A samovar is not just a boiler. Today the samovar is not in vogue. However, some families still have a wonderful tradition of tea drinking, when the whole family gathers at the samovar. True, samovars are now electric. And some 50 years ago, almost every family had this amazing household item.

Originally from Holland

The question is: how did the word “samovar” appear? Some philologists claim that he has Turkic roots, and it came from "sanabar", which means "teapot". It may be so, only it is quite possible that everything is simpler - this is a purely Russian combination, like "steamer" or "airplane", since in Russia they cooked not only food, but also water.

It is interesting that the device that has become a symbol of Russia is not a national invention. It, along with other curiosities, was brought from Holland by Peter I.

Peter I

Classic Dutch samovar

The cold climate played a significant role in the fact that the samovar took root in Russia. To keep warm, people drank 15-20 cups of tea a day! In addition, the samovar heated the water and heated the room.

Like most other things, the samovar has predecessors. These are Chinese hogos, which had a pipe, but no taps, because they served to serve soups and broths on the table.

Hogo

As well as appliances that were used in ancient Rome for heating water and cooking food.

Roman appliances for warming food (autepsa and kaeda)

They also had Russian relatives, for example, devices for making sbitn - a hot drink with honey and herbs.

Sbitnik

It's all about the pipe

The first Russian samo-vars, both from the outside and from the inside, resembled English vessels for boiling water and were in use in the middle of the 18th century. By the end of the century, the samovar acquired its structural and functional features, which have been preserved for many years. In addition to a pipe placed inside the tank and surrounded by water on all sides, the craftsmen invented a side pipe that was put on from above, and supplied the samovar with a draft. At the same time, the entire device retained its spherical shape for a long time and was rather squat.

Samovar ball 1760

Samovar Late 19th - early 20th century Tula

A samovar is not just a boiler. It is a real chemical reactor in which water softens, which is important, because tea brewed in hard water is simply not tasty. The water boils, scale forms, which is deposited on the walls of the pipe and the body, the main one settles to the bottom. Therefore, true masters of their craft have never placed a crane at the bottom of the unit.

In order for the samovar to start heating the water, it must be ignited. And this is a whole art. Having poured quite a bit of water into a special container (just so that the metal does not melt), they put embers in the burner, and then stuffed it with chips or cones. A pipe was put on top and the coals were blown up. Water was poured into the melted samovar, and the process began. When boiling, the samovar at the first stage "sang", at the second it was noisy, at the third it was seething.

The first samovar manufacturers in Russia were Ural craftsmen. Then there were workshops in Yaroslavl, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vologda, Kostroma. The leader among them was Tula, which rightfully received the status of “the capital of the samovar”.

The first samovar workshop was created by the gunsmith Fyodor Lisitsyn, and in 1778 his sons made the first samovar. In 1803 the workshop became a factory.

Samovar Lisitsyna.

The Lisitsyns produced very interesting products with embossing and engraving, with intricate figured cranes (for example, in the form of a dolphin), with twisted and loop-shaped handles, square and oval, barrels and in the form of vases.

Samovars Lisitsyn.

Samovar Ivan Lisitsyn of 1810 is on display at the Bukhara State Historical and Architectural Museum.

An elegant samovar with loop handles by Nazar Lisitsyn adorns the collection of the Kaluga Museum of Local Lore.

Samovars were originally made from red copper, brass and tombak (an alloy of copper with a very small addition of zinc). Sometimes they were silver, gilded, and sometimes they were made of silver and cupronickel. The shape of samovars was very diverse - in Tula alone, about 150 types were produced. Sketches of these items were drawn by famous artists and sculptors, hence the real works of art in the Rococo, Empire, and Art Nouveau styles.

Samovar Vorontsov (tombak)

Samovar "Vase", 5L. - brass, nickel, 19th century Tula

The samovar entered and firmly established itself in all strata of Russian society - from the royal court to the peasant hut. He became not only the personification of the Russian way of life, but also a certain expression of material wealth. So, among the peasantry, the samovar was considered a luxury, because not only metal products were quite expensive, but tea itself did not please with cheapness.

But in the cities there was a completely different picture. Samovars were placed in taverns and inns, where they were used not only for boiling water, but also for cooking, keeping it hot. And from the beginning of the 19th century, coffee was also brewed in samovars.

