Lomonosov biography of science

To open in full on November 19, the brilliant mind, brilliantly combined with the exceptional depth of thought, gave Lomonosov the opportunity not only to widely cover and develop all the achievements of the science of his time, but also to anticipate their further development. Lomonosov was simultaneously as a physicist, a chemist, an astronomer, a geographer, meteorologist, mineralogue, metallurgist, philologist, historian, philosopher, teacher, poet, artist, experimenter and inventor.

In all areas of science, he left a rich inheritance, unfortunately, far from appreciated and not studied. Such the most important sections of modern science as physical chemistry, kinetic theory of matter, molecular physics, etc. The time of Lomonosov’s activity is the time of dominance of serfdom. The backward Russia, of course, could not realize almost the results of the work of this largest scientist.

Contemporaries did not understand and did not appreciate his works, and only now we begin to restore this valuable heritage of the scientific thought of the XVIII century. Childhood, youth and study M. Lomonosov was born in the distant North, in the village of Denisovka of the Arkhangelsk lips. Denisovka lay on the Northern Dvina, against G. Holmogor, near Arkhangelsk.

Lomonosov’s father was. Up to 10 years, Lomonosov was brought up in the village. Later, his father began to take him with him to fish crafts. An impressive boy learned a lot during his wandering by the sea. He traveled until summer. In winter, in connection with the affairs of his father, Lomonosov got acquainted with a number of crafts on the shipyards of the Northern Dvina and studied the salt business on the Pomeranian salvings of the White Sea.

In the fall, returning from the crafts, he gave all his free time to books. He learned to literacy early. Lomonosov experienced a great joy when he received the Slavic grammar of Smotitsky and the then -known arithmetic of Magnitsky, which was a whole encyclopedia. In addition to arithmetic, it gave information on physics, astronomy, geography, navigation, etc. This book read by Lomonosov several times, introduced it into science.

The hot desire to continue their studies finally determined the decision of Lomonosov to leave for Moscow, where he entered the only educational institution at that time in Moscow-the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy at the Zaiko-Spasses monastery.

Despite the difficult financial situation, Lomonosov, mainly Latin, passed three lower classes in one year. However, the success in their studies did not deliver the Lomonosov satisfaction, since the exact sciences in this academy were not studied. Having graduated from the best students the next three classes, Lomonosov in the city of Senate ordered the rector of the Zaikon Spas Academy to send 20 students “in the worthy sciences” to St.

Petersburg. 12 students were selected, according to the rector, “not the last in our opinion, wit,” and among them as one of the best Mikhailo Lomonosov. For Lomonosov, a completely new path to further study of sciences suddenly opened. From that time on, until his death, his scientific and social activities have been inextricably linked with the Academy of Sciences, which included the university.

In the first year of stay at the University of Lomonosov, it was extremely lucky. The development and study of Siberia required for the academic expedition to fully trained specialists, mainly chemists who knew both mining and metallurgy. The famous Saxon metallurgist Genkel, in response to the request of the boss about the sending of a chemist, invited the Academy to allocate several young people to study this specialty.

The choice fell on Lomonosov, Vinogradov and the Roser, which at the end of September, in two and a half years, Lomonosov perfectly learned mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, philosophy and could already speak freely and write in German. Latin was perfectly studied by him at the Zaikonospassk Academy. Students in Freiber, where students sent by the Academy were engaged in Genkel with metallurgy and mining, was not particularly long.

Due to the constrained material circumstances and some dissatisfaction with the teaching of the relationship between Lomonosov and his teacher, they worsened, and he arbitrarily left Freiburg. Returning to Marburg and staying here until spring, Lomonosov devoted all his time to the classes by mathematics and chemistry. Here he also considered his well -known work “Elements of Mathematical Chemistry”.

And only in the spring of G. Scientific work remains the first time without certain official classes, the young scientist presented two dissertations to the Academy of Sciences; In addition, he was described by mineralogical collections, and in his free time he made translations for “S. Soon, Lomonosov filed a statement to the Academy, in which, referring to his scientific works, he asked him to produce him to extraordinary professors.

In the city, from the very arrival of St. Petersburg, the young scientist persistently demanded for the exercise in his chemical science the creation of a chemical laboratory at the Academy. But his statement was left without a result. The reason for this, and not without reason, Lomonosov saw in hostile attitude towards him the ruler of the Academic Chancellery of Schumacher.A year later, Lomonosov gave a second petition, indicating the need to produce chemical experiments, without which further development of chemistry could not advance, and this request was followed by a refusal.

