Petrushevskyi Fedir Fomich General data:
05.04.1828 - 01.03.1904
Place of birth: St. Petersburg City, St. Petersburg Governorate, Russian Empire
Studied in: St. Petersburg Imperial University (since 1991 St. Petersburg State University) (1851);
Key interests: instruments and devices, physics, astronomy, solar corona. ScD Thesis: Direct determination of the poles of magnets (1862 ); ScD Thesis: About normal magnetization (1865 );
Biography:
He was born on March 24 (according to the Julian calendar or April 5 according to the Gregorian calendar) in 1828 in the St. Petersburg city of St. Petersburg province of the Russian Empire in the large family of a state councilor who was a metrologist and teacher, and to whom translations from ancient Greek into the Russian works of Euclid and Archimedes, for which he was awarded the prestigious Demidov Prize.
He studied at the 3rd St. Petersburg Gymnasium, which he graduated in 1846.
In 1851, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Imperial University. He was left at the university, and immediately went with astronomy professor A. N. Savych to the Bobrynets city of Kherson province, to observe a solar eclipse.
Then he taught physics in gymnasiums in St. Petersburg (in particular, in Larynska since 1853) and in Kyiv since 1857. F. F. Petrushevskyi engaged in scientific research quite late, in 1862, when he returned to the university to the physics department of St. Petersburg Imperial University, which was headed by the physicist E. H. Lenz, under whose leadership he had been engaged in experimental research since 1862. Although F. F. Petrushevskyi's main interests lay in the field of optics, he defended both his master's dissertations on the topic: "Direct determination of the poles of magnets" in 1862 and his doctoral dissertation on the topic: "On normal magnetization" in 1965 on magnetism. They were devoted to the experimental study of magnets and electromagnets, he developed the works of E. X. Lenz and B. S. Jacobi.
After obtaining a master's degree in physics, he began lecturing at the St. Petersburg Imperial University as an assistant to Professor E. X. Lenz.
In 1865, after the death of E. H. Lenz, he took the chair of physics at the St. Petersburg Imperial University and held this position until 1901.
He also taught from 1874 at the Mine Officer's Class in Kronstadt, where he arranged a special physics office, at the St. Petersburg Institute of Communications Engineers, the Institute of Technology, and other St. Petersburg universities. He did a lot for the organization of the physics laboratory and physics institute at the university.
In 1865, he opened the first physics student workshop in Russia, which subsequently turned into the largest physics laboratory.
In 1876, he was one of the first to compile a systematic course of electromagnetism - "Experimental and practical course of electricity".
He was one of the initiators of the creation of the Russian Physical Society, and in 1872 he became the first chairman - initially of the physical society, and after the merger of this society with the chemical society in 1878, he remained until 1901 the unchanged head of the physical department of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.
Since 1891, he was the chief editor of the department of exact and natural sciences, pure and applied, of the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, where he wrote several articles on physics, on the history and technique of painting.
In 1873, he presented a plan to explore the Moon, which, unfortunately, was not implemented due to the fact that the construction of the astrophysical observatory of the Physical Society and the preparation of its equipment, sponsored by I. F. Bazilevsky, were stopped in 1875.. Although he had some experience of spectral observations of the Moon, and serious studies of the spectral (color) characteristics of the Moon began only in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century.
He was awarded the Russian Order of St. Anna, 1st degree, the Russian Order of St. Stanislav 1st degree, and the Order of St. Vladimir, 3rd degree.
He died on February 17 (according to the Julian calendar or March 1 according to the Gregorian calendar) 1904. He was buried in the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery.
In memory of F. F. Petrushevsky, the Russian Physical and Chemical Society established a prize named after him, which was awarded, as a rule, for original research in physics.
In the field of optics, F. F. Petrushevskyi created several original designs of optical devices, improved the lighting devices of lighthouses and beacons, etc.
In the field of floristry, F. F. Petrushevskyi developed methods for determining the coefficients of light reflection by a colored surface, the average color tone of multi-colored paintings, etc. He accumulated a large amount of experimental material on the physical properties of oils used for the production of paints.
In his works on electricity and magnetism, in 1853 F. F. Petrushevskiy conducted an important for those years comparison of electromotive forces and internal resistance of galvanic elements depending on temperature, concentration of solutions and other factors.
He set up a school hygienic photometer, described in its original form (with a candle) in the "Pedagogical Collection", 1885, and in an improved form (with a lamp) some time later in the "Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society", 1889 in an article entitled "Thermoelectric column from magnetic and non-magnetic rods".
He was the author of the physics course at St. Petersburg University, wrote many textbooks.
F. F. Petrushevskyi loved painting and painted beautiful landscapes in oil and watercolor. His studies in physics were well combined with this interest. In particular, he wrote a book called "Paints and Painting", in which he considered the art of painting as a physicist. In 1883 he began to give a course of public lectures on light and colors, their role in painting, which aroused great interest among artists.
Main publications:
1. Петрушевский Ф. Ф. «Свет и цвета» , 1883
2. Петрушевский Ф. Ф. Краски и живопись. 2 изд. — СПб., 1901
3. Петрушевский Ф. Ф. Курс наблюдательной физики. Т. 1—2, 2 изд. — СПб., 1874
4. Петрушевский Ф. Ф. Начальный курс физики , 1876
Sources:
1 Шкуратов Ю.Г. Хождение в науку.-Харьков: Харьковский национальный университет имени В.Н. Каразина, 2013. – 333 с.-С.246, 247, 249, 250, 251
2 ru.wikipedia.org
3 pl.wikipedia.org
4 de.wikipedia.org
