The Physical Institute of the Scientific Institute

of Academician P. P. Lazarev.

Historical Outline

Following the opening of the Society of the Moscow Scientific Institute in the spring of 1912, the question arose in the Academic Council of the Institute of scientific laboratories in physics and biology. A large donation for the Physical Institute of 100,000 rubles by a person who wished to remain unknown brought before the Council the question of the plan and tasks of the future Institute. In the autumn of 1912, P. P. Lazarev presented to the Council a design for the Institute, developed by the late P. N. Lebedev jointly with P. P. Lazarev and the architect A. N. Sokolov; moreover, together with the preliminary pencil sketch by P. N. Lebedev (Figs. 1, 2), detailed plans (Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6) and a photograph of the plaster model of the façade (Fig. 7) by the architect A. N. Sokolov were presented.

Figs. 1 and 2. Pencil sketches by P. N. Lebedev.

Since the original design by A. N. Sokolov, consisting of three-

above-ground floors and a semi-basement with apartments for the director and vice-director, could not be carried out for the sum of 100,000 rubles, the Council of the Institute proposed to a commission consisting of the late N. A. Umov, A. A. Eikhenvald, P. P. Lazarev, and A. N. Sokolov that the necessary reductions be made. First of all, it was decided to remove the residential premises and to reduce the volume of the building. However, the design task moved forward slowly until, finally, the donor, having learned of the material difficulties that had arisen, came forward with a second, still larger donation (125,000 rubles), which made it possible to bring the design work to completion. The design presented by P. P. Lazarev,

Fig. 3. Original design by A. N. Sokolov.

Fig. 4. Original design by A. N. Sokolov.

at the end of 1914 the design by architect A. N. Sokolov, after approval by the Council, was handed over to the building commission consisting of chairman G. M. Mark, members: A. I. Gennert, P. P. Lazarev,

Fig. 5. Initial design by A. N. Sokolov.

A. A. Eichenwald, N. M. Kulagin, V. D. Shervinsky, S. A. Chaplygin, and the architects A. N. Sokolov and E. V. Shervinsky. After a number of alterations and modifications carried out by A. N. Sokolov, the plan

Fig. 6. Initial design by A. N. Sokolov.

was finally approved, and in the spring of 1915 the firm Nathanson and Zager began construction under the supervision of architect A. N. Sokolov.

Thanks to the energetic work of the building commission, headed by G. M. Mark and A. I. Gennert, and to the conscientious execution

fulfillment of the obligations assumed by the firm Nathanson and Zager; already by the end of the 1915 building season the building had been brought under roof, and the period of 1916 was spent on finishing, plastering, and interior work in the building. The building was finally delivered in December 1916, and from January 1, 1917, the Physical Institute has functioned as a research laboratory. P. P. Lazarev was elected director of the Institute. For the first three years, work in the Institute

Fig. 7. Plaster model of A. N. Sokolov’s original design.

was provided for by a donation of 75,000 rubles from a person who wished to remain unknown, who at the same time contributed 20,000 rubles for equipment. Then there came from another donor, who also wished to remain unknown, 500,000 rubles in the form of capital for the Physical Institute, which fully ensured the scientific activity of the institution.

Description of the Building of the Physical Institute.

The Physical Institute of the Moscow Scientific Institute was built on land specially allocated by the Moscow Municipal Public Administration on Miusskaya Square, next to the A. L. Shanyavsky University, and is a two-story building with a semi-basement. The general plan of the building is shown in Figs. 8 (semi-basement), 9 (first floor), and 10 (second floor).

The distinctive feature of the building’s plan consists in the fact that its center со-

Fig. 8. Basement.

Fig. 9. First floor.

consists of a row of rooms arranged one above another—dark rooms \((A_1, B_1, A_2, B_2, B_3)\), not provided with heating apparatus and intended partly for work requiring constancy of temperature, partly for work connected with photometry (photochemical investigations, physiological optics). The dark rooms are separated by corridors \((S_1, T_1, S_2, T_2, S_3, T_3)\) from the light rooms situated around them, in which the remaining scientific investigations are accommodated. In the light rooms are also located all the auxiliary facilities of the Institute (workshop, etc.).