Tavern samovar

Samovar - "kitchen".

Many samovars-"kitchens" could prepare a full meal. From the inside, they were divided into compartments by walls, each compartment had a separate lid, a tap was attached to one of the compartments, and at the same time they prepared two dishes plus boiling water for tea. Of course, such miracle stoves were used only in road conditions, when they did not pay much attention to the sophistication of the dinner.

At post stations and in roadside inns, similar kitchens could also be found.

Coffee samovar.

The difference between a coffee samovar and an ordinary one was only in its external shape - a slightly flattened cylinder of the body and flat handles parallel to the body. A frame with a loop was attached to the coffee samovar, into which a bag was hung for coffee beans, previously ground.

There was a samovar in Jewish townships, not without reason the foxtrot "At the samovar, I and my Masha", which enjoyed great popularity in the 1930s, was written by a Jewish girl from Yalta Faina Gordon (married - Kvyatkovskaya).

Who and when invented such a thing as a samovar?

Samovar is a Russian folk device for boiling water and making tea. Initially, the water was heated by an internal firebox, which is a tall tube filled with charcoal. Later, other types of samovars appeared - kerosene, electric, etc.

The samovar is the same symbol of Russia as the balalaika and the matryoshka.
http: //ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/СамовР...

[edit] History of the samovar
The following is known about the appearance of the first documented samovars in Tula. In 1778, on Shtykova Street, in the District, brothers Ivan and Nazar Lisitsyn made a samovar in a small, at first, the first samovar establishment in the city. The founder of this institution was their father, the gunsmith Fyodor Lisitsyn, who, in his free time at the arms factory, built his own workshop and practiced all kinds of copper work in it.

Already in 1803, four Tula bourgeois, seven gunsmiths, two coachmen, 13 peasants were working for them. A total of 26 people. This is already a factory, and its capital is 3000 rubles, income is up to 1500 rubles. A lot of money. The factory in 1823 passed to the son of Nazar Nikita Lisitsyn.

Samovars of the Lisitsyns were famous for a variety of shapes and finishes: barrels, vases with embossing and engraving, egg-shaped samovars, with dolphin-shaped cranes, with loop-shaped handles. How much joy they brought to people! But a century has passed - and the graves of the manufacturers are overgrown with grass, the names of their apprentices have been forgotten. The first samovars, which made Tula famous, are no longer singing their evening songs. They are quietly sad far from their homeland, in the museums of Bukhara, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaluga. However, the Tula Museum of Samovars also boasts the oldest samovar from the Lisitsyn family.

Meanwhile, samovar production turned out to be very profitable. Artisans quickly turned into manufacturers, workshops into factories.

In 1785 the samovar establishment of A.M. Morozov was opened, in 1787 - F.M.Popov, in 1796 - of Mikhail Medvedev.

In 1808, eight samovar factories operated in Tula. In 1812, the factory of Vasily Lomov was opened, in 1813 - for Andrei Kurashev, in 1815 - for Yegor Chernikov, in 1820 - for Stepan Kiselev.

Vasily Lomov, together with his brother Ivan, produced high quality samovars, 1000 - 1200 pieces per year, and became highly famous. Samovars were then sold by weight and cost: from brass - 64 rubles per pood, from red copper - 90 rubles per pood.

In 1826, the factory of the Lomov merchants produced 2,372 samovars per year, Nikita Lisitsyn - 320 pieces, the Chernikov brothers - 600 pieces, Kurashev - 200 pieces, the tradesman Malikov - 105 pieces, the gunsmiths Minaev - 128 pieces and Chiginsky - 318 pieces.

In 1850, in Tula alone there were 28 samovar factories, which produced about 120 thousand pieces of samovars per year and many other copper products. So, the factory of Ya. V. Lyalin produced more than 10 thousand pieces of samovars a year, the factories of I. V. Lomov, Rudakov, the Batashev brothers - seven thousand pieces each.

In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, new types of samovars appeared - the kerosene, the Parichko samovar and the copper samovars from the Chernikov factory with a pipe on the side. In the latter, a similar device increased the movement of air and contributed to the fastest boiling of water.

