ringing, was heard, performed three times.

In the afternoon, another verse was sung every hour: "Jesus is risen from the tomb." At noon, the clock played a hymn composed by Kulibin himself. Figurines of angels, warriors and myrrh-bearing women were cast in gold and silver.”

The clocks created by Kulibin are stored in the storerooms of the Hermitage, and in order to see them, you need to make special efforts (negotiate, issue a pass, etc.). The famous "Peacock Clock" made in Europe and exhibited in one of the halls of the Hermitage is much more accessible.

This is a truly grandiose building, which, even in the spacious Hermitage, occupies a significant part of the premises allocated to it.

Of course, like everything made in Europe, the Peacock watch is a fashionable entertaining toy and, at the same time, a work of art. A peacock, a rooster, an owl in a cage and squirrels are located on gilded oak branches in a life-size “wonderful garden”. When winding special mechanisms, the figures of birds come into motion. The owl turns its head, the peacock spreads its tail and turns to the audience with its most beautiful part (that is, the rear), the rooster crows.

In addition to all the bells and whistles, there is also a dial (in a mushroom cap), looking at which you can, without any frills, purely humanly find out what time it is.

The clock was purchased by Prince Potemkin from the English Duchess of Kingston, who in 1777 sailed to St. Petersburg on her own ship with a cargo of art treasures taken from England.

The clock had only one drawback: the duchess took it out of London disassembled and, for more than ten years, it lay in the pantry, losing its parts and details. For example, out of 55 faceted crystals lying on the base of the clock, only one survived by 1791.

His Serene Highness Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky, who spent a lot of money on the curiosity, called on Kulibin and asked him to "revive the poor birds."

The clock is still running.

Kulibin created a variety of watches of various designs: pocket, daily, ring, watches with a harp ...

But I want to talk about just one more. In 1853, a note appeared in the Moskvityanin magazine, signed by a certain P.N. Obninskiy. He reported that he had a clock created by Kulibin in his house, and asked to send a commission for examination.

What was so interesting about this device?

First, the clock was astronomical. That is, they showed the course of the planets, eclipses of the Moon and the Sun. In addition, the clock indicated the date (day, month), and a special hand marked leap years.

Secondly, a small clock was arranged on the minute hand, the size of a dime, which, having no communication with common mechanism watch and not having a factory, show, however, the time is very true.

In fact, here we are again faced with " perpetual motion machine”, invented by Kulibin.

It is believed that education for singers, musicians, artists plays an important role, however, there are exceptions. Oddly enough, the most popular and charismatic personalities who achieved recognition in world culture and won people's love were self-taught. The biography of these nuggets proves: if you are destined to become great, you will become one. The main thing is to believe in yourself and listen to what your heart tells you.

Ella Fitzgerald

The queen of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald, whose singing is still considered the standard by vocalists around the world, was in fact ... self-taught.

The girl lived in a poor family and did not study music, although she loved to sing. At first, she adopted her vocal style from her favorite vocalist Connie Boswell, a record with records of which her mother once brought to the house. Later, she began to imitate other singers, until she eventually formed her own vocal style. However, in addition to singing, young Fitzgerald was fond of cinema, dancing, sports ...

After the death of her beloved mother, 14-year-old Ella completely got out of hand. She abandoned her studies and even worked for some time as a caretaker in a brothel, and sometimes she even wandered. Everything changed the case. Ella decided to take part in the talent competition of the Harlem Apollo Theater, for which the organizers promised $ 25, and unexpectedly won. By the way, at first she was going to participate as a dancer, but at the last moment she changed her mind and performed with a vocal number. It was after this triumph that the young original girl was noticed in the music world.

Having not received a professional vocal education, the great Fitzgerald always sang perfectly: her sound was velvety-bewitching and clear. They say that before the performance, she did not even need to sing.

Paul Gauguin

The great Paul Gauguin became interested in painting only in adulthood, when he worked as a broker on the stock exchange. Earning decent money, he began to buy paintings by famous artists and was so carried away by the process that he decided to try to paint himself. Gauguin began to communicate with Parisian artists, to study their techniques, which was the main school for him.

