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Inventions you never guessed were from Russia

  • min read
    • What do you think when you hear the word 'Russia'? Vodka? Dolls? Grizzly bears? All of the above? You'd be right. But did you know that it also gave the world some of our greatest innovations to date? Here are some technologies you may not have known originated from the Russian state. From electric trains to TV, electricity in the home and more, innovations throughout history have come to define us and how we live and work. So who do we have to thank for that? Well, lots of people, really. Including Russia. But apart from Kaspersky's award-winning cybersecurity solutions, what other innovations has this nation given the world? Electric railway – 1881 Russian visionary Fyodor Pirotsky was obsessed with transmitting electricity over long distances. He developed a two-rail design (what we would call a 'railway' in today's world), in which one rail was a direct conductor of electricity, and the other a reverse conductor. But it wasn't until 1881 that his design started making headway; the world's first electric tram, made of a two-decker horse tramway, went into service in Saint Petersburg, Russia, carrying 40 people. The result? A safe way of transporting people and cargo over long distances, without relying on coal. It was this sort of bulletproof innovation that led to Berlin, Germany, adopting the technology later that year, followed by Brighton in the UK. Cue the industrial revolution. Periodic table of the elements – 1896 During the 19th century, some chemists started to notice that some of Earth's elements had similar properties. But their attempts at articulating their thoughts were futile. That was until Russian Dimitri Mendeleev made an altogether normal train trip in 1896. As a chemist, he'd been studying elements for a while and had created cards for each of them showing their properties. One of Mendeleev's favorite pastimes during his rail journeys was playing solitaire or patience. In a stroke of genius, or boredom, he assembled his cards of the elements as he would a game of solitaire. There you have it: elements connected to each other in vertical and horizontal lines based on similar properties. Or the periodic table, to you and me. Linear Homeoscope – 1817 The linear homeoscope may not mean anything to most people today, but back in the early 19th century, it was a godsend. Inspired by the statistics department of the Police Ministry in Saint Petersburg, Semyon Korsakov wanted to enhance natural intelligence, a similar mission to Google or modern AI programs. His journey began: by constructing the linear homeoscope for the comparison and navigation of information. The homeoscope was a wooden block with a table (to record information in columns) and a selection of pins on another wooden block (which you move over the original block to find the information you're looking for). For example, columns would list different medical treatments, and the rows would list the different symptoms. By setting your search criteria using the pins, you could map the right treatment for the right disease in the flash of an eye. His invention was essentially an early steampunk version of Google for the 1800s, by classifying information and making it quicker to find. Albeit on a smaller scale than today – we now make nearly six billion search engine queries every day. Transformer – 1876 Transformers, historically named 'the distribution of light,' are key components of today's power grids, regulating the amount of electricity that goes into everything from steel factories to your microwave. Surprise, surprise, we have two Russians to thank for that: Pavel Yablochkov and Ivan Usagin. During the mid-1870s, the pair created an electrical device that could convert alternating current from one voltage to another – allowing electricity suppliers to increase or decrease currents to adapt to different electrical systems, converting electricity from power plants to safely use in your office or home. Radio – 1885 Washing the dishes, passing time on a gridlocked highway or even trying to drown out the sounds of your co-workers, wherever you live in the world, chances are you've listened to the radio. But you may not know who created it. Russian physics professor Alexander Popov announced a system for wireless communications in a lecture at St. Petersburg university in 1885, displaying the world's first radio set. Some arguments still remain about who created this first. Italian Guglielmo Marconi conducted similar experiments at the time, although his articles were published 12 years later. Marconi eventually patented the radio and is now credited with its invention. Sorry, Alexander. Helicopter – 1939 The rotor-driven aviation device. The central component that has come to define helicopters in the modern age. Also, the claim to fame for Russian inventor Igor Sikorsky. After designing it in the early 20th century, he used it to create the first hydroplane and multiple-engine aircraft. Then things got turbulent. Fleeing the Russian revolution, he set up shop in America, where some say Sigorsky realized his full potential. After taking a timely financial contribution from Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, he started Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company. His first venture? The world's first helicopter takeoff in 1939. Theremin – 1920 Ethereal, pure sounds, like an electronic echo of the voice, controlled exclusively by your hands in thin air. A vivid dream? Perhaps. One of the most unique inventions in the musical world? Without a doubt. Invented in Moscow by Russian Lev Termen (Léon Theremin, as he's more widely known), the theremin is quite the innovation. Put simply: it's complicated. You wave your hands in front of its two antennas, thus creating an electromagnetic field and, in turn, sound. The pitch depends on the proximity of your hand to a rod-like vertical antenna. The first commercially available electronic musical instrument, it heralded the sonic revolution of electronic music. But even more extraordinary than the theremin's musical legacy is the ensuing endeavors for Léon Theremin. After leaving Russia to pursue a life in America, it's believed he was extradited back to the Soviet Union in the 1930s, where he reportedly worked for the KGB on its cutting-edge Cold War technology. Not the kind of gig you can say no to. He used similar technology to that of the theremin to create the 'bug' – a covert surveillance device – and even claimed to have invented the world's first television behind the iron curtain. An amazing pioneer of technology. And a busy, busy man.
