Henry M. Leicester
University of the Pacific San Francisco, California 941 15
Mikhail Lomonosov and the Manufacture of Glass and Mosaics
Mikhail Vasil'evich Lomonosov (17111765) has been most widely known to western historians of science as the propounder of a kinetic theory of heat which was very advanced for its day (1). It has also been known that he contributed greatly to the theoretical sciences of physics, astronomy, geography, and mineralogy, as well as producing literary and historical works of a high quality. Less well known have been his many contributions to technology, though he ranked high in this field also. Danilevskii has listed twenty-two branches of technology to which Lomonosov made important contrihutions (2). These included mining and metallurgy, designing and producing scientific instruments, developing machines, including water powered mills, production of saltpeter and gunpowder, preparation of alloys and ~orcelains,and, most importantly, the manufacture of glass, especially colored glasses for mosaics, an activity which occupied him for much of his career. From his earliest student days with Christian Wolff at Marburg, Lomonosov was interested in optical phenomena, and one of his first scientific papers dealt with a device which he called the catoptric-dioptric burning instrument. It was an eight-sided burning mirror, so arranged that the foci of all the mirrors met a t one point. There is no evidence that it was ever built, but it demonstrated his interest in optical phenomena and the glass needed in such instruments, an interest which lasted t,hroughout his life (3). In the years following his return from Germany to St. Petersburg in 1741 Lomonosov was unable to carry on any extensive experimental work, since he lacked a laboratory. During this period he devoted himself to theoretical considerations. It was then that he worked out most of his corpuscular theories and their kinet>ic and chemical applications. Nevertheless, even during this time he was involved with studies involving color, for he was engaged in studies of dyestuffs for the Academy of Sciences. The dye from madder root had been imported from Persia, but in 1745 a plant was found growing in Astrakhan which appeared to produce a similar dye. Lomonosov was one of several members of the Academy asked to test its quality. The final report was signed by Academicians Richmann, Weitbrecht, Gmelin, and Lomonosov in December, 1745, and showed that thc domestic dye mas as good as the imported one (see Fig. 1). Since Richmann was a physicist and Weitbrecht a physiologist, it seems probable that t,be botanist Gmelin and the chemist Lomonosov did most of the work. Even as late as 1750 Lomonosov was still testing the quality of the dye from wild and cultivated strains of the madder plant (4). In 1748 Lomonosov was finally able to secure from the authorities a chemical laboratory for the Academy.
This was built according to his own ideas. The foundation was laid on August 3, 1748, and on October 12 of the same year Lomonosov was able to report to the Chancellery of the Academy that a11 work on thc building specified in the contract had been completed (5). Almost as soon as he moved into the laboratory, Lomonosov began to study tbc preparation of inorganic pigments. I n 1749 he worked intensively on the manufacture of Prussian Blue, and he soon found a method for manufacturing it more cheaply than the cost of the imported product. He presented samples of his pigment to the Academy of Art, where it was found suitable for use in painting. A piece of cloth dyed with this substance is still preserved at the Academy of Sciences (6). At almost the same time Lomonosov began the study of silicates and their reactions, with particular attention to the preparation of colored glasses, work which occupied him for seventeen. years and which soon became one of his major preoccupations. He first
Figure 1. Signature of Profesor Mikhail Lomonorov (in Russian script) on the report on the suitability of Russian madder.
