Nikolai Gavrilovich Slavyanov

Nikolai Gavrilovich Slavyanov – an engineer and inventor who was the first to develop and implement in production the process of electric arc welding with a consumable metal electrode. He was born on April 23, 1854, in the Voronezh region. After graduating from the Voronezh Gymnasium with a gold medal, he entered the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, which he completed with honors and the qualification of a first-class mining engineer.

The first six years after the institute Slavyanov worked at mining plants. In 1883 he moved to the Perm Arms Factories, where he worked until the end of his life. There he built two powerful dynamo machines that were successfully used in production. In October 1888 Slavyanov invented a method of electric arc welding. In the same year he created a welding generator – the world's first power source supplying the welding arc with direct current.

At the Perm factories Slavyanov organized a special electric-welding shop and trained the first Russian electric welders. Another major invention by Slavyanov was the electrical sealing of metal castings by heating their upper part with an electric arc to the melting temperature of steel. Nikolai Gavrilovich Slavyanov died suddenly on October 5, 1897.