Having hit in a creative search, Paul drew inspiration from distant lands - for example, in Tahiti. Unfortunately, the change of profession had a negative impact on the financial situation of the family, and he broke up with his wife.

The last years of his life were not easy for the artist, he even tried to take his own life, but world fame nevertheless came to him. True, after death.

Isadora Duncan

Duncan is perhaps the most famous and charismatic dancer of the last century. From a young age, a girl from a poor family loved to dance, and she did it without being guided by any generally accepted rules, but as she felt. She tried to teach other children her strange dances.

At the age of 10, Isadora left school, devoting all her time only to music and dancing, and began performing in public. At 18, she moved to Chicago, where she continued to bring her original art to the masses.

The young performer of "exotic" dances was increasingly invited to clubs. Gradually, she developed her own dance school, became a world celebrity and an innovator in choreography, gaining millions of fans and followers.

Jim carrey

The parents of the future Hollywood star could not give their son a decent education: the family lived very poorly. Having somehow finished his studies, Jim worked at a steel mill and, as he later admitted in an interview, if he had not become an actor, he would have worked hard there until now.

However, the young man was lucky. From childhood, he loved to grimace and parody everyone. And although at first his talent as a comedian was not recognized (at the age of 11 he sent 80 of his parodies to a famous show, but received no answer), but then he became a real star. He took his first steps to fame in one of the Toronto comedy clubs and eventually became the star of this institution. And a few years later he moved to Los Angeles, where, after long ups and downs, he still managed to attract attention and eventually become one of the most famous actors.

Maurice Utrillo

The mother of the great French landscape painter Maurice Utrillo worked as a model in art salons. Her advice became the main "school" for young Maurice. And he often went to Montmartre to observe the work of artists and even became friends with some of them.

When Utrillo himself began to paint pictures, his first works in artistic circles were not appreciated, considering them unprofessional, however ordinary people they liked it. Utrillo became a world celebrity when he was already under forty: his landscapes were recognized as masterpieces of post-impressionism and primitivism.

The government even awarded Utrillo with the Order of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to the development of French culture.

Jimi Hendrix

Composer, singer, musician Jimi Hendrix, who more than once got into the first lines of the ratings of the world's greatest guitarists, was also self-taught. He bought his first guitar at the age of 16 and was so carried away by it that he even dropped out of school. He learned the art of playing by listening to recordings of famous musicians. Interestingly, being left-handed, Jimmy held the guitar backwards, but his father demanded that he play right hand, like everyone else, believing that left-handedness is associated with evil spirits. So that the parent would not take away the guitar from him, the young man played with his right hand, and when he was left alone, with his left.

Self-training was not in vain: Hendrix became a virtuoso and a legend of world rock. It is believed that he opened up new possibilities for the electric guitar, and many musicians learned to play exactly “according to Hendrix”.

Tatyana Peltzer

There are great self-taught people in our country too. For example, few people know that one of the most beloved and charismatic Soviet actresses, Tatiana Peltzer, did not have a theatrical education. However, this did not prevent her from becoming a People's Artist of the Soviet Union and a laureate of the Stalin Prize.

Tatyana Peltzer's father was an actor and director. The girl mastered the acting profession on her own, watching the work of her father, and she performed her first roles in his productions.

The lack of education at first interfered with her career: in her youth, Peltzer changed many theaters, and received not very significant roles. However, she still found real fame and recognition - at a more mature age, Peltzer became one of the brightest stars of Soviet cinema.

By the way, the Russian self-taught artist Pavel Fedotov, known for his masterpieces, made a splash in the 19th century and even

The popular science magazine Nautilus published a poignant material about a self-taught scientist, widely known in narrow circles interested in artificial intelligence.

A detailed biography of Pitts was restored by the editors of the journal from Pitts' personal letters, preserved in the archives of the American Philosophical Society.

Outcast childhood

Walter Pitts has been an outcast among his peers since childhood; add to this a difficult family headed by a boiler-maker father, who often used his fists, and the criminogenic situation of Detroit. From the cruel ridicule of the neighborhood kids, Walter hid in the local library. There he studied the basics of Greek, Latin, logic and mathematics. Here, in the quiet canopy of bookshelves, he was much more comfortable than at home, where his father urged Walter to leave school and get a job.

