Leontii Shamshurenkov
Shamshurenkov, Leontii Luk’ianovich
Born 1687 in the village of Bol’shepol’skaya, Iaransk District, Kazan Province; died there 1758. Russian inventor; dvortsovyi krest’ianin (court peasant).
In 1736, Shamshurenkov designed the original models of the hoisting mechanisms to be used in lifting the Tsar Bell. (Damaged by fire, the bell was never hoisted into place.) In 1752 he built a four-wheeled carriage that was powered by two men. Shamshurenkov also proposed designs for self-propelled sleighs and a mechanical verstmeter (a device that records the mileage covered by a vehicle).