Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute

The official name of the institution has changed several times:

• 1886-1891 - Technical School of the Post and Telegraph Office
• 1891-1899 - Electrotechnical Institute (ETI)
• 1899-1918 - Electrotechnical Institute of Emperor Alexander III ^[2]

Technical School

In the early 1880s, the telegraph department of the Russian Empire raised the issue of training educated telegraph technicians and the already emerging telephone business. The Ministry of the Interior developed a project for a higher education institution with a 4-year course called the Telegraph Institute (1885). The Council of State , generally agreeing with the need to provide a telegraph service with educated specialists, did not dare to decide on the establishment of a higher school, returning the submitted project with a view to processing, implying a simplification of the curriculum and giving the designed educational institution a narrowly special character, exclusively for the needs of telegraph business. A new project was developed for a special educational institution called the Technical School of the Post and Telegraph Office. The Minister of the Interior, Count D. A. Tolstoy, submitted to the State Council a draft Temporary Regulation and the staff of the Technical School. On June 3, 1886, Emperor Alexander III approved the Provisional Regulation on the Technical School with a three-year term of study.

The project was approved for a period of 5 years. The duration of the course was determined at 3 years; graduates of a secondary educational institution were allowed to pass it. Those who graduated from the full course of the school received the title of telegraph technician I and II category, and after 2 years of practical activity and in the presentation and protection of the project in the telegraph specialty, they could achieve the title of “telegraph engineer”.

On September 4, 1886, the Technical School of the Postal and Telegraph Office was opened, the first civil electrotechnical educational institution in Russia. The director of the School was appointed outstanding engineer in the field of electrical communications N. G. Pisarevsky , who was the inspector of the Telegraph Department in 1868-1885 and worked hard on the design of the school and the development of teaching programs.

The inspector of the School was appointed official of special assignments under the head of the Main Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs N. N. Kachalov .

To accommodate the school, part of the building belonging to the Telegraph Department (at 18 Novo-Isaakievskaya Street ) was adapted. The school (institute - since 1891) was located in this building for seventeen years (1886-1903), before moving to specially constructed buildings on Aptekarsky Island .

The teaching staff of the school consisted mainly of graduates of St. Petersburg University . The first of these were the university professor O. D. Hvolson , the author of the classical physics course published in Russia, France and Germany, and the chemistry professor, future professor of the Electrotechnical Institute A. A. Krakau . In 1889, among the first graduates, the future directors of the institute P. S. Osadchiy and P. D. Voinarovsky were left for teaching.

The experience of the first years of the college's existence showed that the programs developed did not meet the requirements of the development of telegraph business. In view of this, it was necessary to expand courses in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and, in addition, new subjects were introduced: the mechanical theory of resistance of materials, telephony, electrical signaling, and the beginning of high current electrical engineering. By the end of the first five-year period (1891), a project was developed to transform the school into an “Electrotechnical Institute” with a four-year course, and at the same time, the institution of six professorial departments was designed: in mathematics, physics, chemistry, telegraphy, telegraph engineering, and electrical engineering. The aim of the projected conversion was not only to give a more complete education in the telegraphic specialty, but also to inform future telegraph technicians and engineers with detailed information from the field of application of strong currents.

Electrical Engineering Institute

The results of the first years of the school showed that it is necessary to increase the duration of training and expand the curriculum. On June 11 (23), 1891, Emperor Alexander III signed a decree on the transformation of the Technical School into the Electrotechnical Institute (ETI) with a four-year term of study. His graduates had the right to defend a graduation project after one year of practical activity, and they were awarded the title of engineer. The curriculum was expanded and faculty departments were established in the main subjects - mathematics, physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, telegraphy and telegraph engineering. Training was free.

In 1893, a graduate of the University, M. A. Chatelin , was invited to the institute to give an electrical engineering course, the first in Russia to receive the title of professor of electrical engineering, and a future academician. Since 1894, a university professor I. I. Borgman taught a course in theoretical electrical engineering.

After the death of Pisarevsky in 1895, the institute was headed by N. N. Kachalov , who remained in this position for ten years. Under the direction of Pisarevsky, a project was developed to transform the institute, in which many prominent scientists, professors of St. Petersburg University, including D. I. Mendeleev, Manager of the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures, took an active part. In the new position, the Institute’s task was to determine the training of specialists in all areas of electrical engineering.

