Mikhail Lomonosov

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Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov

Library of Congress

[b. Denisovka, Russia, November 8, 1711, d. St. Petersburg, Russia, April 15, 1765]

Although little known among English-speaking nations, Lomonosov is recognized as a great author and scientist in Russia -- he even has a large naval vessel named for him. He created the system of higher education in Russia and made Moscow University possible; in 1940 the university was renamed the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Lomonosov also was a first-rate poet and writer of fiction. As a scientist he anticipated many discoveries attributed in the West to much later physicists, geologists, astronomers, and inventors.

The Russian chemist and physicist Mikhail Vasilevich Lomonosov (1711-1765) proposed advanced scientific theories, but the diversity of his activities and interests hindered him from gaining widespread recognition.

Mikhail Lomonosov was born on Nov. 8, 1711, in the village of Denisovka. There being few opportunities for education in his native village, he ran away at the age of 19 to Moscow, where he entered a theological seminary and began to study for the priesthood.

Having displayed outstanding abilities as a scholar, young Lomonosov was chosen in 1735 to attend lectures given at the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. This experience changed the whole direction of his career. The St. Petersburg Academy was at this time promoting a series of studies on the material resources of Siberia for which it needed trained chemists and metallurgists. From 1736 to 1741 Lomonosov studied these subjects in Germany, first at the University of Marburg, where he gained a thorough grounding in the basic sciences, and later at the famous mining academy at Freiburg.

On his return to Russia, Lomonosov became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy, and the remainder of his life was devoted almost exclusively to its affairs. He soon emerged as the contentious leader of the group of native Russian scientists in the academy opposed to the clique of foreign members, largely German, who had been imported into its membership at its foundation to stimulate Russian science. In 1745 he was appointed professor of chemistry at the academy, where he built a chemical laboratory for instruction and research. Here he gave one of the earliest courses in practical instruction in chemistry.

Although Lomonosov published much on various aspects of physics and chemistry, his works were mainly in the form of dissertations with a limited circulation. His many activities seem to have prevented him from completing many of his projects, and much of his original work was never published.

Lomonosov's physical and chemical work was characterized by its emphasis on the use of atomic and molecular modes of explanation. In a century when most scientists regarded heat as material substance, he argued that heat was in fact a form of motion - the result of the motion of the molecules which constitute matter. His essentially physical approach to chemistry led him to place great emphasis on quantitative measurements. In this he was certainly ahead of his time, although the claims that he anticipated Antoine Laurent Lavoisier in stressing the conservation of mass in chemical reactions and recognizing the chemical role of air in combustion are certainly exaggerated.

Lomonosov's other scientific interests were electricity, light, mineralogy, meteorology, and astronomy. He observed the transit of Venus in 1761 and concluded that Venus had an atmosphere "similar to, or perhaps greater than that of the earth." He also made significant contributions to the philological study of the Russian language, including the development of a scientific vocabulary, and wrote a controversial history of Russia.

Although Lomonosov was a man of immense talent, his creative energies were somewhat thwarted by his domineering nature and quarrelsome disposition. He died from influenza in St. Petersburg on April 4, 1765.

Further Reading

A highly laudatory biography is by the famous Russian chemist Boris N. Menshutkin, Russia's Lomonosov: Chemist, Courtier, Physicist, Poet (trans. 1952). See also Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov on the Corpuscular Theory, translated with an introduction by Henry M. Leicester (1970). The literary and cultural background of Lomonosov's work is given in Hans Rogger, National Consciousness in Eighteenth-century Russia (1960). Scientific aspects are discussed in Alexander Vucinich, Science in Russian Culture: A History to 1860 (1963).

(1711 - 1765), chemist, physicist, poet.

Mikhail Lomonosov was born in a small coastal village near Arkhangelsk. His father was a prosperous fisherman and trader. At age nineteen Lomonosov enrolled in the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow, a religious institution where he learned Latin and was exposed to Aristotelian philosophy and logic. In 1736 he was one of sixteen students selected to continue their studies at the newly established secular university at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Immediately the Academy sent him to Marburg University in Germany to study the physical sciences under the guidance of Christian Wolff, famous for his versatile interest in the links between physics and philosophy. He also spent some time in Freiberg, where he studied mining techniques. He sent several scientific papers to St. Petersburg. After five years in Germany, he returned to St. Petersburg and began immediately to present papers on physical and chemical themes. In 1745 he was elected full professor at the Academy.

