IVAN IVANOVICH
BORGMAN

1951, June

Vol. XLIV, no. 2

ADVANCES IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES

IVAN IVANOVICH BORGMAN

V. N. Goloushkin

Soviet physicists are well acquainted with the remarkable scientific works and activity of Lomonosov, Petrov, Lenz, Jacobi, Avenarius, Popov, Lebedev, Stoletov, Umov, and other scholars who brought glory to national science even in prerevolutionary times.

Far fewer among broad circles of physicists know of the activity of I. I. Borgman, although he too made a significant contribution to the development of Russian physics.

Ivan Ivanovich Borgman was born on February 24 (old style), 1849, in Petersburg.

Of his school years I. I. wrote: “How I wanted to live, to work, and to try to bring benefit to society... I was a great admirer of Chernyshevsky and Pisarev. The novel What Is to Be Done? almost did not turn me toward physiology.”¹

After finishing gymnasium, I. I. entered St. Petersburg University in 1866, where he attended the lectures of prominent mathematicians—Somov, Chebyshev, Savich, Korkin—and physicists—Petrushevsky, R. E. Lenz.

Upon graduating from the university, I. I. was retained at the university for 2 years (1871–1873) to prepare for the examination for the degree of master.

In 1876–1877, at the suggestion of F. F. Petrushevsky, I. I. prepared a dissertation pro venia legendi (after such a dissertation one was permitted to lecture at the university) on the topic “On the galvanic resistance of carbons at different temperatures.” In this work, quantitative results were obtained for the first time on the significant decrease in the resistance of carbons with increasing temperature; the influence of annealing was discovered; and temperature coefficients were determined for many carbons.

The topic of the dissertation was timely and important, since for the incipient application of electric lighting there was a need for

data on the conductivity of various types of coals for the corresponding calculations. The data obtained by I. I. were placed in Landolt’s tables.

Thus, in his very first major work, I. I. connected pure physics with the needs of technology, as he would subsequently teach his students to do as well.

In 1878 I. I. defended his master’s dissertation, “The Influence of the Medium on Electrodynamic Phenomena and the Magnetization Functions of Liquids.” In this work he experimentally proved the correctness of Faraday–Maxwell’s doctrine that the medium surrounding a conductor has a substantial influence on all external actions of currents and that this influence is determined by its magnetic properties.

In 1882 I. I. defended his doctoral dissertation, “The Heating of Iron during Intermittent Magnetization.” He had been occupied with this question as early as 1869. The themes and methods of his first works arose from the works of Russian physicists (Petrushevsky, Avenarius, Stoletov, and others).

As an experimenter I. I. was formed on Russian soil. Like Petrov, E. Kh. and R. E. Lenz, and Petrushevsky, he did not study abroad.

In his first scientific works I. I. displayed outstanding experimental abilities and deep theoretical knowledge.

In the already mentioned doctoral dissertation, which was his first major work, I. I. investigated the heating of a metal due to changes in its magnetic state, independently of heating by induction currents. By an original method he established that iron and steel heat up more than copper under otherwise equal conditions. With repeated magnetization the excess of heat becomes smaller. This new phenomenon observed by I. I. became fully understandable with the discovery of hysteresis.

I. I.’s next major work was the study “The Propagation of Electric Current through Air” (1886–1887). I. I. discovered and investigated the phenomena of electric current through air at room temperature and atmospheric pressure; before him, current had been observed only in strongly heated gases. In modern terminology, he studied a quiet independent electric discharge in air. In this work I. I. gave a method for determining the electric potential in the atmosphere by means of a small flame used as a probe. This method is still widely used.^3

Concerning the mechanism of the electrical conductivity of a gas, I. I. wrote: “... this electric current is closely connected with the motion of particles of gas... in air there must occur a phenomenon... similar to that which is observed also in liquids.”^4 Thus he expressed the pre—

a progressive idea for that time concerning the transport of electric charges by gas ions.

Later I. I., together with A. L. Gershun, discovered that X-rays, like ultraviolet rays, influence the phenomenon of electric discharge.

