Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky - self-taught scientist, founder of cosmonautics
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s father served in forestry (he was a forester), and his mother, Maria Yumasheva, was from noble landlords, and led the household in accordance with the customs of those years. In childhood, at the age of 10, the future famous scientist fell ill with scarlet fever and almost lost his hearing as a result of the complications of the disease. He caught a cold and got sick, riding on a sled in winter. What Tsiolkovsky called “the saddest and darkest time of my life” came in the future. The hearing loss of the boy deprived the child of a large number of children's amusements and impressions that were available to his peers. However, the compensation was the craving for creativity, invention, skill. Even then, Konstantin begins to independently make watches, toys, and dolls. Later in the 14 years, the future scientist independently produced a lathe, and in 15 years he made a balloon with his own hands.
At the beginning of 1868, the Tsiolkovsky family moved from the Izhevskoye village near Ryazan to the city of Vyatka (Kirov). Here Konstantin Tsiolkovsky begins his studies at the Vyatka gymnasium for men. At the same time, it was quite difficult for him to study due to hearing problems. Surprisingly, problems with hearing in the future did not prevent him from understanding music well. He even wrote the work “The Origin of Music and Its Essence”, and in the Tsiolkovsky family were piano and harmonium. In 1873, Tsiolkovsky was forced to stop studying at the gymnasium due to expulsion. At the same time, the absence of a completed school education did not prevent him from devoting his whole life to the pursuit of exact sciences. After the Vyatka gymnasium, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky never studied anywhere else, preferring to engage in self-education, which he did well for.
At the age of 16, the young man went to conquer Moscow, where he spent several years laying them on the altar of mechanics and natural sciences. In fact, the father sent his son to enter the Higher Technical School (today the Bauman Moscow State Technical University), providing him with a cover letter to his acquaintance asking for help to settle in the capital. However, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lost the letter, remembering only the address: German Street (today Bauman Street). Reaching this street, he rented a room in the apartment of the washerwoman.
For reasons unknown today, Tsiolkovsky never entered the school, but remained in Moscow, where he continued his self-education. At the same time, the future great scientist lived very modestly, literally on black bread and water. Father sent him to Moscow for 10-15 rubles every month. Of this money for food, Konstantin spent very little. Later, he recalled that every three days he went to the bakery, where he bought bread for 9 kopecks. Thus, in a month he lived on 90 kopecks. To save money, Tsiolkovsky moved around the capital only on foot. He preferred to spend all free cash on the purchase of books, chemicals for experiments and instruments. Every day from 10 o'clock in the morning to 15 o'clock in the afternoon it could be found in the Chertkovsky Public Library - the only free library in the Russian capital of those years.
For three years in the library, Tsiolkovsky independently mastered the entire gymnasium program and most of the university program. So in the first year of his life in Moscow, he studied physics and the beginnings of mathematics. And then he grasped higher algebra, differential and integral calculus, spherical and analytical geometry, astronomy, chemistry and mechanics, and all this independently. He did not forget about simpler material, reading also journalism and fiction. Actively engaged in the study of journals, which published journalistic and scientific articles. He enthusiastically read the works of Shakespeare, Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy.
However, studying, eating and renting housing in the capital at some point became very expensive for a young man in monetary terms. His father felt bad, was going to retire and could no longer send money to him. Therefore, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky returned to his father in Vyatka. He returned home weakened, thinner, and with eyesight spoiled by overuse of reading. After that, Tsiolkovsky began to wear glasses. His knowledge base allowed him to engage in private teaching, he gave lessons in physics and mathematics. He never had a lack of disciples. In his teaching work, he focused on a visual demonstration: he conducted numerous experiments on physics and made paper models of polyhedra on geometry, which he liked and was well accepted by his students.
In 1878, the Tsiolkovsky family returned to Ryazan, where in the autumn of 1879, Konstantin successfully passes the exam for the district mathematics teacher at the First Gubernian High School. As a “self-taught” he had to pass a “full” exam - not only the subject itself, but also grammar, worship, catechism, and other mandatory disciplines. These subjects did not interest Tsiolkovsky before, but he managed to prepare and pass them in a short time. In 1880, he left Ryazan, receiving a direction as a teacher of arithmetic and geometry at the Borovsk uyezd school of the Kaluga province. Borovsk was located at a distance of 100 kilometers from Moscow.
It is working in Borovsk, he begins his scientific activity. In this city, he lived and taught 12 for years, started a family, made friends, wrote and published his first scientific papers. At the same time began his contacts with the Russian scientific community. It all started with an incident. Tsiolkovsky independently developed the basis of the kinetic theory of gases and sent the results to the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. The response from Mendeleev greatly upset him, the famous Russian scientist in his letter noted that the kinetic theory of gases was discovered 25 years ago. However, the calculations made by Tsiolkovsky were appreciated. The reason for the lack of information of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was that he was self-taught, isolated from the scientific community and modern scientific literature. In this first failure did not stop him, and he continued his studies. In the period of his life in Borovsk, he was accepted into the Russian Physico-Chemical Society, and his work “The Mechanics of a Living Body” received a favorable review by I. M. Sechenov.
