Vladimir Shukhov

Who Broke the Long Molecules · Engineer · 1853–1939

Who patented in 1891 the first industrial process for breaking long hydrocarbon molecules into short ones — because a barrel of Russian crude never held enough of the light fraction anyone wanted to buy.

Who was Shukhov?

Shukhov trained at the Imperial Technical School in Moscow and spent almost his whole career working for the firm of Alexander Bari, which meant that a great deal of what he designed appeared under somebody else's name. His range is hard to match. He built the first Russian oil pipeline, in 1878, and then most of the others; he designed the riveted cylindrical storage tank that became standard, the first Russian oil tankers, and the plant of the Baku refineries. He invented the hyperboloid structure — a curved lattice tower made entirely of straight rods, cheaper and stronger than the alternatives — and built the first of them for the Nizhny Novgorod exhibition of 1896; the Shukhov radio tower on the Shabolovka in Moscow, finished in 1922, is the famous one. He roofed the great Moscow railway stations and the GUM department store with steel shells that are still standing. And in 1891, with Sergei Gavrilov, he patented the process that concerns chemistry students. Russian crude is heavy, and in the eighteen-nineties what the market wanted was kerosene for lamps; distillation can only separate what is already in the barrel, and there was never enough. Their patent takes the heavy residue, puts it under pressure, and heats it well past its ordinary boiling point in a tube, so that large molecules break into smaller ones. It is the first statement of industrial cracking, and it made the light fraction rather than merely extracting it. Russia was in no position to exploit it. William Burton patented a broadly similar thermal process for Standard Oil in 1913, by which time the fraction in demand was petrol rather than lamp oil, and the American industry made a fortune from the idea. Shukhov's patent was cited during the subsequent litigation. He stayed in Russia after 1917 and went on building.

Major achievements

• Patented, with Sergei Gavrilov in 1891, the first industrial process for cracking heavy oil residues under heat and pressure
• Built the first oil pipeline in Russia and designed the standard riveted storage tank
• Designed the first Russian oil tankers and much of the Baku refinery plant
• Invented the hyperboloid lattice structure — a curved tower built of straight rods
• Built the Shukhov tower on the Shabolovka and roofed the main Moscow railway stations and GUM

Life in brief

• 1853 — Born at Graivoron: Trained at the Imperial Technical School, Moscow.
• 1878 — The first Russian pipeline: Baku to the refineries.
• 1891 — The cracking patent: With Gavrilov: heavy residue, pressure, and heat past the boiling point.
• 1896 — The first hyperboloid tower: A curved lattice built of straight rods.
• 1913 — Burton's American patent: Similar ground, twenty-two years later, and profitable.
• 1922 — The Shabolovka tower: Finished in Moscow under severe shortages.
• 1939 — Dies in Moscow: After sixty years of building.

Explore the life of Shukhov — five chapters

1. Working Under Somebody Else's Name — The Imperial Technical School, and a firm that took the credit
2. Building the Russian Oil Industry — Pipelines, tanks and tankers
3. Breaking the Long Molecules — The 1891 patent
4. Twenty-Two Years Later, and the Wrong Product — Burton, Standard Oil, and the arrival of the motor car
5. A Curve Made of Straight Rods — The hyperboloid, and staying after 1917

Read the five-chapter life of Vladimir Shukhov →

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