GusevA. L.*, Dyadyuchenko Yu. P.**
*"TATA" Scientific Technical Center P.O. Box 787, Sarov, Nizhni Novgorod region, Russia 607183
Tel./fax: +7 (83130) 63107
**Holder of honorary title "The inhabitant of blockaded Leningrad" P.O. Box 650, Saint Petersburg, Russia 194044 Tel.: +7 (812) 542-3464
4
THE WAR
These events occurred in the last century, during World War II. After Hitler's Germany occupied most of Europe, Hitler attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941. Already in June 1941 battles were fought all along the front from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea. Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg) was one of the main destinations of the Wermacht onslaught.
The group of armies North attacked Leningrad. This group accounted for almost one-quarter of all the German fascist troops. The Germans could not take the city by storm, but in September 1941 they succeeded in cutting the city off from the mainland and establish a blockade. Hitler's troops attempted to break the defenses of the city by hunger, constant artillery fire and aerial attacks. Two thousand Luftwaffe airplanes proceeded to wipe one of the most beautiful cities in the world from the face of the earth.
Leningrad during the blockade was practically an island cut off from the entire world. This island organized its own defenses on land, water and in the air. The air defense forces protecting Leningrad destroyed 1,561 enemy planes! The city was defended from the enemy's planes also by hundreds of captive barrage balloons (aerostats). When filled with hydrogen and raised to a height of between 2,000 and 4,500 meters, these giant rubber "sausages kites" kept the fascist aces from descending low enough to aim their bombs.
DRIVE THE WINCH HELPED... JULES VERNE
In those days the junior military technician (in the Red Army of 1941 this rank was equivalent to second lieutenant) Boris Shelishch served in balloon winch trucks repair shops. These winches were installed on 200 half-ton GAZ-AA trucks and were powered by the engines of these trucks. All the trucks used petrol, but during the blockade petrol became just as valuable as bread. Between November 20 and December 25, 1941, the bread ration was 300 grams per worker and 125 grams for all others. And there was nothing else to eat!
When the petrol ran out Shelishch tried to use electric hoists from apartment house elevators to raise and lower the aerostats, but while the equipment was being adapted the electricity ran out also. Then in the city appeared the trucks that worked on... firewood; these were gas generator trucks. Attempts were made to use hand-operated drives, but even ten grown men couldn't
handle the mechanisms which raised and lowered balloons, and when the division of ordinary soldiers and sergeants from the aerostats divisions were sent to the front to reinforce defenses on land, instead of 12 men only four or five remained at active posts.
But the aerostats needed to be serviced because within 25 to 30 days of operation they began to lose altitude since the rubber casing released hydrogen that was replaced by other gasses and water vapors. This is why the balloons were periodically let down, and the "used" hydrogen was released and replaced with new hydrogen. According to the maintenance manual, aerostats were to be re-filled when they gained between 15 and 20 percent content of other gasses and vapors. This kept them from losing their aerial lift gas and also prevented explosions of dangerous oxyhydrogen. At the same time, millions of cubic meters of hydrogen-oxygen mixture was released into the atmosphere. In 1941 alone barrage balloons were elevated 40,054 times.
It is most likely that at this time the junior military technician Boris Shelishch recalled the novel The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (that he thought of it is not our idea; the inventor's archives contain words to this effect — the Authors). There, the chapter entitled "Fuel
Fig. 1. Leningrad. Winter 1941/42. The barrage balloons near the Peter and Paul Fortress.
International Scientific Journal for Alternative Energy and Ecology (ISJAEE) #4 2002
But hydrogen is dangerous: Shelishch recalled the disaster involving the dirigible Hindenburg, the flying hydrogen Titanic of the 1930s. The entire world had seen all the photos and the newsreel shots of the Trans-Atlantic largest rigid airship in flames as it transported rich passengers from Germany to USA.
"But", thought the junior military technician, "there's a war on and barrage balloons must still be brought down to refuel, otherwise they will lose their altitude and stop protecting the city". In such a situation risking a truck or even one's own life seemed justified.
TECHNICAL SOLUTION
On Sept. 21, 1941, the junior military technician Boris Shelishch approached headquarters with an innovative proposal to pass the "used oxygen-hydrogen mixture from the lowered barrage balloons into automobile engine collecting tubes".
