BEKETOV Nikolai Nikolaevich (01/1/1827-11/30/1911), Russian physical chemist. Student of N. N. Zinin. Synthesized organic compounds of a new class of benzureids and aztureids. Discovered the displacement of metals by hydrogen under pressure. He laid the foundation for aluminothermy (the reduction of metals from their oxides with aluminum), which was of great scientific and industrial importance. Beketov's great merit was the identification of modern physical chemistry as an independent scientific discipline.

Beketov Nikolai Nikolaevich (1827-1911) - ordinary academician, privy councilor, b. and Jan. 1827 in Penza province, in the village of his father, sailor Nikolai Alekseevich; was brought up in the 1st St. Petersburg gymnasium; in 1844 he entered St. Petersburg University, but from the 3rd year he moved to Kazan, where in 1849 he received the degree of candidate of natural sciences. Having then moved to St. Petersburg, he began to study chemistry under. leadership of N. N. Zinin. In 1854 he received a master's degree in chemistry, in 1855 he was appointed an adjunct in the department of chemistry at Kharkov University, where he remained as a professor of chemistry for 32 years, that is, until 1887, when he was elected an ordinary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. N.N. is the chairman. Russian Chemical Society, gives a lecture on chemistry at higher women's courses. In 1887 - 89 I read chemistry to E.I.V. the Heir to the Tsarevich.

One direction runs through all of Beketov’s scientific activities - that of a chemist-philosopher. Always trying to penetrate into the essence of those dark processes called chemical, he never obtained a single new fact for the sake of fact itself. While the vast majority of Western chemists. Europe was engaged in the discovery of new bodies, new compounds, at a time when organic chemistry represented no end of land for new discoveries and chemical journals had to increase in volume three to four times every month and still could not contain the entire mass of actual research carried out in all ends of Europe, at a time when mineral chemistry seemed to offer no chance for new interesting discoveries - at this very time N. N. Beketov, not carried away by the fashionable trend, not tempted by the thirst for discovering new facts, slowly walked along the difficult path of theoretical chemistry and sought to resolve the question of where is the source, where is the reason for what in chemistry is defined by the term “chemical affinity”. Of course, this task cuts into the most hidden essence of chemistry and to emerge victorious is not the work of one scientist or even one generation of scientists. What could, for example, be done in this area at the end of the 50s, when theoretical views were so unstable that long discussions about the difference between physical and chemical molecules and atoms were possible. And in this area, Beketov made a remarkable generalization: he showed that those substances that are most closely connected to each other are most strongly connected to each other. This study was reported by B. to the Chemical Society in Paris back in 1859, and appeared in Russian in 1865 (“Research on the phenomena of displacement of some elements by others,” Kharkov, 1865). Based on this principle, B. tried to confirm it with experiments and made a whole series of observations, extremely interesting and important: for example, he proved by experiment that aluminum does not displace barium from its chloride compound, but displaces it from the oxide, which is unlikely could have been foreseen, not based on the principle that Beketov adhered to. Thus, the first idea about the dependence of the strength of the affinity of elements on the quantity called “atomic weight” in chemistry undoubtedly belongs to Beketov. And if modern chemistry has indicated that the strength of the connection of two elements is determined to a large extent by their position in the “natural system of elements,” then there is still no explanation for this circumstance and the only explanation remains the highly ingenious interpretation given by Beketov - an interpretation that to which, perhaps, modern principles of analytical mechanics will be applied. The second and no less important idea, carried out by Beketov, was that the amount of heat released when connecting these simple bodies cannot serve as a measure of their affinity, but represents the difference between the means of homogeneous and the means of dissimilar atoms. This view was illustrated with examples (acetylene, etc.) and presented by B. at a meeting of the Chemical Society in Kharkov. An absolutely identical view was later expressed by J. Thomsen ("Thermochemische Untersuchungen", vol. II, 1862, Einleitung). The view expressed is of great importance for chemistry, because it established a clear point of view on the significance of thermochemical observations. Finally, the third is very an interesting conclusion usually attributed to Muller-Erzbach"y (LotharMeyer, Die modemen Theorien der Chemie", 5th ed., 1884, p. 446) and consisted in the fact that if metal A displaces another metal B from its connection with substance C, then the sum of the volumes of substances obtained in the solid state is smaller than the sum of the volumes of substances taken - does not belong to Muller-Erzbach, but to Beketov. In his above-mentioned work, B. definitely says: “Considering cases of the displacement of one element by another involuntarily, one can say that one is struck by one almost constant condition of the reaction, namely, that a less dense body displaces a more dense one” (loc. cit. p. 33). From this position the Muller-Erzbach rule can be derived through very simple calculations. These are the most important ideas introduced by Beketov into science. They will be properly assessed only when chemistry stands on the basis of atomic-molecular mechanics. Beketov’s actual discoveries have always been represented great interest. All chemists know that no one had pure oxides of alkali metals before Beketov. Which chemist did not know the extremely ingenious method of determining the heat capacity of hydrogen in its, so to speak, alloy with palladium, etc., etc. But not in these However, the center of gravity of B.’s works lies in the facts - it lies in those speculations for the sake of which the facts were obtained.