Samovars kerosene with a tank for fuel were produced (along with the fire ones) by the factory of the Prussian citizen Reingold Teile, founded in 1870, and they were made only in Tula. This samovar was in great demand where kerosene was cheap, especially in the Caucasus. Kerosene samovars were also sold abroad.

In 1908, the steam factory of the brothers Shakhdat and Co. produced a samovar with a removable jug - the Parichko samovar. It was invented by the engineer A. Yu. Parichko, who sold his patent to Shahdat and Co. These samovars were fire safe, they could not get unsoldered or deteriorate, like ordinary samovars, if there was no water in them during the heating. Thanks to the device of the upper blower and the possibility of p

The samovar, the Russian tea machine, as it was called in Western Europe, occupies a special place among water heaters. The word "samovar" has passed from us to almost all languages \u200b\u200bof the world. The origin of this word is now not clear to everyone, since the combination "he cooks" in conjunction with the word "water" seems to be incorrect. But just a hundred years ago, the word "cook" was used not only in relation to food (cook soup, fish), but also in relation to water, along with the word "boil". Moreover, samovars not only boiled water, but also boiled food and sbitni.

The first mentions of samovar production and samovars date back to 1745. The custom of drinking tea and coffee, which had become firmly established in Russian life by the middle of the 18th century, contributed to the wider distribution, along with traditional Russian dishes (brothers, valleys, ladles), new dishes and water heating devices - teapots, coffee pots and samovars.

Like most other inventions, the samovar had its own predecessors. First of all, these are Chinese ho-go, which, like samovars, have a pipe and a blower.

But, unlike the samovar, since ancient times broths and soups were served (and not cooked) in kho-go, and therefore they did not make taps. To this day, the Chinese brew tea in cups or teapots with a grate.

In ancient Rome, two types of vessels were used for heating water and cooking food. The first type is avtepsa. It was made in the form of a quadrangular platform with a double-walled enclosure. Water was poured between the walls, and a fire was made on the platform in the middle. So the water was heated to add to the wine. A tripod was arranged above the platform for heating or cooking food. The second type is vessels in the form of a vase with a tap, but without a pipe and a blower.

The first samovars both externally and in their own way were similar to the English so-called "tea urns" or "tea vessels", which were used to boil water and were used in England in the 1740-1770s. By the end of the 18th century, the samovar already had all the distinctive design and functional features necessary for heating water, which are customary now. This allows the samovar to be considered a purely national Russian product.

Throughout the history of the development of a samovar, its appearance and decoration have changed in accordance with fluctuations in taste. At first they bore the imprint of the Rococo style, then they gravitated towards the Empire style, and at the end of their existence they did not escape the influence of Art Nouveau. But the "inner content" remained traditional. True, at the end of the 19th century, a kerosene samovar appeared, and the factory of the Chernikov brothers established the production of samovars with a side pipe, which increased the movement of air and accelerated the boiling process.

Samovars entered every home and became a characteristic feature of Russian life. The poet Boris Sadovskaya wrote in the preface to the collection “Samovar”: “The samovar in our life is unconscious for us, it takes a huge place. As a purely Russian phenomenon, he is beyond the understanding of foreigners. In the hum and whisper of a samovar, a Russian person imagines familiar voices from childhood: the sighs of the spring wind, the mother’s dear songs, the cheerful inviting whistle of the village blizzard. These voices are not heard in a European city cafe. "
On the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, the largest enterprise for the production of samovars was the Peter Silin plant, located in the Moscow province. He produced about 3,000 of them a year, but by the 1820s, Tula, which was called the samovar capital, began to play an increasing role in samovar production.
The design of the samovar is rather complicated:

Inside there is a brazier in the form of a pipe - a "jug". Below, under the "jug", a blower is made to increase traction. The reservoir of the samovar-vase is equipped with a rim at the top, on which the lid rests with a ring. On the lid, there are two "cones" - grabs and steamers - these are small rotary lids on the holes for the steam outlet.

The body-vase rests on a pallet or legs. The "jug" (brazier) is closed from above with a cap and supplied with a burner for installing a teapot. A faucet with a twist key is used to drain the water. Twists are made of various shapes, some of them are very intricate and difficult to execute.

Profiles of figured holes (phistons) on blowers and burners are very diverse. The most important decorative elements of the whole composition were the burrs, arms and legs. The legs were made spherical, in the form of lion paws, bird legs, etc.