Here in Borovsk, starting from 1884, he begins to engage in the scientific substantiation of the all-metal aerostat (airship), the hovercraft, the streamlined airplane, the rocket for interplanetary travel. He was engaged in literature. It was in Borovsk in 1887 that Tsiolkovsky wrote his first science fiction work, a short novel On the Moon. While living in Borovsk, he fell in love with skating and skiing. In this case, the inquisitive mind of the inventor, and here he found a use. He invented a ride on a frozen river with the help of an umbrella “sail”, soon he created a sledge with a sail on the same principle. Later, in his autobiography, he wrote: “Peasants drove along the river, horses were scared by the speeding sails, prowlers cursed with an obscene voice, but in my deafness I had no idea about it for a long time.
In 1892, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky moved to Kaluga, where he began work as a teacher of physics and mathematics, while doing astronautics and aeronautics. It was in Kaluga that he turned to a topic that had been little studied at that time - the creation of aircraft heavier than air. Here in Kaluga, he created a tunnel in which he checked the aerodynamics of aircraft. In fact, we are talking about the first in our country wind tunnel. Konstantin Eduardovich asked for money from the Physico-Chemical Society for the data, but the company did not send a penny to the experiments. As a result, the self-taught scientist had to spend on researching their own savings. At his own expense, he created, and then thoroughly tested approximately 100 different models of aircraft. Soon the news of these experiments still forced the Physico-Chemical Society to allocate the researcher 470 rubles, which he sent to create an improved wind tunnel. And with 1896, Tsiolkovsky began to systematically engage in the theory of the motion of jet apparatus, proposing several schemes of long-range missiles and rockets intended for making interplanetary travel.
Tsiolkovsky continued to work a lot and fruitfully to create a theory of the flight of jet aircraft, he invents his own gas turbine engine, and first proposes the idea of a "landing gear that moves down" the chassis. Irresistibly attracted him and the cosmos, he wrote a lot on this subject of scientific, journalistic and artistic materials. One of his fundamental works is "Exploration of outer space with the help of a jet engine."
The twentieth century brought many troubles to the scientist. In 1902, his youngest son Ignat committed suicide (he had four children in total: a daughter and three sons). And after 5 years, the Oka River overflowed its banks and flooded its house, destroying the scientist’s unique calculations and unique machines. Curiously, the elements interfered with his work for the second time. In 1897, the fire destroyed the scientist's house, many of his models, drawings, manuscripts, a library, all the family’s property, except for the only sewing machine that they managed to throw out the window, also died in the fire. Konstantin Eduardovich expressed his thoughts and experiences on this subject in the manuscript “Prayer”.
In general, the first years of the 20th century were the hardest for him. After the Bolsheviks came to power, 5 June 1919 of the Year, the Council of the Russian Society of Understanding World Studies accepted it into its ranks, having appointed a pension as a member of the scientific community. In fact, it saved the scientist from starving to death during the years of devastation and civil war, since the Socialist Academy of Sciences did not elect him to their ranks on 30 June 1919, practically leaving him without means of subsistence. And in 1923, his second son, Alexander, settled scores with the life of his second son.
At the same time 17 November 1919, Tsiolkovsky was arrested, after a search in his house he was taken to Lubyanka, where he was interrogated for several weeks. By happy coincidence, someone from the country's political leadership and a scientist interceded for him. Only in 1921, all of Tsiolkovsky's research in the field of space gained recognition, and from the new authorities he received a lifetime allowance.
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky passed away on September 19, 1935. During his life, he has created more than 400 works on the theory of rocket science. The very day after his death, a resolution of the Soviet government was published on measures aimed at perpetuating the memory of the great Russian scientist and transferring his scientific works to the Main Directorate of Civil Air Fleet. In the future, by decision of the government, his work was transferred to the USSR Academy of Sciences, where a special commission was created to develop the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. The Commission distributed scientific works written by scientists in various sections. The first volume included all of Tsiolkovsky's work on aerodynamics; the second volume is his scientific works on jet aircraft; the third volume - work on all-metal airships, as well as on increasing the energy of heat engines and various issues of applied mechanics, on the use of tides and waves, flooding deserts and cooling human dwellings in them and various inventions; the fourth volume includes the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky on astronomy, biology, geophysics, the structure of matter and other problems; finally, the fifth volume was composed of biographical materials and the correspondence of the scientist.
The main achievements of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky:
- Worked on the justification of the possibility of making space travel;
- Created the first Russian aerodynamic laboratory and wind tunnel. Created a methodology for the study of aerodynamic properties of aircraft;
- Created a model of all-metal airship, designed a controlled balloon;
- He outlined a strict theory of jet propulsion, proved the need for the use of rockets for space travel;
- He proposed the launch of a rocket with an inclined guide, this principle was implemented in volley fire systems;
- Created own gas turbine engine scheme.
Based on materials from open sources
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