Jacobi mine explained

Jacobi mine
Origin:Russian Empire
Type:Mine
Is Explosive:Yes
Is Artillery:No
Is Vehicle:No
Is Missile:No
Service:Russian Navy
Used By:Russian Empire
Designer:Moritz von Jacobi
Design Date:1853
Manufacturer:1853
Filling:Black Powder

The Jacobi mine was an early naval mine designed in 1853 by German born, Russian engineer Moritz von Jacobi. It was employed by Russia, in the Baltic Campaign of the Crimean War.

Mine

The German-born Russian engineer Moritz von Jacobi designed the Jacobi naval mine in 1853. An anchor tied the mine to the seabed; a cable connected it to a galvanic cell which powered it from the shore, the power of its explosive charge equated to of black powder.

In the summer of 1853 the Committee for Mines of the Ministry of War of the Russian Empire approved the production of the Jacobi mine. What became the Crimean War formally started between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in October 1853.[1] France and Great Britain declared war on Russia in March 1854.[2] In 1854 the Russians laid 60 Jacobi mines in the vicinity of the Forts Pavel and Alexander (Kronstadt), in order to deter the British Baltic Fleet and its allied French fleet from attacking them. (The Royal Navy arrived in the Baltic in April 1854; the French force in June 1854.) The Jacobi mines gradually phased out their direct competitors, the Nobel mines, on the insistence of admiral Fyodor Litke.

The Russians bought their Nobel mines from the Russia-based Swedish industrialist Immanuel Nobel, who had entered into collusion with Russian Minister of the Navy, Prince Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov. Despite their high cost (100 Russian rubles), the Nobel mines proved fault-prone, exploding during the laying process, failing to explode, or detaching from their wires and drifting uncontrollably; the British subsequently disarmed at least 70 of them.

In 1855 Russia laid 301 more Jacobi mines around Kronstadt and Lisy Nos; British ships did not dare to approach them.

Notes

Citations

References

. Yevgeny Tarle. Крымская война. Crimean War. Russian. Soviet Academy of Sciences . II . Moscow. 1944.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Badem. Candan. 3: Battles and diplomacy during the war. The Ottoman Crimean War: (1853 - 1856). The Ottoman Empire and its heritage : politics, society and economy. 44. Leiden. Brill. 2010. 99-100. 9789004182059. 2019-04-03. On 4 October 1853, the Porte's declaration of war was published in the official newspaper Takvim-i Vekayi. [..] Ottoman artillery opened fire on Russian ships on the Danube on 21 October..
  2. Book: Ponting. Clive. Clive Ponting. 2004. The Reason. The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth. Random House. 2011. 1. 9781407093116. 2019-04-03. The dispute that started the diplomatic slide to the Crimean War began more than six years before the British and French declarations of war on Russia at the end of March 1854..