From the History of Physics

Vladimir Vladimirovich Lermontov

Ya. S. Malakhov

Russian physics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was represented by such outstanding experimental physicists as M. P. Avenarius, A. G. Stoletov, P. N. Lebedev; by theoretical physicists N. A. Umov, B. B. Golitsyn; and by physicist-educators I. I. Borgman and O. D. Khvolson. Among physicist-educators, a prominent place belongs to one of the founders of the physics laboratory of St. Petersburg University, Vladimir Vladimirovich Lermontov, the 110th anniversary of whose birth has recently been observed.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Lermontov was born on November 15 (November 3, old style), 1845, in St. Petersburg, into the family of a retired general, a hero of the Patriotic War of 1812.* The Lermontov family belonged to the progressively minded circles of Russian society; this was reflected also in the views of Vladimir Vladimirovich.

From 1863 to 1868 he studied in the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, from which he graduated with the degree of Candidate (with a diploma of the first class). Soon after graduating from the university, V. V. Lermontov, on the recommendation of F. F. Petrushevsky, was elected to the position of assistant in the physics laboratory. V. V. Lermontov remained in this position until the last days of his life. V. V. Lermontov died in St. Petersburg on January 4, 1919.

In 1865, F. F. Petrushevsky organized, for the first time in Russia (and earlier than anywhere abroad), an instructional physics laboratory at St. Petersburg University. In time, alongside the instructional laboratory there also arose a scientific-research laboratory. The development of these laboratories by the end of the nineteenth century culminated in the formation of a physics institute. The introduction of laboratory work in physics for students

* Vladimir Vladimirovich Lermontov was a first cousin once removed of the poet M. Yu. Lermontov.

was an important reform in the entire system of university teaching of physics. The educational physics laboratory of Petersburg University played a very great role in training physicists who possessed skills in physical experimentation. Many of them became outstanding figures in Russian science, especially in fields involving the practical application of physics: electrical engineering, radio engineering, optical engineering, and practical meteorology. Among the pupils of Petersburg University who passed through training in the physics laboratory one encounters the well-known names of N. G. Egorov, N. A. Gezehus, I. I. Borgman, O. D. Khvolson, P. I. Brounov, N. P. Sluginov, A. S. Popov, A. I. Sadovskii, M. A. Shatelen, A. L. Gershun, V. K. Lebedinskii, V. F. Mitkevich, B. L. Rozing, D. S. Rozhdestvenskii, B. P. Veinberg, and many others.

The history of the development of the physics laboratory of Petersburg University is inseparably connected with the name of V. V. Lermontov. He played an outstanding role in organizing the laboratory’s activity in the last third of the nineteenth century and in the first years of the twentieth century. A special inclination toward craftsmanship, extensive practical skills in applied trades, solid university knowledge of physics and mathematics, and encyclopedic information on questions of physical experiment and the construction of instruments—all these qualities were favorably combined in V. V. Lermontov. And he devoted all his knowledge, his entire life, to the cause of developing and perfecting the physics laboratory, to the cause of teaching students the methods of experimentation, and to the cause of disseminating physical knowledge in Russia.

V. V. Lermontov designed more than 100 different instructional and demonstration instruments, which were used in the teaching laboratory and for demonstrations at lectures. Many of his instruments became widespread in the physics laboratories of other educational institutions, and some of these instruments are still used today. V. V. Lermontov’s instruments were repeatedly exhibited at exhibitions of physical apparatus and at scientific congresses in Russia and abroad. At the exhibition of the First Congress of Electricians in 1881 in Paris, V. V. Lermontov was awarded a silver medal.

In creating instruments for instructional work and in organizing the classes themselves, V. V. Lermontov, like the other members of the laboratory staff, had to proceed independently. There was no model that could be followed; teaching laboratories were only just coming into being. However, V. V. Lermontov was constantly interested in questions concerning the organization of instructional work in foreign laboratories and in their arrangement and equipment.