Homeless genius and alcoholic, Walter Pitts. Source: nautilus

On one such evening in the library, Pitts came across the three-volume Principia Mathematica (Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead, 1910-1913). It is a fundamental work on the logic and philosophy of mathematics and one of the most influential in history. For three days, Pitts devoured the 2,000 pages of this scientific work without interruption, and eventually discovered several errors. Deciding that Bertrand Russell needed to know about them, the boy wrote a detailed letter to the mathematician indicating them. Russell not only responded to the boy's message, but also invited Pitts to become a master's student at Cambridge University.

Pitts, perhaps, would have agreed, but he could not - he was only 12 years old at that time.

But three years later, when Russell was due to pay a visit to the University of Chicago, Pitts ran away from home and headed to Illinois. He never saw his family again.

The intersection of two destinies

In 1923, a year after Pitts was born, Warren McCulloch was nibbling on the granite of Principia Mathematica. This is where the similarities between Pitts and Warren end. McCulloch was 25 years old at that time, he came from an educated family of lawyers, doctors and engineers and received an excellent education - he studied mathematics at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and then philosophy and psychology at Yale University. In 1923, Warren was preparing to receive his doctorate in neurophysiology, while remaining a philosopher at heart. While lush color the theory of psychoanalysis blossomed, but Warren was not a supporter of it. He was sure that all the hidden corners and mysteries of our consciousness basically have purely mechanical connections between neurons in the brain.

Despite the fact that the fates of McCulloch and Pitts followed such different paths, in the end they were destined to become true friends and colleagues for the rest of their lives. Together, these two people will create the first mechanistic theory of consciousness, the first mathematical models of the neuron, develop computer logic and become the founders of the theory of artificial intelligence.

And yet this story is not only about fruitful scientific collaboration. This is a story about friendship, the fragility of the mind and the helplessness of the great mathematical logic in our imperfect cruel world.

Warren McCulloch. Source: nesfa.org

This alliance looked strange - McCulloch and Pitts. McCulloch at the time of meeting Pitts was 42 years old: a self-confident gray-eyed bearded man and night owl, a pipe lover, enjoying poetry, philosophy and a glass of whiskey. Pitts is a modest short eighteen-year-old boy with a high forehead that added to his age, glasses, with full lips on a square face. They were introduced by medical student Jerome Lettvin. At their first conversation, the two found out that they had a common idol: Gottfried Leibniz. They were both fascinated by the 17th-century philosopher's attempt to create an ABC of human thoughts, each letter of which would correspond to a concept, which would allow them to operate in the same way as numbers.

McCulloch told Pitts in that conversation that he was trying to model the human brain using Leibniz's formal logic. He was inspired by the ideas of the "Principles of Mathematics", in which all mathematics was reduced to logic with the help of some set of axioms. Between the axioms there were relations of fundamental logical operations - conjunction ("and"), disjunction ("or") or negation ("not"). With the help of these simplest operations, the creators of the "Principles" proved the most complex theorems of modern mathematics.

McCulloch, while reading this work, was thinking about neurons. He knew that a neuron in the brain only fires when enough signals are sent from nearby neurons to the synapse. McCulloch suggested that neurons operate in a binary fashion - they are either on or off. In this sense, the signal of a neuron is an axiom, and neurons work like a logical funnel - absorbing several signals, and releasing only one.

And then came a fresh study by a young British mathematician Alan Turing, which proved that the machine is capable of performing any mathematical calculations, and McCulloch was convinced that our brain works almost like a Turing machine, that is, it uses the logic of neural networks to perform calculations. He believed that neurons are connected to each other according to the laws of formal logic, and with the help of these connections, the most complex mental chains are built.

Pitts immediately understood McCulloch's intent and knew exactly what mathematical tools to use to prove this hypothesis. Encouraged, McCulloch invited the young man to live in his country house near Chicago with his family. It was a typical abode of the creative intelligentsia, where representatives of its various strata gathered in the evenings, discussed issues of psychology, argued about politics, read poetry and listened to music on a phonograph.

