Ancient inventions edit

Inventions which originated on the territory of the Russian Plain, Northern Russia, North Caucasus and Siberia from Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. This section also includes earliest known instances of things that rarely survive archaeological record.

  • Wheel (middle of the 4th millennium BC)
The question of which culture originally invented the wheeled vehicle remains unresolved and under debate. Some archaeologists attribute it to the Maykop culture of North Caucasus.[1]
The earliest fully developed true chariots known are from the chariot burials of the Andronovo sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in modern Russia and Kazakhstan.[2]
  • Distaff (beginning of the 2nd millennium BC)
Parts of a distaff and ceramics with linum textile prints have been discovered during an excavation of a settlement on Modlona river in Vologda region.[3]
There is some evidence of trousers being worn in the Upper Paleolithic. An example are the figurines found at the Siberian sites of Mal'ta and Buret'.[4] A discovery of human remains with fur-pants was made near Vladimir, dating to around 20,000 years ago.[5]
The discovery was made near Zabolotskoye Lake in Sergiyevo-Posadsky district. It is unclear yet whether the discovery was a bridge or a docking pier. The construction was created from birch logs with stone axes around 7500 years ago. The oldest presently-known wooden bridge was built around 6000 years ago in Switzerland.[6]
Composite bows may have been invented by the nomads of the Asiatic steppe, who may have based it on Northern Asian laminated bows.[7] There are arrowheads from the burials at Krivoye Lake (part of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture) about 2100–1700 BCE, but the bow that shot them has not survived. The final form of a composite bow known as the Scythian bow was developed by the Cimmerians of North Caucasus in the 9th century BC.[8]
The world's oldest-known wooden sculpture is the Shigir Idol made during the Mesolithic period. The idol was discovered in 1894 approximately 100 km from Yekaterinburg. The radiocarbon dating gives it an age of 9,500 years. The sculpture is displayed in the Historic Exhibition Museum in Yekaterinburg.[9]
It is generally thought that horses were domesticated in the steppes of present-day Ukraine around 4000-3500 BCE.

Chemistry edit

Pobedit is specialized alloy that is close in hardness to diamond (85-90 on the Rockwell scale). It was invented in USSR in 1929 and was used in mining, metal-cutting and as a material for special mechanical parts. Later a number of similar alloys were developed.[10][11]
The periodic table is a tabular display of the chemical elements, organized on the basis of their properties. Elements are presented in increasing atomic number. The table was invented in 1869 by Dmitry Mendeleyev. Using the table, he predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered.
The first commercially viable form of production of synthetic rubber, Polybutadiene, was first polymerized in 1910 by Sergei Lebedev. Due to his discoveries, the Soviet Union became the first country to achieve a substantial industrial production of the material in the late 1930s.[12][13]
The Petrov contact liquor was created by Grigory Petrov in 1913. It is a surface-active agent (detergent) consisting of a mixture of naphthene sulfonic acids and alkyl-aryl sulfonic acids. Widely used around the world under various marketing brands.[14][15]
First developed by Aleksandr Butlerov in 1857–1861, the theory stated that the chemical compounds are not a random cluster of atoms and functional groups but structures with definite order formed according the valency of the composing atoms.

