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HISTORY
Russian metallurgists In the works of researchers of Russian metallurgy,
Continuation there are very interesting figures, showing the growth of
metal smelting in our country in the 18th century: 150
thousand poods of cast iron were smelted by Russian
blast furnaces at the beginning of this century and about 10
million poods at the end of it.
In other words, in a hundred years the production of
ferrous metal has increased more than 66 times! Such a rapid
growth of the metallurgical industry allowed Russia to overtake
all countries and take first place in the world in metal production.
This primacy was won by the Russian metallurgy extraordinarily
quickly.
By 1724, Russia had left behind in the production of
The famous "Old Sable" stamp, which
was used to mark the Ural iron metal not only France, Germany and the United States, but also
England, which had previously possessed the most powerful
mining industry.
The beginning of the powerful development of Russian
metallurgy was laid by Peter I. The great reformer of the state, the creator of a first-class army
and navy, he understood that only a highly developed industry, primarily metallurgical, could
become the basis of all Russia's state and military might.
And that is why not one of Peter's decrees said that "the Russian state is abundant in front
of many other lands and is blessed to eat the required metals and minerals" and demanded
"diligent organization of mines".
As a result of Peter's activities in Russia, new metallurgical centers arose such as Voronezh,
Vyazemsky and others, and the Urals developed unusually, where 16 factories grew up during
Peter's lifetime. In total, 123 ferrous metallurgy plants and 53 copper smelters were built in the
Urals in the 18th century.
The growth of the Russian metal mining industry, fabulous for that time, already in the
first years of the 18th century brought brilliant results. Undoubtedly, among the other reasons
that brought Russia victory over Sweden, the strongest aggressor, a country with a developed
industry, were the successes of domestic metallurgy.
Panorama of the Porotovsky Metallurgical Plant. XVIII century.
The mighty flow of metal from the Russian domain satisfied the needs of not only our
country, its army, navy and economy. Russia has become the main supplier of metal on the world
market. Russian, Uralic was preferred to any other iron. Marked with the "Old Sable" stamp,
the Ural iron had no rivals. Unable to compete with Russian metallurgists, foreign industrialists
often forged the Ural brand in order to ensure the sale of their iron.
The excellent quality of the Ural metal was primarily because the Urals people smelted it
from the excellent ore, which was magnetic iron ore.
True, deposits of magnetic iron ore were also in other countries: Norway, Sweden, USA.
However, there they did not know how to extract metal from this rich and not containing harmful
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HISTORY
impurities, but very nonyielding ore.
The secret of smelting magnetic iron ore was the
first, long before foreigners, to be mastered by Russian
metallurgists. Their special skill was the second reason
for the excellent qualities of the Ural iron. In addition,
the Urals were able to burn very clean coal that did
not clog the metal with impurities. With legitimate
pride, a contemporary wrote about the discovery by his
compatriots of a way to melt a magnetic iron ore: "And
that will be such a miracle that in the whole universe
there has never been ... to melt iron from a magnet ...".
And the foreign countries really had to wonder. From
Holland, where the first samples of iron extracted from
magnetic iron ore were sent for testing, they said: "It is
impossible to be better."
Russian metal was everywhere a welcome The Tsar Bell is the pride of Russian foundry
commodity. Especially England bought it a lot, which was workers
experiencing a real metal hunger. Its metallurgy, due
to unbridled deforestation, was deprived of fuel and fell
into decay. And all the developing industry was in need of
metal for the construction of spinning machines, weaving
machines, and later — steam machines. This hunger was
satisfied by Russia in 1716.
England bought the first consignment of Russian
metal - 2,200 poods, and in 1732 - more than 200,000
poods. In the second half of the 18th century, three-fifths
of the metal imported into England came from Russia. In his
work "Russian Technique", the famous Soviet researcher,
laureate of the Stalin Prize Professor V. V. Danilevsky, talking
about these successes of Russian metallurgy, assesses their
importance:
"... An event of world-historical significance — the
industrial revolution of the 18th century. in England - based
Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev (1686-1750). to a large extent on the use of the labor of Russian people
who mined ore, smelted cast iron and forged ringing iron
in the Urals, sent to England. The materialized labor of Russian miners and metallurgists of
the 18th century laid the foundation for the large machine industry created for the first time in
history."
Peter I was not only the organizer of the construction of new metallurgical plants. factories,
but together with his associates, Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev and others, laid the foundation for
the Russian mining school which was one of the first in Europe.
In 1720-1722 Tatischev, being in the Urals, founded schools for teaching mining. In his instruction
on schools, he wrote that the student should "not only look closely, but also apply with his hands
as much as possible about the art of craft - what it consists of - clearly notify and reason ...".
As a result of a good organization of training, Russian mining schools throughout the 18th
century, according to the testimony of many historians, were famous for their students as "the
most dignified people for the mining service at that time".
And they really deserve this glory! The pupil of the Yekaterinburg "arithmetic" school was
Kozma Dmitrievich Frolov, one of the greatest experts in mining in Russia, the inventor of gold
washing machines, the creator of the greatest hydraulic power plant in the 18th century. The
pupil of the same Yekaterinburg school was Ivan Ivanovich Polzunov, who immortalized his name
as the inventor of the first universal steam engine. The pupils of these schools, finally, were
hundreds of unknown ordinary Russian people – innovators who enriched domestic technology
with a considerable number of discoveries, inventions, and improvements.
Simple metallurgical workers who managed to surpass the heights of world technology
of that time by the power of their talent also worked shoulder to shoulder with people who
received special education. Such are, for example, Materina’s father and son, who left behind a
glorious memory as the foundry workers of the famous "Tsar Bell". The history of the creation
of this metal giant is very instructive.
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