An astronaut, Sputnik satellite and modern satellites orbit a smartphone displaying an image of earth

IT came from outer space: How space technology conquered the world

  • min read
    • The Russians started it all. The timeline that ends with you reading this on your smartphone began on October 4, 1957. That was the day the former Soviet Union announced it had placed the first artificial satellite into orbit around our planet. Designed to look futuristic About the size and shape of a basketball and weighing little more than 84kg, Sputnik took about 98 minutes to follow its elliptical path around the Earth. A polished aluminum-alloy orb with four long antennae pointing straight out behind it, Sputnik had a futuristic dynamism not seen before in the West. Sergei Korolev, who designed both the satellite and powerful R-7 rocket that carried it into space, meant it to have that effect. He'd foreseen the satellite's technological impact and wanted to see Sputnik replicas on display in the museums of the future. He wasn't the only one who'd foreseen its impact. Back in 1947, James Lipp, head of the US's RAND (Research and Development) Corporation Missile Division, remarked: "One can imagine the consternation and admiration that would be felt here if the United States were to discover suddenly that some other nation had already put up a successful satellite." Sputnik's long-tailed impact RAND was one of the first organizations to study how space technology might shape human behavior on Earth. When it came to Sputnik, the anticipated "consternation and admiration" had unexpected long-term consequences for information technology. The satellite's launch marked a high point in the International Geophysics Year. Its organizers, the International Council of Scientific Unions, had approved a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be placed in orbit around the Earth to study its surface from above. As a simple telemetric device capable of being tracked across the sky from Earth, Sputnik marked the start of the collective mapping of our planet, revolutionizing global navigation, travel and communication. The GPS trackers in smartphones are just one of its many outcomes. Netting the unexpected consequence It's often the unintended consequence that has the most profound impact. Rattled by the Soviet Union's lead in space, the US concentrated resources on closing that gap and pulling ahead in areas where they already had an edge. President Eisenhower had just appointed a new Defense Secretary: Former Procter & Gamble Promotions Manager, Neil McElroy. McElroy's consumer goods experience brought a more integrated organizational approach. The individual initiative became subordinate to a larger, more coordinated system. McElroy's principal achievement was to revolutionize funding for scientific research by establishing the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA.) In 1969 ARPA developed the earliest model of the internet, ARPANET. This breakthrough was an unexpected outcome of the Soviet Union taking such a decisive lead in the Space Race with Sputnik. Putting connection at the center of innovation ARPA funneled resources into areas where the US was ahead of the Soviets: Developing data processing, computers and communication networks. ARPA funding meant companies like IBM, Western Electric and Bell Telephone were soon working with Massachusetts Institute of Technology's national security research and development lab, Lincoln Laboratories and the Jet Propulsion Labs at California's science and engineering institute Caltech. By the end of the 1950s, ARPA's approach to experimentation and innovation – connecting academics with business strategists, researchers with engineers, designers with manufacturers – had a counterpart in NASA, the US's newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Satellites, spies and videotape At the same time, the RAND Corporation had turned its attention to low-Earth orbit. Working with audiotape company Ampex, it developed a satellite-based video system to spy on enemies. Throughout the rest of the 20th century and well into the 21st, the impact of videotape on how television shows and films were made, distributed and seen would be enormous. This video system captured Vice President Richard Nixon confronting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev over the USSR's missile technology in 1959. While Nixon and Khrushchev clashed in public, NASA displayed its first astronauts at a press conference. The 'Mercury Seven' fast became media personalities. "We have faith in the space age," one astronaut told the press. "All of us have faith in mechanical objects." Perhaps not quite enough faith, as it was Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who became the first human launched into Earth's orbit. This great leap was really a series of tiny cautious steps. The physiological problems of life in space remained unsolved. Breathing like a cyborg How would humans survive outside the protection of the Earth's atmosphere? One unusual response came from scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in