And late at night, when McCulloch's wife and children were already sleeping peacefully, two scientists, emptying another bottle of whiskey, tried to create a computerized model of a neuron.

Before meeting Pitts, McCulloch could not get out of the research impasse: the output signal of the last neuron in the circuit could well become the input signal of the first - nothing prevented the neurons from looping. McCulloch had no idea. how to model such a situation mathematically. From the point of view of logic, the cycle has all the signs of a paradox: the effect becomes the cause and vice versa. McCulloch assigned a time stamp to each neural connection: the first neuron in the chain fired at time t, the next at t+1, and so on. But when the chain closed, the logic broke.

Pitts knew how to solve this problem. He used modular arithmetic, where the values ​​in the number system are repeated after reaching a certain fixed module (this happens with the designation of hours in a day, for example). Pitts showed his friend that in his calculations, the concepts of "before" and "after" had lost all meaning, so the time value should be removed from the equation altogether. If you see lightning in the sky, your vision sends a signal to the brain, to the neural circuitry. You can reconstruct the signal path starting from any neuron in the circuit and determine the duration of the lightning flash. This does not work if the neural circuit is looped. In this case, the information in which the lightning flash is encrypted simply goes around in circles endlessly. It has nothing to do with the time period in which this outbreak occurred. This information becomes an "idea in timelessness". In other words, memory.

Pitts' calculations helped his friends to get a mechanistic model of thinking - the first argument in favor of the fact that the human brain is essentially a processor that processes information.

By combining simple binary neurons into chains and loops, scientists have shown that the brain can perform any possible logical operation and perform any calculation available to a hypothetical Turing machine.

This helped to understand how the brain extracts information and builds hierarchical structures from the received elements - in other words, how thinking occurs.

McCulloch and Pitts published their observations in A Logical Calculus of Ideas Relating to Nerve Activity, published in 1943. Their model of the brain was too simplistic to be biologically accurate, but it brilliantly proved the basic principles. According to their guess, human thinking cannot be described by Freud's mystical justifications. Here is what McCulloch said to his philosophy students:

For the first time in the history of science, we finally know how we get knowledge.

The relationship with McCulloch provided Pitts with many things that he lacked as a child - acceptance of interests, friendship, intellectual partnership. McCulloch became a father to Pitts.

great ambition

Pitts soon met one of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century, the great mathematician and philosopher, the founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener. They met in Wiener's office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Without noticing it, Wiener and Pitts during the first meeting neatly covered two huge educational boards hanging in the office - they were so carried away by the complex proof of one mathematical problem.

Viner suggested that Pitts get a PhD in mathematics from MIT. It was against all the rules since the Pitts didn't get higher education.

But already in 1943, Pitts became a student at MIT, where he began his studies under the mentorship of one of the most influential scientists in the world.

Wiener wanted Pitts to continue working on a more realistic model of the brain. In the continuation of such research, he saw the future possibility of using neural networks in robotics and the future accomplishment of the cyber revolution. He understood that in order to create a realistic model of the brain, consisting of hundreds of billions of neurons, it is necessary to have at hand a sufficient amount of statistical data. And in statistical analysis and probability theory, Wiener was strong like no other.

Pitts began his work by understanding one simple principle: despite the fact that information about the basic properties of nervous activity is encrypted in human genes, they cannot predetermine the development of a huge number of synaptic connections in the brain. Therefore, it was possible to start by studying randomly selected neural circuits, which, most likely, will contain the necessary information. Using statistical mechanics and the process of randomly modifying the number of neural connections, he was going to model the process of structuring information in the brain. Creating such a working model will pave the way for machine learning.

In a letter to his friend McCulloch in 1943, Pitts writes:

[my work with Wiener] will be the first competent substantiation of statistical mechanics in the most general sense and its possible application in deriving the psychological principles of human behavior from the neurophysiological laws of the microworld ... Isn't it great?

