Andrey Nartov

Who was Andrey Nartov?

Andrey Konstantinovich Nartov was a Russian scientist, military engineer, inventor and sculptor. He was a personal craftsman of Peter I of Russia, and later a member of the Russian Academy of Science.

From 1705 Nartov worked in the lathe workshop at the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation in the Sukharev Tower, Moscow. During the period 1712-1725 Nartov worked in the newly founded Saint Petersburg, at the palace workshop of the Tsar Peter the Great. There he constructed many lathes of different types and made a number of innovations. Of special value was his copying lathe for the purpose of ornamental turning, which allowed the user to make ornaments with the same precision as that of handicraft work of that time.

In 1718 Nartov invented what might have been the first lathe with a mechanical cutting tool-supporting carriage and a set of gears.

In 1718-1719 Nartov travelled to England and France and demonstrated his lathes. In his letters to Peter I, Nartov wrote that nowhere in Europe could he find lathe masters comparable to Russian ones. On his way back to Russia, he taught lathe-working to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I.