Kuznetsov, Egor

(also known as E. G. Zhepinskii). Born Apr. 23 (May 4), 1725; died 1805. Russian inventor; serf.

Kuznetsov was born in the Urals, the son of a blacksmith employed at the Vyia plant (owned by the Demidov family). Kuznetsov himself worked at the plant from early childhood, but in 1762 he was transferred to a plant at Nizhnii TagiP. He is credited with a number of inventions, including a bilge pump and an ore lift (1764), a mill with calibrated cylinders for rolling section steel (1770), a continuous rolling mill (1775), and a machine for cutting teeth on saws. In 1775 he built an astronomical clock (presently kept in the Nizhnii TagiF Museum of Local Lore) that indicated the day and month and the rising and setting of the sun and moon, with a working model of a smithy attached. In 1801, Kuznetsov constructed a remarkably original droshky with a prototypic speedometer (kept at the State Hermitage in Leningrad). He also designed a musical mechanism. Kuznetsov was granted his freedom from serfdom as a reward for building the droshky.