Koritsky, Osip Ivanovich

From the Polish gentry kind of Koritsky . Even in childhood, discovered a passion for mechanics. He received initial information on this science from one of the watchmakers. Then independently engaged in mechanics and acquired serious knowledge in it. But in general the circumstances of his life in childhood and the first youth are completely unknown.

In 1805, he arrived in St. Petersburg "to seek happiness." Learning that the water communication department was busy with the question of cleaning the Ladoga Canal , he proposed to the department head, Lieutenant-General Gerard , who invented the car. This machine operated very successfully and Koritsky was hired by the caretaker of the Tvertsa River with the rank of a collegiate registrar . He arranged many bridges and towers along Tvertsa, which greatly eased the traction of horses along the shoreline . And he did it so successfully that many years later the question of who built the bridges and gati through the Tvertsi stretches, was always the answer: “Our benefactor Koritsky made it!”

In 1812, he presented Prince George of Oldenburg with a project to destroy enemies through explosions. The prince approved this project, he thought to report to the Emperor Alexander I , but he soon passed away and the matter died down. At the same time, Koritsky made a special wagon for heavy loads, in which friction was significantly weakened.

In 1816, he was sent to Smolensk to set up a floating bridge across the Dnieper River while a new permanent one was being built instead of a collapsed one. Koritsky performed this assignment extremely quickly and cheaply: he took advantage of the piles of the bridge, built in 1812 by the French, and made a bridge on them, completely replacing the supposed floating one.

In 1823 , with the rank of engineer-major, Koritsky was appointed director of the Vyshnevolotsk water system and made very significant and significant improvements on it, according to plans that he had considered earlier.

The fact is that the drought of 1817 brought the Vyshnevolotsk water system, which was also organized by Serdyukov with. Prutnya, to the complete exhaustion of water. More than 1,500 ships did not pass through Vyshniy Volochek and, as in the worst years of the last 18th century, the caravans winterized. The price of bread in St. Petersburg went up sharply, the people became agitated, and this led to the fact that the government demanded to take “something decisive” to improve the shipping system, which is so necessary for the state. Surprisingly, Serdyukov, as if anticipating a similar situation, wrote that after many years there would be “practicing” in hydrotechnical art in order to “bring the matter to the best state”. Koritsky proposed his project to improve shipping, which he worked on for over 10 years. According to his calculations, in order to protect the water system from any surprises, it was necessary to raise the water level in the reservoir twice, thereby increasing the surface area tenfold.

In 1825 - 1828 he significantly increased the Zavodskoy reservoir . The support of the dam, arranged before him by Serdyukov, was small. The area of ​​the reservoir was 5 or 6 square meters. versts , with an overhead of no more than 3 arshin 10 vertices (2.57 m), - he raised the water to 6 arshin (4.27 m) (later it was raised another 1 arshin) and formed “an unprecedented artificial lake with an area of ​​50 square meters . versts. " To do this, he had to “broaden and elevate” the Borozdinskaya dam , cover the wooden, and even Serdyukovsky beyshlot , and improve the stone one. This structure absorbed a part of Tsna , Shliny and three lakes: Klyuchinskoye, Gorodolyubskoe and Zdeshevskoe. The success exceeded all expectations, the new artificial reservoir completely transformed the terrain. It not only contributed to a significant improvement in shipping conditions, but also protected Vyshny Volochyok itself , not allowing spring water to flood the city, as happened back in 1821 , when most of the city and Yamskaya settlement were covered with water. Also, the new facility made it possible for each barge underway to load 1.5 thousand pounds more than before. Such an increase in the allowable carrying capacity has produced, one might say, an era in trade related to the Vyshnevolotsk system.

An impressive sight was the spillways. “Everyone went to look at home Niagara, which was all the more important because its fall was of immense benefit, and not just an empty enjoyment to the eye.” However, it was not without the grumbling of local residents, especially Vyshnevolotsky coachmen , whose vast mowing and fields disappeared at the bottom of the lake. It even got to the point that during the passage of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas I , the coachmen stopped him at the entrance to the city and complained about Koritsky, even threatened to quit “postal pursuit”.

