Baron Paul Schilling (April 16 [O.S. April 5] 1786 – August 6 [O.S. July 25] 1837), also known as Pavel Lvovitch Schilling, was a Russian inventor, military officer and diplomat of Baltic German origin. The majority of his career was spent working for the imperial Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a language officer at the Russian embassy in Munich. As a military officer, he took part in the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon. In his later career, he was transferred to the Asian department of the ministry and undertook a tour of Mongolia to collect ancient manuscripts. Schilling is best known for his pioneering work in electrical telegraphy, which he undertook at his own initiative. While in Munich, he worked with Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring who was developing an electrochemical telegraph. Schilling developed the first electromagnetic telegraph that was of practical use. Schilling's design was a needle telegraph using magnetised needles suspended by a thread over a current-carrying coil. His design also greatly reduced the number of wires compared to Sömmerring's system by the use of binary coding. Tsar Nicholas I planned to install Schilling's telegraph on a link to Kronstadt, but cancelled the project after Schilling died. Other technological interests of Schilling included lithography and remote detonation of explosives. For the latter, he invented a submarine cable, which he later also applied to telegraphy. Work on telegraphy in Russia, and other electrical applications, was continued after Schilling's death by Moritz von Jacobi, his assistant and successor as head of the St. Petersburg electrical engineering workshop.
Biography
Early life
Baron Pavel Lvovitch Schilling von Cannstadt was born in Reval (now Tallinn), Estonia, on 16 April 1786 (N.S.). He was an ethnic German of Swabian and Baltic descent. Soon after the birth of Pavel, their first child, Ludwig von Schilling was promoted to the commander of the 23rd Nizovsky infantry regiment, and the family relocated to Kazan where the regiment was based. Pavel spent his childhood years in Kazan; early exposure to diverse Asiatic cultures explains his lasting interest in the Orient. He was expected to follow a military career like his father, so at the age of nine he was formally enrolled at the Nizovsky regiment, and two years later, after his father's death, he was sent to the First Cadet Corps. By this time, tsar Paul's haphazard management had reduced military education to mere exhibition drill; Schilling's proper training commenced only after graduation, in 1802. He was commissioned as a podporuchik, posted to the Quartermaster general's office commanded by Theodor von Schubert and assigned cartographical surveying duties. Family circumstances obliged Schilling to resign his commission in 1803. He then joined the foreign service as a language officer, and dispatched to the Russian legation in Munich, where his stepfather Karl von Bühler was the minister. After Bühler's retirement, Schilling served as an attaché to the legation in Munich from 1809 to 1811. He first became interested in electrical science while he was in Munich through contact with Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring who was developing an electrical telegraph. Since his duties as a diplomat were light, he spent much time with Sömmerring, and brought many Russian dignitaries to see Sömmerring's apparatus.
Napoleonic wars When war threatened between France and Russia, Schilling put his mind to applying his electrical knowledge to military purposes. In July 1812 he, along with all Russian diplomats in Germany, was recalled to Saint Petersburg in anticipation of the impending French invasion of Russia. He brought with him a complete set of Sömmerring's telegraph, and demonstrated it to military engineers and tsar Alexander. He continued work on remote mine detonation. However, none of his inventions were ready for field service, and Schilling requested transfer to a military position in the fighting Army.
Placing him into the military structure was not easy. Schilling did not have any combat experience. As a retired Army officer, he was merely a second lieutenant (podporuchik); as a civil servant, he has reached a rank equivalent to Army major. The situation was not uncommon for the volunteers of 1812, yet it had puzzled military authorities and Schilling's application was rejected. In May 1813 he appealed directly to Alexander I, who authorised placing Schilling to horse artillery reserves; on 6 September [O.S. 25 August] 1813 he was posted to commander Alexander Seslavin's Sumy hussars with the rank of Shtabs-rotmistr (i.e. Captain Lieutenant) Schilling arrived at the regiment shortly after the Battle of Dresden. He was initially employed as a liaison with Saxon authorities, and had not seen real combat until December 1813, when Russian troops advanced into French territory. He received his first combat award for the Battle of Bar-sur-Aube of 27 February 1814; his actions during the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube and the Battle of Fère-Champenoise were rewarded with the Golden Weapon for Bravery.
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