Dmitriy Guzevich

Irina Guzevich

The earliest idea for the steamship in Russia came from Kulibin, but he did not apply for patent privileges, and the government rejected his proposal as economically unviable. Fulton applied for a privilege to build steamships in Russia (decreed on 10 Dec. 1813), but he did not provide blueprints or pay dues and therefore retained the right to obtain the privilege only for three years. After his death, on 26 Mai 1815, Baird submitted an application, and later that year built a steamship and tested it in St. Petersburg both on the river Neva and also as a means of transportation to and from Kronstadt Island. Baird obtained the privilege in 1817 after the expiration of the one retained by Fulton’s widow. Baird sold licenses to competitors (Vsevolozhsky, Rumiantsev, Poltoratsky) that made their firms subsidiaries of his own. The engineer Bazaine began working for him in 1815 on a theoretical treatise about steamships, and they later designed a new ship that was tested on the Volga in 1821-22. The paper provides an analysis of Baird’s economic strategy and technological achievement.