V. V. Lermontov also took the most active part in creating instruments for research work. It may be said with confidence that not a single experimental investigation carried out in the physics laboratory, beginning with the work of N. A. Gezehus and

N. G. Egorov (the 1870s) and ending with the first works of D. S. Rozhdestvensky (the beginning of the twentieth century), did not take place without the consultation of V. V. Lermontov and his direct assistance in the manufacture of instruments. He stood, as it were, at the cradle of the scientific investigations of the physicists of Petersburg University in his time.

V. V. Lermontov strove to pass on to others his rich experience in handling instruments and his knowledge of the craft. In doing so, he paid special attention to communicating the conditions necessary for carrying out one or another procedure. In 1892 V. V. Lermontov (together with D. I. Dyakonov) published A Guide to Working Glass on a Soldering Table. This book is a classic practical manual. In Russia the book went through three editions (the last in 1924). In 1895 a German translation of the book appeared, although at that time Germany was considered the leading country in the manufacture and working of glass.

A number of books and many articles by V. V. Lermontov are devoted to the practical application of various crafts and to questions of instrument design.

Having devoted himself wholly to the physics laboratory, V. V. Lermontov did not conduct systematic scientific investigations. Nevertheless, a number of important observations and theoretical statements belong to him.

In the 1870s V. V. Lermontov developed a theory of the process of photographic development and of the chemical action of light. It was set forth in the articles “On the Photographic Process” (1877) and “On the Chemical and Photographic Action of Light” (1879), published in the Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society, and in several others. This theory was far ahead of its time, was subsequently half forgotten, and only in our own time has received its due appraisal1.

On the basis of a series of experiments V. V. Lermontov came to the conclusion that in the process of photographic development there occurs a galvanic deposition of silver, caused by molecular galvanic elements. The latter, in Lermontov’s opinion, consist of particles of ferrous sulfate, particles of the developer’s silver nitrate salt, and particles of metallic silver of the sensitive layer, separated out by the action of light. Such molecular elements deposit the silver of the silver nitrate salt upon the silver existing in the light-sensitive layer.

In 1882 the assistant of the physics laboratory, N. N. Khamontov, by a series of experiments to determine the electromotive forces of elements composed of developers with different relative contents of the developing substance, confirmed V. V. Lermontov’s electrochemical (galvanoplastic) theory.

The latent photographic image, according to V. V. Lermontov’s deep conviction, consists of metallic silver. Already in those years he believed that the formation of the centers of the latent photographic

...of the image takes place not only on the surface, but also in the depth of crystals of silver bromide and silver iodide.

The views mentioned above were expressed by V. V. Lermontov 15–20 years before similar views were put forward by foreign physical chemists. Historical justice requires that V. V. Lermontov be regarded as one of the notable forerunners of the modern theory of photographic processes.

V. V. Lermontov explained the chemical action of light on matter by the local heating of individual particles of the surface layer of the substance as a result of the transfer to these particles of the energy of the light ray. These ideas of V. V. Lermontov constituted a stage in the historical development of the scientific explanation of the action of light on matter and were used by his contemporaries.

In the mid-1890s V. V. Lermontov became interested in questions of determining the hardness of bodies. This interest was prompted by his experiments on the hardening of steel tools. In doing so he noticed that the methods then used for determining hardness (the sclerometric method according to the mineralogical Mohs scale and the absolute method, developed on the basis of Hertz’s ideas by Auerbach and Brinell) give characteristics of entirely different properties of a substance.

Proceeding from the fact that in practice the hardness of a body is judged by the machinability of the material, V. V. Lermontov believed that the work required to convert a unit mass of a substance into powder should be taken as the measure of the degree of hardness. This method of determining hardness, which is one of the varieties of the abrasive method first developed by M. V. Lomonosov, is still today one of the possible ways of determining hardness by the machinability of a body under particular conditions.

