The role of the Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS in the creation of the municipal water supply system (late 19th – early 20th century)

Abstract

A centralized water supply system is a key attribute of a modern city, on which public health, sanitation, fire safety, and industry depend. Mykolaiv, founded in 1789 at the confluence of the Southern Bug and the Inhul rivers, constantly experienced a shortage of drinking water. By the late 19th century, the city authorities initiated the transition to a centralized system. The Mykolaiv branch of the Imperial Russian Technical Society (IRTS), reestablished in 1893, became an independent expert center that combined science and engineering and influenced decisions regarding water supply and sewerage. Its institutional precursor was the Mykolaiv Technical Society (1869/1872). The purpose of the study is to determine the role of the Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS in shaping the city’s water supply and sewerage systems at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and to analyze its organizational activities in the design, construction, and commissioning of the system in 1906. The research applies historical-genetic, comparative-historical, and biographical methods, as well as content analysis of the press and statistical analysis. The scientific novelty lies in the use of a significant corpus of published sources and the reconstruction of the branch’s activity as an independent institution of urban infrastructure policy. Main results. The Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS acted as a bridge between science and municipal self-government, transforming discussions into a program of action: from hydrogeological surveys and public lectures to project expertise, cost estimate reviews, and technical supervision. Four stages of the branch’s involvement in the creation of the water supply system are identified: I (1893/1898) – organizational formation and substantiation of the priority of groundwater; II (1898/1904) – systematization of data, competitive selection of technical solutions, and review of cost estimates; III (1904/1909) – construction and commissioning of the network, including the erection of V. Shukhov’s hyperboloid tower (1907); IV (1909/1917) – technical supervision, resource conservation, tariff policy, and educational initiatives. The contributions of H. Teodorovych, V. Veber, Kh. Matveiev, L. Yustus, V. Soboliev, H. Vlastelytsia, E. Kiber, V. Shukhov, O. Sokovnin, among others, are analyzed. The experience of the Mykolaiv branch of the IRTS in shaping the city’s infrastructure is of relevance for the contemporary reconstruction of Mykolaiv’s water supply system.