in 1834, already being an ordinary academician in technology, he helped the austrian engineer gerstnerobtain permission to build the tsarsko-selo railway, the first in russia. joseph hamel had an undoubted talent, he felt which inventions would bring practical benefits to humanity. in 1839, he went to england and there met william henry talbot, one of the inventors of photography. he thoroughly studied the principle of obtaining photographs, wrote everything down in detail and sent it to st. petersburg, then sent another batch of photographs and another device, invented by a frenchman, louis daguerre, so. thanks to the tsarist tesla, russia i got acquainted with photography literally in the year of its invention. but joseph hamel really could be equal to nikola tesla in his importance. he not only experimented and invented, but spent his time and energy on russian and foreign manufacturing exhibitions that glorified the country. he studied the history of telegraph communication, was fond of mountaineering and was the first russian academician to visit america, but when did he manage to