Kirpichev, Nil Lvovich

Born Nov. 2 (14), 1850, in Polotsk, now in Vitebsk Oblast; died 1927 in Leningrad. Russian military engineer and general of engineers (1917).

Kirpichev graduated from the Mikhail Artillery College in 1869 and the Nikolai Engineering Academy in 1874. In 1879 he began teaching at the Engineering Academy, becoming a professor in 1889. He conducted scientific and practical work in various fields: he was involved in the planning and construction of bridges across the Neva in St. Petersburg (the Okhtenskii, Troitskii, and Dvortsovyi bridges), a bridge across the Syr Darya, and hydroengineering structures (a ship harbor on the Amur River, the Ladoga water pipeline). In 1894 he became a member of the engineering committee of the Main Engineering Administration. In 1911 he was named chairman of the aeronautics committee of the Main Engineering Administration. Kirpichev worked out a method of calculation and a formula for determining the destructive effect of new types of artillery shells, as well as norms for the calculated loads of various types of bridges. From 1918 to 1920 he supervised the work of the engineering committee of the Main Military Engineering Directorate of the Red Army. In the following years he taught at the Military Engineering Academy.