Despite the expansion of the curriculum, the institute still could not give its graduates a completely completed engineering education; obtaining the title of engineer through additional self-training outside the walls of the institute was a considerable difficulty. At the beginning of the 20th century, electrical engineering developed rapidly, branching into entire independent sections, the study of which required serious preparation. This state of affairs radically changed the point of view of the Ministry of the Interior , which required not only telegraph specialists, but also specialists in all other branches of electrical engineering, which prompted again to raise the question of the final transformation of the institute into an educational institution with five years of study, like the rest of the higher engineering schools in Russia. A commission of academic experts chaired by the Minister of the Interior has developed a curriculum for teaching general and special subjects. The following principles were put in the basis of the planned transformation:

• solid statement of general education sciences, which form the basis of any engineering education;
• the development of mechanical specialties;
• development of subjects of electrical engineering;
• especially widespread development of practical laboratory exercises;
• the establishment of the 5th year, designed for students to draw up engineering projects under the guidance of professors;
• the establishment of specialization of knowledge (from the 4th year) in industrial electrical engineering, in telegraph and telephone business, with the assignment to specialists of both categories of the general name "electrical engineer".

On June 4 (16), 1899, the institute was granted the status of a higher educational institution with the introduction of a five-year term of study and targeted training of specialists in all areas of electricity use. On July 1 ( 13 ), 1899 , a new curriculum and a new staffing table were introduced at the institute.

Emperor Alexander III Electrotechnical Institute

On August 12 (24), 1899, at the behest of Nicholas II , the Institute received the name “Electrotechnical Institute of Emperor Alexander III” in memory of its “Unforgettable Founder”. Since 1900, graduates were awarded the title of electrical engineers.

The Russian citizens of the Christian faith were admitted to the Electrotechnical Institute: 1) having certificates or certificates of completion of the course in higher educational institutions; 2) having certificates or maturity certificates from gymnasiums of the Ministry of Education, as well as certificates of successful completion of the course in real schools with an extra class, and 3) having certificates or certificates from other secondary schools, the course of which is considered sufficient for admission to the institute . The institute could be accepted, with a special each time the permission of the Minister of the Interior, and volunteers. Students who completed the full course at the institute and successfully passed the tests in special examination commissions received the rank of electrical engineer of the 1st and 2nd categories. The title of electrical engineer gave the right to draw up projects and carry out construction work on the installation of all kinds of electrical structures, with their accessories and living quarters in direct contact with them, as well as to carry out all civil construction work in the department of post and telegraphs.

The new period of the institute's existence was characterized mainly by the development of the teaching of general electrical engineering, the course of which was divided into theoretical and practical; At the same time, classes in the laboratories of the physical, chemical, telegraph and electrical laboratories were expanded.

Since 1901, the inventor of the radio Alexander Stepanovich Popov was appointed professor of the Department of Physics, and since September 1905 - the first elected director of the institute.

In connection with the expansion of the training program, it was decided to build a complex of buildings for the institute on Aptekarsky Island . All work on the construction of buildings (1899-1903) was carried out according to the plans of academician of architecture A.N. Vekshinsky ^[3] . The educational building was erected in the style of pseudo-Gothic. In addition to classrooms, the Institute received laboratories, a library and an assembly hall. In 1903, the institute moved to new buildings.

The complex of buildings of the Institute, covering an area of ​​2 hectares, had two facades - from the side of Aptekarsky Prospekt and Pesochnaya Street. Three large buildings were built for the needs of the institute: in the first there were classrooms and laboratories, in the second - a dormitory for 100 students, a dining room for 250 students and a room for ministers, in the third - apartments of professors, laboratory assistants and the administration of the institute. A sewage system, a water station with pipes from Bolshaya Nevka, an electric station of 450 horsepower and a telephone station for 40 subscribers for the needs of its employees were arranged at the institute. A line of Konka from Bolshoi Prospect was laid. Up to 1.5 million rubles were spent on the construction of the Institute’s buildings. ^[4] By the end of 1904, all the institute's laboratories were fully equipped.

The following laboratories operated for practical studies at the institute:

