This edition of the works of Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky was published during his lifetime and was given to the Kirov State Combined Museum of History, Architecture and Literature in 1988 by Isabella Lyapunova, widow of Boris Lyapunov, a writer and author of books on the history, development and future of the Soviet space program. In 1997, these volumes were given o permanent loan to the K.E. Tsiolkovsky Museum.
The titles of his publications give an idea of how wide-ranging Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s interests were: they include “The History of my Dirigible”, “The New Airplane”, “The Stratoplane”, “The Gas Compressor”, “Literary Responses”, and “The Social Organization of Mankind”. A full list of his published and unpublished works runs into the hundreds.
His first work on aviation, “A Controllable Metal Balloon” was published in 1892. It was then that Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was given a post in the Kaluga Regional School, and he and his family moved to Kaluga. They had to live in rented accommodation for many years, before they were eventually able to buy a small house on the outskirts of the city. In 1903, the Edition No. 5 of the magazine Scientific Observer published Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s first article on rocket science, ‘Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices.’ It was in this article that he first proposed the idea of a rocket burning liquid fuel, and described the theoretical basis for its flight. The first part of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s article, “Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices” went almost unnoticed in scientific circles. But the second part, which was published in the Aeronautical Bulletin in 1911–12, generated a great deal of discussion in society. The well-known popular science writers Vladimir Ryumin, Yakov Perelman and Nikolai Rynin dedicated themselves to promoting Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s ideas about space travel, and, in time, became his good friends. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was helped a great deal by his many friends in Kaluga, including Vasiliy Assonov, Pavel Kanning, Evgeniy Yeremeyev, and, later on, Alexandr Chizhevsky and Sergey Shcherbakov. In 1914, he published a supplement to ‘Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices’ as a separate brochure.
But Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lacked the resources to publish his own works. Alexandr Chizhevsky wrote, ‘I remember that for several months there was a notice in the windows of P.P. Kanning’s chemist’s shop, in Nikitsky Pereulok, Kaluga, which said something like: “Here contributions can be made towards the cost of publishing the scientific works of K.E. Tsiolkovsky.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky”s works were published in small numbers, and the publication was funded by donations. He never sold his works, but gave them to those who contributed to the publication costs, or sent them, accompanied with letters, to editors of journals, other scientists and friends with whom he corresponded.
The titles of his publications give an idea of how wide-ranging Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s interests were: they include “The History of my Dirigible”, “The New Airplane”, “The Stratoplane”, “The Gas Compressor”, “Literary Responses”, and “The Social Organization of Mankind”. A full list of his published and unpublished works runs into the hundreds.
His first work on aviation, “A Controllable Metal Balloon” was published in 1892. It was then that Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was given a post in the Kaluga Regional School, and he and his family moved to Kaluga. They had to live in rented accommodation for many years, before they were eventually able to buy a small house on the outskirts of the city. In 1903, the Edition No. 5 of the magazine Scientific Observer published Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s first article on rocket science, ‘Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices.’ It was in this article that he first proposed the idea of a rocket burning liquid fuel, and described the theoretical basis for its flight. The first part of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s article, “Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices” went almost unnoticed in scientific circles. But the second part, which was published in the Aeronautical Bulletin in 1911–12, generated a great deal of discussion in society. The well-known popular science writers Vladimir Ryumin, Yakov Perelman and Nikolai Rynin dedicated themselves to promoting Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s ideas about space travel, and, in time, became his good friends. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was helped a great deal by his many friends in Kaluga, including Vasiliy Assonov, Pavel Kanning, Evgeniy Yeremeyev, and, later on, Alexandr Chizhevsky and Sergey Shcherbakov. In 1914, he published a supplement to ‘Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices’ as a separate brochure.
But Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lacked the resources to publish his own works. Alexandr Chizhevsky wrote, ‘I remember that for several months there was a notice in the windows of P.P. Kanning’s chemist’s shop, in Nikitsky Pereulok, Kaluga, which said something like: “Here contributions can be made towards the cost of publishing the scientific works of K.E. Tsiolkovsky.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky”s works were published in small numbers, and the publication was funded by donations. He never sold his works, but gave them to those who contributed to the publication costs, or sent them, accompanied with letters, to editors of journals, other scientists and friends with whom he corresponded.
