Golitsyn, Boris Borisovich

(b. St. Petersburg [now Leningrad], Russia. 2 March 1862; d. Petrograd [now Leningrad], 16 May 1916)

physics, seismology.

Golitsyn came from an old family of the nobility. In 1887 he graduated from the hydrographic section of the Maritime Academy; but since he did not wish to serve in the fleet, he went to study abroad, enrolling in the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of the University of Strasbourg. He graduated in 1890 and then returned to Russia. He began to teach at Moscow University in 1891. In 1893 Golitsyn presented to the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics his master’s thesis, “Issledovania po matematicheskoy fizike” (“Investigations in Mathematical Physics”). The first part set forth the “general characteristics of dielectrics from the point of view of the mechanical theory of heat” (electrostriction, the dependence of dielectric constants on volume, pressure, and temperature). The second part discussed radiant energy (light pressure, the significance of absolute temperature, and the dependence of radiation on external factors).

What was significantly new in the second part was Golitsyn’s departure from the electrodynamics of Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, by first considering the space occupied by radiation as a kind of medium to which the concept of temperature is applicable. He arrived at the following formulation: “Absolute temperature is conditioned by the sum total of all electrical displacements; and, in particular, the fourth power of the absolute temperature is directly proportional to the sum of the squares of all the electrical displacements which are carried away from the vacuum.” In this work Golitsyn presented two adiabatic invariants of thermal radiation: constant and constant, where visa “given volume of ether,” U is the quantity of radiant energy in this volume, and T is the absolute temperature of the radiation.

After examining Golitsyn’s dissertation, Aleksandr G. Stoletov and Aleksei P. Sokolov, both members of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, rendered a sharply negative review. They were not able to see Golitsyn’s point of view on temperature radiation in its proper perspective. A heated discussion arose concerning the dissertation. Stoletov solicited opinions on the disputed questions from Hermann Helmholtz, Lord Kelvin, and Ludwig Boltzman—and they agreed generally with Stoletov and Sokolov. Golitsyn was not permitted to defend his dissertation. Court circles found this prohibition insulting to a member of the aristocracy, and consequently Stoletov was passed over as a candidate for membership in the Imperial Academy of Sciences, while Golitsyn was selected to be an adjunct member.

Before 1898 Golitsyn’s scientific research was concerned mainly with molecular physics. He examined the problem of critical temperature in great detail. Against the theory of Thomas Andrews he advanced a new notion about conditions of quasi equilibrium based on extremely precise experimental data. Beginning in 1899, Golitsyn started to occupy himself mainly with seismology and seismometry. He laid the foundations of scientific seismometry and developed an improved type of seismograph, one with a galvanometric register. In such a seismograph the pendulum is equipped with coils and oscillates in a field of permanent magnets. Under these conditions an electric current is induced in the coils, the measurement of which permits the precise recording of seismic vibrations.

Through the efforts of Golitsyn, Russian seismometry occupied a leading place in world science at that time; and his seismographs were the prototypes for new apparatus for the study of earthquakes and mechanical vibrations, and for seismic prospecting for useful minerals. In 1908 Golitsyn was elected an academician. International recognition of his great services in seismology was expressed by his election as president of the International Seismic Association at its congress held at Manchester in 1911. In 1916 Golitsyn was made a foreign member of the Royal Society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Many of Golitsyn’s writings were brought together as Izbrannye trudy (“Selected Works”), 2 vols. (Moscow, 1960). His works are listed (under “Galizin”) in Poggendorff, IV, 474–475, and V, 408–409.

On Golitsyn’s life or work, see G. P. Blok and N. V. Krutikova, “Rukopisi B. B. Golitsyna v arkhive Akademii nauk SSSR” (“Manuscripts of B. B. Golitsyn in the Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.”), in Trudy Arkhiva Akademii nauk SSSR, pt. 10 (1952); A. N. Krylov, “Pamyati B. B. Golitsyna” (“In Memory of B. B. Golitsyn”), in Priroda, no. 2 (1918). 171–180; A. S. Predvoditelev, “O fizicheskikh rabotakh B. B. Golitsyna” (’On Golitsyn’s Work in Physics”), in Golitsyn’s lzbrannye trudy, I, 217–240; and A. S. Predvoditelev and N. V. Veshnyakov, “Zhizn i nauchnaya deyatelnost akademika B. B. Golitsyna” (“The Life and Scientific Activity of Academician B. B. Golitsyn”), in Golitsyn’s Izbrannye trudy, 1, 5–12.

See also Materialy dlya biograficheskogo slovarya deystvitelnykh chlenov imperatorskoy Akademii nauk, 1889–1914 (“Materials for a Biographical Dictionary of Members of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1889–1914”), pt. 1 (Petrograd, 1915), 193–218, see entry for Golitsyn; and Materialy dlya istorii akademicheskikh uchrezhdeny za 1889–1914 gg. (“Materials for a History of Academic Institutions for the Years 1889–1914”). pt. I (Petrograd, 1917), 47–82, on Golitsyn’s scientific activity.

J. G. Dorfman