Hippolyte Vladimirovich Romanov (also spelt Hippolyte Romanoff; russian: Ипполит Владимирович Романов; 1864–1944) was a Russian engineer and inventor, whose work was closely associated with electric vehicles. He designed the first domestic electric car that was built in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, 1899. This vehicle was designed to carry two people and became famous under the name "cuckoo." It has 750 kg weight, of which 370 kg held battery. Capacity of fully charged battery was enough for about 60 km way at a speed of 35

verst A verst (russian: верста, ) is an obsolete Russian unit of length defined as 500 sazhen. This makes a verst equal to . Plurals and variants In the English language, ''verst'' is singular with the normal plural ''versts''. In Russian, the no ...

s per hour (about 39 km/h). He also built an omnibus car carrying 17 people at a speed of 20 km/h over a distance of 60 km. His 20-seater electric omnibus designed for hotels was built in the "

Dux ''Dux'' (; plural: ''ducēs'') is Latin for "leader" (from the noun ''dux, ducis'', "leader, general") and later for duke and its variant forms (doge, duce, etc.). During the Roman Republic and for the first centuries of the Roman Empire, ''dux' ...

" factory in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1902 . Its design featured running gear steel tire. However, the development of electric transport in the country needed support from the state. On January 19, 1901 Romanov was asked by St. Petersburg City

Duma A duma (russian: дума) is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were for ...

to open 10 routes. This required 80 omnibuses, which need totalling funds of more than 500,000 rubles. To find such huge amounts of money, it was decided to establish a

joint stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders are ...

, which failed, because its direct competitors (different omnibus and tram companies) were clearly unhappy with the new form of transport. As the result all Romanov's efforts to establish regular traffic of electric buses failed. Seeing that his ideas were not popular, Romanov transferred to work in other areas of electrical engineering. He built eight electrical vehicles: 4 trucks, 1 three-cycled van and 3 private passenger cars by mid-1914, according to the magazine "Motorist". Trying to assess the prospects for the spread of electric cars in Russia, magazine wrote:

References

External links

Automotive in Russia before 1917 Romanoff Hippolyte, Michel V Koudriavzeff (SIGNALING DEVICE (odometer with speedometer wth cyclometer) improvement) - US Patent US1564583 Hippolyte Romanoff. Single-rail electric overhead railway with suspended vehicle US Patent US843418 .
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Romanov, Hippolite 1864 births 1944 deaths Russian mechanical engineers Russian electrical engineers Russian inventors