Bird Charles, (1766-1843), engineer, entrepreneur

Categories / Economy/Personalia
BIRD Karl Nikolaevich (Charles) (1766-1843, St. Petersburg), engineer and entrepreneur. A native of Scotland, he lived in Russia from 1786, serving as an assistant to K. K. Gascoigne at Alexandrovsky Gun Works in Petrozavodsk until he moved to St. Petersburg in 1789. A co-owner of F. Morgan's workshop on Matisov Island, he transformed it into a casting and mechanical plant in the early 1790s to manufacture household goods at first and industrial equipment afterwards. After he designed the first steam engine built at the plant in 1800, the plant started manufacturing them on a regular basis, selling them to various customers including the Mint. The plant built the first steamboat in Russia in 1815; later new ships were built at the shipyard founded nearby. Bird arranged regular steamboat service on the Neva in 1815, as well as between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt in 1815 and between St. Petersburg, Revel, Riga, and other cities later on. It was at Bird's Plant that metal parts were made for St. Petersburg's bridges and buildings, as well as lanterns, fences, decorative components, reliefs, and sculptures, including those for the Senate and Synod buildings, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and the Alexander Column. He was buried at Smolenskoe Lutheran Cemetery. Bird's heirs sold the plant to an anonymous joint-stock company of Franco-Russian plants (today, Foil Rolling Plant) in 1881. A bridge over the Pryazhka River was named for Bird.

V. S. Solomko. Alexander I, Emperor
Bird Karl (Charles) Nikolaevich
Gascoigne Karl Karlovich (Charles)
Morgan F.
St. Petersburg Mint
St. Petersburg Mint
Senate and Synod Buildings
St. Isaac's Cathedral
Alexander Column
Foil Rolling Plant
1815
1792