Chernovsky, Kazimir Gavrilovich

Born in the family of a poor landowner ^[2] . As a child, he did not have much interest in science, but was fond of reading ^[2] . He married very early - on Emilia, the daughter of a wealthy Warsaw merchant. A son was born in marriage, but family life did not work out and the wife went to live with her father, leaving her husband on the estate ^[2] .

At the age of 33 years, in 1824, he arrived in St. Petersburg , where he entered to study at the Medical and Surgical Academy ^[1] .

The revolutionary mood, which he was distinguished from his early youth, intensified among students, but communication on topics prohibited by the authorities was interrupted by a denunciation, as a result of which Chernovsky was imprisoned in 1829 for belonging to a revolutionary society ^[2] .

Wanting to be released from prison, Chernovsky wrote a letter to Nicholas I himself ^[3] , in which he promised to build a submarine in 40 days if he had the money, people and building materials, a ship that at that time was not in any country in the world, not from wood, as suggested by foreign scientists, but of metal ^{[2] [4]} , and he intended to use a boat to catch pearls in the Gulf of Finland or, when equipping it with cannons, for military purposes ^[2] . The letter hit the table of the emperor, who read it, became interested and demanded that Chernovsky first submit the draft of the vessel. He understood that the emperor would not wait long, so after three weeks his work “Description of Submarines” was in the imperial chancellery ^[2] . "Description ..." was sent for technical examination to Major General Bazen , who answered the project with a detailed analysis of all the shortcomings on 22 pages ^{[2] [5]} . He noted the lack of an optical tube, flaws in the design of the ventilation system, the small volume of ballast tanks and many other points. Bazin also drew attention to the need to attract experienced specialists to work, as he suspected an amateur project author who, if he had any engineering knowledge, still showed significant gaps in technical education ^[2] . Moreover, the general idea was accepted, and it was recommended to continue working with Chernovsky in this direction ^[2] .

However, despite Bazin’s optimistic conclusion, Chernovsky was mistakenly transferred to more stringent conditions of imprisonment - where he could not even get a pen and paper ^[3] . In desperation, he tried to commit suicide, but was stopped in time by the guards ^[2] .

Chernovsky tried to work on his project in prison, with great difficulty obtaining the right to writing supplies, but only in 1832 Bazin received a new project with 62 pages. The project was examined in detail, but this time the conclusion was not so optimistic: “The project serves as new evidence that the imagination, not controlled by solid knowledge in the sciences, is not able to produce a useful invention” ^[2] .

In 1834, Chernovsky was released from prison, but exiled to Arkhangelsk ^[1] . There, the unfortunate inventor worked in the provincial administration, while simultaneously preparing for the uprising. He established contacts with exiles and sailors, planning to capture 2 warships, a frigate, several fishing schooners, provisions, weapons, and also, for some reason, a number of horses by the beginning of the navigation season ^[2] . After another denunciation, Chernovsky was in the center of attention of investigators who found out that he managed to attract more than 800 people to his side, and Chernovsky communicated personally with everyone ^[2] .

For the preparation of this uprising, Chernovsky in 1839 was exiled to the city of Sarapul, where he died 7 years later.

It has not yet been established how, without complex tools, books and reference books, Chernovsky in three weeks was able to create a voluminous and quite scientifically reasoned description of the first submarine project in the Russian Empire ^[3] . He provided almost everything - a moving system under water, and oxygen tanks, and special mines with a chemical fuse for arming a submarine, and a shock absorber for bottom dives, and even a spacesuit. For the first time in world practice, Casimir Chernovsky substantiated the need to use metal to build a submarine and give the ship a streamlined cylindrical shape ^[3] .

The boat’s basis was, according to his design, to be a metal cylindrical hull with a pointed bow and a flat, as if chopped stern, 10 meters long and 3 meters in diameter. Inside, the boat was proposed to be covered with leather for thermal insulation ^[5] . She had to move due to seven pairs of oars, which were placed on special brackets and, if necessary, were easily retracted inside or, on the contrary, advanced through leather cuffs. For maneuvering under water, it was planned to use 4 oars that were pulled out of the stern, which is why it had to be made flat ^[5] . Immersion was supposed to be carried out due to the filling of leather reservoirs with water in an amount of 28; for ascent, the ballast from them had to be squeezed out using levers ^[3] , the ascent itself had to be carried out thanks to an innovative retractable wheelhouse with portholes: when it was pulled out, the internal volume of the submarine increased, and due to this, it surfaced ^[5] .

His main find was a mine , which could be installed from under the water on the bottom of the ship’s hull. Chernovsky also invented his own fuse for this mine, and its principle is still used today, but instead of the alum proposed by him, they use a piece of sugar ^[3] .

Chernovsky was one of the first who proposed building a cylindrical ship with a metal hull equipped with a movable periscope ^[1] . There is an opinion that the Russian general Schilder , who built the first metal submarine in 1834, was familiar with the Chernovsky project and borrowed some technical ideas from it ^{[1] [6]} .

• Bykhovsky I.A. Prisoner-inventor Charnovsky // Stories about Russian shipbuilders. - L .: Shipbuilding, 1966. - S. 154-176. - 284 p. - 17,800 copies.