Lomonosov drew admiring attention not only as "the father of Russian science" but also as a major modernizer of national poetry. He introduced the living word as the vehicle of poetic expression. According to Vissarion Belinsky, who wrote in the middle of the nineteenth century: "His language is pure and noble, his style is precise and powerful, and his verse is full of glitter and soaring spirit." According to Evelyn Bristol: "Lomonosov created a body of verse whose excellence was unprecedented in his own language."

Lomonosov's work in science was of an encyclopedic scope; he was actively engaged in physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, meteorology, and navigation. He also contributed to population studies, political economy, Russian history, rhetoric, and grammar. He brought the most advanced scientific theories to Russia, commented on their strengths and weaknesses, and advanced original ideas. He sided with Newton's atomistic views on the structure of matter; questioned the existence of the heat-generating caloric, a popular crutch of eighteenth-century science; and endorsed and commented on Huygens's clearly manifested inclination toward the wave theory of light. He raised the question of the scientific validity of the notion of instantaneous action at a distance that was built into Newton's notion of universal gravitation, conducted experimental research in atmospheric electricity, made the first steps toward the formulation of conservation laws, suggested a historical orientation in the study of the terrestrial strata, and claimed the presence of atmosphere at the planet Venus. In the judgment of Henry M. Leicester, Lomonosov's scientific papers revealed "a remarkable originality and ability to follow his theories to their logical ends, even though his conclusions were sometimes erroneous."

In a series of odes, Lomonosov combined his poetic gifts with his scientific engagement to produce scientific poetry. These odes dealt with scientific themes and were dedicated to the popularization of rationalist methods in obtaining socially valuable knowledge. "A Letter on the Uses of Glass," one such ode, relied on rich and poignant metaphors to portray the invincible power of scientific ideas of the kind advanced by Kepler, Huygens, and Newton. This poem, an ode in praise of the scientific world outlook, is the first Russian literary work to hail Copernicus's heliocentrism.

The appearance of Lomonosov's papers on physical and chemical themes in the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences journal Novy Kommentary (New Commentary) during the 1750s marked the beginning of a new epoch in Russia's cultural history. They were the first publications of scientific papers by a native Russian scholar to appear in the same journal with contributions by established naturalists and mathematicians of Western origin and training. The papers, presented in Latin, dealt with major scientific problems of the day and were noticed by reviewers in Western scholarly journals.

Few of his Russian contemporaries understood the intellectual and social significance of Lomonosov's achievements in science and of his enthusiastic advocacy of Baconian views on science as the commanding source of social progress. His relations with the members of the St. Petersburg Academy and with distinguished members of the literary community were punctuated by stormy conflicts, personal and professional. He showed a tendency to magnify the animosity, overt or latent, of German academicians toward Russian personnel and Russia's cultural environment. Particularly noted were his outbursts against G. F. Müller, A. L. Schlozer, and G. Z. Bayer, the founders of the Norman theory of the origin of the Russian state. On one occasion, he was sent to jail as a result of complaints by foreign colleagues regarding his abusive language at scientific sessions of the Academy. In the face of mounting complaints about his behavior, Catherine II signed a decree in 1763 forcing Lomonosov to retire; however, before the Senate could ratify the decree, the empress changed her mind. Part of Lomonosov's obstinacy stemmed from his desire to see increased Russian representation in the administration of the Academy. In fairness to Lomonosov, it must be noted that he had high respect for and maintained cordial relations with most German members of the Academy.

Lomonosov went through a series of skirmishes with theologians who protected the irrevocability of canonized belief from the challenges launched by science, and even wrote a hymn lampooning the theologians who stood in the way of scientific progress. While attacking theological zealots, he never deviated from a candid respect for religion - and he never alienated himself from the church. Small wonder, then, that two archimandrites and a long line of priests officiated at his burial rites. After his death, the church recognized him as one of Russia's premier citizens, and many learned theologians took an active part in building the symbolism of the Lomonosov legend.