The big advantage of the samovar is that the fire tube is placed inside the tank and surrounded on all sides by water. Therefore, heat losses are small, and the efficiency is very high.

Samovar craftsmen have come up with a side pipe that can be put on the top of the combustion pipe. At first, teapots appeared, retaining the shape of a spherical squat dining room and kitchen utensils, then they were equipped with a blower and a furnace pipe, without changing the previous shape.

Due to its shape, which enhances resonance, the samovar has the ability to make sounds that accurately convey the state of boiling water: at the first stage the samovar "sings", at the second it "makes noise", at the third stage it "rages". Since the heating of the samovar is slow, the sound is very convenient to catch the fleeting second stage of boiling.

Moreover, a samovar is not just a boiler. It is also a chemical reactor - a softener of hard water, which is very important, since tea brewed in hard water does not taste good. When boiling, the hardness decreases, since the formed insoluble carbonates (scale) are deposited on the walls of the pipe and the body (body), and most of them settle to the bottom. However, over time, the effectiveness of the reaction decreases because of this, so that the scale must be removed.

It is noteworthy that samovar craftsmen never make a tap at the very bottom, but always a little higher, so that the settled scale does not get into the prepared drink.

XIX century - the "golden age" of samovar business in Russia. Each factory tried to come up with its own, unlike other samovar. Hence such a variety of samovar forms: conical, smooth, faceted, spherical, in the "neo-Greek" style, which reproduced the antique forms of amphorae. The sizes and capacities of samovars were extremely varied: from a glass to twenty liters. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, samovars had a variety of common names indicating the shape of the product: "bank", "glass", "vase", "acorn", "dula", "turnip", "Easter egg", "flame " etc.

At the same time, there was a search for a universal use of samovars: samovars-coffee pots, samovars-kitchens, home samovars, travel samovars, etc. were created.

However, most of them did not become widespread, and in the 20th century they began to use only samovars for boiling water and serving it at the tea table. Three typical forms of samovars turned out to be vital: cylindrical, conical (like a vase) and spherical flattened (like a turnip). At the same time, the designs of taps, handles, legs, burners have become diverse.

At this time, bouillotte (from the French bonillir - to boil) becomes a frequent companion of the samovar - a small vessel on a stand with an alcohol lamp. The bouillot was usually placed on a table filled with hot water. With the help of an alcohol lamp, the water was kept boiling until the samovar, again filled with cold water, boiled.

How to breed and how to heat a fire samovar? The best fuel for it is charcoal, dry wood chips and chips, pine cones. It should be remembered, however, that dry pine cones contain a lot of resin that can get into the water. In no case should kerosene be used as fuel.

With low fuel consumption, the water in the samovar boils quickly, in addition, the samovar retains heat for a long time and does not require complex maintenance. The capacity of modern fire samovars ranges from 4.5 to 7 liters. The boiling time of water does not exceed 30 minutes. You can light fuel in a samovar only by first filling the tank with water.

Samovar production in Russia reached its greatest development in 1912-1913, when annually only in Tula 660 thousand pieces were produced. The First World War suspended the production of samovars, which resumed only after the end of the civil war.

In Soviet times, both heat and electric samovars began to be produced. They are still produced today. Electric samovars are false samovars. They have nothing to do with a real Russian fire samovar. An electric samovar is essentially the same electric kettle in the shape of a traditional roast samovar. It is a metal body, the inner part of which serves as a water reservoir. There is a metal tube with a heating element inside the tank.

The invention of the electric heating device - kettle dates back to 1894, when the first samples of it went on sale in London.

The samovar, the Russian tea machine, as it was called in Western Europe, occupies a special place among water heaters. The word "samovar" has passed from us to almost all languages \u200b\u200bof the world. The origin of this word is now not clear to everyone, since the combination "he cooks" in conjunction with the word "water" seems to be incorrect. But just a hundred years ago, the word "cook" was used not only in relation to food (cook soup, fish), but also in relation to water, along with the word "boil". Moreover, samovars not only boiled water, but also boiled food and sbitni.