In the period 1897–1905 I. I., jointly with A. A. Petrovsky, carried out qualitative investigations of the glow of rarefied gases in an alternating electric field. In the course of these investigations they found a method for comparing small capacitances.

Together with A. P. Afanasyev, I. I. discovered new types of glow in a rarefied gas and the influence of a magnetic field on these glows. They also investigated the phenomenon of gas ionization under the influence of weakly radioactive substances.

In 1904 I. I. was one of the first to discover the radioactivity of Russian medicinal muds[^5].

I. I. created several new instruments and devised new experiments. One of his instruments (a condenser) was awarded a bronze medal at the international electrical exhibition in Paris in 1881[^6].

I. I. did much for the development of physics in Russia. Following the example of Academician V. V. Petrov, he printed his scientific works in Russian journals, and abroad published only abstracts of the works or separate articles only after they had been printed in Russia. This characteristic feature of I. I. Borgman was noted as early as 1884 by F. F. Petrushevsky[^7].

For the cause of developing physics in the country and training physicists, I. I. spared neither time nor effort. He reorganized laboratory work, created a special student practicum (the second department of the laboratory), involved students in direct scientific investigations in the physics laboratory, organized for students a physics seminar (1894) and a physics circle (1907), which gave rise to student publications in the ZhRFKhO*; and finally, with the assistance of him and F. F. Petrushevsky, according to plans developed by him, the Physics Institute of Petersburg University was built (1901) and equipped.

While still quite young, I. I., by his knowledge and erudition, gained such solid authority among Russian physicists that at the age of 25, on February 7, 1875, he was elected editor of the first Russian physics journal, and then for 26 years was invariably reelected. By performing this one difficult duty alone—the editing of a journal that gathered the forces of Russian physicists into one whole—Ivan Ivanovich earned an honorable place in the history of Russian physics.

* After I. I.’s death, the physics seminar was directed by A. F. Ioffe and D. S. Rozhdestvensky, and the circle by D. S. Rozhdestvensky.

From the scientific school organized by Ivan Ivanovich there emerged a large group of Russian physicists. It included: D. S. Rozhdestvensky, A. P. Afanas’ev, B. P. Veinberg, M. M. Glagolev, F. N. Indrikson, E. B. Lopukhin, V. K. Lebedinsky, N. A. Bulgakov, L. V. Mysovsky, V. F. Mitkevich, K. F. Nesturkh, A. A. Petrovsky, S. I. Pokrovsky, B. L. Rozing, D. A. Rozhansky, A. I. Sadovsky, S. V. Serkov, V. V. Skobel’tsyn, M. D. Petrova, M. A. Levitskaya, E. Rogovsky, S. Ya. Tereshin, M. A. Shatelen, and others.

Many of them became leaders of independent fields in physics, as well as in the field of its technical applications. L. V. Mysovsky was the first investigator of cosmic radiation, headed the physical department of the Radium Institute, and on its basis created his own school; B. P. Veinberg created a school for the study of the solid state; B. L. Rozing laid the foundation of modern television; Academician V. F. Mitkevich and Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences M. A. Shatelen founded a major school in electrical engineering.

At the university I. I. successively lectured on all branches of physics. In addition, at the Technological Institute he taught the mechanical theory of heat and the doctrine of electricity (1886–1889), and at the Electrotechnical Institute—the theoretical part of electrical engineering (1893–1914). In the 1882–1883 academic year I. I. carried out teaching work at the Institute of Civil Engineers. In 1899 the Council of the Electrotechnical Institute conferred upon Ivan Ivanovich (and at the same time upon Lachinov, Popov, Lodygin, and others) the title of honorary electrical engineer.

I. I. gave lectures on physics to physicians, to people’s teachers, and to teachers of physics at the monthly meetings organized for them.

I. I.’s lectures, no matter for whom he delivered them, were always clear, engaging, and richly supplied with modern experiments. Public lectures were always a major event in scientific and public life; they were invariably delivered before an overcrowded audience.

