Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: Lost to History
- Marcus Sherman
- Jun 1, 2019
- 4 min read
Born on September 17, 1857 in the village of Izhevskoye within the Russian empire. Nothing about Konstantin’s background that indicated that he’d be as influential on the history of science as he was. He was the fifth child of an ethnically Polish peasant family who’d go on to have thirteen more children. The large family was kept afloat by their father who was a park ranger and through the money he earned from his job he was able to provide for his children. From a young age Konstantin was interested in science and enjoyed reading about it. At age 10 he’d catch scarlet fever and would lose his hearing because of it. This would cause him to be taken out of school but Konstantine didn’t let his loss of hearing hamper his learning and continued to study. However the loss of his hearing would not be the only loos Konstantin would endure in his teen years for when he was 13 his mother would pass away.
Luckily things would turn around three years later when his father would send him to Moscow where he could better research his desired career. With the use of an ear trumpet Tsiolkovsky would listen to many lectures. During his three years studying in Moscow Tsiolkovsky mainly focused on chemistry, mathematics and mechanics. His commitment to learn was so great that he spent the majority of his allowance that was granted by his father on books to further his studies. He was inspired by the writings of science fiction author Jules Vene about space travel. He’d dedicate his life to speculating how space travel could be possible. Though he learned much while at Moscow he wasn’t the most well nourished. Surviving off of purely black bread. Not wanting his son to starve, Tsiolkovsky’s father would eventually called him home.
He’d after doing a teachers examination he’d end up being assigned to a school in Borovsk which was 60 miles from Moscow. There he meet the love of his life Varvara Sokolovaya. Who he would marry on August 20th 1880. Three years later Konstantin son Ignaty was born. Though being a teacher, Tsiolkovsky still manage to find time to research. Due to a lack of resources most of Tsiolkovsky's studying was alone and though he did well utilize his study time did impede him. After much work he sent a manuscript about the kinetic theory of gases to the Physico-Chemical Society in St. Petersburg. He’d be informed by prominent member of the Physics-Chemical Society Dmitry Mendeleev that discoveries similar to what he had written in his manuscript had already been done 25 years earlier but Mendeleev did encourage Tsiolkovsky to keep researching and the Physico-Chemical Society was impressed enough by Tsiolkovsky’s intellectual independence that they let him become a member.
In the year 1892 Tsiolkovsky would be transferred to a different teaching post in Kaluga. Their he furthered his research into astronautics and aeronautics. It was their where he began working on one of his life long projects which was constructing a all-metal dirigible or airship. Wanting to display the validity of his experiments he build a wind tunnel which was able to permit the testing of the aerodynamic merits of various aircraft designs. Similar to earlier in his life due to a lack of funding Tsiolkovsky had to use his family's budget to fund his experiments. Man things went full circle in the worst way possible for this guy.
Though a fan of Jules Vene Tsiolkovsky was more than willing to debunk the science of the machinery used in Jules’ fiction books. Tsiolkovsky calculated that the cannon envisioned by the French writer to propel his lunar ship would kill its occupants because of the intense acceleration. Using Newtonian physics Tsiolkovsky defined the “formula of aviation” which is what he used to determine the effectiveness of a ship by calculating the increase the increase in the speed of a ship as a function of the variation of the mass of fuel and the thrust of the engine. This formula would be instrumental in the invention of the rocket.
During his investigations into aerodynamics, Tsiolkovsky devoted his attention to space based problems. In the year 1895 he published a book whose title translated into English was “Dreams of Earth and Sky” and in the year after that he published an article on communication with beings who inhabit different planets. Later that year he start his most extensive literary work on astronautics titled “Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices”. With in the work Tsiolkovsky discussed many theoretical problems about using rocket engines in space, such as heat transfer, a mechanism for navigating, heat caused by air friction, the maintenance of fuel supply and many other problems.
However things would go south for Tsiolkovsky when the 20th century would roll around.in 1902 his son would commit suicide and six years later his house would be caught in the middle of a flood resulting in the destruction for of much of his research. What remained of his innovations would go unrecognized by the academy of sciences and in 1914 the Aeronautics Congress in St. Petersburg would be indifferent to his various airship models. Luckily Tsiolkovsky’s life would not end unrecognized.
After the Bolshevik victory in the Russian civil war the newly created Soviet government would found Tsiolkovsky’s work and even praise him as a self-made proletarian genius. However much of his findings would be kept as state secrets out of a desire to keep them out of the hands of the USSR's enemies. On November 9, 1921, the council of the People’s Commissars granted him a pension for life in recognition of his services in education and aviation. He’d die on September 19, 1935. Over two decades after his death his home country would launch the first satellite into space which sparked the space race and though he didn’t live to experience any of it Tsiolkovsky’s work was still instrumental in making it happen or in other words getting it off the ground.
Sources:
:This is the first piece written by an author other than Marcus.S
Editor: Marcus.S
Author: Random Leftist (Newest member of the team!)
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