On September 28, 1941, the regiment bureau for innovation and inventions met and determined "this 5 proposal should be considered valuable and acceptable. Let the author of the proposal test the proposal in practice". The chief of the rear air-defense corps called a meeting of commanders and engineers of barrage balloon regiments at which it was decided that the installations would be tested in practice. On October 27, 1941, order No. 0348 instructed the second air-defense corps to "switch automobiles to used hydrogen".
The system proposed by the inventor was quite simple: used hydrogen from the rubberized-fabric gasholder with the capacity of 125 cubic meters was sent through an inch-thick hose to the suction manifold of GAZ-AA engine through a technical stopper. Bypassing the carburetor, the gas went to the working cylinders. The mix of hydrogen and air was dosed by a choke or the accelerator peddle. The winch truck operator (also the truck driver) operated the engine the same way he would operate it with petrol.
The first tests were carried out in the extreme cold, at temperatures as low as - 30 degrees Celsius. Despite these conditions, the hydrogen engine was easy to start and worked for a long time.
During dangerous experiments two balloons were lost to fire, one gas-holder blew up and Shelishch himself received injuries. Then, to make use of the oxygen-hydrogen mixture safer he came up with a special water shutter that kept the mixture from igniting if there was a spark in the engine's intake manifold.
Fig. 3. Winch truck on the chassis GAS-AA on the stand. At the left - gas-holder with the "used" hydrogen, behind - the aerostat.
Fig. 2. Junior military technician Boris Shelishch.
of the Future" contains the statement that when coal disappears water replaces it. And not just water, but water decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen. Boris admired Jules Verne, and his work with balloons and the situation in which his beloved city found itself reminded him of his childhood impressions and all prompted his inventive mind to work.
"There will come a day when coal will have been spent", said one of the heroes from The Mysterious Island. By releasing the so-called "spent" hydrogen into the atmosphere people released energy that could work for Victory! It was the same as pouring out petrol by the casks. Shelishch was struck with an idea: this was the fuel of the future! What Cyrus Smith the engineer told an incredulous Pencroff about! In September-November 1941 due to petrol shortages all the trucks in air defense forces were lain up. This meant that it was hydrogen that should save Leningrad, a city that desperately needed the "coal of future centuries".
E-mail: redactor@hydrogen.ru, http://www.hydrogen.ru
Gusev A. L., Dyadyuchenko Yu. P. "The Mysterious Island" of Boris Shelishch - The Dawn of The Hydrogen Century.
Other experiments were successful. When everyone was finally convinced that the system worked well, headquarters ordered that all barrage balloons winch trucks had be adapted to use this new form of fuel within ten days. Teams of fitters, welders and workers specializing in other areas worked round-the-clock to prepare several hundred sets of equipment. Later, all barrage balloons were operated using hydrogen trucks and these trucks worked better than they did on petrol.
During the fall and winter of 1941 due to petrol deficits almost all Leningrad's barrage balloon trucks stopped working. But one motor car carrying cylinders with hydrogen on the back seat worked just fine. In 1942 this unusual automobile with an engine working on hydrogen was demonstrated at an exhibition of equipment adapted to blockade conditions. The engine operated several hours in a closed room. The exhibition visitors sensed no smoke, burning smell or unusual odors. The 6 spent gasses, ordinary vapor, did not pollute the air.
Laboratory testing of the engine, which worked 200 hours without stopping, demonstrated that its mechanical wear was less than when petrol is used. The engine did not lose power and there were no traces of carbon deposits in the combustion chambers.
For his work in December 1941 Shelishch was decorated with the order of Red Star. His helpers also received awards.
Boris Shelishch was sent to Moscow, his experience was used in the capital's air-defense units and 300 engines were adapted to use "dirty hydrogen".
But the most remarkable thing of all is that during the war author's certificate No. 64209 for this invention was issued! Thus the first step in developing the power industry of the future was established! But this the author could accomplish only when the blockade of Leningrad was broken. The documents establish the date of application No. 8247 (322526) sent to the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense on July 28, 1943.
Senior engineer-lieutenant Boris Shelishch wrote in a description of his invention: "mostly the task was solved in November 1941, but the final form and wide practical use of the invention came about in all barrage
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