Communications edit

External image
  Kupriyanovich's 1958 mobile phone. More info (in Russian).
The device was created by Leon Theremin. It was one of the first "bugs" to use passive techniques to transmit an audio signal. Because it was energized and activated by electromagnetic energy from an outside source, it is considered a predecessor of RFID technology.
Interlaced video is a technique of doubling the perceived frame rate introduced with the composite video signal used with analog television without consuming extra bandwidth. In the domain of television, it was first demonstrated by Leon Theremin in 1925 starting with 16 lines resolution and eventually 64 in 1926.
In the early 1920s, Oleg Losev was experimenting with applying voltage biases to various kinds of crystals for manufacture of radio detectors. With a zinc oxide crystal he gained amplification. This was negative resistance phenomenon, decades before the tunnel diode. He then built regenerative and superheterodyne receivers, and even transmitters. However, this discovery was not supported by authorities and only a few examples for research was produced.[16][17]
In 1911, Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Zvorykin created a television system that used a mechanical mirror-drum scanner to transmit still images over wires to the cathode ray tube in the receiver. It was one of the first experimental demonstrations where the cathode ray tube was employed for the purposes of television.[19][20]
In 1794, Ivan Kulibin created a semaphore that employed his earlier invention, searchlight, as means of sending messages. This allowed the use of semaphore at night and during light fog, and extended the range between intermediate stations.[21]
  1. ^ Резепкин, Алексей (2005). "Проблема происхождения колёсного транспорта и его появления на Северном Кавказе". Тезисы и доклады. 4-ая Кубанская археологическая конференция. (in Russian)
  2. ^ Kuznetsov, Pavel (2006). "The emergence of Bronze Age chariots in eastern Europe". Antiquity. 80 (309): 638–645. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00094096. S2CID 162580424.
  3. ^ Рогаш, А. Р. (1973). "Лён". Большая советская энциклопедия (3 ed.). М.: Советская энциклопедия. (in Russian)
  4. ^ Nelson, Sarah (2004). Gender in archaeology: analyzing power and prestige. Gender and archaeology. Vol. 9. AltaMira Press. p. 85. ISBN 9780759104969.
  5. ^ Подольный, Роман; Бромлей, Юлиан (1984). Создано человечеством. М.: Политиздат. pp. 100–101. (in Russian)
  6. ^ Омельницкий, Пётр. "Чудеса России: Мост возле Закубежья". ОАО "Известия", ГТК «Телеканал «Россия». (in Russian)
  7. ^ Insulander, Ragnar (2002). "The Two-Wood Bow" (PDF). Acta Borealia. 19 (1–2002). Routledge: 49–73. doi:10.1080/08003830215543. ISSN 1503-111X. S2CID 144012834.
  8. ^ Шахов, Олег. "Скифский лук". Пехота. Retrieved 25-Mar-2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) (in Russian)
  9. ^ Понизовкин, Андрей (2003). "Куда шагал Шигирский идол?" (PDF). Наука Урала. No. 20–2003 [848]. Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) (in Russian)
  10. ^ "Победит". Большая советская энциклопедия (3 ed.). М.: Советская энциклопедия. 1975. (in Russian)
  11. ^ Васильев, Н. Н.; Исаакян, О. Н.; Рогинский, Н. О.; Смолянский, Я. Б.; Сокович, В. А.; Хачатуров, Т. С. (1941). "ПОБЕДИТ". Технический железнодорожный словарь. М.: Трансжелдориздат. (in Russian)
  12. ^ Vernadsky, Georgy (1969). "Rise of Science in Russia 1700-1917". Russian Review. 28 (1). Blackwell Publishing: 37–52. doi:10.2307/126984. ISSN 0036-0341. JSTOR 126984.
  13. ^ Morton, Maurice (1999) [1987]. Rubber Technology (3 ed.). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. p. 236. ISBN 0-412-53950-0.
  14. ^ "ПЕТРОВ Григорий Семёнович". Виртуальный музей истории профсоюза работников нефтяной, газовой отраслей промышленности и строительства России. Нефтегазстройпрофсоюз России. Retrieved 2-Apr-2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) (in Russian)
  15. ^ Ружинский, С. Р.; Портик, А. А.; Савиных, А. В. (2006). Всё о пенобетоне (2 ed.). Строй Бетон. p. 88. ISBN 5903197019. (in Russian)
  16. ^ "The Crystodyne Principle". Radio News. No. September, 1924. Experimenter Publishing. pp. 294–295, 431.
  17. ^ Morris, Peter (1990). A History of the World Semiconductor Industry. History of Technology. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers. p. 15. ISBN 0-86341-227-0.
  18. ^ Vonderheid, Erica (6-May-2005). "Early Radio Transmission Recognized as Milestone". IEEE. Archived from the original on 16-Jan-2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |archivedate= (help)
  19. ^ Bellis, Mary. "History of the Cathode Ray Tube". About.com. Inventors. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 4-Oct-2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  20. ^ Burns, R. W. (1998). Television: An International History of the Formative Years. London: Institution of Electrical Engineers. p. 119. ISBN 0-85296-914-7.
  21. ^ Альманах "Великая Россия. Личности. Год 2003–й.". Vol. 2. М.: АСМО-пресс. 2004. (in Russian)