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mentioned these studies in his report to the Academy of Sciences on May 8, 1749, saying that he had made chemical experiments on coloring glass. By January, 1750, he was reporting, "Inthe past third of the year, as planned, I worked on coloring different glasses, both for studying the theory of color and for various uses of these in enameling, in which I had considerable success. I n the January third of the year [from January through April] I will attempt the creation of different glasses, both for the theory of color and for practical uses. I n the following third of the year I will work on making colored glasses and other chemical experiments for studying the nature of color." I n his report of May, 1759, he specifically mentioned experiments "on coloring monuic glass and on porcelain and mineral pigments for enamel" (7). Thus Lomonosov was interested in color from many' aspects. His appreciation of the esthetic value of mosaics was shown in his public oration of September 6, 1751, "On the Use of Chemistry" (8). He had previously asserted that a true chemist should be well acquainted with mathematics and mechanics. He now added optics to these as an essential part of chemical knowledge. I n the very rhetorical style which he used in his public orations he went on to speak of "the wide and beautiful play of color which investigators of chemistry have introduced into the field of nature itself" and he pointed out that paintings fade with time while mosaics have lasted "more than a thousand years" and now colored glasses give even better results than the colored stones used by the ancient mosaic artists. He was certainly speaking of his own experiments when he made these statements. I n his course in physical chemistry given to the students a t the university associated with the Academy of Sciences in 1752-1754, of which the opening sections have come down to us (9),he devoted considerable space to the colors of the materials which he was discussing. He mentioned the various shades which could be obtained by mixing different pigments and indicated the necessity of choosing standard colors for comparison so that the various shades could be described properly. Finally, in his "Oration on the Origin of Light. A New Theory of Color," given on July 1, 1756 (10) he offered an elaborately worked out theory that color was caused by the rotary motion of certain types of particles of the ether. For the first time he distinguished the primary colors red, blue, and yellow, and showed how other colors were derived by mixing these. There can be little doubt that it was his experience in mixing pigments for his glasses that led him to these theories. The actual experiments of Lomonosov on the manufacture of colored glasses were first carried out in the chemical laboratory of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences between 1749 and 1753. He was assisted in the work by several students to whom he taught the principles of making glass. One of these, Peter Druzhinin, later set up his own glass factory in St. Petersburg. The two most active assistants were Matvei Vasil'ev, born about 1732, the son of a sailor, and Efim Mel'nikov, a younger man, the son of a court clerk. These two men began to work with Lomonosov in 1752 and remained with him until his death, acting as his chief aides not only in the manufacture of glass, but also in constructing mosaics with him (11). 296
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Lomonosov's studies on glass were extremely detailed and carefully carried out. Toward the end of his life, in 1764, he summed up his work in the following words, "I devised all the compositions for making mosaics, for which I made more than four thousand experiments; in these I not only composed the recipes, but also the materials, which were worked out and placed in the furnace in great part by my own hands, in spite of severe illness in the legs." (1%). The actual methods which Lomonosov used in his laboratory studies are known from the laboratory journal which he kept in 1751. This is the only one of his journals which has been preserved, and it describes the methods he used not only for the study of glass manufacture, but also for a number of his other investigations. His general procedure was to prepare a glass melt from materials which were carefully weighed out on the best balance available a t the time, one which had an accuracy of 1 grain (0.0625 g), using melt samples weighing from 4 drams 2 grains up to 8.5 drams (1530 g) (IS). To these he added the mineral pigment. This was usually prepared by "precipitation" as Lomonosov called the process. I t consisted in dissolving a metallic salt in water, adding "animal alkali" (ammonia) or "fixed alkali" (potassium hydroxide) to precipitate a hydrous oxide or basic salt of a heavy metal such as copper, iron, or mercury. These precipitates were dried and added to the molten glass. Other substances such as organic dyes or potassium nitrate were often added to the melt to modify its color. In every case the exact amounts of all materials used were recorded, as were the conditions of the experiment such as temperature, rate of annealing of the glass, and others. Usually a number of crucibles containing the different mixtures were heated simultaneously in the furnace in order to keep the experimental conditions the same for all of them. The studies were made systematically for all possible variations of the experiments. Depending on the particular substances used, their purity, the conditions of precipitating the pigment, and the method of carrying out the fusion, Lomonosov was able to obtain a wide variety of colors and shades, all of which he carefully described in such terms as "an excellent green, of grassy color, very like an emerald," i< green approaching the color of aquamarine, "liver color," "beryl red," "very similar to excellent turquoise but semitransparent," "light purple," and so on. Lomonosov used pigments which no other worker of his time employed, such as mercury salts, and gold compounds which gave him a ruby glass. The secret of making such ruby glasses had been lost, and only Lomonosov rediscovered it between the time of Kuukel and the late nineteenth century. As a result of these experiments, Lomonosov was able to prepare a much wider range of colored glasses than were the mosaic artists of western Europe. His work became known abroad, and in a letter of March 30, 1754, his friend Leonhardt Euler wrote from Berlin, "I congratulate you on having produced glass of all possible colors. Our chemists consider this a great discovery." (14). In the Lomonosov lNuseum a t the Academy of Sciences there is still a collection of samples of the colored glasses from Lomonosov's laboratory. These still retain the shape of the crucibles in which they were prepared (16).