In 1826 , due to a severe drought, Siversov channel that goes around Lake Ilmen between the rivers Mstay and Volkhov is not only shoaled, but even in some places completely dry. Movement through the system has become almost completely impossible, because the crossing of Lake Ilmen was extremely dangerous. Koritsky, through a very simple and ingenious method, sent the flow of Msta to the canal, and in a few days restored quite free movement.

In 1815 , Koritsky significantly simplified the gateway on the Tsna River in one very inconvenient and dangerous place for ships, and in 1826 also astonished all neighboring residents, destroying, with a help of a special invented and built-in box, dangerous pool for ships. Finally, on the river Msta, in the so-called Borovitsky rapids, where the flow rate was up to 30 miles per hour ^[1] , he arranged special “elastic swims”, which brought great benefit to navigation. These heats reduced the strength of the strike of ships against the coast, inevitable due to the extreme tortuosity of the channel, but at the same time, often causing huge losses, because if one ship hit too hard and began to sink, the following barks also almost inevitably broke up about it and Thus, many ships were killed. In 1822 - 1823 swims in the Koritsky system were used, and since then, swimming through the rapids has become almost safe.

Such were the principal works of Koritsky on the Vyshnevolotsk system. In addition to them, he produced a number of less significant and difficult, but also highly useful for shipping. This includes the construction of the saddle half-lock on the Tsninsky Canal and new beshlots on the rivers and lakes feeding the system. In the Most High Volochek, embankments and a pier near the Epiphany Cathedral were dressed in granite, bridges on stone bulls were built . Through these bridges and cobbled streets there was a new road - Moskovskoe highway. But the main road remained water - thousands of barks, millions of pounds of cargo. And all this went to Petersburg.

Koritsky was generally distinguished by extraordinary ingenuity in the field of mechanics and constantly arranged for various models, which, unfortunately, disappeared without a trace after his death. But as much as he loved the mechanics, he felt the same disgust at paperwork and correspondence and received reprimands and remarks for the late delivery of projects, estimates and reports.

He died from a disease that developed as a result of a bruise he received once, when he jumped out of the carriage suffered by the horses. He was buried in the city cemetery of Vyshny Volochyok .

His wife, Nadezhda Gustavovna Koritskaya (January 10, 1799–29.06.1877), was buried in the village of Vydropuzhsk, Vyshnevolotsky District . Their kids:

• Ekaterina Osipovna (died 1874), wife of Colonel-engineer Pavel Adolfovich Meingardt (1812–1878); one of their daughters, Anna Pavlovna Korba (Pribylёva) (1849–1939), was an active participant in the Narodnaya Volya party. Was a friend of S. Perovskoy and V. Figner .
• Alexander Osipovich (1818–1866) - artist, student of K. Bryullov .
• Petr Fedorovich (1827-1894), the surname Fedorov and patronymic was named after the godfather, city and diocesan architect of Tver.
• Anna Osipovna (1828-1917), in marriage Petrova.

• Russian biographical dictionary : 25 tons. / Under the supervision of A. A. Polovtsov. 1896-1918.
• Shtukenberg A.I. Osip Ivanovich Koritsky // Journal of the Main Directorate of Communication. - 1861. - T. 1 . - pp . 37-94 .
• Solov'eva, F. B. 300 years of the Vyshnevolotsk water system: history and main stages of development / F. B. Solov'eva // Vyshnevolotskaya water system - 300 years for the benefit of Russia: Coll. materials interregional scientific and practical. Conference: Vyshniy Volochek, May 17-18, 2003 / Administration of Vyshniy Volochek, Local historian. Is. them M.I. Serdyukov, Excursion Agency "Volok", Argonaut BX-tour. - Vyshny Volochek: Irida pros, 2007. - p. 7-32.

• Project "Academic"
• The World of Dictionaries project (mirslovarei.com/content_bigbioenc/korickij-osip-ivanovich-119223.html)
• Project "Istok"
• The official website of the city Vyshniy Volochek
• Site of the city administration Vyshniy Volochek
• The article “Vyshny Volochek” on the “ORPHEUS” website
• V.V. Soloviev . Booklet "Vyshny Volochek"
• “Vyshnevolotskaya Land. Significant dates "on the website of the Tver Regional Universal Scientific Library. A. M. Gorky (inaccessible link)
• Anna Pavlovna Korba (Pribyleva) on the project "Narodnaya Volya"