Soon Pitts met the legendary John von Neumann at a conference in Princeton. This is how the first scientific group of cybernetics gradually took shape: Wiener, Pitts, McCulloch, Lettvin (remember that student who introduced McCulloch to Pitts?) and von Neumann. And it was the self-taught Pitts, who once ran away from home, was the head center of the group. No article was published without the consent and revisions of Pitts. Lettvin recalls:

He was without a doubt our genius. He was well versed in chemistry, physics, history, botany ... His answer to any question could be recorded and published as a textbook. In his perception, the world seemed to be an extremely complex and intricate structure.

In 1945, von Neumann began work on the first draft of the EDVAC report, which published a description of the logical design of a stored-program computer, a concept that would become known as the "von Neumann architecture".

it is a descendant of the cult computer ENIAC, the imperfection of which quickly became apparent. ENIAC behaved more like a giant electronic calculator than a computer. In order to make changes to the calculation program, a tedious process of re-switching was necessary and the long work of several operators to replace and sort punched cards, as well as to replace burned-out lamps. After each reprogramming, ENIAC seemed to become a new computer, and all work had to be started anew. Von Neumann suggested that eliminating the need to rewire the machine when reprogramming could greatly speed up the data processing process. If the computer could remember its configuration, things would go much faster. This was the idea of ​​EDVAC.

John von Neumann next to the IAS computer, ca. 1950. On the right is the cover of the draft report on EDVAC.

Famous inventors of the world have created a lot of useful things for mankind. Their benefit to society is difficult to overestimate. Many ingenious discoveries have saved more than one life. Who are they - inventors known for their unique developments?

Archimedes

This man was not only a great mathematician. Thanks to him, the whole world learned what a mirror and a siege weapon are. One of the most famous developments is the Archimedean screw (auger), with which you can effectively scoop out water. It is noteworthy that this technology is still used today.

Leonardo da Vinci

Inventors, known for their brilliant ideas, did not always have the opportunity to bring ideas to life. For example, drawings of a parachute, an airplane, a robot, a tank and a bicycle, which appeared as a result of the painstaking work of Leonardo da Vinci, remained unclaimed for a long time. At that time, there simply were no engineers and opportunities to implement such grandiose plans.

Thomas Edison

The inventor of the phonograph, kinescope and telephone microphone was the most famous. In January 1880, he filed a patent for an incandescent lamp, which later glorified Edison throughout the planet. However, some do not consider him a genius, noting that the inventors known for their developments worked alone. As for Edison, a whole group of people helped him.

Nikola Tesla

The great inventions of this genius were brought to life only after his death. Everything is explained simply: Tesla was so that no one knew about his work. Thanks to the efforts of the scientist, a multi-phase electric current system was discovered, which led to the emergence of commercial electricity. In addition, he formed the foundations of robotics, nuclear physics, computer science, and ballistics.

Alexander Graham Bell

Many inventors known for their discoveries have helped make our lives even better. The same can be said about Alexander Bell. Thanks to him, people were able to communicate freely, being thousands of kilometers apart, and all thanks to the phone. Bell also invented an audiometer - a special device that determines deafness; a device for searching for a treasure - a prototype of a modern metal detector; the world's first airplane; a model of a submarine, which Alexander himself called a hydrofoil boat.

Karl Benz

This scientist successfully realized the main idea of ​​his life: a vehicle with a motor. It is thanks to him that we now have the opportunity to drive cars. Another valuable invention of Benz is the internal combustion engine. Later, a car manufacturing company was organized, which today is known throughout the world. This is Mercedes Benz.

Edwin Land

This famous French inventor devoted his life to photography. In 1926, he managed to discover a new type of polarizer, which later became known as the Polaroid. Land founded Polaroid and filed patents for 535 more inventions.

Charles Babbage

This English scientist worked on the creation of the first computer back in the nineteenth century. It was he who called the unique device a computer. Since at that time humanity did not have the necessary knowledge and experience, Babbage's efforts were not crowned with success. Nevertheless, brilliant ideas did not sink into oblivion: Konrad Zuse was able to realize them in the middle of the twentieth century.

