Ivan Kulibin was a great Russian inventor, mechanic and engineer. He was born 280 years ago on April 21, 1735, in Nizhny Novgorod in a merchant family of Old Believers.
History knows more than a few self-taught geniuses: some are well-known and have universities named after them (Mikhail Lomonosov, for example, whose name is attached to Moscow State University), while others are consigned to oblivion. The name Kulibin has been immortalized by the Russian language itself, becoming a common noun with the meaning “jack of all trades.”