The methods which Lomonosov used for preparing : ~ n dstudying colorcd glasses were also applied in his cspcrimcnts on t,hc preparat,ion of optical glass. I n 17W2%17(i3 hc invcstigat,ed thc refraction of various optic:~lglnsses and noted t,hat glass containing lead oxide gnve niuch more rcfraction than other sorts ( I F ) . He ;~lsom:idc similar systematic studies of a large number of metallic :illoys t o find a suitable onc for use as a t,elescopc mirror. Between Rlarch 31 and April 15, 1762, in addition to his other duties, he t,csted various alloys of copper, tin, zinc, bismuth, and antimony, and finally concluded that the alloy which gave the smoothest surface and best reflecting properties whcn polished consisted of two parts of coppcr, one part of tin, and one part of zinc (17). Thus in his experimental work Lomonosov frequently had a practiclll purpose in mind, and by cnrcful and systcmatic expcrirnents he worked out the best compositions and conditions for his needs. I n the state of knowledge in his day this empirical approach was the only one possible, and he used it to the full. I n 1752 he realized that thc facilities of the chemical laboratory werc inadequate if he was t o prepare mosaic gl:iss on a lnrgc scalc. Sincc hc mas planning a series of mo~mmerit:~l mosaics on t,he life of I'cter thc Great, he began in 1732 to pctition the authorities for funds to construct a factory to manufacture his colored glasses (18). As part of his propaganda hc wrote a lettcr in the form of a pocm on t,hc uses of glass to I. I. Shuvalov, a favorite of the Empress Elizabeth and a powerful official a t court who freqncntly assisted Lomonosov in his plans. Lonionosov requestcd from the Senate, :L body which handlcd m:uiy of thc business affairs of the government, that he bc gr:int,cd a suitable sitc for :L glass fxctory and a thirty year monopoly on glass manufacture. In Dccemhcr, 1752, the Scnntc actcd favorably and in Alareh, 1 7 3 , thc Empress g:wc him thc lnnd and the manpower hc rcquircd. 1,onionosov chose an excellent location neiw the villagc of Ust Ruditsy, not far from St. I'ctersburg. Thc land was well wooded and supplied lumber for building and fuel. The sitc of thc factory lay between two small rivcrs, one of mhich, the lhditsa, had :1 sufficiently rapid flow to scrvc as a source of water pomcr. A local clay mas suitable for making bricks mhich furnished the foundat,ion of thc factory, while the upper portion was built or wood. Thc fact,ory cont,aincd a laboratory in which the science of glass making could continue to be studied. Laholatorics were not a common adjunct of factories at, this period. Thc nnin portion of the building contained a workshop arid various rooms for weighing materials, prcptuing the melts, composing the mosaics, and storing supplies. Living accommodations for the artisans aud workmen completed the structure. A dam was built on the Ruditsa and a mill was constructed with three water wheels. The first operated the machinery in the factory for crushing, grinding, and mixing the materials for the glasses and for polishing the mosaics. The second operated a saw mill which cut the lumber needed for the factory, and the third opcrated a flour mill which provided flour for the workmen. The mills werc in operation in 1755, and the factory began t o produce glass beads and mosaic materials a t this time. The management of the factory was under the cont,rol of Ivan Zilch, the brother-in-law
of Lomonosov. The chief assistants Vasil'ev and Rfel'nikov were in charge of training new artisans and directing the mosaic work. I n its first years the factory employed fourteen artisans and apprentices and between ten and twenty laborers. During this early period the output was low because of mechanical difficulties with the machinery, and Lomonosov tried to obtain expert glass makers from abroad. I n this he was unsuccessful, but in 1760 he discovered a method for hastening the manufacture of glass, and after this time the factory operated more efficiently. The work of the factory was divided into two parts. One manufactured the mixtures for the mosaic glasses, and after 1756 the manufactured glasses were taken to Lomonosov's new home in St. Pctersburg where he set up a workshop for the composition of the mosaic pictures t,hemselves. The other part of the factory manufactured glass objects. At first only beads of various sorts were made, but as the work improved, a wide variety of objects was manufactured: plates, cups, bottles, buttons, snuff boxes, garden figurines, and other glass shapes, all recognized by the Department of RIanufactures to be of good quality. I n spite of this, however, the objects did not sell well. When