Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin, known after immigration to US as Alexandre de Lodyguine (
Russian: Александр Николаевич Лодыгин; 18 October 1847 – 16 March 1923) was a Russian
electrical engineer and
inventor, one of the inventors of the
incandescent light bulb.
Alexander Nikolayevich Lodygin was born in
Stenshino village,
Tambov Governorate,
Russian Empire. His parents were of a very old and noble family (descendants of
Andrei Kobyla like
Romanovs), but of very moderate means. He studied at the
TambovCadet School (1859–1865). Then he served in the 71st Belev regiment, and in 1866–1868 studied at the Moscow Infantry School. Soon after graduation from his military school he retired from the military and worked as a worker at the
Tula weapons factory.
Timeline
1872: He decided to go to
Saint Petersburg to attend lectures at
Saint Petersburg Institute of Technology and to start working on an electrical helicopter (electrolyot). The electrical helicopter would need some sort of artificial lighting that would have to be electrical. He decided to start his helicopter work by developing a source of electrical light for it.
1872: He applied for a Russian
patent for his
filament lamp. He also patented this invention in Austria,
Britain, France, and Belgium. For a filament, Lodygin used a very thin
carbon rod, placed under a bell-glass.
1873–1874: He conducted experiments with electric lighting on ships, city streets, etc.
11 July 1874: He was granted the Russian
patent, as patent number 1619.
In 1874, the Petersburg Academy of Sciences awarded him with a
Lomonosov Prize for his invention of the
filament lamp. That same year, Lodygin established the Electric Lighting Company, A.N. Lodygin and Co.
1875: From here on he was very interested in the
socialist ideas of the
Narodniks.
1884: As a result, he had to emigrate from Russia to France and United States.
1895: He married the
German reporter Alma Schmidt, the daughter of an electrical engineer.
1890s: He invented a few types of filament lamps with metallic filaments; some say he was the first scientist to use a
tungsten filament. He got a patent for lamps with tungsten filaments (US Patent No. 575,002 Illuminant for Incandescent Lamps, Application on 4 January 1893)[1] and sold it to
General Electric (1906),[citation needed] who began the first industrial production of such lamps.
1907: Lodygin returned to Russia. He continued work on a series of his inventions, including a new type of electrical motor, electrical
welding, tungsten alloys, electrical
ovens and
smeltingfurnaces. He taught at Petersburg Institute of Electrical Engineering and worked for the Petersburg railroad.
1914: He was sent by the Ministry of Agriculture to develop plans for electrification of
Olonets and
Novgorod governorates.
He invented an
incandescent light bulb before
Thomas Edison, but it was not commercially profitable. The lamp with a tungsten filament is indeed the only design used now, but in 1906 they were too expensive.
Several Lodygin's ideas were implemented much later, even after his death. In 1871 Lodygin proposed an autonomous
diving apparatus that consisted of a steel mask,
natural rubber costume,
accumulator battery and a special apparatus for
electrolysis of water. The diver was supposed to breathe the
oxygen-
hydrogen mix obtained by electrolysis of water.[2]
The invented diving apparatus was very similar to modern
scuba equipment[3][4]