It is interesting to note that experiments on hardening steel tools led V. V. Lermontov to the discovery of a new method of hardening steel, which gave striking results. Thus, for example, with steel blades of penknives hardened by this method, one could easily write on glass. For a long time V. V. Lermontov kept this hardening method secret, but later, through an engineer acquaintance, he apparently transmitted it to the Ural factories.

V. V. Lermontov not only knew many secrets of craftsmanship, but also tried to give them a physical explanation. In 1913, for example, he made an attempt to explain the physical processes occurring when metal shavings are cut by high-speed steel.

The range of V. V. Lermontov’s scientific interests was very broad: physics, chemistry, meteorology, pedagogy, scientific problems of crafts and laboratory practice, and the history of physics. However, his principal activity, which formed the substance of his entire life, undoubtedly belonged to the field of instrument design and the improvement of the work of the physics laboratory of Petersburg University.

V. V. Lermontov’s teaching activity took place at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petersburg University; it consisted chiefly in supervising students’ practical work in the laboratory.

Having begun his activity as an assistant, V. V. Lermontov, after 35 years of service in this position, was removed from the staff in 1904; in fact, however, remaining an adjunct assistant, he continued his work with students until 1914. Without leaving the position of assistant, V. V. Lermontov, from the autumn of 1894, began delivering a privat-docent course, “Introduction to Practical Work in Physics,” which he taught for a number of years.

V. V. Lermontov deserves credit for compiling an excellent manual for students’ physical practicum—Explanations of Practical Work in Physics. Developed on the basis of many years’ experience, these Explanations served for a long time as a teaching aid and were reprinted more than once.

V. V. Lermontov also devoted much attention to questions of the methodology of physics. His principal work in this direction is Methodology of Physics, published in 1907.

Like the major physicist-educators of that time—O. D. Khvolson and I. I. Borgman—V. V. Lermontov devoted much attention to questions of teaching in secondary school.

Many years of supervising laboratory classes enabled V. V. Lermontov to become well acquainted with the results of teaching in the secondary and higher schools of his time. His constant contact with craftsmen, artisans, technicians, engineers, i.e. with people applying knowledge in practical activity, as well as his own technical-design work in the laboratory, gave him the opportunity to determine clearly what knowledge was required in practical life. As a result, he developed his own original system of views on teaching.

The basis of V. V. Lermontov’s pedagogical views, in many respects close to the ideas of polytechnical education for children in schools as carried out in our time, is the idea that knowledge must above all have an applied character, that one should teach what is necessary in life, in a person’s practical activity. For a long time V. V. Lermontov did not publish his views on the aims and methods of instruction. The first book in which his pedagogical views were applied was the Course of Applied Algebra (1900), published by him. V. V. Lermontov’s views were met with disapproval by the official pedagogical circles of that time. But among the progressive pedagogical public, in particular on the part of D. I. Mendeleev, they found support.

Although V. V. Lermontov was a vivid representative of new pedagogical ideas, nevertheless his views were not without certain

negative traits (the idea of separating children into capable and incapable, and, in this connection, of educating them separately; a negative attitude toward self-education, etc.).

V. V. Lermontov’s public and scientific activity was expressed above all in his active participation in the work of the Physical Society (and later of the Physical Section of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society), organized in 1872 at St. Petersburg University. V. V. Lermontov was one of the organizers of the Physical Society; his signature appears under the draft of the Society’s statutes.

At almost every meeting of the Physical Section V. V. Lermontov presented various communications, which were always interesting and were listened to with great attention.

For many years V. V. Lermontov was elected to the post of clerk (scientific secretary) of the Society (1874–1877), treasurer of the physics section (1878–1906), member of the Council of the physics section, and member of the Council of the entire Russian Physico-Chemical Society. V. V. Lermontov took an active part in the numerous commissions of the physical section.

An outstanding role belongs to V. V. Lermontov in the organization of exhibitions of physical apparatus, arranged at the university’s physical laboratory during the congresses of Russian natural scientists and physicians in Petersburg.

