“...I was finally lucky enough to make a discovery beneficial to all mankind”. The Inventions of Ivan Shengilidzev in the Context of Nicolay Chernyshevsky’s Biography

Abstract

The attempt by N. G. Chernyshevsky, a Russian writer and philosopher, to invent a perpetual motion machine in the 1850–1860s served as the conceptual basis for the project “Perpetual Motion Machine: dreaming, discussing, embodying”, implemented by the N. G. Chernyshevsky Estate Museum with support from the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives (PFCI). The article presents the results of this project: a perpetuum mobile model made according to the drawing of Chernyshevsky, materials from his stock collection (including images, photographs, lithographs, paintings), as well as the writer’s manuscripts from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, and photographs of art spaces and objects presented at the “Eternal Sunshine of the Pure Mind” exhibition. An active research interest in this topic is caused by a number of unresolved issues. One such topic that remains little-studied is the comprehension of the concept of the perpetual motion machine in contemporary Chernyshevsky periodical press. For example, two works by Ivan Petrovich Shengelidzev have been published, namely “A useful invention is the Silotvor of the nobleman Ivan Shengelidzev” (1848) and “The description of the direct drive...” (1853), which have caused mixed reactions among the public. This study contains fragments of the descriptions of machines, as well as critical reviews on the topic, both of which were published in the journals “Dom estic Notes” and “Lib rary for Reading”. The archival materials used by the Russian State Historical Archive, as well as memoirs from contemporary witnesses (N. V. Sushkov, chronicler of The Moscow University Noble Boarding School, and D. A. Milyutin, classmate of Shengelidze at the boarding school who later became Minister of War during Alexander II’s reign), allowed the compilation of a psychological portrait of the inventor, which correlated his ideas with those of Chernyshevsky on the perpetual motion machine.