Taming Poseidon’s Beast of Uncertainty: The Auspicious Debut of Marine Engineer Aleksej Nikolaevich Krylov (1863–1945)

This paper reviews the career of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian engineer Aleksej Nikolaevich Krylov (1863–1945). He made prodigious contributions to the fields of marine engineering, naval architecture, strength of materials, physics, analogue computers, ballistics, applied mathematics, astronomy, and engineering education. Surprisingly unknown in the West today, Krylov had achieved international fame in 1899 when he became the first foreigner to receive a gold medal from the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in London. After the years of upheaval following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent civil war, Krylov was instrumental in re-establishing scientific contacts with the West and defining Soviet technological policy. Later in life, his erudition extended into the history of science and technology. This paper focuses on his first ground-breaking work: the development of methods to correct compass deviation and the corresponding design of his new dromos...