ALEXANDER ANTONOVICH DOBIASH

On September 12, 1932, after a brief serious illness, Professor of Physics Alexander Antonovich Dobiash died in Leningrad in the 57th year of his life.

A graduate of St. Petersburg University, who completed his scientific education under Nernst and Voigt in Germany, A. A. devoted all his scientific work to physics with

some inclination, in particular cases, toward the field of chemical physics. His dissertation, “The Theory of the Electrolytic Valve,” was the result of long, thoughtful work, coupled with the setting up of a large number of experiments in which A. A. showed himself to be a very skillful experimenter. In this dissertation A. A. subjected the theories of the aluminum rectifier (electronic and arc) that had existed before him to serious criticism and advanced his own electro-osmotic theory of the processes occurring in the electrolytic valve. From the very beginning of his scientific activity A. A. was engaged in the study of the unilateral ionic conductivity of thin films and of the phenomena of electro-osmosis. As a result, he came to the conclusion that in the thin insulating film covering the aluminum electrode there takes place an electro-osmotic drawing of the electrolyte into the pores of the film (when the aluminum electrode serves as the cathode) and an electro-osmotic expulsion of the electrolyte from the pores (when the aluminum electrode is the anode). It is precisely in this way, according to A. A. Dobiash, that the closing of the circuit and its opening, synchronous with the frequency of the alternating current, are effected, which leads to valve action, i.e. to the rectification of alternating current. At the present time there can be no doubt that A. A. Dobiash’s theory is the only one fully corresponding to the phenomena actually occurring in the so-called electrolytic valve. Subsequently A. A. returned more than once to the question of the electrolytic valve. The results of his later investigations in this field, carried out in part jointly with his collaborators, were published in the editions of the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and in Zeitschrift für Physik in 1930.

After a ten-year stay in Voronezh, where he was professor of physics at the Agricultural Institute, A. A. returned to Leningrad in 1923. Here he took the chair of physics at the Military Medical Academy of the Red Army and at the same time took part in the work of the State Optical Institute, beginning there to organize a pyrometric section. This activity directed him toward questions concerning the study of heated bodies. In connection with this, a number of works by A. A. appeared, in some cases with his collaborators, on pyrometry and on radiation. A. A. indicated a new principle for the construction of a pyrometer, based on Wittgenstein’s idea. While still in Voronezh, A. A. published in the Transactions of the Agricultural Institute (1916) a summary of observations on the question of measuring soil temperature.

A. A. left behind an indelible memory as an excellent teacher. His lectures, which always opened up boundless scientific horizons before his listeners and captivated them,

Alexander Antonovich Dobiash

to the knowledge of the full depth of the given subject, were also distinguished by great perfection in their form. His pedagogical activity usually always took shape in a completed work of an instructional character, sometimes lithographed, and in recent years printed. These works show to what degree A. A. correctly and clearly understood our contemporary student youth, and how he knew how to approach them with clear and simple formulations, while at the same time providing a profound philosophical and dialectical illumination of the question under consideration. In all the institutions where A. A. worked, deep traces remained of his organizing activity, of his ability to arouse the young to independent work.

A man of very broad education, very sensitively responsive to the life around him, A. A. from his younger years devoted himself ardently to public activity. He was an active participant in student unrest. As a young teacher, he joined the progressive groups of educators, taking part in their political actions. He undertook the very great labor of organizing summer congresses and courses for teachers, always bringing the matter to completion and securing the publication of the proceedings of such congresses. A. A.’s charming personality brought him to the fore in the public circles in which he appeared, and everywhere he was drawn into the resolution of the most responsible questions.

The untimely death that suddenly tore Alexander Antonovich from our ranks in the period of the full flowering of his powers deeply struck all who knew him; in their memory he will always live as the image of a man who harmoniously combined in himself complete enthusiasm, love of knowledge in the broadest sense of the word, and unswerving adherence to the path of civic duty.

V. K. Lebedinsky

V. F. Mitkevich