Fig. 10. Second floor.

Through the main entrance [marked on plans 8, 9, and 10 by the letters \(N_1, N_2, N_3\)], we enter a spacious vestibule (Fig. 11) and can ascend by one broad central staircase to the middle floor, which contains the director’s private laboratory \((B_2, D_2)\), consisting of 2 rooms (a dark and a light one), a small room for storing precision instruments \(L_2\), and a workshop (Fig. 9, \(M_2\)). In the left wing is located the laboratory assistant’s room \(C_2\) and a number of working rooms. The general appearance of some of the working rooms is shown in Figs. 12, 13, 14, 15. On this same floor is located the laboratory assistant’s apartment \((E_2)\).

By the two side staircases we can go down to the semi-basement or ascend from the first floor to the second (see Fig. 11).

On the semi-basement floor there is a room with a constant temperature for studying diffusion [the dark room in the middle part of building \(B_1\)], storerooms and workshops: the mechanical workshop (Fig. 16), \((J_1, C_1)\) in the left part of plan 8, and the glass-blowing workshop (Fig. 17), \((M_1, D_1)\); the rear part of the semi-basement \((E_1, G_1)\) is occupied by rooms for the Institute’s mechanic, attendant, and doorman.

Fig. 11. Vestibule.

The upper floor contains a long library, serving also as the Institute’s museum, Fig. 10 \(A_3\), with overhead light (Fig. 18), an X-ray laboratory (Fig. 19). See plan 10—\(E_3, F_3\), and a number of work rooms. The library (in the part nearest to \(B_3\)) serves for weekly scientific meetings with reports on current physical literature.

The general view of the building of the Physical Institute is presented in...

in Fig. 20, showing its front and side façades, and in Fig. 21, showing its side and rear façades.

After a brief description of the Institute, we shall give some numerical—

Fig. 12. Dark working room.

Fig. 13. Bright working room.

... data. The Institute occupies an area of 217 square sazhen, while the total cubic capacity of the building is 1085 cubic sazhen. The height of the rooms in the semi-

Fig. 14. Bright workroom.

Fig. 15. Bright workroom.

basement 4 arshins 10 vershoks, on the first floor 5 arshins 8 vershoks, and on the second 5 arshins.

Fig. 16. Mechanical workshop.

Fig. 17. Glassblowing workshop.

Fig. 18. Library.

Fig. 19. X-ray room.

The Institute is heated by means of a hot-water heating system installed by the firm Zalessky and Chaplin.

The ventilation system makes it possible to supply heated air to the laboratories; there is also a special system of electric fans intended for the fume hoods.

The floors of the Institute are reinforced-concrete slabs, covered on top with linoleum.

The construction of the building cost 278,212 rubles 83 kopecks. Its equipment during the first year amounted to 27,207 rubles 54 kopecks.

The Institute numbers 163 items of apparatus belonging to it. In addition, with the permission of the Society named after Kh. S. Lebe—

Fig. 20. Front and side façades.

—dev, a number of instruments formerly housed in the Lebedev Laboratory and transferred here after its liquidation have been placed in it. The Institute library has 331 titles of books (538 volumes) and subscribes to the following journals: Astrophysical Journal, Philosophical Magazine, Physical Review, Comptes rendus, Nuovo Cimento, Journal of Chemical Society, Proceedings of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society.

The library contains portraits of outstanding physicists; it is also planned to establish a museum here and to collect photographs of installations and, insofar as possible, the original instruments of Russian scientists who have distinguished themselves by works of international significance, as well as manuscripts relating to their work. The foundation of the museum was laid

Fig. 21. Rear and side façades.

with a series of photographs of the instruments of P. N. Lebedev and with some of his manuscripts, transferred to the Institute by P. P. Lazarev with the consent of the widow of the late V. A. Lebedeva.