In his lectures I. I. defended the priority of Russian scholars with respect to the discovery of one or another law or phenomenon. It is enough to become acquainted with the large number of lithographed lectures on various branches of physics that I. I. compiled to be convinced of this.

I. I. did much to acquaint Russian physicists and electrical engineers with Maxwell’s theory of the electromagnetic field and the electromagnetic theory of light.

In 1892 the first edition, and in 1900 the second edition, of his book Magnetic Flux and Its Action appeared. The most valuable was I. I.’s major work Foundations of the Doctrine of Electrical and Magnetic Phenomena, in two volumes (1893–1895). This work was the first in the Russian language in which the foundations of electromagnetism were set forth clearly and with strict scientific rigor. The book was a valuable contribution to Russian scientific literature; from it many generations of students and young scholars drew their knowledge in an important branch of physics. In it I. I. also presents the work of Russian authors.

In 1911, on I. I.’s initiative, publication was undertaken of the collections New Ideas in Physics. The success of this publication was so great that repeated editions of the issues of New Ideas in Physics were required. Publication was also undertaken of a series of New Ideas in other sciences. In issue No. 4, The Action of Light, which appeared in 1912, all the articles belong to Russian scholars. The central one among them was to have been an article by the classic of Russian physics, Petr Nikolaevich Lebedev, on his remarkable works on the pressure of light. But P. N. Lebedev did not manage to finish his article; he fell ill and died on March 1, 1912, and the article was supplemented by P. P. Lazarev and printed in the collection. The collection is dedicated to the memory of P. N. Lebedev and opens with a portrait and an obituary, warmly written by I. I. Borgman.

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I. I. did much for the flourishing of science in our country—science which, as I. I. wrote in one document, “does not serve the base interests of the stock exchange and reactionary governments”⁸.

He was sympathetic toward those progressive figures who were subjected to persecution by the tsarist government, and he himself was not afraid to throw bold challenges at reaction. Concerning the well-known events of 1911, as a result of which the progressive professoriat, including P. N. Lebedev, was forced to leave Moscow University, I. I., in a letter of February 15, 1911, wrote to P. N. Lebedev:

“I cannot express what I am feeling at the present time over your compelled departure from the university. This is something incredible! The university cannot endure you. Is it conceivable to drive science out of Russia? I wish to hope that in a short time you will again, as before, direct your students in the ... laboratory of the glorious Moscow University”⁹.

In his ceremonial address of 1890, “Contemporary Views on Physical Phenomena,” I. I. clearly expresses materialist views: “Sound, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and very possib-

IVAN IVANOVICH BORGMAN

but that both gravity and, in general, material attraction are only different manifestations of one and the same principle, different forms of motion of matter known to us, or of an imperceptible, but undoubtedly existing in nature, ether, also matter, only with properties different from ordinary matter.”10 (The spacing is mine.—V. G.)

I. I. considered it important to establish the interconnection of natural phenomena; in particular, he saw the most important task of chemistry in establishing the interconnection of various atoms, for then “the common origin of various substances from one primary matter will be acknowledged, and thereby the necessity will be removed of admitting nearly a hundred so-called elements absolutely incapable of transforming into one another.”

I. I. was an opponent of the theory of action at a distance. “There appears to be considerable doubt as to the correctness of action at a distance, not only because here electrical phenomena are, as it were, set apart from a number of other phenomena of nature (sound, heat, light), but chiefly because the influence of the intervening medium on all electrical phenomena is too significant.”11

Throughout his life I. I. adhered to the molecular-kinetic view, whose complete triumph he was able to witness.

I. I. carried on a great deal of work in uniting teachers of physics at the Pedagogical Museum of military educational institutions. From 1877 to 1899 I. I. served as secretary of the Council of the women’s courses. During the rectorship of I. I. Borgman, the doors of St. Petersburg University were widely opened to Russian women.

Having been elected in 1912 to the City Duma, he assumed guardianship over the Petropavlovsk Hospital and strove to improve its work.