• I. In electrical engineering a) an electrical measuring laboratory in which students studied the practical handling of the most commonly used measuring devices, measured various electrical quantities, investigated measurement methods, graduated technical measuring devices, and learned to solve practical problems from the field of electrical measurements. The electrical measuring laboratory was divided into the following departments: general electrical measuring 3rd course (direct current), general electrical measuring alternating current (4th course), photometric (3rd course), linear laboratory for special studies of the properties of electric lines; in addition, there were special compartments: a reference (for accurate alignment of measuring devices), magnetic for magnetic measurements and a high-voltage compartment, in which you can have a voltage of up to 200,000 volts and which was intended for special studies of phenomena that occur at very high voltages; an electrical measuring laboratory with a special substation, which produces: direct current of 110 volts, alternating simple (single-phase) 110 volts, two-phase and three-phase currents, while the frequency of the alternating current can be changed in the range from 25 to 100 periods per second; b) an electromechanical laboratory in which students studied the practical properties of electric machines, tested them and got acquainted with techniques for handling machines and how to control them; the electromechanical laboratory had a large machine room, receiving - direct current from the station of the institute, and alternating currents from the scammers, converting direct current into different types of alternating current; c) an electro-telegraph laboratory, in which students solve practical problems in the basic course of electric telegraphs and conduct experimental studies of phenomena occurring in telegraph circuits. As auxiliary institutions there are also: 1) educational telegraph and educational telephone exchanges, where students get acquainted with exemplary devices of all methods of telegraphy and telephony, as well as special classes are conducted to study the details of the technical device of telegraph and telephone exchanges and the apparatus used on them; 2) an electric station, adapted not only to supply the Institute’s premises with electric energy (for lighting, for laboratories and workshops), but also equipped so that students can study work at central stations, get acquainted with the care and operation of steam boilers, steam and dynamo cars; 3) a department (at a linear laboratory) for the production of adhesions of wires, cables, joints of rails, etc .; in addition, in 1905, it is planned to arrange special devices at one of the institute’s yards for studying air wires, rails as return wires for trams, electric rails and for studying actions in the soil of creeping tram currents.
• II. Physical laboratory, consisting of two departments: the Department of General Physics and the Department of Electricity and Magnetism.
• III. Laboratory for structural mechanics, designed to familiarize students with the mechanical testing of building materials, as well as materials for electrical lines, such as wires, hooks and pins for insulators, etc. IV. Chemical laboratory, electrochemical laboratory and laboratory for physical chemistry. In these laboratories, both theoretical studies are carried out, and tasks of a purely practical nature that are directly related to electrical engineering are solved; for example, in technical chemistry, studies of cements (for electrical sewage), insulating substances, combustible materials, etc. are carried out. V. Workshops for students engaged in the mechanical processing of metals, and partly wood. The workshop has a sufficient number of turning, milling and drilling machines and sets of hand tools.

The following subjects were taught at the institute: higher mathematics: analytical geometry, differential and integral calculus, higher algebra; descriptive geometry; theoretical mechanics; applied mechanics: steam boilers and machines, hydraulics, calculation of machine parts, turbines; mechanical theory of heat; structural mechanics; physics; chemistry: inorganic, organic, analytical, technical, physical and electrochemistry with a department on electrometallurgy; mechanical technology; theoretical electrical engineering: theory of electrical and magnetic phenomena; applied electrical engineering: arrangement of electrical lines, sewage of electrical energy, electrical lighting, electric traction, electrical engineering, electrical transmission and distribution of mechanical energy, electrical telegraphs, telephones, electrical alarm, electrical measurements; building art and the beginnings of civil architecture; lower surveying; n) general law and a special course; languages ​​French, German and English.

Practical classes were carried out in the following subjects: classroom - in mathematics, descriptive geometry, theoretical mechanics and drawing (architectural and technical); in laboratories: in physics, chemistry, electrical measurements, electromechanics and other departments of electrical engineering, in the machining of metals and testing of building materials; at training stations: electrical (testing of electric and steam engines), telegraph and telephone. Design is carried out according to the following program: design of parts of steam engines and lifting mechanisms; design of steam boilers, turbines, construction farms, dynamo machines, electric motor transformers, electric lighting of buildings, structures along electric lines, electric trams, electric railways, central electric stations, supplying cities with electric energy, electric telegraphs, telephones and electric alarms.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the institute presented all three main directions of the use of electricity - telecommunications, industrial electrical engineering and electrochemistry. The institute also developed a system of education "in the field of radio" (1901-1908). The sudden death of A. S. Popov (1906) did not interrupt the current structure of radio engineering training. The followers of Popov, professors A. A. Petrovsky and N. A. Skritsky, improved the structure of radio engineering education - the disciplines “wireless telegraph”, “electric vibrations and waves” appeared in the curriculum of those years, teaching aids were published, and in 1916 the preparation began students majoring in "radio telegraph stations."

In 1915, a graduate of the institute, I. G. Freiman , began working at the Institute, who after 1917 became one of the founders of Russian radio engineering as an engineering science.

Since the arrival of G.O. Graftio in the institute (1907), the institute began to intensively develop the energetic direction of the Institute's work. This was especially pronounced during the years of construction of the first heat and hydroelectric power plants. In 1910, under the guidance of Graftio, the Volkhov hydroelectric station project was developed. Many professors and teachers of the institute took part in the development of the electrification plan of Russia (GOELRO).

Under the guidance of Professor I.V. Egiazarov, the Institute was a pioneer in the field of electrochemistry. The first teacher of chemistry at the Technical School was a student of A. M. Butlerov and N. N. Beketov A. A. Krakau . He was the first to introduce laboratory classes in chemistry into teaching practice. The Krakau Experiment (as they were called then) was adopted by the Technological Institute, and soon this system was established in higher education.

Since December 3, 1918, the institute received the name - Petrograd Electrotechnical Institute named after V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin) ^[5] .

• Category: Graduates of the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute (until 1917)

• Electrotechnical educational institutions // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Electrotechnical Institute of Emperor Alexander III
• Vekshinsky Alexander Nikolaevich (neopr.) . Pskoviana . Date of treatment November 15, 2018.