Vasilii Stepanovich Piatov

Born 1823 or 1824 in Zlatoust; died Feb. 12 (24), 1892, in St. Petersburg. Russian inventor and metallurgist.

Piatov was an apprentice to a master watchmaker and subsequently worked in B. S. Iakobi’s laboratory in St. Petersburg. Beginning in 1855 he worked as a mechanic at the Kholunitsa Foundries and Ironworks in Viatka Province (now Kirov Oblast), where he was made steward in 1857. Between 1864 and 1874 he worked in various mining and metallurgical enterprises and goldfields. Piatov’s designs were used in constructing furnaces for producing pig iron and steel, heating furnaces, cupola furnaces, and rolling mills. His principal invention (1859) was a highly efficient method of fabricating armor plate by rolling with subsequent surface hardening using chemicals and heat (case hardening).