Biotelemetric Experiment in the Radiotelegraphic Bureau of the Maritime Department (1912). A New Episode from the History of the Development of Russian Science

Vladzymyrskyy Anton Vyacheslavovich ORCID: 0000-0002-2990-7736 Doctor of Medicine Deputy Director of Research and Practical Clinical Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine Technologies of the Moscow Health Care Department 127051, Russia, Moscow, ul. Petrovka, 24, p. 1 avv_mobile@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The use of telecommunications in medical science and practice is complex; the history of scientific and technical development of this issue dates back to the second half of the XIX century. As diverse scientific research was carried out and knowledge was accumulated, qualitative changes took place, as a result of which, in the middle of the twentieth century, a separate scientific direction was formed – "dynamic biotelemetry". This direction is devoted to the problems of translation of biomedical data using telecommunication technologies to solve various scientific and practical problems. In the course of studying the history of scientific research in the field of dynamic biotelemetry, we identified a previously unpublished episode that brings new knowledge about the role of Russian scientists.

In 1858, thanks to the efforts of the Director of the Medical Department of the Maritime Department, K.O. Rosenberger, the "Society of Marine Doctors in St. Petersburg" was founded, the purpose of which was "through the mutual exchange of thoughts and experience acquired in practice to deliver the means for improvement and further education in theoretical and practical medicine by the doctors of the Maritime Department" ^[1]. The main activity of the society was regular meetings with reports and reports on current organizational and medical problems, the work of ship's doctors, expeditions, military operations, etc. ^[2]. At the next meeting of the Society, held on October 30, 1912, Chairman A.Yu. Zuev "invited Dr. Makarov to acquaint the Society with the results of his trip to Mr. Nikiforov at the radiotelegraph bureau."

We learn the following from the minutes of the meeting.

"Dr. Makarov said that during his visit, Mr. Nikiforov showed him a device he invented for improved sound transmission. The essence of the device consists in a special device of a microphone plate that significantly amplifies the sound. When using the device for listening to the heart at a distance, sound transmission occurred, but indistinct due to the mixing of extraneous noises from the vibration of rubber. Mr. Nikiforov has in mind to improve this device somewhat and then demonstrate it in Society on November 20 in order to listen to the opinion of doctors about its practical suitability. At the same time, he invented a device that makes it possible to listen to the heart tones of many people at once and, moreover, at a considerable distance" ^[3].

First of all, it is necessary to provide information about the direct participants of this scientific experiment.

Court counselor A.K. Nikiforov ^[4] – engineer, inventor; from September 1910 to April 1914 he served as the head of the radiotelegraph workshop of the Radiotelegraph Depot of the Maritime Department ^[5]. In 1914, he was demoted to a design engineer, and his position was taken by P. P. Brailko ^[6,7,8]. During the period of A.K. Nikiforov's leadership of the workshop, experimental design work was carried out to improve the means of telephone and radiotelephone communication, including by creating amplifiers for transmitting and receiving devices, as well as improving microphones ^[7].

Gavriil Andreevich Makarov (b. 1871) – doctor, privat-docent of the Imperial Military Medical Academy, senior doctor of the 2nd Baltic Naval Crew; participant of the Battle of Tsushima, awarded the Order of St. Anna of the second degree ^[8]. During the period under study, he headed the tuberculosis department of the St. Petersburg Naval Hospital ^[9].

As follows from the material published by us, in 1912, in the workshop of the Radiotelegraph Depot, an engineer and the head of the workshop, A.K. Nikiforov, designed a device that allowed broadcasting a sound picture of heartbeats via telecommunications.

Taking into account the focus of Nikiforov's main work activity (improvement of receiving and transmitting devices, development of amplifiers, microphones), it can be assumed that one of the radio equipment designs developed for the needs of the fleet was taken as the basis of the device. At the same time, the obvious difference was "a device that makes it possible to listen to the heart tones of many people at once"; probably a special loudspeaker, also developed by Nikiforov, was involved here ^[10]. Let's venture to assume that Nikiforov did not so much "invent" a new device, as he adapted his own developments to solve a specific biomedical problem. Anyway, the engineer reported his work to the nearest medical structure available to him - the Society of Marine Doctors in St. Petersburg. After that, Dr. G.A. Makarov was sent to the Radiotelegraph Depot to familiarize himself with the device. A medical experiment was conducted on listening to heart tones at a distance (remote auscultation). The quality of the transmitted data turned out to be low, a specific technical defect was identified that creates interference. Nevertheless, mutual interest in the idea of using telecommunications to transmit biomedical data was great; the doctor and the engineer agreed to continue working.