V. V. Lermontov’s scientific and journalistic activity was also extensive and varied. He authored a number of scientific articles and numerous abstracts of foreign scientific literature published in the journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. In the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, one of the best pre-revolutionary dictionaries of its kind, V. V. Lermontov printed more than 50 major articles on questions of physical equipment and various crafts (“Hygrometers and Hygroscopes,” “Lapidary Craft,” “Dynamometer,” “Blacksmithing,” “Manometers,” etc.). In the French physics journal Journal de Physique, V. V. Lermontov placed many abstracts on the works of Russian physicists. He published a number of articles of a methodological character, reviews of physics textbooks, descriptions of various instruments, and articles on the history of physics.

V. V. Lermontov had a wide circle of acquaintances and enjoyed deserved authority and respect among scientists, engineers, and craftsmen. Among his friends are the names of famous Russian scientists: P. L. Chebyshev, D. I. Mendeleev, P. N. Lebedev, N. G. Egorov, and many others.

Like many natural scientists of that time, V. V. Lermontov, in his views, belonged to the adherents of mechanical materialism.

By all his deeply patriotic activity, V. V. Lermontov made a major contribution to the development of Russian pre-revolutionary physics.

VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH LERMANTOV

LITERATURE ON V. V. LERMANTOV

1. Yu. Sh. Moshkovskii, Theory of the Photographic Process of V. V. Lermantov, journal “Uspekhi khimii,” issue 3, 360 (1952).
2. A. S. Enokhovich, Vladimir Vladimirovich Lermantov (on the 30th anniversary of his death), journal “Fizika v shkole,” No. 1, 92—96 (1949).
3. Ya. S. Malakhov, History of the Department of Physics of Petersburg University in the Second Half of the 19th Century (1865—1900), dissertation, Leningrad State University, 1954.

LIST OF WORKS BY V. V. LERMANTOV*)

1869

1. On Bunsen’s element with chromic acid in charcoal (candidate-degree essay).

1874

1. On the accuracy of the Poggendorff—Gauss goniometric method. ZhRFKhO, vol. 6, issue 2, pp. 46, 47.

1877

1. On the photographic process. ZhRFKhO, vol. 9, issue 7, pp. 296—301.
2. On H. K. Brower’s methods for making and checking precision balances, ZhRFKhO, vol. 9, issue 9, pp. 326—335.
3. Two galvanometers with Töpler air dampers. ZhRFKhO, vol. 9, issue 9, pp. 336—339.

1878

1. On the calibration of thermometers. ZhRFKhO, vol. 10, issue 9, pp. 244—250.

1879

1. On the chemical and photographic action of light. ZhRFKhO, vol. 11, issue 1, pp. 3—11; issue 4, pp. 34—43.

1884

1. Mine foreman I. I. Polzunov and the machine built by him in 1763 in the city of Barnaul. ZhRFKhO, vol. 16, physical section, issue 5, pp. 263—266.

1886

1. Geometrical derivation of the condition for the least deviation of a ray in a prism. ZhRFKhO, vol. 18, physical section, issue 1, pp. 12—14.

1887

1. How thermometers are used at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. ZhRFKhO, vol. 19, physical section, section 2, issue 8, pp. 51—67.
2. On experiments accompanying the teaching of physics. Journal “Vestnik opytnoi fiziki i elementarnoi matematiki,” vol. 3, pp. 241—247.
3. Explanation of practical work in physics. First edition, lithographed, SPb, lithogr. F. Kremer, 1886—1887. (2nd edition, litho-

*) The present list of works by V. V. Lermantov does not claim exhaustive completeness, but it is the most complete among those published earlier.

graphed, St. Petersburg, lithogr. Yazdovsky, 1877—1888, and St. Petersburg, lithogr. F. Kremer, 1888; 3rd edition, St. Petersburg, typolithogr. S. F. Yazdovsky, 1890—1891, 1892; 4th edition, St. Petersburg, cartographic establishment of D. Rudnev, 1895; and St. Petersburg, typ. Ya. A. Kopelovich, 1897; 5th edition, St. Petersburg, 1901).*)

1890

1. On the magnification given by various instruments for measuring small angles by reflection of a light ray. ZhRFKhO, vol. 22, physical section, issue 8, pp. 261—264.