The first mentions of samovar production and samovars date back to 1745. The custom of drinking tea and coffee, which had become firmly established in Russian life by the middle of the 18th century, contributed to the wider distribution, along with traditional Russian dishes (brothers, valleys, ladles), new dishes and water heating devices - teapots, coffee pots and samovars.

Like most other inventions, the samovar had its own predecessors. First of all, these are Chinese ho-go, which, like samovars, have a pipe and a blower.

But, unlike the samovar, since ancient times broths and soups were served (and not cooked) in kho-go, and therefore they did not make taps. To this day, the Chinese brew tea in cups or teapots with a grate.

In ancient Rome, two types of vessels were used for heating water and cooking food. The first type is avtepsa. It was made in the form of a quadrangular platform with a double-walled enclosure. Water was poured between the walls, and a fire was made on the platform in the middle. So the water was heated to add to the wine. A tripod was arranged above the platform for heating or cooking food. The second type is vessels in the form of a vase with a tap, but without a pipe and a blower.

The first samovars, both externally and in their own way, were similar to the English so-called "tea urns" or "tea vessels", which served to boil water and were used in England in the 1740-1770s. By the end of the 18th century, the samovar already had all the distinctive design and functional features necessary for heating water, which are customary now. This allows the samovar to be considered a purely national Russian product.

Throughout the history of the development of a samovar, its appearance and decoration have changed in accordance with fluctuations in taste. At first they bore the imprint of the Rococo style, then they gravitated towards the Empire style, and at the end of their existence they did not escape the influence of Art Nouveau. But the "inner content" remained traditional. True, at the end of the 19th century, a kerosene samovar appeared, and the factory of the Chernikov brothers established the production of samovars with a side pipe, which increased the movement of air and accelerated the boiling process.

Samovars entered every home and became a characteristic feature of Russian life. The poet Boris Sadovskaya wrote in the preface to the collection "Samovar": "The samovar in our life is unconsciously for ourselves, it occupies a huge place. As a purely Russian phenomenon, it is beyond the understanding of foreigners. A Russian person in the hum and whisper of a samovar fancies familiar voices from childhood: sighs spring wind, mother's own songs, cheerful inviting whistle of a village blizzard. These voices are not heard in a European city cafe ".
On the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, the largest enterprise for the production of samovars was the Peter Silin plant, located in the Moscow province. He produced about 3,000 of them a year, but by the 1820s, Tula, which was called the samovar capital, began to play an increasing role in samovar production.
The design of the samovar is rather complicated:

Inside there is a brazier in the form of a pipe - "jug". Below, under the "jug", a blower is made to enhance traction. The reservoir of the samovar-vase is equipped with a rim at the top, on which the lid rests with a ring. On the lid, two "cones" are made - grabs and steamers - these are small rotary lids on the holes for steam outlet.

The body-vase rests on a pallet or legs. The "jug" (brazier) is closed from above with a cap and supplied with a burner for installing a teapot. A faucet with a twist key is used to drain the water. Twists are made of various shapes, some of them are very intricate and difficult to execute.

Profiles of figured holes (phistons) on blowers and burners are very diverse. The most important decorative elements of the whole composition were the burrs, arms and legs. The legs were made spherical, in the form of lion paws, bird legs, etc.

The big advantage of the samovar is that the fire tube is placed inside the tank and surrounded on all sides by water. Therefore, heat losses are small, and the efficiency is very high.

Samovar craftsmen have come up with a side pipe that can be put on the top of the combustion pipe. At first, teapots appeared, retaining the shape of a spherical squat dining room and kitchen utensils, then they were equipped with a blower and a furnace pipe, without changing the previous shape.

Due to its form, which enhances resonance, the samovar has the ability to emit sounds that accurately convey the state of boiling water: at the first stage the samovar "sings", at the second it "makes noise", at the third stage it "rages". Since the heating of the samovar is slow, the sound is very convenient to catch the fleeting second stage of boiling.

Moreover, a samovar is not just a boiler. It is also a chemical reactor - a softener of hard water, which is very important, since tea brewed in hard water does not taste good. When boiling, the hardness decreases, since the formed insoluble carbonates (scale) are deposited on the walls of the pipe and the body (body), and most of them settle to the bottom. However, over time, the effectiveness of the reaction decreases because of this, so that the scale must be removed.

