The most famous Russian pianist and composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff maintained an active correspondence with relatives, friends and colleagues, leaving behind an enormous archive of photographs and letters. Unfortunately, not all of his correspondence has survived to this day: some of it was destroyed by order of his daughters. However, among the surviving library, an interesting photograph was found, in which the maestro is playing music with a man who, by his profession, is quite far from art...
We are talking about the founder of the Soviet scientific school of rock mechanics, Alexander German. The faded photograph shows the composer and the scientist rehearsing together at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. It is known that Alexander Petrovich was a man of high culture: he spoke French, English and German. His main hobby was music. He wrote several piano works. It is possible that in the old photograph it is one of them that he is presenting to Rachmaninoff.
In 1928 the Leningrad Philharmonic even decided to organize a separate concert of composer Hermanin's works. And modesty combined with the "obstinacy" of the author was the only reason why this concerto did not take place. If he had given himself wholly to his creative work, then another bright star would have lit up on the musical firmament. But the young man directed his tireless energy and talent in a completely different direction, and it gave no less impressive result!
Alexander Herman was born on November 1, 1874, in Vyatka (now Kirov) into a noble family. His father was a teacher and at different times headed the real schools in Vyatka, Kamyshin, and Saratov. The last four years of his life he taught physics at the First Real School in St. Petersburg.
Alexander Petrovich received two higher educations: in 1897 he graduated from St. Petersburg University, faculty of physics and mathematics, and in 1903 - Mining Institute.
The newly-fledged specialist began his practical activity with the Putilov (Kirov) Works, in the technical department of which he was charged with the calculation and design of mining and factory mechanisms. It can be said that it was here that the further direction of scientific activity of the engineer was defined - mining machine building.
In 1907 Hermann transferred to the St. Petersburg Mint, where within a few years he created a laboratory for the electrolytic separation of gold from silver and supervised the installation of steam boilers, machines and electrometric devices.
Increasingly deepening his understanding of the problems facing production, the scientist came to the conclusion that it was necessary to fully immerse himself in research work. Therefore, in 1908, he accepted the offer of Professor Ivan Thieme from the Mining Institute to join the staff of the university and become a staff assistant of this outstanding scientist at the department of mining mechanics. From that moment until the very last day of his life Alexander Herman was engaged in science within the walls of his alma mater. For 38 years, from 1915 to 1953, he was the head of the department of mining mechanics, and for more than 25 years served as provost of the Leningrad Mining Institute.
During this time he managed to lay down the theoretical foundations of all disciplines of mining mechanics. The range of scientific interests of Alexander Petrovich was extremely wide: thermodynamic theory of steam turbines, economics of power plants, theory and calculation of mine turbomachinery and fans, piston compressors, lifting installations and rolling mills, metallurgical blowers, problems of mine ventilation and mountain pressure...
Among all topics, the specialist was most interested in technical thermodynamics. For example, as early as 1912, he derived the conditions for the most favorable thermodynamic efficiency of steam turbines by means of analytical methods, thus refuting the opinion of the leading authority of that time in the field of steam turbines - Slovak physicist and friend of Einstein Aurel Stodol - on the impossibility of such a conclusion.
There was more. Hermann established the laws of physical processes of turbomachine operation, proved the existence of typical characteristics and on this basis created fundamentally new methods of their calculation, design and operation, laid the foundation for serial production of turbomachines. He also developed technical specifications for ordering and acceptance of imported steam and electric turbochargers and turbochargers, as well as piston gas turbochargers and electric compressors.
No less valuable for practice is a series of studies relating to the theory and calculation of mine turbomachines. The scientist derived typical characteristics of mine fans, which allowed him to determine all possible optimal combinations when fans are switched in parallel and in series at the mouth of one ventilation shaft. The engineer showed how the action of one of the jointed fans affects the performance of the others, depending on the peculiarities of their individual characteristics. This helped explain some of the paradoxical cases of poor ventilation when the fans were in parallel. As a result, the research played a decisive role in the development of safety rules for coal mines throughout the country. Vasily Vakhrushev, Chairman of SNK RSFSR, awarded Alexander Petrovich with the badge "Excellent Worker of the Coal Industry".
Herrmann's work on mine hoisting is extremely important. He was even awarded the status of "the founder of the dynamics of mine lifting". The scientist made an invaluable contribution to the practice of calculating and designing all kinds of hoisting units and devices that ensure their effective and safe operation at mining enterprises. Moreover, it was within the walls of the Mining Institute that the idea of multi-channel mine hoisting originated. The research of Ivan Thieme and his student Hermann was the basis for creating a new principle of operation of mine hoisting units. In Alexander Petrovich's fundamental work, for the first time the laws of motion of hoisting vessels were clearly established and exhaustively analyzed, both for systems without tail ropes and for systems with heavy tail ropes. Both exact and approximate methods of calculating the kinematics of lifting are given.
In 1939 the USSR Academy of Sciences elected the mining engineer as its full member in the department of technical sciences and as a member of the scientific council of the Institute of Mining Engineering.
Herman always responded vividly to the demands of industry. For many years he was a member of the scientific and technical councils of the mining and coal industry and consultant to the Research Institute for the design of mines (Giproshakht) and metallurgical plants (Gipromez) and participated in the design of major mining companies in the Donbass, Urals, Kuzbass, Karaganda, Kounrad, Tkvarcheli.
Merits of the academician never went unnoticed by the country's government - he was awarded two Orders of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Badge of Honor and many other medals. In April 1934, for his outstanding scientific achievements, Herman was awarded a car by Sergo Ordzhonikidze, People's Commissar of Heavy Industry.
In 1947-1954 the Board of Ministers of the USSR awarded personal titles to leading and engineering employees of the coal industry as a sign of gratitude for solving tasks on development of the industry. Alexander Petrovich received the title of Mining General Director of Rank II, which corresponded to the highest managerial and engineering staff.
Having worked at the Mining Institute for 46 years, the scientist became a truly legendary personality. There was a story about a duel between the students of the pre-revolutionary Mining Institute Alexander German and Baron Peter Wrangel, which was relished by lovers of "historical anecdotes" for many decades.
"In the smoking rooms they talked with a gasp about the pre-revolutionary life of the institute, in particular about the once sensational duel between the students Hermann and Baron Wrangel, which took place "because of an actress." The actress was Elisabeth Thieme, who was still alive in the fifties and an honored artist of the Alexandria Theater. The duel seemed to end bloodlessly, but the scandal broke out," shared the story in his book "Both Near and Far" by another graduate, Alexander Gorodnitsky.
At the time, such duels were considered a criminal offense, and in the walls of the elite imperial institution of higher learning - and at all unprecedented audacity! The young men were to be expelled and subjected to further punishment, which would have put an end to their careers.
It was said that the fatal beauty's father, who happened to be the eminent mechanical engineer Professor Ivan Thieme, had found out about the incident. Allegedly, he personally appealed to the director of the institute with a request to keep the young people in the institution: "Deprivation of the rights of a mining engineer, though not to the extent of ardor, but excellent students in favor of many negligent hardly fair." Today it is difficult to say whether this duel was only a fiction or took place in reality. Either way, both students finished their studies safely, and the most beautiful, wood-carved grand piano, which was Herman's gift to the actress Tima, adorned the conference hall of the Gorny for many years to come.
Alexander Petrovich, deservedly considered the creator of the Soviet school of mining mechanics, died on November 30, 1953 in Leningrad.