New publications
«Engineering Heritage of Betancourt in Russia»
Published on December 2, 2021.
Authors: I.P. Kiselev, A.Yu. Panychev, V.V. Fortunatov
Imprint: Engineering Heritage of Betancourt in Russia: study guide / I.P. Kiselev, A.Yu. Panychev, V.V. Fortunatov. — SPb. : Emperor Alexander I St. Petersburg State Transport University, 2021. — 192 p.
ISBN: 978—5—7641—1652—5
The book «Engineering Heritage of Betancourt in Russia» describes many projects of the great engineer, scientist, architect, educator, statesman of Spain and Russia, Agustín de Betancourt (1758–1824), during his time in our country.
In the long historical process of science gradually transforming into an actual production force, it was engineers who played the main part. The engineering history of Russia is rich in events and achievements related to both the Engineers with a capital E and hundreds, thousands, millions of those without whom all social life could simply stop.
The authors of this book offer their own timeline of the history of the establishment, formation, development, and functioning of our country’s engineering community.
Events are illustrated through the lens of projects implemented by Agustín de Betancourt, by his students and followers. Using numerous examples, the authors show how the ideas, undertakings, proposals of the prominent engineer had a beneficial effect on the development of industry, transport, construction, and architecture in Russia, and retained their significance up to the present day.
Agustín de Betancourt was born on February 1, 1758 in the Canary Islands, into a noble family. At the age of 50, he entered the Russian service and virtually created an engineering school, which became the cradle for many other engineering schools in Russia that brought fame to their homeland.
Agustín de Betancourt. Portrait by P.S. Tyurin. 1859. Central Museum of Railway Transport
In a relatively short period of time, Agustín de Betancourt completed about 30 major projects in Russia. They varied in scope and cost. But in each case an original, expedient and reliable solution was required.
The rise of the Alexander Column on September 11, 1832 using scaffolding and capstans designed by Betancourt
Betancourt understood that Russian transport field was facing a huge amount of work, requiring a large number of professionals with different levels of education.
According to many historians, the Institute of the Transport Engineers Corps, established by Alexander I in 1809, became the first higher, in terms of the level of education, technical, the first transport and engineering university in Russia. Agustín de Betancourt acted as the organizer and the first rector of this «institution beneficial for Russia». The system of engineering education created by him, brought together two essential components — deep theoretical learning and versatile practice — and in many respects became the main project of Betancourt’s life.
The works of Agustín de Betancourt laid the scientific, theoretical, practical groundwork for the country’s engineering corps. During the first years of its work, the Institute trained a plethora of brilliant transport engineers with deep theoretical and practical learning. Raised by Betancourt, Russian engineers, like in no other country, where quick to grasp the progressive idea of railway transport, and later — of automobile transport and civil air fleet (after all, the first road traffic faculty and civil air fleet engineers faculty were also opened at the Institute of the Transport Engineers Corps).
Organized by Agustín de Betancourt, the Institute became the first research center, what we today would call a technopark, for transport and construction industries. At the beginning of the 19th century, its graduates were able to perceive and localize in an incredibly short time, in mere decades, the entire arsenal of the most advanced technical and technological ideas of railway transport, up to commercial production of the best contemporary steam locomotives and carriages at the Alexandrovsky plant in St. Petersburg. From this launching pad, Russian transport workers rushed to the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway with its bridges across great rivers, to the world’s best subways, to hydroelectric power plants, to the unprecedented electrification of the USSR railways.
Commemorative medal from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin «For construction of the Crimean Bridge», which was awarded to the team of PGUPS