Glimpses of the history of electrospark machining of materials

“The centuries-long reign of the mechanical method of metal machining comes to an end. Its place is being taken by a higher organized process when a metal is treated by electrical forces. There can be no reasons that would have stopped the development of this revolutionary process breaking the present-day conceptions of the machining of materials. It will govern in the future; moreover, in the nearest future.”

B.R. Lazarenko, 1947

Abstract

November 11, 2010, marks the centenary of Boris Romanovich Lazarenko. We have started publishing a series of papers entitled Glimpses of the History of Electrospark Machining of Materials written by B.I. Stavitskii, a Lenin Prize laureate and the chief designer of electrospark equipment for the electronic industry of the Soviet Union, who dedicated more than 50 years to this domain of science and technology.