8 myths about Mikhail Lomonosov, in which everyone believes

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It's time to find out the whole truth about the barefoot hike for the wagon train, Pomor origin and connection with Peter the Great.

Myth 1. Lomonosov came to study in Moscow on foot, and barefoot

The most popular myth about the scientist is just the talk of the town. Like, he fled from his father's house to go to university, and so hastily that he didn't even put on shoes. He walked, poor fellow, as it is, that is, barefoot. I didn't take anything with me.

This is what the craving for knowledge means. And you say it's hard to get up in pairs in the morning.

Only in reality it is a bike. Mikhailo really left home light, taking with him only a change of clothes and a couple of books: "Grammar" by Melety Smotritsky and "Arithmetic" by Leonty Magnitsky.

But events unfolded in December 1730. And it was not difficult to guess (especially with such a mind as Lomonosov's) that walking without shoes in the snow is not the most reasonable occupation. How the idea that he traveled barefoot could come from is absolutely incomprehensible. At first, Mikhailo walked for three days, and then caught up with a wagon train with seafood on its way to Moscow and agreed to move along with the fishermen.

So part of the journey, which lasted three weeks, he did not pass, but drove. And certainly shod, like all decent people.

Myth 2. Mikhailo is from Arkhangelsk

Most people believe that Lomonosov came a long way to Moscow (or even to Petersburg) from Arkhangelsk, where he allegedly was born.

But in reality, Mikhailo was born in the village of Mishaninskaya (now the village of Lomonosovo), which is located 3 kilometers east of Kholmogory and 73 kilometers southeast of Arkhangelsk. As you can see, the distance is decent. The village was located in the Arkhangelsk province, and people remember a more familiar name without bothering with subtleties.

In some sources, by the way, the scientist's small homeland is mistakenly called Denisovka. The fact is that by the middle of the 18th century, the village of Denisovka was united with Mishaninskaya, so confusion arose.

And yes, Mikhailo arrived with carts in Moscow, where he studied for three years at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. Then he studied for several months at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. And only then Lomonosov finally entered the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

Myth 3. Lomonosov was an illiterate peasant from a poor family

Another misconception about Mikhail Lomonosov is that, before studying in Moscow, he was an illiterate peasant who came from an extremely poor family. As a matter of fact, it was in search of a better life that he allegedly went on a journey.

But Lomonosov's father, Vasily Dorofeevich, was a fairly wealthy man. He ran a fishing artel of several vessels and had a good church-parish education, so he clearly could not be called an illiterate fisherman. Mikhail's mother, Elena Ivanovna Sivkova, the daughter of a local deacon, was also educated and taught her son to read and write from childhood. They had a good library in their family.

True, when Lomonosov was nine, his own mother died. His father's new wife was a rather nasty stepmother. Due to the constant quarrels between Mikhail and her, Vasily Dorofeevich decided to marry his son out of harm's way.

Lomonosov realized that family life was not for him, and decided to change the climate - he went to get an education.

Perhaps, if his stepmother, Irina Semyonovna Korelskaya, had a more good-natured disposition, Mikhailo would have stayed at home to manage his father's fishing industry. So if you are told that toxic people are bad for society, don't believe it.

Myth 4. Lomonosov is a child prodigy

Some, speaking of Lomonosov, present him as a kind of young genius who graduated from universities as a boy and gave all senior students a head start.

In reality, the opposite is true. He entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy at the age of 21 - at the age when they usually graduated from it.

Since Mikhailo did not know Latin, he was assigned to the very first year and he sat there with the "little guys" who made fun of the older classmate. At first, the future scientist almost despaired and gave up his education. At that time, according to Lomonosov himself, he "had strong aspirations that averted the sciences from all sides." Nevertheless, Mikhailo still completed his studies.

Myth 5. Lomonosov discovered the fundamental law of conservation of mass

Since Soviet times, many have firmly believed that the law of conservation of mass was created by Lomonosov. In 1756 he carried out experiments - he calcined several different metals in sealed glass vessels and weighed them.

With this, he refuted the experiments of the English natural philosopher Robert Boyle, who considered fire to be a "persistent and weighty" substance. In his notes, Mikhailo, by the way, called him "the glorious Robert Bocius."

Lomonosov discovered that the mass of a substance does not depend on its temperature. But he simply did not attach much importance to his experience.

He did not even include it in the list of his main scientific achievements, called "Review of the most important discoveries." In fact, Lomonosov simply mentioned in a letter to the mathematician Euler: "If something is added to something, it is taken away from something else." And on the basis of this one phrase, Mikhail was credited with a discovery that he himself did not claim at all.

A fairly obvious principle of conservation of mass was proclaimed by Francis Bacon in 1620, and in a more or less modern version it was formulated in the "Primary Textbook of Chemistry" in 1789 by Antoine Lavoisier.

Myth 6. Lomonosov did not discover anything and became famous only for his odes to the Empress

Some, on the contrary, believe that Lomonosov was at best a popularizer of science, but by no means a serious scientist. Vaughn, the law of conservation of mass did not really manage to confirm. But in fact, Mikhail had a lot of scientific merit.

Thus, he made a significant contribution to geology and soil science, proving the organic origin of soil, peat, coal, oil and amber and compiling a catalog of more than 3,000 minerals. Moreover, he explained the formation of icebergs for the company.

Lomonosov developed instrumentation and developed several instruments for sea navigation, optical instruments, including a night telescope. He learned to create colored glass and was the first in the world to obtain solid mercury.

In addition, Lomonosov was engaged in astronomy and discovered the atmosphere on Venus, which he designated with a very funny word "pimple".

And also the scientist refuted the untenable theory of "caloric" (some mysterious substance that allegedly transferred the temperature from one body to another), created a map of the Northern Hemisphere and predicted the existence of Antarctica.

Mikhailo also designed a model of a helicopter, just like da Vinci's. But, unlike the latter, he thought of compensating for the rotational moment with a coaxial rotor. True, like Leo's, Lomonosov's car did not take off either.

Myth 7. Lomonosov is a pomorets

Traditionally, Mikhail is called a Pomor or Pomor. Obviously, because his father was busy with the fishing business, which means he was connected with the sea. However, most of the peasants of the Kurostrovskaya volost near Kholmogory, to which Lomonosov belonged by origin, rarely hunted for sea prey.

In the surviving sources of those times, Lomonosov's father and his uncle are called "peasants of the Kuroostrovsky volost", "Dvinyans" (from the Dvinsky district, where this volost is located) and "Kholmogorytsy". But Mikhail has nothing to do with the Pomors.

The first to apply this word to a scientist was his biographer Vladimir Ivanovich Lamansky, who wrote a book about the scientist in 1863 - a hundred years after his death. I made a mistake in the memories, with whom it does not happen.

Myth 8. The scientist was the illegitimate son of Peter I

Such a sensational discovery can sometimes be found on the Internet. However, all these theories have a catch. Peter really visited Arkhangelsk, where he worked at the Solombala shipyard. But the last time he came there V. Chubinsky. Historical review of the control device of the naval department in Russia in 1702, and Lomonosov was born in 1711.

It's easy to see that the dates don't converge. For nine years, even elephants do not bear offspring.

There is no evidence that Lomonosov was in any way genetically related to Peter the Great. True, Mikhail liked the tsar and he even collected a mosaic with his portrait, but they were definitely not related.