Kalashnikov, Vasilii

Kalashnikov, Vasilii Ivanovich 

Born Oct 30 (Nov. 11), 1849, in Uglich; died Feb. 13 (26), 1908, in Nizhny Novgorod. Russian inventor, mechanical and heat engineer.

In 1860, Kalashnikov finished three years at the Uglich district school. In 1865 he went to work as a draftsman at a machine plant in Rybinsk, then in 1872 began working at factories (primarily in shipbuilding) in Nizhny Novgorod (now Gorky) as a designer and chief mechanical engineer. Kalashnikov designed original models of steam power plants for ships, originated the use of compound steam engines for river vessels, and also invented several devices, such as a force pump for spraying fuel oil, steam superheaters, and air-blowing machines. In 1886, Kalashnikov founded the journal Nizhegorodskii vestnik parokhodstva i promyshlennosti (Nizhny Novgorod Herald of Steam Navigation and Industry). In 1897, Kalashnikov was elected chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod division of the Russian Technical Society. At the All-Russian Industrial Exhibition in Moscow in 1882, he was awarded medals for his compact steam machine for ships and for his steam boiler. The writers V. G. Korolenko and M. Gorky praised Kalashnikov’s work highly.

WORKS

Izbr. trudy. Moscow-Leningrad, 1952.

REFERENCES

Danilevskii, V. V. “Zhizn’ i deiatefnost’ V. I. Kalashnikova.” In Trudy po istorii tekhniki, no. 1. Moscow, 1952.
Kalashnikov, V. V., and M. E. Shekhter. Vydaiushchiisia russkii mekhanik-sudostroiteV V. I. Kalashnikov. Moscow, 1950.