File:Worlds First Hyperboloid structure photo by Sergei Arssenev.jpg

English: The World's First Hyperboloid Diagrid Shell structure. The Russian engineer and architect Vladimir Shukhov was the first in the world to invent and use in construction diagrid hyperboloid towers. For the 1896 All-Russia industrial and art exhibition in Nizhniy Novgorod Shukhov built the steel 37-meter tower, which became the first diagrid hyperboloid structure in the world. The astonishing hyperboloid diagrid structure caused delight of the European specialists ("The Nijni-Novgorod exhibition: Water tower, room under construction, springing of 91 feet span", "The Engineer" magazine, 1897, № 19.3. - P.292-294). After the exhibition had closed, the openwork tower of rare beauty was bought by the well-known Maecenas of that time Yury Nechaev-Maltsov and placed in his estate Polibino, Lipetsk Oblast, where it has preserved until now under the state protection. In the subsequent years, V.G.Shukhov developed numerous structures of various diagrid steel hyperboloids and used them in hundreds water towers, sea lighthouses, masts of warships and supports for power transmission lines. The hyperboloid structures appeared in Spain (Gaudi) and USA (battleship masts) only 10 years after the Shukhov's invention.