A memorial plaque will be unveiled on Thursday at the site of the Kulibins' manor house in Krutoi Pereulok in Nizhny Novgorod. "This is the only memorial plaque in Russia dedicated to this inventor," Strausova said. "It appears that people know that Kulibin was an inventor, but do not know what precisely he invented," she remarked.
The unveiling of the plaque was timed to coincide with the 270th birth anniversary of the famous native of Nizhny Novgorod. Ivan Kulibin was born on April 10, 1735 in Nizhny Novgorod. Since early years he exhibited exclusive ability to make different kinds of mechanical devices. He focused special attention in his younger years on a study of clockworks. In 1764-1767, he manufactured a watch in egg form which comprised intricate automatic mechanisms. He presented this watch in 1769 to Catherine II, who appointed him head of the mechanical workshop of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Here the craftsman designed a "planetary" pocket watch, which in addition to hours, minutes and seconds, also showed months, weekdays, seasons and moon phases. He evolved projects for a tower clock and a miniature "watch in a signet ring".
Kulibin also devised new methods of glass grinding for making microscopes, telescopes and other optical devices.
Besides, he designed a wooden single-arc bridge across the Neva with a span of 298 meters (instead of the former 50-60 meter spans) by proposing original girders with criss-cross grating. In 1779 he designed his famed lamp (spotlight) that transformed a weak source into a strong beam. This invention was used in industry - to illuminate workshops, vessels, and lighthouses. Kulibin was also the inventor of an optical telegraph for sending prearranged signals over a distance.
The craftsman designed "mechanical legs" - artificial limbs (this project was taken advantage of by one of the French businessmen after the 1812 war against Napoleon), a self-propelled cart, and a lift that raised a car by means of screw mechanisms.
In 1801, Kulibin was dismissed from the Academy and returned to Nizhny Novgorod. There he devised a method of moving ships upstream and in 1804 built a "water craft". The same period covers his work on the employment of a steam engine to move cargo ships. Practically none of his inventions was used during his lifetime, while the inventor himself died in poverty in Nizhny Novgorod in 1818. One of the city's parks is currently named after the famed Nizhny Novgorod native.
