Audiotour First wooden models of the Cabinet of Practical Mechanics

You are welcome to the Cabinet of practical mechanics of Saint Petersburg University. The history of this Cabinet dates back to 1865 when it was founded by Associate Professor (later Professor) M.F.Okatov. The conservatives (keepers) of this cabinet were young graduates from the University, who later became the pride of Russian and world science. Among them there were: A.M. Lyapunov, I.V. Meshcherskiy, G.V. Kolosov, E.L. Nikolai, N.I. Muskhelishvili and others.

In the second half of the XIX century teaching mechanics in Russian higher educational establishments and abroad was considered to be impossible without the models of mechanisms. In the Cabinet you can see the models that demonstrate different kinds of motion, for example: rotary motion, straight-line motion, and conversion of one kind of motion to another. In 1894 young I.V. Mescherskiy was abroad in some higher schools in Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany on duty by the Cabinet of practical mechanics. He wrote an interesting report in Russian, where he compared the mechanical collections from different countries. Many of the mechanisms described in his report are presented in the collection of the Cabinet survived up to nowadays.

It is believed that first of the wooden models were made on demand of the University in the Artillery technical school. Other of wooden models were made in the workshop of the Cabinet. What is more, there exist models made by the well-known in that time master, a university mechanic Frantzen.

The Cabinet of practical mechanics  is also famous for the fact that there are models created by academician P.L.Chebyshev with his own hand or according to his drawings. Chebyshev was also abroad on duty in Great Britain, France, and Belgium, where he learned foreign engineering and museum collections of machines.