In his time, and shortly after his death, Lomonosov was known almost exclusively as a poet; only isolated contemporaries grasped the intellectual and social significance of his achievements in science. A good part of his main scientific manuscripts languished in the archives of the St. Petersburg Academy until the beginning of the twentieth century. Lomonosov was known for having made little effort to communicate with Russian scientists in and outside the Academy. On his death, a commemorative session was attended by eight members of the Academy, who heard a short encomium delivered by Nicholas Gabriel de Clerc, a French doctor of medicine, writer on Russian history, newly elected honorary member of the Academy, and personal physician of Kirill Razumovsky, president of the Academy. While de Clerc praised Lomonosov effusively, he barely mentioned his work in science.

Bibliography

Leicester, Henry M. (1976). Lomonosov and the Corpuscular Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Menshutkin, B. N. (1952). Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist, Courtier, Physicist, Poet, tr. I. E. Thal and E. J. Webster, Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press.

Pavlova, G. E., and Fedorov, A. S. (1984). Mikhail Vasil'evich Lomonasov: His Life and Work, Moscow: Mir.

—ALEXANDER VUCINICH

For other uses, see Lomonosov (disambiguation).

Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov
Born	November 19, 1711(1711-11-19) Denisovka, Arkhangelsk Governorate
Died	April 15, 1765 (aged 53) Saint Petersburg
Ethnicity	Pomor
Occupation	Sphere of science: natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was a poet.

Mikhail (Mikhaylo) Vasilyevich Lomonosov (Russian: Михаи́л Васи́льевич Ломоно́сов; November 19 [O.S. November 8] 1711 – April 15 [O.S. April 4] 1765) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was the atmosphere of Venus. His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet, who created the basis of the modern Russian literary language.

Contents 1 Early life and family 2 Education in Moscow 3 Education abroad 4 Return to Russia 5 Legacy 6 See also 7 External links 8 References

Early life and family

Lomonosov was born in the village of Denisovka (later renamed Lomonosovo in his honor) in the Arkhangelsk Governorate, on an island not far from Kholmogory, in the Far North of Russia.^[1] His father, Vasily Dorofeyevich Lomonosov, was a prosperous peasant fisherman turned ship owner, who amassed a small fortune transporting goods from Arkhangelsk to Pustozyorsk, Solovki, Kola, and Lapland.^[1] Lomonosov’s mother was Vasily’s first wife, a deacon’s daughter, Elena Ivanovna Sivkova.^[2]

He remained at Denisovka until he was ten, when his father decided that he was old enough to participate in his business ventures, and Lomonosov began accompanying Vasily on trading missions.^[2]

Learning was young Lomonosov's passion, however, not business. The boy's thirst for knowledge was unbounded. Lomonosov had been taught to read as a boy by his neighbor Ivan Shubny, and he spent every spare moment with his books.^[2] He continued his studies with the village deacon, S.N. Sabelnikov, but for many years the only books he had access to were religious texts. When he was fourteen, Lomonosov was given copies of Meletius Smotrytsky's Modern Church Slavonic (a grammar book) and Leonty Magnitsky's Arthimetic.^[3]

In 1724, his father married for the third and final time. Lomonosov and his stepmother Irina had an acrimonious relationship. Unhappy at home and intent on obtaining a higher education, which Lomonosov could not receive in Denisovka, he was determined to leave the village.^[4]

Education in Moscow

In 1730, at nineteen, Lomonosov joined a caravan traveling to Moscow.^[4] Not long after arriving, Lomonosov obtained admission into the Slavic Greek Latin Academy by falsely claiming to be a priest’s son.^[5] That initial falsehood would nearly get him expelled from the academy a few years later when discovered.^[6]

Lomonosov lived on three kopecks a day, eating only black bread and kvas, but he made rapid progress scholastically.^[7] After three years in Moscow he was sent to Kiev to study for one year at the Kiev Mogila Academy. He quickly became dissatisfied with the education he was receiving there, and returned to Moscow several months ahead of schedule, resuming his studies there.^[7] He completed a twelve-year study course in only five years, graduating at the top of his class. In 1736, Lomonosov was awarded a scholarship to Saint Petersburg State University.^[8] He plunged into his studies and was rewarded with a two-year grant to study abroad at the University of Marburg, in Germany.^[9]

Education abroad

The University of Marburg was among Europe's most important universities in the mid-18th century due to the presence of the philosopher Christian Wolff, a prominent figure of the German Enlightenment. Lomonosov became one of Wolff’s personal students while at Marburg. Both philosophically and as a science administrator, this connection would be the most influential of Lomonosov’s life.^[10]

The most grandiose of Lomonosov's mosaics depicts the Battle of Poltava.