It is noteworthy that samovar craftsmen never make a tap at the very bottom, but always a little higher, so that the settled scale does not get into the prepared drink.

XIX century - "golden age" of samovar business in Russia. Each factory tried to come up with its own, unlike any other samovar. Hence such a variety of samovar forms: conical, smooth, faceted, spherical, in the "neo-Greek" style, which reproduced the antique forms of amphorae. The sizes and capacities of samovars were extremely varied: from a glass to twenty liters. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, samovars had a variety of common names indicating the shape of the product: "jar", "glass", "vase", "acorn", "dulya", "turnip", "Easter egg", "flame " etc.

At the same time, there was a search for a universal use of samovars: samovars-coffee pots, samovars-kitchens, home samovars, travel samovars, etc. were created.

However, most of them did not become widespread, and in the 20th century they began to use only samovars for boiling water and serving it at the tea table. Three typical forms of samovars turned out to be vital: cylindrical, conical (like a vase) and spherical flattened (like a turnip). At the same time, the designs of taps, handles, legs, burners have become diverse.

At this time, bouillotte (from the French bonillir - to boil), a small vessel on a stand with an alcohol lamp, becomes a frequent companion of the samovar. The bouillot was usually placed on a table filled with hot water. With the help of an alcohol lamp, the water was kept boiling until the samovar, which had been refilled with cold water, began to boil.

How to breed and how to heat a fire samovar? The best fuel for it is charcoal, dry wood chips and chips, pine cones. It should be remembered, however, that dry pine cones contain a lot of resin that can get into the water. In no case should kerosene be used as fuel.

With low fuel consumption, the water in the samovar boils quickly, in addition, the samovar retains heat for a long time and does not require complex maintenance. The capacity of modern fire samovars ranges from 4.5 to 7 liters. The boiling time of water does not exceed 30 minutes. You can light fuel in a samovar only by first filling the tank with water.

Samovar production in Russia reached its greatest development in 1912-1913, when annually only in Tula 660 thousand pieces were produced. The First World War suspended the production of samovars, which resumed only after the end of the civil war.

In Soviet times, both heat and electric samovars began to be produced. They are still produced today. Electric samovars are false samovars. They have nothing to do with a real Russian fire samovar. An electric samovar is essentially the same electric kettle in the shape of a traditional roast samovar. It is a metal body, the inner part of which serves as a water reservoir. There is a metal tube with a heating element inside the tank.

Tea drinking with a samovar has long been considered one of the most striking and indicative features of Russian traditional life. The samovar was not an ordinary household item, but a kind of personification of prosperity, family comfort, well-being. It was included in the girl's dowry, passed on by inheritance, and presented. Thoroughly polished, it flaunted in the most prominent and honorable place in the room.

Many believe that the samovar is a truly Russian invention. However, devices similar to a samovar were known in ancient times, in ancient times.

For example, the ancient Romans, wanting to drink boiling water, took a vessel, filled it with water and threw a larger red-hot stone into it, as a result of which the water boiled.

Over time, similar devices began to appear in Europe, but with a more improved design. And in China there was even a device resembling a samovar in that it had a pipe and a blower.
The Russian tea machine, as it was called in Western Europe, first appeared in Russia during the reign of Peter I. At that time, the tsar often visited Holland, from where he brought many ideas and interesting objects, including a samovar. It was called, of course, in a different way, with a Dutch flavor, but that name has not come down to our times and the device is known as a samovar.

The samovar owes its appearance to tea. Tea was brought to Russia in the 17th century from Asia and was used as a medicine among the nobility.

Tea was imported to Moscow, and later to Odessa, Poltava, Kharkov, Rostov and Astrakhan. The tea trade was one of the largest and most profitable commercial enterprises. In the 19th century, tea became a Russian national drink.

Tea was a competitor to sbitnya, the favorite drink of Ancient Rus. This hot drink was prepared with honey and medicinal herbs in a sbitennik. The sbitennik outwardly resembles a kettle, inside which a pipe for laying coal was placed. A brisk trade in sbitnem was going on at fairs.

In the 18th century in the Urals and Tula, samovars-kitchens appeared, which were a brother, divided into three parts: in two for cooking food, in the third for tea. The samovar and samovar-kitchen were the predecessors of the samovar.

