Models of mechanisms by P. L. Chebyshev in St. Petersburg University

Abstract

In this paper we remember two dates from the life of St. Petersburg State University. December 8, 1894 year (120th anniversary) is the date of the death of the greatest Russian mathematician and mechanician P. L. Chebyshev. In 2015 it will be celebrated 150th anniversary of the mechanical cabinet (or the applied mechanics cabinet) in St. Petersburg State University (SPbGU). We give a small historical sketch for the mechanical cabinet in the Imperial Saint-Petersburg University (at the end of nineteenth century) based on some original documents stored in our University. With the aim of focusing to the original mechanisms by the great Russian academician P. L. Chebyshev we present some new information about these mechanisms in the mechanical cabinet of nineteenth century and today.