Lomonosov quickly mastered the German language, and in addition to philosophy, seriously studied chemistry, discovered the works of 17th century English theologian and natural philosopher, Robert Boyle, and even began writing poetry. He also developed an interest in German literature. He is said to have especially admired Günther. His Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks, composed in 1739, attracted a great deal of attention in Saint Petersburg.^[10]

During his residence in Germany, Lomonosov boarded with Catharina Zilch, a brewer’s widow.^[11] He fell in love with Catharina’s daughter Elisabeth Christine Zilch. They were married in June 1740.^[12] Lomonosov found it extremely difficult to maintain his growing family on the scanty and irregular allowance granted him by the Russian Academy of Science. As his circumstances became desperate, he resolved to return to Saint Petersburg.^[10]

Return to Russia

Lomonosov returned to Russia in 1741. A year later he was named adjutant to the Russian Academy of Science in the physics department.^[10] In May 1743, Lomonosov was accused, arrested, and held under house arrest for eight months, after he supposedly insulted various people associated with the Academy. He was released and pardoned in January 1744 after apologizing to all involved.^[10]

Lomonosov was made a full member of the Academy, and named professor of chemistry, in 1745.^[10] He established the Academy's first chemistry laboratory.^[13]

Eager to improve Russia’s educational system, in 1755, Lomonosov joined his patron Count Ivan Shuvalov in founding the Moscow State University.^[13]

In 1756, Lomonosov tried to replicate Robert Boyle's experiment of 1673.^[14] He concluded that the commonly accepted phlogiston theory was false. Anticipating the discoveries of Antoine Lavoisier, he wrote in his diary: "Today I made an experiment in hermetic glass vessels in order to determine whether the mass of metals increases from the action of pure heat. The experiments – of which I append the record in 13 pages – demonstrated that the famous Robert Boyle was deluded, for without access of air from outside the mass of the burnt metal remains the same".

He regarded heat as a form of motion, suggested the wave theory of light, contributed to the formulation of the kinetic theory of gases, and stated the idea of conservation of matter in the following words: "All changes in nature are such that inasmuch is taken from one object insomuch is added to another. So, if the amount of matter decreases in one place, it increases elsewhere. This universal law of nature embraces laws of motion as well, for an object moving others by its own force in fact imparts to another object the force it loses" (first articulated in a letter to Leonhard Euler dated 5 July 1748, rephrased and published in Lomonosov's dissertation "Reflexion on the solidity and fluidity of bodies", 1760).

In 1762, Lomonosov presented an improved design of a reflecting telescope to the Russian Academy of Sciences forum. His telescope had its primary mirror adjusted at four degrees to telescope's axis. This made the image focus at the side of the telescope tube. There the observer could view the image with an eyepiece without blocking the image. However, this invention was not published until 1827, so this type of telescopes has become associated with a similar design by William Herschel, the Herschelian telescope.^[15]

Lomonosov was the first person to record the freezing of mercury and to hypothesize the existence of an atmosphere on Venus based on his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in Petersburg.^[10] Believing that nature is subject to regular and continuous evolution, he demonstrated the organic origin of soil, peat, coal, petroleum and amber. In 1745, he published a catalogue of over 3,000 minerals, and in 1760, he explained the formation of icebergs.^[10]

As a geographer, Lomonosov got close to the theory of continental drift^[16], theoretically predicted the existence of Antarctica (he argued that icebergs of the South Ocean could only be formed on a dry land covered with ice)^[17], and invented sea tools which made writing and calculating directions and distances easier. In 1764, he organized an expedition (led by Admiral Vasili Chichagov) to find the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by sailing along the northern coast of Siberia.^[10]

Grave of Lomonosov in Lazarev Cemetery, Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Saint Petersburg