Where and when did the first samovar appear? Who invented it? Unknown. It is only known that going to the Urals in 1701, the Tula blacksmith-industrialist I. Demidov took with him skilled workers, copper craftsmen. It is possible that even then samovars were being made in Tula.

During the time of Peter the Great, an unprecedented development of industry began in the Urals, a huge number of copper smelting and metallurgical plants were built. It was at one of these factories that the production of household utensils from copper for the population began, where already in the 30s of the 18th century they began to produce teapots with a handle. A little later, factories began to produce cauldrons and distillery cubes with pipes.

The first mention of the samovar in historical documents dates back to 1746, but it is impossible to name the exact date and place where the first samovar appeared. However, it is known for certain that by the end of the 18th century, the principles of operation and the structure of the samovar itself had already been finally formed, and they still remain unchanged.

Throughout the history of the development of a samovar, its appearance and decoration have changed in accordance with fluctuations in taste. At first they bore the imprint of the Rococo style, then they gravitated towards the Empire style, and at the end of their existence they did not escape the influence of Art Nouveau. But the "inner content" remained traditional. True, at the end of the 19th century, a kerosene samovar appeared, and the factory of the Chernikov brothers established the production of samovars with a side pipe, which increased the movement of air and accelerated the boiling process.

The first samovar factory in Russia was opened in 1766 in Moscow by A. Shmakov. But a real revolution in samovar art was made by the Tula. From the second half of the 19th century, Tula became the “samovar capital”. At that time there were about 80 factories there, producing more than 150 styles of "tea machines".

Outwardly, the first samovars were still somewhat different from modern ones. At that time, they were intended mainly for use in field conditions, as a result of which they were small in size and removable legs. The most common volume of samovars was 3-8 liters, although more voluminous ones were produced for a large number of people, 12-15 liters. Due to the fact that in most of the territory of Russia the climate is quite cool, people drank several cups of tea a day. In addition, the warmth of the samovar could warm up the room quite well. All this led to the fact that the samovar became very popular among the people, even despite its far from low cost. By the way, the cost of a samovar was determined depending on its weight, that is, the heavier the samovar was, the more expensive it was.

Making a samovar is a rather laborious process. Workers of various specialties were involved in its production: guides who bent copper sheets and set the shape, tinkers, turners, locksmiths, assemblers and cleaners. The craftsmen in the villages made individual parts of the samovar, brought them to the factory, where they collected the finished products. Whole villages were engaged in the manufacture of samovar parts all year round, with the exception of the summer, when work was carried out in the fields.

At first, samovars were made of red (pure) and green copper, cupronickel, and later they began to use cheaper alloys such as brass.

Over time, there were so many different factories producing samovars that, in order to determine the manufacturer, they began to affix a stamp corresponding to each factory on the lids of the samovars. It was something like a trademark by which one could recognize the manufacturer.

Tula samovars penetrated into all corners of Russia, became an adornment of fairs. Every year, from May 25 to June 10, samovars were transported from Tula along the Oka River (up to the Oka on horseback) to the Nizhny Novgorod fair. The river route had a number of advantages: it was cheaper, and samovars were better preserved with this method of transportation.

Samovars from Batashev, Lyalin, Belousov, Gudkov, Rudakov, Uvarov, Lomov took the first places at the fairs. Large manufacturers, for example Lomovs, Somovs, had their stores in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tula and other cities.

During transportation, samovars were packed in boxes-boxes, which contained a dozen items of different sizes and styles, and sold by weight. A dozen samovars weighed more than 4 pounds and cost 90 rubles.

It was not easy to master the craft of a samovar.

This is what NG Abrosimov, an old-time samovar worker from the village of Maslovo, recalls: “He began to work as a student at the age of 11. He studied this craft for three and a half years. For the wall (body), brass was cut to a certain size, then it was rolled into a cylinder, and this shape was induced in twelve steps. Brass was cut with teeth on one side and then, with hammer blows, it was fixed along the connecting seam, after which it was carried to the smithy. Then the foreman (guide) repeated the operations of sealing the seam with hammers and files, and each time he fixed it by annealing in the forge. Boys-apprentices ran to the smithy from master to master and back and gradually watched how the master worked.