Lumonosov could not find a suitable outlet for his goods, he tried to open a shop of his own, but he was prevented from accomplishing this by the numerous bureaucratic regulations which he encountered. This situation increased his financial difficulties. He had originally bcen grant,cd a loan of 4000 rubles by the Department of Alanufactures, but this was soon expended and he had to borrow more moncy. For the rest of his life he went into debt more and more deeply as he tried to expand his financially unprofitable factory and repay thc older debts, payment of which was constantly being demanded. After 1760 hc reccivcd some relief from the sale of his mosaics, hut a t his dcath his daughter reported that the family did not even have the funds t o bury him. Nevertheless, as long as he lived he was able to keep the factory and mosaic works operating, largely because of his own enthusiasm and energy. Thc design of the mosaics was largely the work of Lomonosov himself, though in the later pictures he was assisted by a numbcr of artisans whom he had trained. He had seen examples of ancient Roman and contemporary Italian mosaics brought to Russia by interested noblemen, and in his student days he had spent a few months in Kiev where he saw the only examples of the monumental style of mosaics which existed in Russia a t the time. I t was under the inspiration of these examples that he began his own work (19). His first mosaic, made entirely with his own hand, was a copy of a painting of the Madonna by the Italian artist Solemene. He and his assistants later made a number of mosaic port,raits of Elizabeth 11, Catherine 11, and various nobles of the court, but Lomonosov was chiefly anxious t o compose a series of monumental pictures celebrating events in the life of Peter the Great. H e hoped t o decorate a cathedral with these as a memorial to Peter who was one of his great heroes. I n order to carry out this work more efficiently he moved the composition to his home, though the glass was still manufactured a t Ust Ruditsy. Volume 46, Number
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Figure 2
Mosaic picture "The Bottle of Paltovo" designed by Lomonorov m d executed with the a i d of his artiranr.
111the workshop on tllc first floor of his house he had a furnacc in which the glass was remelted and cast into small cylinders which were assembled into the mosaic in a large copper pan. Lomonosov completed only one of thesc monumental pictures, the "Battle of Poltava" which showcd the victory of Peter the Great over Charles XI1 of Sweden in 1700 (see Fig. 2). The second in the series, "The Taking of Azov," had only been begun when Lomonosov died, and it was never completed. During his life, Lomonosov's mosaics were greatly admired. I n 1763 he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Art. However, he had many euemies in the Academy of Science, one of the most powcrful of whom was thc director of the Chancellery Schumacher. The latter wrote to his son-in-law Taubert (also a violent opponent of Lomonosov), " X m y hold the opinion that the excessive prccminerxe which hc had attaincd, while increasing his fortunes, will also serve for his destruction" (80). There is no doubt that the last years of Lomonosov's life were made difficult not only by ill health and increasing debts, but also by the enmity of many of his colleagues in the Academy of Science who were jealous of his numerous accomplishments. Lomonosov dicd on April 4, 1765. His widow Elizabeth and her brothcr attempted t,o carry on the work of t,he factory a t Ust Ruditsy, while Vasil'ev and Jlel'nikov t,ried to continue the mosaics which were left incomplete by Lomonosov. Kone of these had his encrgy or ability, however, and the work gradually came to a halt.. Elizabeth Lomonosov could not obtain cnough potash to opcrate t,he factory, and after her death in Octobcr, 1766, her daughter Elena aud Elena's husband, A. A. Iionstantinov, librarian to Cathcrine 11, fi~rallyclosed the plant on December 9, 1768. The official in charge of mosaics a t t,he imperial court, I. I. Betskii, prefcrrcd the Italian style of mosaics and did not help Lomonosov's artisans in thcir plans to continue
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the scrics of mosaics on l'ctcr t,hc Great. Thus, just as sciwas the fate of much of Lomonosov's work in ence, his indust,rial and artistic efforts were nearly forgotten until his rediscovery in the twentieth century.
Literature Cited
(1) L l l l ~ l ~ ~H ~, hl., l i ~Isis, , 58, 240 (1967). (2) I ~ N I L I I ~ SV. K V., I I ,in "Lomonosov, Sbornik Statei i Maierinlov," Academy af Science Press, Moscow and Lenitlgmd, 1940, Vol. I, p. 222. (3) CHI.:N.\I