1892

1. (Jointly with D. I. Dyakonov.) A manual for working glass on the soldering table. St. Petersburg (2nd edition, St. Petersburg, K. L. Rikker, 1911; 3rd edition, Gosizdat, 1924; German translation in 1895, Friedländer, Berlin).

1895

1. Introductory lecture of an introduction to the practical exercises of a physics course, delivered by Privat-Docent V. Lermontov at St. Petersburg University in 1894—1895. Odessa. Central Typography. (Separate offprint from the journal Bulletin of Experimental Physics and Elementary Mathematics, vol. 18, pp. 89—93.)

1900

1. Course of applied algebra. St. Petersburg, printing house of Yu. M. Erlikh, 1900 (2nd edition, St. Petersburg, K. L. Rikker, 1911).

2. Synopsis of an introduction to the course of practical physics, delivered to students of the 1st semester of the Department of Mathematical Sciences of the Imperial St. Petersburg University in the autumn of 1899. St. Petersburg, lithographed edition of D. M. Rudnev.

1901

1. Original instruments of the physics cabinet of St. Petersburg University. Journal Fizicheskoe obozrenie, vol. 2, pp. 39—42, pp. 263—268.

2. What results may be demanded from the teaching of elementary algebra and how they should be presented. Journal Bulletin of Experimental Physics and Elementary Mathematics, Odessa, vol. 25, pp. 82—87, 108—113.

1902

1. Hicks’s apparatus for clarifying by experiment the principle of conservation of quantity of motion. ZhRFKhO, vol. 34, physical section, issue 7, pp. 367—369.

1903

1. Explanations of practical work in physics for the elementary course of both departments of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University. Issue I, St. Petersburg, printing house of P. V. Martynov (issue II, published by K. L. Rikker, 1908; issue III, published by K. L. Rikker, 1912; issues I—II, 2nd ed., K. L. Rikker, 1908—1909).

1904

1. Higher mathematics for non-mathematicians. Supplementary issue I (to the “Explanations of practical work in physics”). St. Petersburg, published by K. L. Rikker.

*) All editions differ from one another. Each subsequent edition is more complete and more perfected.

1. Memoirs of P. P. Fan-der-Flit. ZhRFKhO, vol. 36, physical part, issue 7, pp. 231—237.

2. Historical outline of the development of the physics laboratory at St. Petersburg University (in the collection of articles on physics dedicated to the memory of F. F. Petrushevsky), pp. VII—XVI.

3. A long-tested but still unknown method for determining the internal resistance of galvanic cells and of elements in general (in the collection of articles on physics dedicated to the memory of F. F. Petrushevsky), pp. 155—161.

1905

1. What system of education do we need at the present time. Pedagogical Collection, 1905, January, pp. 1—27; February, pp. 157—172; March, pp. 271—294.

1906

1. The Piazzi-Smyth rain line in the spectrum and color of clouds. Meteorological Bulletin, 1906, No. 1—2, pp. 322—324.

2. The simplest apparatus for demonstrating expansion upon heating. Journal “Physical Review,” vol. 7, pp. 173—174.

3. On determining the hardness of bodies. ZhRFKhO, vol. 38, physical part, issue 1, pp. 82—85.

4. The present state of the question of determining the hardness of bodies. ZhRFKhO, vol. 38, physical part, issue 2, pp. 17—21.