Benjamin Franklin

This famous politician, writer, diplomat, satirist and statesman was also a scientist. The great inventions of mankind, which saw the light thanks to Franklin, are both a flexible urinary catheter and a lightning rod. An interesting fact: Benjamin basically did not patent any of his discoveries, because he believed that all of them were the property of mankind.

Jerome Hal Lemelson

Such great inventions of mankind as the facsimile machine, cordless telephone, automated warehouse and magnetic tape cassette were introduced to the general public by Jerome Lemelson. In addition, this scientist developed the technology of diamond coating and some medical devices that help in the treatment of cancer.

Mikhail Lomonosov

This recognized genius of various sciences organized the first university in Russia. The most famous personal invention of Mikhail Vasilyevich is an aerodynamic machine. It was intended to raise special meteorological instruments. According to many experts, it is Lomonosov who is the author of the prototype of modern aircraft.

Ivan Kulibin

It is not for nothing that this man is called the brightest representative of the eighteenth century. Ivan Petrovich Kulibin from early childhood was interested in the principles of mechanics. Thanks to his work, we now use navigational instruments, alarm clocks, and water-powered engines. For that time, these inventions were something from the category of science fiction. The surname of the genius even became a household name. Kulibin is now called a person with the ability to make amazing discoveries.

Sergei Korolev

His interests included manned astronautics, aircraft engineering, the design of rocket and space systems, and missile weapons. Sergei Pavlovich greatly contributed to the exploration of outer space. He created the Vostok and Voskhod spaceships, the 217 anti-aircraft missile and the 212 long-range missile, as well as a rocket plane equipped with a rocket engine.

Alexander Popov

And the radio receiver is this Russian scientist. The unique discovery was preceded by years of research into the nature and propagation of radio waves.

A brilliant physicist and electrical engineer was born in the family of a priest. Alexander had six more brothers and sisters. Already in childhood, he was jokingly called a professor, since Popov was a shy, thin, awkward boy who could not stand fights and noisy games. In the Perm Theological Seminary, Alexander Stepanovich began to study physics based on Gano's book. His favorite pastime was assembling simple technical devices. The acquired skills were subsequently very useful to Popov when creating physical devices for their own important research.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

The discoveries of this great Russian inventor made it possible to bring aerodynamics and astronautics to new level. In 1897, Konstantin Eduardovich finished working on a wind tunnel. Thanks to the allocated subsidies, he calculated the resistance of the ball, cylinder and other bodies. The data obtained were subsequently widely used in his work by Nikolai Zhukovsky.

In 1894, Tsiolkovsky designed an airplane with a metal frame, but the opportunity to build such an apparatus appeared only twenty years later.

Controversial question. Who is the inventor of the light bulb?

The creation of a device that gives light has been worked on since ancient times. The prototype of modern lamps were clay vessels with wicks made of cotton threads. The ancient Egyptians poured olive oil into such containers and set it on fire. The inhabitants of the coast of the Caspian Sea used another fuel material - oil - in similar devices. The first candles made in the Middle Ages consisted of beeswax. The notorious Leonardo da Vinci worked hard to create, however, the world's first safe lighting device was invented in the nineteenth century.

Until now, disputes about who should be awarded the honorary title of "Inventor of the Light Bulb" have not subsided. The first is often called Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov, who worked as an electrical engineer all his life. He created not only a lamp, but also an electric candle. The latter device is widely used in street lighting. The miracle candle burned for an hour and a half, after which the janitor had to change it for a new one.

In 1872-1873. Russian engineer-inventor Lodygin created an electric lamp in its modern sense. At first, it emitted light for thirty minutes, and after pumping air out of the device, this time increased significantly. In addition, Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan claimed the championship in the invention of the incandescent lamp.

Conclusion

Inventors around the world have given us many devices that make life more comfortable and varied. Progress does not stand still, and if a few centuries ago it was simply not enough to implement all the ideas technical capabilities, then today it is much easier to bring ideas to life.