Unfortunately, the experiment process, as well as the doctor's report, were not documented. We do not know the technical and methodological details; it remains unclear what was meant by the concept of "at a considerable distance", whether wired or wireless communication was used, as well as what geographical distance was during the experimental approbation of the technical solution by G.A. Makarov.

Nevertheless, we set out to find out the circumstances and reasons for the fact that scientific and design development of technical solutions for the field of biomedicine was carried out in a specialized naval structure.

Chronological framework of the study: 1910-1914. (the period of A.K. Nikiforov's work as the head of the radiotelegraph workshop).

The source base of the study is represented by a set of published and unpublished documents, namely, scientific papers, publications of the journal "Marine Doctor", materials of the Russian State Archive of the Navy (RGA of the Navy).

In the Maritime Department, as part of the Mine Department, a Radiotelegraph Depot has been functioning since November 1910 - the first domestic enterprise of the navy that carried out scientific and production activities ^[6]. The fact of conducting scientific research and development work in the Radiotelegraph Depot is known, but it seems relevant to clarify the details of this activity, indicating the processes of institutionalization of science in the Mine Department.

During the time period under study, a radiotelegraph laboratory and a radiotelegraph workshop function as part of the depot. The laboratory was transferred to the Mine Department at the end of 1911 from the subordination of the St. Petersburg Port (order of the Main Shipbuilding Department No. 65 dated December 22, 1911); State Councilor Petrovsky was appointed to the post of head ^[12]. The workshop is created by internal orders for the department, its head is appointed court counselor A.K. Nikiforov ^[13].

The areas of activity of the structural divisions differ: the laboratory "is not bound by deadlines and is busy creating new samples of theoretical and experimental development and verification of devices manufactured by the workshop – that is, monitoring that the fleet receives reliable and serviceable devices". Against this background, the main task of the workshop is the repair of devices with defects, "the manufacture of new devices and consumables". According to the position of the Mine Department management, the head of the laboratory should be "an authoritative person in the scientific world", while the head of the workshop is only an "experienced technician" ^[14]. At the same time, there was no candidate who would combine both competencies, or the division of structural divisions was intentionally maintained.

Moreover, the management of the Mine Department prevented any reorganizations. In particular, the proposal to connect radiotelegraphic and scientific and technical laboratories was rejected, because the first was defined as "purely physical", and the second as "specially chemical"; as a result, it was rather speculatively stated that "in science there are no examples of combining such branches of knowledge under the guidance of one person" ^[15]. Apparently, the specified organizational structure was considered the most adequate to the tasks being solved. This is confirmed by the proud report of the Mine Department to the Comrade Minister of the Navy on April 13, 1912: the four-year work on the creation of the "most important technical part of the radiotelegraphic specialty" has been completed, and this "part" includes radiotelegraphic laboratories, workshops, warehouses ^[16].

From the point of view of institutionalization processes, research activities in the Radiotelegraph Depot of the Mine Department clearly underwent formal structuring. The official position regarding the goals and objectives of the structural units was presented above, which was also fixed by normative means. The regulations on the workshop clearly indicate its tasks: the manufacture and correction of radiotelegraph and radiotelephone stations ^[17].

The work plan of the Radiotelegraph depot for 1912 includes six main tasks: five - for the production of various radio equipment ("sending and receiving stations", wave meters, telephone receivers), and the last sixth is "Experiments with radiotelephony", actually scientific research ^[18].

Various infrastructural improvements of the laboratory premises and the surrounding area are being carried out, aimed at creating conditions for "testing telephone receivers" and "mass testing of radio stations" ^[19].

Experiments and trials are funded purposefully. If in 4 years 185,587 rubles were spent on the creation of the entire Radiotelegraphic depot ("the main technical part of the radiotelegraphic specialty"), and the annual budget for the purchase of "materials for the radiotelegraphic depot" is 15,400 rubles, then only for "experiments on radiotelegraphy" in 1912, additional amounts of 1000 and 700 rubles were twice requested. ^[20]. We emphasize that the Mine Department applies to the Department of General Affairs of the Main Directorate of Shipbuilding specifically for additional, over-planned financing of "experiments", which may indirectly indicate active scientific activity. It should be noted that the appointment of the head of the Radiotelegraphic Laboratory explicitly states that he is supposed to be funded for the "production of experiments" on radiotelegraphy ^[21].

During the studied period of time, wave meters of their own design are being created in the radiotelegraphic laboratory, "research of a new type of station and its devices is being carried out, experiments with radiotelephone communication are being conducted ^[22].