A lot of sweat was spilled and sleepless nights spent before the wall was made by the order of the manufacturer. And if you bring it to Tula to be delivered to the manufacturer, sometimes you will find a marriage. Much labor has been expended, but there is nothing to receive. The work is hard, but I fell in love with it, it was nice when you made a miracle wall out of a sheet of brass ”.

The process of making the "Tula miracle" is complex and varied, which consisted of 12 techniques. There was a strict division of labor in production. There were almost no cases when the master would have made the entire samovar. There were seven main specialties in samovar:
Navigator - bending a copper sheet, soldering it and making the appropriate shape. In a week he could produce 6-8 pieces of blanks (depending on the shape) and received an average of 60 kopecks per piece.
Tinker - served the inside of the samovar with tin. I made 60-100 pieces a day and got 3 kopecks apiece.

Turner - sharpened on the machine and polished the samovar (while the worker who turned the machine (turner) received 3 rubles a week). A turner could turn 8-12 pieces a day and get 18-25 kopecks apiece.
A locksmith - he made pens, taps, etc. (pens - for 3-6 samovars a day) and for each pair he received 20 kopecks.

The collector - he assembled a samovar from all separate parts, soldered taps, etc. A week he made up to two dozen samovars and received 23-25 \u200b\u200bkopecks from one.

Cleaner - he cleaned a samovar (up to 10 pieces per day), received 7-10 kopecks per piece.
Wood turner - made wooden cones for lids and handles (up to 400-600 pieces per day) and received 10 kopecks per hundred.

The process of making a samovar takes a long time before it appears in the form in which we are used to seeing it.

The factories were assembling and finishing. Manufacturing of parts - from home. It is known that entire villages made one piece. Delivery of finished products took place once a week, sometimes in two weeks. They brought ready-made goods for delivery on horseback, well-packed.

Samovars entered every home and became a characteristic feature of Russian life. The poet Boris Sadovskaya wrote in the preface to the collection “Samovar”: “The samovar in our life is unconscious for us, it takes a huge place. As a purely Russian phenomenon, he is beyond the understanding of foreigners. In the hum and whisper of a samovar, a Russian person imagines familiar voices from childhood: the sighs of the spring wind, the mother’s dear songs, the cheerful inviting whistle of the village blizzard. These voices are not heard in a European city cafe. "

On the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812, the largest enterprise for the production of samovars was the plant of Peter Silin, located in the Moscow province. He produced about 3,000 of them a year, but by the 1820s, Tula began to play an increasing role in samovar production.

The samovar is a part of the life and fate of our people, reflected in its proverbs and sayings, in the works of the classics of our literature - Pushkin and Gogol, Blok and Gorky.

A samovar is poetry. This is kind Russian hospitality. This is a circle of friends and family, warm and cordial peace.
A veranda window twisted with hops, a summer night, with its sounds and smells, the charm of which makes the heart freeze, a circle of light from a lamp with a cozy cloth shade and, of course ... a grumbling Tula samovar, sparkling with copper, bursting with steam, on the table.

Tula samovar ... In our language this phrase has become stable long ago. The absurd, from his point of view, act of AP Chekhov compares with a trip "to Tula with his own samovar."

Already at that time, proverbs about the samovar were formed ("The samovar boils - it does not order to leave", "Where there is tea, there is paradise under the spruce", songs, poems.

The newspaper "Tula Gubernskiye Vedomosti" for 1872 (No. 70) wrote about the samovar as follows: "The samovar is a friend of the family hearth, a medicine for a vegetated traveler ..."

The history of the Russian samovar is not too long - about two and a half centuries. But today the samovar is an integral part of Russian tea drinking. Samples of Russian samovars can be found on the antique market. The price of such samovars depends, of course, on the fame of the company or the master, on the safety of the sample, on the material of the product. Collectible samovars start at $ 500. The most expensive samovars are Fabergé samovars, the prices for which can reach up to $ 25,000.

A samovar can create a surprisingly warm and cozy atmosphere in the house, add a unique flavor to family and friendly gatherings, remind about long-forgotten, but such pleasant Russian traditions.

It was getting dark. On the table, shining,
The evening samovar hissed,
Heating the Chinese teapot,
Light steam billowed beneath him.
Spilled by Olga's hand.
Through the cups in a dark stream
Already fragrant tea was running ...