Computations Before Computers: Vladimir Karapetoff’s Kinematic Computing Devices

This article is devoted to Vladimir Karapetoff, an outstanding American engineer and scientist of Russian origin. His brief biography and scientific achievements are presented. We characterize in particular his contribution to the computations in the field of electrical machinery, long transmission lines etc. For the first time in the scientific literature, we describe the variety of original analog kinematic computing devices designed by Karapetoff in 1910s – 1920s.