Mikhail (Mikhailo) Vasilyevich Lomonosov(November 8, 1711 , Mishaninskaya village, Russia - April 4, 1765 , Saint Petersburg, Russian empire) - the first Russian natural scientist of world importance, encyclopedist, chemist and physicist; he entered science as the first chemist who gave physical chemistry a definition very close to the modern one and outlined an extensive program of physical and chemical research; his molecular kinetic theory of heat in many respects anticipated contemporary performance on the structure of matter and many fundamental laws, including one of the principles of thermodynamics; laid the foundations of the science of glass. Astronomer, instrument maker, geographer, metallurgist, geologist, poet, approved the foundations of the modern Russian literary language, artist, historian, champion of the development of national education, science and economics. He developed the project of the Moscow University, later named after him. He discovered the presence of an atmosphere near the planet Venus. A full member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (adjunct of the physical class with 1742 , professor of chemistry from 1745).

Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosovmanaged to embrace in his work all the main areas of knowledge, their fundamental, fundamental problems, and penetrate so deeply into the very essence of phenomena that were not understood in his time, go ahead of his time so much that even now the words of V. I. Vernadsky sound devoid of even a slight exaggeration, said more than a hundred years ago about M.V. Lomonosov, as being “our contemporary in terms of the tasks and goals that he set for scientific research”

Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov managed to embrace in his work all the main areas of knowledge, their fundamental, fundamental problems, and to penetrate so deeply into the very essence of phenomena that were not understood in his time, to go ahead of his time so much that even now the words of V. and Vernadsky, who spoke more than a hundred years ago about M.V. Lomonosov as “our contemporary in terms of the tasks and goals that he set for scientific research”

The list of his works speaks with certainty about the encyclopedism of M. V. Lomonosov, this is noted by both representatives of the natural sciences and the humanities.

M.V. Lomonosov considered chemistry to be the main area of ​​his activity, but as his heritage shows, this discipline, entering into different stages his work in interaction with other sections of natural science, remained inextricably linked with them in the context of the diversity of his studies, which, in turn, were interconnected. Such a logical unity is a consequence of his understanding of the unity of nature and the existence of a few fundamental laws that underlie the whole integral diversity of phenomena. This logical unity is demonstrated not only by his works relating to the natural sciences and philosophy - it can be traced between them and his poetic work. and given the above, not only because in some cases it becomes “applied” in relation to them, performing the function of a kind of “advertising” - when he used all the gift of his eloquence, seeking support for research, in the expediency of which he was firmly convinced and passionately interested both as a theoretical natural scientist and as a consistent practitioner (“Letter on the Benefits of Glass”).The scientist dreamed of building his entire "Natural Philosophy" on the basis of unifying ideas, in particular, on the basis of the idea of ​​"rotary (rotational) motion of particles."

Without repeating what has already been said about the universality of the scientific creativity of a scientist, one can, nevertheless, give another illustrative example of the fundamental versatility of his interests, "the long-range mind" - according to N. N. Kachalov, and this example belongs to the area that occupied far from being a paramount place in the circle of interests of M. V. Lomonosov. The outstanding Russian geologist and soil scientist V.V. Dokuchaev writes in his lectures published in 1901: “Recently, Prof. Vernadsky received an order from Moscow University to analyze Lomonosov’s works, and I was surprised to learn from Prof. Vernadsky that Lomonosov had long ago stated in my writings that theory, for the defense of which I received a doctorate, and I have stated, it must be admitted, in a broader and more general way.

Pavel Alekseevich Zarubin(1816-1886) - Russian scientist, self-taught mechanic.

A tradesman from Kostroma, in childhood he learned to read and write with the weak and inept help of his mother. His life was spent mainly in the service of the land surveying department. In 1842, Zarubin was appointed to serve in the Kostroma provincial drafting office, in 1854 he was transferred to Moscow to the survey office, senior surveyor's assistant, from 1858-1860 he served as a surveyor in the department of appanages. This entire period of service passed for Zarubin with great troubles and hardships, the source of which lay in the precise instruments he invented for the correct measurement and accurate application of the measured areas on paper. earth's surface. The plans of the sworn surveyors were handed over for verification to Zarubin, who, using the device of his invention, found those plans incorrect, which greatly aroused the drafters of the plans against him.

