Alexander Eduardovich Sabeck.

(1864–1909).

Alexander Eduardovich Sabeck was born in 1864, on March 27, in the Kiev province, in the small town of Borshchagovka, where his father, a German subject, served as a gardener. Here the first years of his childhood passed, up to the age of 5; then his parents moved to Kiev, where three years later the boy entered a parish school, and soon after that transferred to the Kharkov Gymnasium. In Kharkov he settled with relatives; in this city Alexander Eduardovich’s school years came to an end, culminating in his graduation from the Kharkov Technological Institute.

His studies at the gymnasium proceeded poorly, and from the fourth class the boy, who felt a great inclination toward the natural sciences and drawing and who had an aversion to the ancient languages, decided to leave the gymnasium and transfer to a non-classical secondary school, where he expected to satisfy his aspirations.

At school age, little Sabeck was noted for a propensity for harmless pranks. Once, when he was already an engineer, for some reason he visited his gymnasium and was surprised by the words of the inspector under whom he had studied, who answered his question: “How do you remember me?”—“Why, how could I not remember you, when there is no corner in which you have not stood?”

Alexander Eduardovich graduated well from the non-classical secondary school, despite the fact that during the course of study he supported not only himself but also helped his parents by earning money through lessons.

From early school age he was distinguished by a love of drawing; he received awards for his drawings, and Alexander Eduardovich carefully preserved albums of drawings and sometimes, on occasion, showed them to his acquaintances. These drawings have survived to this day with the widow of the deceased.

The dream of the graduating pupil of the non-classical school was to enter the art classes; but his parents were old, he was their only support, and the life of an artist was considered little secure. Therefore, after struggle and hesitation, Alexander Eduardovich first entered the Veterinary Institute, but upon the opening in Kharkov of the Technological Institute he transferred to the latter.

A passion for drawing apparently awakened in the student Sabek a passion for architecture. The deceased early on and for a long time engaged in construction work and practice under the guidance of the instructors of the Kharkov Technological Institute—the architect Nemkin and Academician Beketov.

During the whole period of his student life, the deceased’s parents lived on his means, since his father could no longer work. His involvement with architecture brought, in that difficult time, considerable material advantages, providing a good summer income. However, while devoting time to lessons and other earnings, Alexander Eduardovich did not neglect his own studies at the Institute; he was constantly among the foremost students, completed the course with distinction, and was inscribed on the marble board.

But such intensive work could not fail to affect his health, and after graduating from the Institute Alexander Eduardovich fell ill with a nervous disorder. Only after recovering somewhat did he take a position as a chemist at a beet-sugar factory, but after a year he moved as assistant foreman to the Rogan wrapping-paper factory; soon he received an invitation from the Dityatkovo Association to the Panenkovo writing-paper factory of the same association. At this factory Alexander Eduardovich spent 2½ years, and then took the position of technical director at the Uspenskaya writing-paper factory near the town of Tyumen.

Life at the factory in the capacity of production manager, according to the recollections of the deceased, was full of interest, but it was also full of excessive, exhausting, nerve-wracking work. Especially taking into account the deceased’s gentle, humane character and his great trustfulness toward people, it is not difficult to imagine the mass of unpleasantness and all sorts of unexpected events that accompanied constant contact with factory workers.

How careful the deceased was of another’s reputation may be seen from an incident that occurred while he was still at the Technological Institute in Kharkov.

Once the students organized an evening gathering, one of the cashiers of which was student N, who, in consequence of his reputation as a realist, was suspected of stealing galoshes. When the proceeds from the evening were counted, a discrepancy was found between the amount and that which followed from the number of tickets sold. An investigation began, and someone recalled the suspicion that had fallen upon the realist N; this was enough for the birth of a new, more serious suspicion, which quickly turned into an unconditional accusation. The fellow students recoiled from Mr. N, and Alexander Eduardovich had to expend no little effort to prove the groundlessness of the accusation and reconcile Mr. N with his comrades.

The deceased’s just and humane attitude toward those around him was noticeable not only on the school bench, but throughout his whole life: at

at factories he enjoyed the sympathy of the workers; as a professor, he took a lively and warm part in the affairs of his pupils.

Even while still a student, the deceased readily and easily devoted himself to teaching, serving as a permanent tutor in boarding schools.

An inclination toward this activity prompted him to apply to the Department of Industrial Schools under the Ministry of Public Education with a request that he be given a position as a teacher in a secondary technical school. The director of the Kharkov Technological Institute, V. L. Kirpichev, to whom the Department of Industrial Schools turned for an opinion on Aleksandr Eduardovich, indicated that, in view of the need for professors for the Tomsk Technological Institute then intended to be opened, A. E. should be sent abroad, as one who distinguished himself at the institute by his abilities.

In 1898 A. E. received from the Department of Industrial Schools a foreign assignment for two years, which was then extended for one more year.

Upon returning from this assignment, the deceased, until his very death, held the chair of mineral technology at the Tomsk Technological Institute. He had to devote much strength and energy to arranging laboratories and to the entire organization of instruction in his specialty, since everything had to be created from the beginning.

The remoteness of Tomsk from the cultural centers of Russia even now arouses among scholars a certain dislike for our remote Siberian center of engineering sciences; the chairs were not filled even at a time when many of them remain vacant now as well. The shortage of workers caused overwork among the existing staff, owing to the overload of classes, since all the work had to be distributed among a smaller number of participants. Aleksandr Eduardovich experienced this too: he gave lectures, conducted numerous practical classes, and was even compelled to seek outside earnings, since material insecurity, the high cost of life in Tomsk, and the need to help relatives, whom he supported until his last days, forced him to do so. Excessive work quickly brought to the grave a talented man and an indefatigable worker in the field of Russian technical science.

While still on his foreign assignment, the deceased happened by chance to take up the analysis of certain Russian clays. This work provided much food for thought, and Aleksandr Eduardovich devoted all the rest of his time to the question of studying the physical and chemical properties of clays. The result of the study of clays abroad was a work on carrying out their rational analysis *). This work drew criticism from Prof.

) Beiträge zur Kenntnis der rationellen Analyse der Tone.*

Zemyatchensky, which prompted A. E. to take up further development of the question, especially since Prof. Zemyatchensky disputed certain propositions adopted by Alexander Eduardovich. Fate decreed otherwise, and the deceased did not manage to publish the study of the question that occupied him. Only now, as a posthumous publication, does the work appear, prepared by him personally for printing in the Proceedings of the Tomsk Technological Institute.

Prof. Alexander Eduardovich Sabek died on June 26, 1909, in the city of Poznan, in a clinic to which he had been sent for treatment by local physicians.