5. What Boyle—Mariotte’s law is. Pedagogical Collection, 1906, pp. 163—171.

6. Physics in higher and secondary educational institutions. Journal “Russian School,” No. 2, pp. 150—166.

7. Alexandre Stepanowitsch Popoff. Nécrologe. ZhRFKhO, vol. 38, physical part, issue 1, pp. 31—33.

1907

1. On the theory of the mirage. Proceedings of the 1st Mendeleev Congress. Chemistry. St. Petersburg, 1907 (1909), pp. 382—383.

2. Mirage phenomena in our region. Meteorological Bulletin, 1907, vol. 17, pp. 281—283.

3. Methodology of physics and keeping apparatus in working order. Second supplementary issue to “Explanations of Practical Work in Physics.” St. Petersburg, K. L. Rikker (2nd edition, Gosizdat, 1922—1923; 3rd edition, Gosizdat, 1924; 4th edition, Gosizdat, 1935).

4. D. I. Mendeleev’s experiments on the properties of gaseous bodies. ZhRFKhO, vol. 39, physical part, issue 4, pp. 95—102.

1908

1. Mercury thermometers during the period from 1892 to 1907. ZhRFKhO, vol. 40, physical part, issue 8.

2. Statistical work of living engines. ZhRFKhO, vol. 40, physical part, section 2, issue 7, pp. 298—300.

1909

1. Marine mirages at the mouth of the Narova River in the summer of 1907. Notes on Hydrography, 30, pp. 1—5.

2. An apparatus for moments of forces. Journal “Physical Review,” vol. 10, pp. 161—163.

3. On how machines work and how their action is calculated. Moscow, I. D. Sytin Publishing House (2nd edition, Gosizdat, 1922; 3rd edition, revised by N. N. Andreev, Gosizdat, 1923; 4th edition, revised by M. and S. Zharkov, Gosizdat, 1925).

1910

1. Several new demonstration and laboratory apparatuses for teaching elementary physics. ZhRFKhO, vol. 42, physical section, dept. 2, issue 7, pp. 268–276.

1911

1. Bronzing of metals. St. Petersburg, G. V. Golsten.

1912

1. My recollections of Evgenii Aleksandrovich Rogovskii. ZhRFKhO, vol. 44, physical section, issue 2, pp. 67–68.
2. Lomonosov’s physical instruments and his “marine barometer” in modernized form. ZhRFKhO, vol. 44, physical section, dept. 2, issue 5, pp. 196–199.

1914

1. A review of several contemporary Russian textbooks of physics. ZhRFKhO, physical section, vol. 46, dept. 2, issues 7–8, pp. 248–260.
2. Fifty years of practical classes in physics at Petrograd University (1865–1915). Journal of the Ministry of Public Education, 1914, December, pp. 62–66.

1915

1. Recollections (of Borgman). ZhRFKhO, vol. 47, physical section, dept. 2, issue 1, pp. 24–26.
2. Aims and means of teaching physics with the aid of pupils’ own experiments. ZhRFKhO, vol. 47, physical section, dept. 2, issue 8, pp. 268–300.
3. How to stoke stoves so that less firewood is used. Petrograd, “Trud” printing house.
4. Applied geometry based on experience. Petrograd, “Novoe vremya” Publishing House.
5. What one needs to know for successful work when beginning the study of manual labor at school, 1915–1916. Issues I–III, Petrograd, published by the author with the assistance of the Russian Society of Pedagogical Manual Labor.

V. V. LERMONTOV ALSO WROTE:

1. Expositions of mathematics, physics, and chemistry in the encyclopedic collection Science for Everyone, edited by L. P. Nechaev, 1914.
2. Articles in the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.
3. Articles in the journals Russian School, Pedagogical Collection, Bulletin of Experimental Physics and Elementary Mathematics, Bulletin of Self-Education, and others.
4. Abstracts of foreign scientific literature in ZhRFKhO.
5. Abstracts of Russian scientific literature in Journal Physique.

1. See Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk, vol. 58, issue 3. ↩