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The first car in Russia
Among historians of Russian automobile transport, it is considered established that the first car with an internal combustion engine in the Russian Empire was a car of the French brand "Panar Levassor", brought in 1891 by the editor of the "Odessa leaflet" Vasily Navrotsky.
According to the research of the specialists of the Stable Museum, the first car appeared in the capital of the Russian Empire on August 9, 1895, and at the end of the same year several more cars were imported to the capital.
Studies of the Museum of the History of Moscow show that the car appeared in the Mother See only in 1899.
But even earlier, the most significant event in the history of Russian motorization took place - in 1896, the first Russian car was built in St. Petersburg.
Here is what was written in the article "Production of carriages with gasoline engines in Russia", published in the" Journal of the Latest Discoveries and Inventions "for 1896:" The production of carriages with mechanical engines, which took quite extensive dimensions in France, Germany, England and other countries, has not yet had entrepreneurs in Russia, except for a few and unsuccessful attempts to build bicycles with gasoline engines on the model of German ones.
The history of the first Russian car began in 1893 in Chicago, at the World Exhibition, where the Benz car of the Velo model was demonstrated.
It also attracted the attention of two St. Petersburg residents who present their products here.
What is interesting: they met for the first time only at the exhibition.
They were the owner of the kerosene and gas engine plant, Yevgeny Alexandrovich Yakovlev, and the manager of the horse drawn carriage factory, Pyotr Alexandrovich Freze.
The decision to produce a similar "self running crew" by joint efforts was self evident.
And three years later, in 1896, the first Russian production car was presented to the general public.
It is not difficult to guess that the engine and transmission were manufactured by the Yakovlev plant, and the body, chassis and wheels were manufactured by the Mill factory.
Naturally, this car was very similar to the Benz design both in appearance and in design solutions.
However, it was not a repetition of the German design, but its original development.
The drawings were not preserved, and the historians restored the parameters of the car from the available photos and descriptions.
The design of the first Russian car
Both in appearance and in design, the first Russian car strongly resembled the Benz Velo, as well as the Richard Duke car produced in France under the license of the Benz company.
The equipment of the car included a folding leather top, a horn with a rubber bulb, lanterns with candles.
The steering lever mounted vertically in front of the seat on the column served for turning.
The layout is rear engined.
The engine is 2 hp, four - stroke, with one horizontally positioned cylinder. (The "Benz" had a power of 1.5 hp)
Water served to cool the cylinder, and the heat exchangers were two brass tanks placed along the sides in the rear of the car.
The ignition of the mixture was electric (a dry cell battery and a patented candle), while many engines of those years used a hot water pipe.
The carburetor was the simplest, the so called evaporative type (unlike modern spray type carburetors).
Its body in the form of a high cylinder was located in the rear left corner of the body.
As with all other Yakovlev engines, the exhaust valve had a mechanical drive, and the intake valve acted, as they said then, "automatically", i.e. from discharge.
In front of the engine (it was located at the rear wheels), a transverse drive shaft with a differential passed under the driver's and passenger's seat.
The sprockets mounted on its ends transmitted rotation through chains to the driven sprockets connected to the spokes of the rear driving wheels by six stepladders each.
Judging by the ratio of the diameters of the chain sprockets visible on the preserved images of the Russian car, the gear ratio of the main gear was about 5.45.
The car had two brakes.
The handbrake (from the lever located at the left side of the body) acted on the tires of the rear wheels, pressing tiny brake pads against them.
It was this brake that, according to modern terminology, was a working one, and the other - the foot brake performed an auxiliary role and acted on the drive shaft of the transmission.
The gearbox is an analog of the Benz one, but the leather belts have been replaced with more reliable ones made of multi layer rubberized fabric.
There were two forward gears and an idle mode.
There was no reverse gear.
The features of the belt drive made it possible to do without a clutch.
The transmission was a very unusual design from a modern point of view.
From the box, the force was transmitted to a differential with transverse drive shafts, from which the drive wheels rotated by means of two chain (bicycle) gears.
That is, the inter wheel differential was not between the wheels, but several in front of them.
There were two brakes.
The main (foot) acted on the drive shaft of the gearbox.
Another (manual) pressed rubber bars to the tires of the rear wheels.
The gears were activated by levers placed on the racks to the left and right of the steering column, there was no reverse gear.
The car of Yakovlev and Freze was not just a copy of the German model, despite the fact that by 1896 four Benz cars were already driving around St. Petersburg: two were Velo models and two were Victoria models.
In fairness, it should be noted the difference between Russian and German cars in the engine steering, in the design of wheels and other parts.
In addition, the first "Benz Velo" arrived in St. Petersburg in May 1895, when even a detailed acquaintance with its device could not affect the basic design solutions of Yakovlev and Freze.
The chassis of the car, made by the mill factory, had a lot in common with horse drawn carriages.
The body was a double, open, with a folding cloth top.
In general, the whole structure was very similar to a cab without a beam (the place where the driver was sitting) both in appearance and in device.
The suspension used full elliptical springs (they are also called "carriage").
The wheels are wooden, the rear ones are larger than the front ones, with solid rubber tires.