In 1864 Zarubin was assigned to the Ministry of State Property, where he served as Assistant Director of the Imperial Agricultural Museum until 1883 . And here he also had to endure a lot from people who envied his inventive abilities. V 1853 Zarubin presented to the Academy of Sciences several tools he invented related to land surveying. The Academy awarded the inventions with the Demidov Prize, and published their description at its own expense. The Demidov Prize was also awarded to his scooter planimeter(1855) . The Imperial Free Economic Society awarded gold medals to his multi-strength hydraulic console (1866) and water lift (1867). The All-Russian Exhibition of 1882 also awarded a medal to his agricultural fire pump.

Due to lack of funds, the following Zarubin inventions were not implemented:1) several new planimeters; 2) a method for determining the sea depth in deep places without the help of a line or rope; 3) a way to determine the speed of the ship at any moment with the help of an arrow and a dial in the cabin; 4) the same through musical sounds; 5) an automatic method for determining the distance traveled by a ship at different speeds; and 6) a pendulum that maintains a constant length at different temperatures.

Of the articles published by Zarubin, it is necessary to mention: “How do ordinary Russian people solve the issue of communal ownership of land” (“Proceedings of the Imperial Free Economic Society”, 1865); “On water-lifting machines in general” (ibid., 1866); "Theory of fire pumps" (ibid.); "Determination of air density at different heights" ("Nature and hunting", 1878); "The device of a second pendulum" (ibid.); "Scientific resolution of the issue of sewage disposal of St. Petersburg according to the Lindley project" (brochure, 1886).

In memory of Zarubin, the Imperial Free Economic Society established a gold medal.

Vladimir Andreevich Nikonov(July 14 (27), 1904, Simbirsk, Russian Empire - March 13, 1988, Moscow, USSR; buried in Ulyanovsk) - Soviet linguist, organizer of science, literary critic, poet. Self-taught scientist without higher education, one of the largest Soviet onomasts

Scientific achievements

He formulated the postulate about the rows of geographical names, which “never exist alone, they are always correlated with each other. To find out the origin of the name, it is necessary first of all to understand that it did not arise in isolation, but only in a series of other names.

He proposed to distinguish between the concepts of toponymy and toponymy, which became generally accepted.

He emphasized the importance of historicism in toponymy: toponymy does not correspond to natural areas, but to "historically emerging use of them by man."

He contributed to the formation of new scientific directions - ethnic and areal onomastics. He introduced new research methods into onomastics - statistical and cartographic. He introduced a new range of sources into scientific circulation - censuses, household books, data from registry offices and archives.

Using statistical methods, he first identified four main regions of the European part of Russia, each of which is dominated by one surname: in the North - Popov, in the Northern Volga region - Smirnov, in a huge strip south and east of Moscow - Kuznetsov, in the northwest - Ivanov. These four arrays, covering millions of people, according to Nikonov, are the four historical and geographical components of Russia: the Suzdal-Vladimir lands, the Pskov-Novgorod, northern and lands of new development.

He singled out six main groups of surname systems: patronymic, belonging, possessive, territorial, professional, according to the personal characteristics of the carrier, ethnic. He paid special attention to the analysis of the lexical rows of words that served as the basis for surnames, without mixing them with the semantics of the surname.

Organization of science

He created and directed the toponymic commission of the Moscow branch of the Geographical Society of the USSR and the onomastics group at the Institute of Linguistics of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For more than 20 years, he led the onomastics group at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He supervised the holding of a number of all-Union conferences on toponymy, anthroponymy, onomastics and the release of more than 20 scientific collections.

International recognition

In 1972, at the XI International Congress on Onomastics in Sofia, he was elected an honorary member of the International Committee (Center) of Onomastic Sciences at UNESCO.

In a developed socialist society, self-education is mainly aimed at independently deepening and expanding the knowledge acquired in educational institutions, where students master the skills independent work necessary for self-education. Various forms of political self-education and organized voluntary study at public universities, at various courses, in scientific circles, societies, etc., are becoming leading in the system of self-education. The activities of organizations of the Knowledge society, various lecture halls (especially Komsomol youth), a network of mass libraries, numerous popular science, scientific and special publications to help self-education, as well as Radio Broadcasting and Television.