| Ivan Alekseyevich Kablukov | |
| Birth Date: | (September 2) 1857 |
| Death Date: | May 5, 1942 (84 years) |
| Death Place: | Tashkent, Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union |
| Citizenship: | Russian Empire, RSFSR, Soviet Union |
| Fields: | physical chemistry |
| Workplaces: | Imperial Moscow University, Moscow State University |
| Alma Mater: | Imperial Moscow University |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Vladimir Markovnikov |
| Known For: | one of the discoverers of ion solvation, founder of the physical chemistry school in Russia |
Ivan Alekseyevich Kablukov (Russian: Ива́н Алексе́евич Каблуко́в, (2 September) 1857 – 5 May 1942[1]) was a Russian and Soviet physical chemist. He simultaneously and independently of Vladimir Kistiakovsky proposed the idea of ion solvation and initiated the unification of the physical and chemical theory of solutions. He published influential textbooks on organic chemistry and was a professor at Moscow State University and Timiryazev Agricultural Academy.
Kablukov was born on (2 September) 1857 in the village of Prussy, Moscow (now Mytishchinsky District, Moscow Oblast), in the family of a dentist. Both his father, Aleksey Kablukov, and his mother, Ekaterina Storozhevaya, came from peasant families.
In 1876 he graduated from the 2nd Moscow Classical Gymnasium. He was a student at the Natural Science Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow University (1876-1880), from which he graduated as a candidate. During his studies he was a tutor of the young Vasiliy Maklakov. On the recommendation of Professor Vladimir Markovnikov, Kablukov was appointed to the Department of Chemistry to prepare him for a professorship. During the next years 1881-1882 Kablukov was an employee of the chemical laboratory of Professor of Chemistry Alexander Butlerov in St. Petersburg, and then continued his work at Moscow University with Vladimir Markovnikov.
In November 1884, Kablukov joined the chemical laboratory as a supernumerary assistant. In January 1885, he became a privatdozent at Moscow University, where he delivered the course "On the phenomena of dissociation." During the same period, from 1882 to 1884, he served as a teacher at Higher Courses for Women in Moscow.
In December 1887 he defended his master's thesis "Glycerols, or triatomic alcohols and their derivatives", in which he tried to substantiate Markovnikov's theory of mutual influence of atoms from thermochemical point of view.
In 1889, under the supervision of Professor Svante Arrhenius, he worked at the Leipzig University in the laboratory of Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, where Kablukov studied electrical conductivity of solutions.
In 1897-1906 he taught at the Moscow Engineering School, where he gave practical courses on inorganic and analytical chemistry, as well as on the technology of building materials and iron metallurgy.
In May 1891 he defended his doctoral thesis "Modern theories of solutions (Van-Goff and Arrhenius) in connection with the doctrine of chemical equilibrium" at Moscow University.
In 1899, he was appointed as an associate professor of the Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the Moscow Agricultural Institute on the suggestion of academician Nikolay Beketov. He worked there until 1942. Initially, lectures were conducted in the largest auditorium - the assembly hall of the main building. Later on, the department was allocated a separate annex that included a new lecture auditorium and an analytical chemistry hall for 96 students. However, this annex was insufficient to accommodate all the students. On 31 May 1912, Ivan Alekseyevich Kablukov laid the foundation stone of the Chemical Building (now Building No.6), which housed all chemical laboratories and departments. The right wing on the first floor of the building also contained a flat where Ivan Kablukov resided (this room is currently occupied by the Department of Agriculture of Foreign Countries). He gave his first lecture in this building on 22 October 1914.[2] He also began teaching at Timiryazev Agricultural Academy and Real School of K.P. Voskresensky.
From May 1903 he was an extraordinary professor at the Moscow University, where he worked until the end of his life: from 1906 as an ordinary and from January 1910 as an emeritus professor; in 1915-1933 Kablukov was the head of the thermochemical laboratory of the chemistry department of the faculty of physics and mathematics; in 1918 - mid-1920s - head of the laboratory of inorganic and physical chemistry. From 1922 he was also director of the Research Institute of Chemistry at Moscow State University. In December 1916 he was elected to the Moscow City Duma, but the election results were not accepted.[3] Ivan Kablukov was not only engaged in theoretical research, but also studied the natural resources of Russia (later the USSR). He participated in the foundation of the Russian production of mineral fertilizers. In 1905 he was appointed a representative of the Main Department of Land Management and Agriculture to the Interdepartmental Commission on the Production of Nitric Oxide at the Main Artillery Department. In 1908 he was a member of the Moscow Agricultural Institute commission for the Study of phosphorites in Russia, whose work laid the foundations for the production of fertilizers from Russian raw materials. In 1909, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Agriculture, a commission was set up at the Moscow Agricultural Institute on the extraction of nitrogenous fertilizers from the air, the production of lime nitrate and calcium cyanide. The commission was made up of Kablukov, Nikolay Demyanov and Dmitry Pryanishnikov. Two years later, in 1911, Ivan Kablukov became the chairman of the commission on the extraction of lime.
From 1933 to the early 1940s he was also head of the Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the Stalin Industrial Academy.
After the October Revolution, in the autumn of 1918 his brother, Nikolai Alekseyevich, was arrested. But thanks to the support of Ivan Kablukov, he was soon released.[4]
After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, part of the department's staff was evacuated to Chakino (Tambov region) and Samarkand in September 1941. Kablukov died during the evacuation in Tashkent on 5 May 1942.
The main field of scientific interest of academician Ivan Alekseyevich Kablukov was the electrochemistry of non-aqueous solutions.
Academician Kablukov is also known as a teacher, science populariser and creator of the Russian physical chemistry school. He is also the author of a number of works on the history of chemistry.
The scientific legacy of Ivan Kablukov includes more than 300 works. Some publications:
A memorial plaque now adorns educational building No. 6 of K. A. Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy (Timiryazevsky proezd, house No. 2) in Moscow, marking the workplace of I. A. Kablukov between 1889 and 1942. Kablukov Street has been present in Kiyv since 1957 and was renamed in 2022.
Honours of the Russian Empire:
Soviet state honours and titles:
Corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (1928); honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (1932); honorary member of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography (since 1921); member of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, the Society for the Acclimatisation of Animals and Plants (since 1898), the All-Union Chemical Society named after Dmitri Mendeleev (in 1934 he was elected vice-president of the Moscow Branch of the Chemical Society) and many other scientific societies. Honorary Professor of Moscow University (since 1910).
Academician Ivan Kablukov was renowned for his impracticality and absent-mindedness. For instance, he referred to himself as "Kabluk Ivanov" during introductions. Additionally, instead of stating "chemistry and physics", the professor frequently instructed his students in "chemics and physistry". And instead of the phrase "the flask burst and a piece of glass got in the eye", Kablukov would state "the burst flasked and a piece of eye got in the glass". The term "Mendelshutkin" referred to the combination of "Mendeleev" and "Menshutkin", while Ivan Alekseyevich commonly used the phrases "Not at all" and "Me, I mean not me". Poet Samuil Marshak utilized this in his 1930 composition "So absent-minded is he".[5] [6]
The professor was familiar with Marshak's humorous composition, and one day he remonstrated with Marshak's brother, the writer Ilyin, wagging his finger: "Your brother was certainly aiming at me!".