The wheel hubs were mounted on sliding bearings - a classic cart solution!
The front and rear axles were connected by a stretcher, forming a kind of chassis, to which the body was attached with the help of springs.
The steering was very original.
The front wheels turned on the pins together with the springs.
The carriage itself does not differ in appearance from similar foreign designs, nevertheless, some significant improvements have been made in it, namely, a folding lumpy top is attached, as in covered cabs, which is not superfluous for our capricious climate; the transmission belts are replaced with rubber, which will affect less sliding on the pulleys, which are necessarily small, with a relatively short distance between the axles; a major improvement has been made in the design of the front axle.
Thanks to the improved design, this axle gets greater strength, and the body rests on the axle with strong elastic springs that complement the elasticity of the carriage's movement.
It goes without saying that the crew is distinguished by a strong, elegant finish and has rubber tires.
The horizontal gasoline engine develops two forces, which is sufficient for the crew to move at a speed of 20 versts per hour on a flat pavement.
The supply of gasoline is enough for 10 hours.
As for the most sensitive issue - its cost, it is still impossible to determine exactly by the novelty of the case.
Nevertheless, the company "Freze and K" hopes that its cost will not exceed 1300 rubles in silver, so that it will be possible to compete with foreign production.
Welcoming the new production in Russia, which is so desirable in the current state of travel conditions, we wish it successful development and improvement, for which, as it seems, there are solid data, since firms known for their factories throughout Russia have taken up the task."
The question of the brand of the first Russian car deserves attention.
Judging by the advertising published in those years, for example in the St. Petersburg newspaper Novoe Vremya (from May 27, 1896 to April 17, 1900 according to the old style), the car was definitely presented as a product of the E. A. Yakovlev factory.
At the same time, the "Journal of the Latest Discoveries and Inventions" (1896. No. 24. p. 2-3) reported that " a well known firm in St. Petersburg, "Freze and Co." (ex. Nellis), finishing the construction of a two seat crew with a gasoline engine, intended to be sent to the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition.
The company "Freze and Co." built only the crew, the engine was built by the St. Petersburg plant of gas and kerosene engines of E. A. Yakovlev."
Based on this quote, it should be assumed that the milling cutter has priority in creating the machine.
However, the dispute was helped to resolve by studying the branded brass plate on the back of the seat.
It is visible on the only negative with a picture of the first Russian car stored in the Nizhny Novgorod regional archive.
The following inscription is visible on the plate: "Crews, Fabre, Freze and Co.machine builds. plant E. A. Yakovleva.
St. Petersburg".
It resolves all disputes and gives the right to consider this machine a product of Yakovlev and Freze.
In July 1896, the car was demonstrated in Nizhny Novgorod at the All Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition.
It was in no way inferior to its foreign competitors.
But the fate of the first Russian car was unsuccessful.
At the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, Emperor Nicholas II did not even deign to pay attention to him, did not appreciate the work of two brilliant inventors.
What became of the first domestic car is unknown.
There is an assumption that the car was destroyed by its creators themselves.
Therefore, today we can only see a copy of it, carefully recreated in the restoration center based on the surviving photos for the 100th anniversary of the Russian car.
Much more information has been preserved about the people who built the first car in Russia.
Yevgeny Yakovlev was born in 1857 in a poor noble family.
After serving in the Navy, having reached the rank of lieutenant, in 1883 he retired and married, taking a good dowry for his wife.
It was with this money that the "First Russian Plant of Kerosene and Gas Engines by E. A. Yakovlev" was founded in St. Petersburg on Bolshaya Spasskaya Street.
The company was one of the first domestic plants that built internal combustion engines.
Yakovlev designed all his engines himself.
By the beginning of the 90s of the XIX century.
his factory already had a solid reputation, and the owner himself had several privileges (patents) for his products.
In 1893, the World Industrial Exhibition was held in Chicago, dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, which brought together manufacturers from all over the world.
Most likely, it was in Chicago that Yakovlev met his future partner Freze.
Peter Freze was born in 1844 in St. Petersburg and after graduating from the Mining Institute, he tied his fate with the crew construction, entering the Nellis factory.
Frese quickly made a career: soon he became a factory manager, and then a co owner.
The aging Karl Nellis, the owner of the company, observing the business qualities of the young partner, gradually transferred the reins of power into his hands.
At the end of the XIX century, the company was already called "Freze and Nellis", and later "Freze and K".
The authority of the company was so great that in 1893 it was invited to represent Russia at the World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.
The crews of the Milling cutter and Yakovlev internal combustion engines were awarded bronze medals and honorary diplomas of the exhibition.
There, Russian machine builders also drew attention to the experienced "Benz Velo", which, apparently, influenced their decision to create their own car.
The first demonstration of the result of this cooperation took place at the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition in 1896.
In 1898, after the untimely death of Yevgeny Yakovlev, Frese signed an agreement with the French company De DionButon, which allowed him to start independent production of engines.
Pyotr Alexandrovich's swan song was the St. Petersburg International Industrial Automobile Exhibition of 1910, at which his company was awarded a large gold medal.
After the exhibition, Freze retired from automotive affairs and in April 1918, at the age of seventy four, he died in Petrograd.
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