Lomonosov was proud to restore the ancient art of mosaics. In 1754, in his letter to Leonard Euler, he wrote that his three years of experiments on the effects of chemistry of minerals on their colour led to him became very involved into the mosaics art. In 1763, he set up a glass factory that produced the first stained glass mosaics outside of Italy. There were forty mosaics attributed to Lomonosov, with only twenty-four surviving to the present day. Among the best is the portrait of Peter the Great and the Battle of Poltava, measuring 4.8 x 6.4 meters.^[18][19][20]

In 1755, he wrote a grammar that reformed the Russian literary language by combining Old Church Slavonic with the vernacular tongue. To further his literary theories, he wrote more than 20 solemn ceremonial odes, notably the Evening Meditation on the God's Grandeur. He applied an idiosyncratic theory to his later poems – tender subjects needed words containing the front vowel sounds E, I, YU, whereas things that may cause fear (like "anger", "envy", "pain" and "sorrow") needed words with back vowel sounds O, U, Y. That was a version of what is now called sound symbolism. Lomonosov published a history of Russia in 1760. In addition, he unsuccessfully attempted to write an epic about Peter the Great, to be based on the Aeneid by Vergil. In 1761, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1764, Lomonosov was appointed to the position of secretary of state. He died one year later in Saint Petersburg. Most of his accomplishments were unknown outside Russia until long after his death.

Legacy

His granddaughter Sophia Konstantinova (1769-1844) married Russian military hero and statesman General Nikolay Raevsky. His great-granddaughter was Princess Maria (Raevskaya) Volkonskaya, the wife of the Decembrist Prince Sergei Volkonsky.^[21]

A lunar crater bears his name, as does a crater on Mars. In 1948, the underwater Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean was named in his honor. Moscow State University was renamed ‘’M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University’’ in his honor in 1940.

See also

• Lomonosov Gold Medal
• Moscow State University
• Ivan Kulibin

External links

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• Сайт о М. В. Ломоносове — жизнь, научная деятельность, творчество, историческая родина, туризм на родину Ломоносова, 300-летний юбилей М. В. Ломоносова
• Illustrated chronology of Lomonosov's life
• Evening Meditation on the Greatness of God on the occasion of the Northern Lights
• (Russian) The descendants Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov
• Mikhail Lomonosov at Find a Grave

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 11. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 12. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
3. ^ Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 13. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
4. ^ ^{a b} Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 15. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
5. ^ Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 16. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
6. ^ Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 20. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
7. ^ ^{a b} Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 17. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
8. ^ Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 23. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
9. ^ Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 24. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
11. ^ Pavlova, Galina E., and Fedorov, Aleksandr S. Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov: His Life and Work (English Translation). Mir: Moscow, 1980.
12. ^ Pavlova, Galina E., and Fedorov, Aleksandr S. Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov: His Life and Work (English Translation). Mir: Moscow, 1980. ISBN 0828528950, 9780828528955
13. ^ ^{a b} Cornwell, Neil and Christian, Nicole. Reference Guide to Russian Literature, Page 514. Taylor & Francis: London, 1998
14. ^ Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet, Page 120. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.
15. ^ "On an optic pipe improvement" — Lomonosov M.V. Selected works in two volumes. Volume I: Natural sciences and philosophy. Moscow: Nauka (Science) publishing house, 1986 (Russian). Name in Russian: «Об усовершенствовании зрительных труб» — М. В. Ломоносов. Избранные произведения. В двух томах. Т. 1. Естественные науки и философия. М.: Наука. 1986
16. ^ Life and Death of Alfred Wegener by Alexey Fedorchuk (Russian)
17. ^ Eduard Belcher Prediction of Antarctica by Lomonosov (Russian)
18. ^ Lomonsov biography
19. ^ [1]
20. ^ М. А. Безбородое М.В.Ломоносов. Фабрика В Усть-Рудицах
21. ^ Sutherland, Christine. The Princess of Siberia: The Story of Maria Volkonsky and the Decembrist Exiles Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, 1984.

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Persondata
NAME	Lomonosov, Mikhail Vasilyevich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Scientist, writer
DATE OF BIRTH	November 19, 1711
PLACE OF BIRTH	Denisovka
DATE OF DEATH	April 15, 1765
PLACE OF DEATH	Saint Petersburg

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