Scientific and technical activity of the hydraulic laboratory of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute in the 1905-1920s.

The object of the study is the scientific and technical activity of the hydraulic laboratory of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. The subject of the study is the organization and implementation of scientific and technical activities of the hydraulic laboratory. The purpose of the work is to study the hydraulic laboratory as a particularly significant scientific center in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the XX century. The paper indicates the technical equipment of the laboratory, the contribution of the scientists-organizers of the Polytechnic Institute to the formation of national hydraulic science. In 1905, a hydraulic laboratory was opened at the electromechanical department. Its opening was associated with the need to teach students of the technical departments of the Institute hydraulics. In addition to educational activities, applied research in the field of hydraulics was carried out in the laboratory. The scientific and technical activities of the hydraulic laboratory have opened up new opportunities for applied research in the field of hydraulics and hydraulic engineering. I. G. Esman, B. A. Bakhmetev, and N. N. Pavlovsky carried out their research activities in the laboratory. Comparative and descriptive methods were used when writing a scientific article. The principles of historicism and objectivity made it possible to conduct a comprehensive analysis of organizational features and technical characteristics in the creation and operation of a hydraulic laboratory. Among the studies conducted in the hydraulic laboratory were I. G. Esman's studies on the movement of liquids of increased viscosity through local resistances, B. A. Bakhmetev built a tray with a variable bottom slope, which allowed him to study the shapes of the free flow surface. The material and technical equipment of the laboratory, the presence of an impressive instrument range, updating and replenishment of the material base, as well as organizational work on the part of the staff of the Polytechnic Institute led to the fact that the hydraulic laboratory was the leading scientific and technical center in the country. In the hydraulic laboratory, a draft regulating device was created on the discharge channel, a draft water pipeline for supplying warm water to the receiving structure of the pumping station, in the 1920s. In the hydraulic laboratory, the spillway profile of the Yaroslavl hydroelectric dam was tested.