In Memory of Vsevolod Sergeevich Kazansky

Obituary

On February 26 of this year, at the age of 53, one of the prominent representatives of Soviet technical physics, Professor Vsevolod Sergeevich Kazansky, passed away.

By the character of his work, V. S. Kazansky was a researcher with great creative initiative. He was a master of subtle physical experiment, a brilliant inventor and designer, bringing his work to concrete instruments worked out down to the smallest details.

V. S. began his first scientific work in the field of the absorption of light by solutions while still in the Lebedev Laboratory under the direction of Prof. P. P. Lazarev. However, the difficult years of the war and intervention tore him away from systematic scientific work, and until 1924 he worked mainly as a teacher of physics and mathematics in various Moscow schools. V. S. Kazansky’s scientific and design work developed broadly only from 1924, when he joined the Department of Acoustics and Weak Currents of the State Experimental Electrotechnical Institute, then headed by Prof. N. N. Andreev. In this work V. S. found his vocation, and all his subsequent scientific activity proceeded in the field of technical acoustics and precision electrical-measuring technology. In 1925 V. S. Kazansky proposed and built a highly successful instrument for recording sounds—an acoustic oscillograph—which made it possible to record sound with far less distortion than had previously been possible. With this instrument detailed studies were carried out of the timbre of the sound of musical instruments and of the voice, making it possible to establish a number of new regularities. The recordings of the sound of gunshots made with Kazansky’s instrument were a substantial contribution to Soviet defense technology. At that time sufficiently perfect recordings of the sounds of gunshots had not yet been published in the literature, and this hampered the development of the basic sound-ranging instruments.

V. S. Kazansky continued, over many years, to work on defense-related subjects and achieved significant successes. These works led him in 1930 to the creation of a Soviet portable oscillograph for recording electrical oscillations, for which it was necessary to develop a new design of loops, much smaller in size than the usual ones. As a result of persistent work, V. S. succeeded in creating an oscillograph which, in weight and dimensions, was much smaller than all known ...

VSEVOLOD SERGEEVICH KAZANSKY

known at that time, while not inferior to them in quality and being extremely convenient to use. Only in 1939 did the Siemens firm produce a portable oscillograph of equivalent quality.

A characteristic feature of V. S. was his love of delicate laboratory work. He liked to make with his own hands the instruments with which he worked. No one but he himself knew how to stretch and adjust the miniature loops of the new oscillograph; he very skillfully drew out the finest quartz threads for the string galvanometer, and contrived to wind coils from Wollaston wire for sensitive loop galvanometers. All the instruments that V. S. made he thought through down to the smallest details, always adjusted and finished them himself as works of art. In this his artistic nature was manifested, giving a special character to his scientific activity. It should be noted that V. S. was an excellent landscape painter, and also a gifted musician. He played the violin very well and especially liked to take part in quartets. He made his first violin with his own hands, but later he was fortunate enough to acquire a fine instrument by Omobono Stradivari, on which he always played thereafter. His love of music led V. S. to work in the field of acoustics. His artistic gifts undoubtedly helped him become an outstanding designer of delicate physical and electrical engineering instruments.

V. S. Kazansky continued his work on sensitive instruments for recording oscillations in subsequent years as well. In 1937 he developed an original design of a piezo-quartz oscillograph for recording high-voltage currents of tens of thousands of volts. The instrument showed high sensitivity and convenience in operation and found wide application in high-voltage engineering.

Together with a group of collaborators, V. S. Kazansky developed, in the period 1933–1935, two new models of electrocardiographs for recording the action currents of the heart muscle. The development of one of these types—a portable electrocardiograph—was carried through to the manufacture of an industrial prototype, which was then put into serial production at the “LAMO” plant. In the portable electrocardiograph, instead of the usual string galvanometer, a loop oscillograph with a miniature loop was used, which made it possible to increase significantly the accuracy of recording curves of cardiac currents and to improve diagnostic precision. This work was of great importance for public health, equipping Soviet medicine with the newest diagnostic technology and freeing it from large expenditures of foreign currency for the import of instruments.

From 1932, V. S. Kazansky began to develop at the VEI work on the study of noise and vibrations of electrical machines, as well as on the development of methods for constructing noiseless machines. For this purpose he created a special laboratory, built instruments for recording vibrations (two types of vibrographs), and trained a staff of qualified acoustic engineers. As a result of several years of work, substantial successes were achieved. The noise of several important types of machines was reduced from its initially high level to a very low one.