a magazine article published in 1960, Cyborgs and Space. They suggested: "There may be much more efficient ways of carrying out the functions of the respiratory system than by breathing, which becomes cumbersome in space. One proposed solution for the not too distant future is relatively simple: Don't breathe!" Coining the term 'cyborg,' Clynes and Kline imagined ways machines might help human biology adapt to the hostile environment of space. "If man attempts partial adaptation to space conditions, instead of insisting on carrying his whole environment along with him," they argued, "a number of new possibilities appear." The key possibility was an expanded understanding of how human physiology can interact directly with advanced engineering techniques in the form of prosthetics, exoskeletons, wearable technology, robotic limbs and implants – all now firmly established areas of scientific research and startup ventures. According to one estimate, we check our smartphones 144 times a day. The symbiosis between humans and machines underpins both space exploration and data processing. For astronauts interacting with the artificial work environment aboard the International Space Station, the ease of use of sophisticated technology can be a matter of life and death. Astronauts survive in space only because they're kept safe in a seamless technological bubble. Every aspect of life on Earth must be replicated in space, from the most extraordinary to the most banal. Space race makes powdered drink mix sexy Urban myths link NASA to many materials, fabrics and gadgets. In fact, they didn't invent Teflon, Velcro or the powdered drink mix Tang. Teflon had been around since the 1930s, Velcro since the 1950s and Tang was on the market just as NASA was finding its feet. Mercury astronaut John Glenn drinking Tang in orbit as part of an experiment did, however, do a lot for the brand. NASA may not have invented these products, but it helped to popularize them. Having your product associated with astronauts and the space race connected it with science and discovery. Sometimes the association was so close misunderstandings persist. A private company invented and developed the chrome-plated Fisher Space Pen, capable of writing upside-down and in zero gravity. Both NASA and the Soviet Union space program became their customers. Space research that became consumer products It's not as if NASA wasn't producing enough of its own tech spinoffs. In 1976, NASA started its Technology Transfer Program to ensure there could be commercial licensing for innovations resulting from space exploration. Nearly every aspect of our lives has benefitted from this approach. For example, NASA sponsored research into using algae to recycle waste in outer space, only to discover that it made an excellent nutritional supplement for developing infants. Water purification systems devised for the International Space Station have improved water safety on Earth, and NASA studies in high-altitude wind resistance have led to more aerodynamic truck design. Smartphone cameras in space NASA's experiments miniaturizing cameras for use in space led to the active pixel sensor now used in the standard smartphone camera. Today's smartphones also benefit from embedded web technology used onboard the International Space Station to conduct experiments remotely over the internet. This led to the Internet of Things (IoT): Remote wireless connectivity between devices in smart homes, smart cities and all manner of wearable technology from watches to glasses and bracelets. Mapping technology currently focused on the surface of Mars is used to create detailed geospatial views of Earth's cities. Smartphones use space technology, but they've also become space technology. CubeSats are small square satellites, a fraction of the size and weight of Sputnik, that give academic science its own space program to expand knowledge and research. Started in 1999 as a collaboration between California Polytechnic State University and Stanford Space Systems Development Laboratory, they can be used as single units or in orbiting networks. In 2013, NASA technicians launched the first CubeSats fitted with iPhones to take pictures from space and transmit the data back to Earth. Almost 60 years after Sputnik circled the planet, a smartphone took the first space selfie. The possible uses for such large-scale real-time data are astronomic – for meteorology and cartography, logging and agriculture, oil and gas, insurance and transport. We may inhabit a tiny planet in a vast expanding universe, but the space surrounding us is getting smaller and cheaper to access. Good business, as always, is where you find it. Perhaps now is the time to consider how space technology can help your company gain a competitive edge.
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Secure Futures magazine is your go-to business guide for opinions, trends and insight into the world of technology and cybersecurity. We help your business to bring on the future. Brought to you by Kaspersky, the global cybersecurity experts.

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