Nikolai Slavianov

Born Apr. 23 (May 5), 1854, in the village of Nikol’skoe, in what is now Za-donsk Raion, Lipetsk Oblast; died Oct. 5(17), 1897, in Motovi-likha (now in Perm’). Russian inventor; one of the pioneers of the arc welding of metals.

After graduating from the St. Petersburg Institute of Mines in 1877, Slavianov worked at the Votkinsk and Omutninsk factories in the Urals. In 1883 he began working at the Perm’ Gun Factories in Motovilikha, where he was manager of the gun and mechanical plants, assistant to the director of mines, and, beginning in 1891, director of mines.

Slavianov, the first to use electric current for industrial heating, perfected the method of arc welding invented by N. N. Be-nardos. In 1888 he developed and applied a welding technique using a metal electrode and preheating of the workpiece, which he called electric metal casting; in the period 1890–1891 he obtained patents on his invention in Germany, France, Great Britain, Belgium, and Austria-Hungary. In his works Slavianov established the metallurgical principles of arc welding. He was the first to use electric generators to supply current to welding stations. In order to mechanize and automate arc-welding processes, he also used an automatic regulator for the length of the arc, which he called an electric crucible; this device was the prototype of automatic welding heads. Slavianov proposed a method of “electrically solidifying metal castings” by heating the upper part of ingots with an electric arc immediately after the ingots are poured in order to improve the metallic structure.

At the Fourth Electrical Exhibition in 1892, the Russian Technical Society conferred on Slavianov its highest awards—a medal and an honorary diploma. At the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Slavianov’s inventions were awarded a medal and a certificate.