sofs.org.ua › About us › Archive › 2023 › №4(122) › 1.7

1.7

A HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF RAILWAY SCIENTIST AND ENGINEER DMYTRO IVANOVYCH ZHURAVSKYI (1821–1891)

V.A. YANIN
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6299-8924
Kyiv Institute of Railway Transport, State University of Infrastructure and Technologies, Kyiv, Ukraine

Nauka naukozn. 2023, 4(122): 120—143
https://doi.org/10.15407/sofs2023.04.120

Section: Science and technology history
Language: Ukrainian
Abstract: The article presents the results of research into the facts of the scientific biography of Dmytro Ivanovich Zhuravskyi, an outstanding railway engineer who built the first wooden railway bridges in Ukraine. This research is topical due to the lack of a comprehensive historical and biographical work devoted to the reproduction of a complete biography of D.I. Zhuravskyi. By studying archival resources, the main milestones of the scientist’s biography, the stages of his research and organizational work were clarified. The research activity and main scientific works of D.I. Zhuravskyi are analyzed; it is shown that he carried out systematic research on the construction of wooden railway bridges on the railways of the Russian Empire, participated in the organization of the railway industry and bridge-building in railway transport. A more complete scientific biography of D.I. Zhuravskyi is presented. A thematic classification of his research and technological achievements is provided: a) construction of railways, hydraulic structures; b) railway bridge construction; c) construction mechanics, resistance of materials and theory of elasticity. Documentary confirmation of the scientist’s work during the initial period of bridge construction in Ukraine, especially on the southwestern railways, is given. It consists in the fact that D.I. Zhuravsky studied the effect of tangential stresses in a beam during bending and derived a formula for their determination, which bears his name. It is shown that D.I. Zhuravsky’s works on construction mechanics created theoretic foundations of bridge construction: his merit lies not only in performing engineering works in bridge construction, but also in his being the pioneer of an experimental-theoretical method in bridge construction, based on a combination of theory and practice, i. e. a scientific method. It follows that D.I. Zhuravskyi should be considered the founder of the scientific method in bridge construction, the founder of an advanced academic school of bridge construction. D.I. Zhuravskyi’s works introduced a fundamentally new concept of material resistance — tangential stress, showed its practical importance and gave impetus to the creation of the entire theory of the stress state.

Keywords: D.I. Zhuravskyi, railway transport, construction mechanics, resistance of materials, bridge construction.

References

  1. Gerbel, N.V. (1881). D.I. Zhuravsky. Gymnasium of Higher Sciences and Lyceum of Prince Bezborodko. Saint-Petersburg: Printing shop of V.  Bezobrazov & Co., 390—398 [in Russian].
  2. Kholodov, F.N. (1875). The development of rolling stock construction for railways. Proceedings of the Congress of Main Activists in the Mechanical Engineering: Reports. 1, 9 [in Russian].
  3. Panayev, V.A. (1901). Memories. Russian Antiquity, 107 (7), 31—66 [in Russian].
  4. Zhuravskiy D.I. (1856). About railways in Russia. Russian Bulletin, 3 (1), 417—457 [in Russian].
  5. Speech by Professor L.F. Nicholai (1897). Proceedings of the Meeting of Railway Engineers, 17, 71—75 [in Russian].
  6. Sytenko, N.A. (1885). Using the Zhuravsky triangular strut system by English engineers in India for the Attok railway bridge. Railway Industry, 249—250 [in Russian].
  7. Sytenko, N.A. (1891). About Dmitry Ivanovich Zhuravsky. Railway Industry, 44, 445—446. https://doi.org/10.1038/044445c0 [in Russian].
  8. Golovachov, A.A. (1881). A history of railway industry in Russia, Saint-Petersburg [in Russian].
  9. Honoring the memory of engineer Dmitry Ivanovich Zhuravsky (1899). Collection of the Institute of Railway Engineers, 52, 1—32 [in Russian].
  10. Zhuravskiy, D.I. (1855). Bridges of the diagonal Gau system (Vol. 1—2). Saint-Petersburg, 1 [in Russian].
  11. Rakcheyev, E.N. (1984). Dmitriy Ivanovich Zhuravskiy: 1821—1891. Moscow: Nauka [in Russian].
  12. Borodin, A. (1892). Dmitry Zhuravsky: Obituary. Engineer, 1, 43—44 [in Russian].
  13. Timoshenko, S.P. (1957). A history of R&D on the resistance of materials with brief information from the history of the theory of elasticity and the theory of structures. Moscow: Gostekhizdat [in Russian].
  14. Timoshenko, S.P. (1975). Strength and vibrations of structural elements. Moscow: Nauka, 644—651 [in Russian].
  15. Zvoryikin, D.N. (1981). The development of building science in the Soviet Union. Moscow: Stroyizdat [in Russian].
  16. Lazarevskiy, A.M. (1893). A description of the old Malorossiya: Materials for the history of settlement, land ownership and administration (Vol. 1—3). Kyiv: К.N. Milevsky’s printing shop, 2 [in Russian].
  17. (1864—1904). Collection of Resolutions on the Ministry of Public Education. Saint-Petersburg; 2nd edition, Saint-Petersburg 1875—1876, 1, 31—66 [in Russian].
  18. Mashinskiy, S.I. (1959). Gogol and «the case of freethinking». Moscow, 1959 [in Russian].
  19. Srebnitsky, I. (1881). Faculty of Physics and Mathematics. Gymnasium of Higher Sciences and Lyceum of Prince Bezborodko. Saint-Petersburg: Printing shop of V. Bezobrazov & Co., 110—117 [in Russian].
  20. Zhuravskiy, D. (1881). K.A. Budzinski. Gymnasium of Higher Sciences and Lyceum of Prince Bezborodko. Saint-Petersburg: Printing shop of V. Bezobrazov & Co., 232—233 [in Russian].
  21. Gerbel, N.V. (1881). D.I. Zhuravsky. Gymnasium of Higher Sciences and Lyceum of Prince Bezborodko. Saint-Petersburg, 390—398 [in Russian].
  22. (1960). Leningrad Order of Lenin Institute of Railway Engineers named after academician V.N. Obraztsov, 1809—1959. Moscow [in Russian].
  23. Melnikov, P.P. (1940). Information about the Russian railroads. Red Archive, 2 (90), 142.
  24. Saint-Venant, B. (1843). Mémoire sur le calcul de la résistance et de la flexion des pièces solides. Comptes rendus Acad. Sci., 27 (18), 244.
  25. Tyulina, I.A., & Rakcheyev, E.N. (1962). A history of mechanics. Moscow: Moscow State University Publishing [in Russian].
  26. Zhuravskiy, D.I. (1856). The bridges of the diagonal Gau system (Vol.  1—2). Saint-Petersburg, 2 [in Russian].
  27. Zhuravskiy, D.I. (1861). Bemerkungen uber Gitterlalken und volle Bleichbalken. Allgemeine Bauzeitung, 26, 108—117.
  28. Evgrafov, G. (1949). The advanced role of the Russian school of bridge building. Railway transport, 4, 67—76 [in Russian].

Full Text (PDF)