In Memory of Vsevolod Sergeevich Kazansky

of insignificant magnitude. The methods developed in the laboratory for the construction of noiseless machines were successfully applied at our leading electrical-engineering plants. The solution of this problem is important for a number of branches of the national economy, and is also essential for methods of improving machine design and increasing the reliability of their operation.

At present, at the VEI, on the initiative of V. S. Kazansky, a large laboratory for the study of machine noise is being designed, and the work he began will undoubtedly receive broad development in the work of his students.

Working in 1932–1933 at the Scientific Research Institute of Radio Broadcasting, V. S. Kazansky built an instrument for producing artificial reverberation by means of a new method, using multiple magnetic recording of sound on steel tape. The “Kazansky Reverberator” is now intended to be used to create artificial reverberation in the Great Hall of the Palace of Soviets, where natural reverberation will be absent.

In 1934 V. S. Kazansky took an active part in the work of the surdoacoustic laboratory of the People’s Commissariat of Health and carried out research on hearing aids for the deaf and the development of new Soviet models of these devices. The Acoustic Laboratory organized by him, under his personal direction, carried out the basic investigations that led to the creation of a new type of hearing prosthesis, now in mass production. The most difficult and essential questions in the design of the hearing prosthesis were correctly and quickly solved only thanks to the great experience and experimental skill of V. S. Kazansky. He found and applied the most suitable materials and methods for manufacturing permanent magnets, as well as the telephone membrane, and indicated the best dimensions and methods for tensioning the membrane. These details determined the success of the undertaking. For his work in creating a Soviet hearing prosthesis, V. S. Kazansky received gratitude from the People’s Commissar of Social Welfare.

During his work at the All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine (1935–1940), V. S. Kazansky was an active organizer of the acoustic laboratory in the Department of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, as well as head of work on technical acoustics and a permanent consultant of the Institute on questions of acoustics and electrical measuring equipment. Under his direction, the basic measuring installations were created, which made it possible to place research on the physiology of hearing at a modern, high technical level. Special mention should be made of the work, carried out with V. S. Kazansky’s participation, on the study of the hearing of workers in noisy industries, the work on the investigation of currents of action of the cerebral cortex, and the measurement of loudness of sound. At the VIEM, V. S. Kazansky delivered in 1939 an exceptionally interesting course of lectures on oscillography.

V. S. Kazansky was one of the pioneers in organizing the struggle against noise. The first works on the analysis of machine noise and noise in factories were carried out by him as early as 1928 and were reported at the First Conference on Noise Control in Leningrad. In addition to the already mentioned work on the study of workers’ hearing, V. S. took an active

participation in the development of noise-control measures at the Sharikopodshipnik, Stalin, and ATE plants, at the automobile-siren plant, as well as in the Moscow Metro and at other enterprises.

V. S. Kazansky was chairman of the First Commission for Combating Noise in Moscow and served as the organizer of the scientific and technical community in this matter. His many appearances at various conferences, in print, and in a number of institutions undoubtedly laid the foundation for this work, important from both the state and public points of view.

Likewise, in the course of his scientific and public activity, V. S. Kazansky, in close contact with the All-Union Society of the Deaf, took an active part in developing measures to combat deafness and hardness of hearing and in introducing modern technology for the treatment and diagnosis of ear diseases. In the technical circles of the House of Scientists and in a number of institutes, V. S. repeatedly delivered reports on the role of acoustics in related fields of knowledge—in machine building, in experimental phonetics, and in public health—thus serving as a pioneer in the application of new scientific methods in adjacent areas of science.

V. S. Kazansky’s work in the field of recording sound and vibrations, recording electrical oscillations and currents of the organism’s action, his work on the analysis of machine noise, and, finally, his work on defense technology constitute a major contribution to science and technology. The numerous ingenious instruments he designed and invented are a splendid monument that V. S. erected to himself with his own hands.

With the death of V. S. Kazansky we have lost a most valuable and exceptionally energetic researcher and organizer of scientific and technical work, whose activity deserves the very highest appraisal.

S. N. Rzhevkin, Moscow