This petition also remained without a result. But firmly pursuing the goal once set, Lomonosov gave a petition in the same year, this time signed by several academicians, already to the Senate and achieved a positive resolution of the issue. At the beginning of G., Lomonosov filed a petition for its production in a professor of chemistry. By this time, he already had a number of largest works, on the assessment of which we will dwell later.

Not satisfied with the presented works, the Academic Assembly invited Lomonosov to hang a dissertation in metallurgy. For Lomonosov, this did not provide labor, and in the city the most intense period of Lomonosov’s activity began from that time. He wrote new dissertations “On the free movement of air in the mines”, “On the action of chemical solvents” and translated the “experimental physics” XP.

Wolf, having written a preface to her. For the first time in the Russian language, physical terminology developed by Lomonosov appears. The words “barometer”, “thermometer”, “atmosphere”, etc. Lomonosov gave lectures on physics in Russian; In the same year, he took an active part in creating a new university charter and organizing planned educational work. His literary activity was no less active.

Each next court event was marked by its odes, and in the city of G., the total cost of building, along with devices, was expressed in the amount of rubles. This was the first scientific chemical laboratory in Russia and one of the first in Europe. Scientific and chemical studies and teaching chemistry were performed in it. The laboratory consisted of three rooms: 1 actually laboratory with a hearth in the middle, 2 rooms for recording experiments and 3 rooms for storing tools.

In this laboratory, Lomonosov worked for many years. In addition to special chemical studies, he performed studies of salt samples brought from different places in Russia, made ore tests, made colors, etc. Lomonosov knew the salt and ore business in perfect, and in this area of ​​science he left a deep mark. The leadership of the “first foundations of metallurgy” written by him has undoubted historical value, and the article “On the Layers of Earthly” Acad attached to this leadership.

And in these works and in the article “The Word of the Birth of Metals from the Earth’s shaking”, many of the most important theories and comments of geological and mineralogical content are laid down. Lomonosov’s experimental work went far beyond his laboratory. In the mosaic workshop organized by him, he made a number of paintings that are valuable in artistic skill. He founded a glass factory, one of the first in Russia, where he was engaged in production and staining of glass.

Geographical and chemical work is great the role of Lomonosov in the field of geography. Born at sea and knowing it, Lomonosov put forward a project for finding the sea route to East India by the North Arctic Ocean. This project was set out by him in the essay “A Brief Description of Different Travels along the Northern Seas and the testimony of the possible passage of the Siberian Ocean to East India”.

Here, Lomonosov acted as a pioneer of the idea of ​​mastering the Northern Sea Route, which received permission only under Soviet power. In an article entitled “Reasoning about the great accuracy of the sea path”, and in another small article on the same issue, in addition to a number of correct thoughts, we find a description of the device of a number of astronomical and physical instruments invented by Lomonosov himself.

Many of them were subsequently in use and in a modified form have survived to this day. The most valuable material on this issue is given by the well -known works of prof. For him, there was no separate theory and separately practice. He made theoretical generalizations on the basis of a large number of deeply thought out experiments. In his preface to the translation of Wolf’s experimental physics, he wrote that generalizations are only true when they were “produced from reliable and many times repeated experiments”.

In his experimental works, he invariably used a strictly quantitative method, which for the chemistry of that time was a rare and even new phenomenon. Starting from his first experimental works, he, as an obligatory premise for “reliable and correct conclusions,” introduced measure and weight. This, as we will see in the future, helped him in a number of issues to significantly ahead of the science of his time and make a number of exceptional discoveries, which later, being repeated by other scientists, formed the basis of modern science.

Of great interest is the approach of Lomonosov as a chemist to study the substance and to generalize the experimental material. The study of substances required cleansing them of impurities, and one of the first chemists who quite clearly understood this was Lomonosov. In the program of the chemist in the chemical laboratory of G., after this operation, as Lomonosov pointed out, it is necessary to decompose chemical individuals into their components.The decomposition of a complex body into simple and connecting ordinary bodies in the complex in front of the chemist of that time posed the question: do there are simple bodies in a complex body that are obtained from it during the decomposition, or are not available?

Lomonosov replied: “Through chemistry it is known that there is mercury in Kinovari, however, it is impossible to see it, even through the best microscopes.” He introduced the idea of ​​the “beginning”, which differs in his opinion from a simple body. This is the Lomonosov "beginning" we now call the chemical element. The use of the quantitative method in chemical work allowed Lomonosov to make the largest scientific generalizations.