At the same time, the radiotelegraph workshop also conducts parallel research activities, in particular, the development of a "galette transformer for a telephone receiver", "measuring work on the design of a new type of hearing receivers" is underway ^[23]. In December 1911, A.K. Nikiforov presented to the head of the Mine Department a receiver of the original design of the "own type Maritime Department" ^[24]. By 1912, four original designs of Nikiforov telephone amplifiers were being created ^[25], at least two of which ("type A" and "type B") were adopted by the Maritime Department for permanent use ^{[7, 25]}.

Thus, in the Radiotelegraph Depot, the processes of organizing scientific activities are clearly underway. Despite the formal division of tasks between the depot units, research and development were conducted both in the laboratory and in the workshop in parallel. The presence of conflicts and the nature of other social interactions at the same time is an interesting question, however, beyond the scope of our work and requires a separate study.

We emphasize only the obvious initiative and energy of A.K. Nikiforov. His scientific and practical productivity is obvious; conducting medical experiments testifies to the breadth of views and scientific interests. He also manifests himself as an active organizer of scientific activity. We see confirmation of these words in his actions to protect the rights to research results. On March 3, 1912, he submits a report to the head of the Mine Department: "Presenting to Your Excellency the scheme of the receiver of the sample and the system of the Maritime Department approved by you, I ask for dependent orders on entering the subject of the invention into the subject documents so that no one outside the Department could attribute the idea to himself" ^[26].

What was the continuation of the acquaintance of the Society of Marine Doctors of the Port of St. Petersburg with the "apparatus for listening to the heart at a distance"?

The minutes of the meeting of the Society dated November 20, 1912 do not contain information about the demonstration of the improved apparatus, as well as about the re-examination of the results of its testing. However, such information is not contained in the protocols of the Society until 1917. Obviously, the Society of Marine Doctors did not return to this topic. We define the reason for this as follows.

If we compare the activities of A.K. Nikiforov with similar developments in the field of remote auscultation, then the reason for the lack of reports on the continuation of work becomes obvious ^[27]. In the period 1870-1910, all attempts to transmit the sound pattern of the heart and lungs by telephone (including the creation of special amplifiers) were unsuccessful. Only the American-British engineer and inventor Sidney-George Brown in 1910 managed to design a more or less adequate solution, the use of which, however, was limited to the walls of a single hospital. When teaching students, "remote auscultation" was carried out at a distance of several meters (between the ward and the study room).

During the time period under study, the transmission of sound phenomena for kilometers or more with a sufficient level of diagnostic quality remained an unresolved technical problem for European and American scientists.

A similar situation has developed with A.K. Nikiforov. In 1912, he worked on improving the design of "his own type of hearing receiver." In the official report, he reports on the creation of two variants of the receiver, however, which turned out to be unsuccessful "for technical and financial reasons" (here we can assume that the shortcomings of one of these models were confirmed by medical experiments). However, in the next version of the design, Nikiforov uses new receiving variometers "with increased minimum self-induction", thanks to which "now things have moved on" ^[28]. However, based on the lack of interaction with the Society of Marine Doctors, we conclude that in the pre-war 1913, Nikiforov's activities were maximally focused on immediate tasks, or the technical problem of "mixing extraneous noise from rubber vibration" was not solved. In 1914, the demotion and the outbreak of the First World War, obviously, completely eliminated non-core civilian subjects from the work of both the workshop and the talented engineer.

Conclusion.

We have discovered the historical fact that in 1912, in the workshop of the Radiotelegraph Depot of the Mine Department of the Main Directorate of Shipbuilding of the Maritime Department, scientific and design work on the problems of remote transmission of biomedical data by means of telecommunications was carried out. Against the background of the processes of institutionalization of the scientific activity of the Radiotelegraph Depot, the relevant work was rather proactive.

The signs of formal structuring of the scientific activity of the Radiotelegraph Depot identified by us can be regarded as a formed context for scaling research, which was used by the head of the workshop A.K. Nikiforov, creatively designing a technical solution for the field of biomedicine.

A comparative study suggests that during the time period under study, the general level of technical development did not fundamentally allow solving the problem of high-quality transmission of biomedical data over a distance exceeding several meters. Nevertheless, A.K. Nikiforov's creative scientific search corresponded to the world scientific trends of that time; the scientist contributed to the accumulation of knowledge and the future formation of dynamic biotelemetry as a separate scientific direction.

Gratitude. The author expresses gratitude and gratitude to the management and staff of the Russian State Archive of the Navy.

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