As the first elected rector, he fought for the autonomy of the university, protected students from police action, and permitted them to organize meetings, for which he enjoyed the authority and love of the students. I. I. did not allow gendarmes to appear within the university walls and categorically refused to spy on the students; the latter served as the reason for I. I.’s departure from the post of rector in February 1910. The students presented him with an address in which, regretting what had happened, they wrote: “The Petersburg student body will not forget your five-year rectorship in these stormy years of anxiety and struggle.”12

Beginning in 1888, I. I. was a member of the Council of Trade and Manufactures, through which patent applications of inventors passed, and he assisted the cause of invention in Russia.13

A significant place in I. I.’s public activity was occupied by the organization of congresses of Russian natural scientists and physicians.

Almost at every congress he gave reports and reviews on physics. The difficult task of organizing the XI Congress of Naturalists (1901) and two Mendeleev Congresses (1907, 1911) was borne by I. I. on his own shoulders, displaying in this his organizational talent and great energy.

What has been said sufficiently characterizes the varied scientific and public activity of I. I., his great contribution to the flourishing of Russian physical science.

All his vigorous activity is connected with that flowering of natural science which took place in Russia after the 1860s. Under the influence of the Russian enlighteners Chernyshevsky and Pisarev, I. I. devoted almost his entire life to serving the people and his homeland. On May 17, 1914, I. I. died.

The literary legacy of I. I. is considerable. He published 47 scientific and 35 popular-science articles, 8 obituaries and memoirs of scholars. For the ZhRFKhO he wrote about 200 abstracts of foreign works on physics; for the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, 24 substantial articles. More than 35 different lithographed lecture courses by I. I. have survived to our day. He published two original books.

Under the editorship of I. I. more than 15 books appeared, as well as seven issues of the non-periodical publication New Ideas in Physics, 1911–1914.

PRINCIPAL WORKS OF I. I. BORGMAN

1. On the galvanic resistance of coals at various temperatures. SPB, 1877.
2. On the influence of the surrounding medium on electrodynamic phenomena and the determination of the magnetic susceptibility of liquids. SPB, 1878.
3. On the heating of iron during intermittent magnetization. SPB, 1882.
4. Heating of the glass of condensers during their intermittent electrification, ZhRFKhO, 18, 19 (1886).
5. Experiments on the propagation of electric current through air, SPB, 1886.
6. Electrification of an insulated conductor situated in air inside a cylinder. ZhRFKhO, 36, 37 (1906).
7. Radioactivity of certain Russian medicinal muds. ZhRFKhO, 36, 37.
8. Foundations of the theory of electrical and magnetic phenomena. Parts I and II, 1893–1895; second edition 1897–1899; third edition 1914–1916.
9. Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light. ZhRFKhO 14, (1882).

CITED LITERATURE AND ARCHIVAL MATERIALS

1. Critical-Bibliographical Dictionary of Russian Writers and Scholars, vol. V, SPB, 1897. I. I. Borgman, About Myself, pp. 165–167.
2. A. N. Krylov. ZhRFKhO 46, 254 (1914). Also My Recollections, 1945, pp. 448–452.

1. N. A. Kaptsov, UFN 34, 114 (1948).
2. ZhRFKhO 18, 234 (1886).
3. A. N. Sokolov, Radioactivity of Russian Muds, p. 3, St. Petersburg, 1905; G. G. De-Metz, On the Investigation of the Radioactive Riches of Ukraine, p. 291, Kiev, 1925.
4. A. G. Stoletov, Collected Works, vol. I, p. 368, Gostekhizdat, 1939. Notes of the Russian Technical Society, issue I, 68 (1882).
5. Minutes of the meetings of the Council of Petersburg University for the second half of 1883/84, p. 50.
6. ZhRFKhO 36, 230 (1906).
7. Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, fond 293, inventory 3, no. 4.
8. Report on the state of Petersburg University for 1889, p. 102.
9. I. I. Borgman, Higher Optics. Lithographed course of lectures, 1908–1909, p. 7.
10. Newspaper Rech’, February 27, 1910, no. 44.
11. TsGIA, fond 24, inventory 6, file 22, leaf 25.