Dmitry Lachinov studied in the
St. Petersburg University, where he was a pupil of
Heinrich Lenz,
Pafnuty Chebyshev, and Feodor Petrushevsky. In 1862, when the university was closed because of the students' unrest, Lachinov went to
Germany and for two and a half years studied there under the guidance of
Gustav Kirchhoff,
Robert Bunsen and
Hermann Helmholtz, attending practical lessons in their laboratories in
Heidelberg and
Tübingen. In a paper released in 1880, Lachinov became the first one to point out the possibility of
electricity transmission over long distances, and to propose the means of achieving it — 18 months before the first publication of the article with similar conclusions by
Marcel Deprez. In 1889 Lachinov wrote the first textbook on
meteorology and
climatology in Russia. In its 2nd edition (July 1895), he gave the first description of the
lightning detector invented earlier by
Alexander Popov (the device was also a prototype of the first practical
radio receiver). Lachinov's own inventions include a
mercury pump,
economizer for electricity consumption,
electrical insulation tester (or
defectoscope),
optical dynamometer, a special type of
photometer and
electrolyser. One of his main achievements was a method of industrial synthesis of
hydrogen and
oxygen through
electrolysis (1888). Dmitry Lachinov is the great-grandfather of
physical chemist Mikhail Schultz. Lachinov was The Officer of the Order
Légion d'honneur. defectoscope. == See also ==