Works by N. N. Beketov: “On some new cases of chemical combination and general remarks about these phenomena” (St. Petersburg, 1853): “On the effect of hydrogen under pressure on silver solutions” (1859); “On the reduction of metallic barium by means of aluminum” (1859); “On the formation of manganese-acid potassium by fusing manganese peroxide with caustic potassium” (1859); “On the effect of zinc in a vapor state in a stream of hydrogen on barium chloride, aluminum chloride and silicon chloride”; “Research on the phenomena of displacement of some metals by others” (1865); “On the formation of formic acid during the electrolysis of sodium bicarbonate” (1869); "Projectile for condensing gases" (1869); "On the atomicity of elements"; "On the effect of synerod on formic acid"; "On Cyanocyanide" (1870); "On the atomicity of chlorine and fluorine"; "On the dissociation of sulfur, selenide and telluride hydrogen"; “On the difference between elements and complex bodies” (1873); “On the effect of hydrogen on silver nitrate” (1874); “On the influence of the weight of elements on the substitution reaction in double exchange” (1875); “On the heat of the union of carbon with hydrogen” (1875); “On the effect of silver oxide on potassium iodide in the absence of water” (1876); "On the solubility of silver oxide in water" (1878); “On the determination of the heat capacity of hydrogen in the solid state” (1879); "Hydration of anhydrous sodium oxide and the relationship of metallic sodium to caustic soda and hydrogen to sodium oxide"; “On the effect of carbonic anhydride, carbon monoxide and mercury oxide on sodium oxide” - this work was awarded the Lomonosov Prize; “On anhydrous potassium oxide and anhydrous lithium oxide” (1881 and 1883); “On the issue of mutual displacement of halides” (1881); "On the question of the limit of displacement of metals" (1883); “On the relation of the temperature of dissociation to the heat of formation and to the relative weight of united atoms” (1883); “On the production of metallic rubidium from caustic rubidium and aluminum” (1885); "The dynamic side of chemical phenomena"; "Basic principles of thermochemistry" (4 lectures, 1890).

F. Brockhaus, I.A. Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.

At the same time, in December 1920, the private property of the famous winemaker was socialized Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov, who had not one, but several estates in the Crimea: Lyublino and Ugolok near Alushta, Barbo-Christo near Alupka and Kiziltash, Bolgatur and Ai-Gurzuf in the area of ​​Artek and Gurzuf.

The Ai-Gurzuf estate, located on the territory of the Artek tract, previously belonged to Ivan Alekseevich Fedoseev, and before him - to Sergei Alexandrovich Asher.

Surrounded by poplars and cypresses, Sergei Aleksandrovich Asher’s dacha was inherited from his father, Alexander Vasilyevich Asher, a contractor for government and private buildings on the South Coast. Presumably, Asher's house in Artek was built according to the design of the architect Elson, since it was Alexander Vasilyevich who carried out the construction of a number of buildings designed by this architect. Alexander Vasilievich Asher(translated from Tatar - musician) arrived on the South Coast along with other settlers of the memorable “Korean” colony. At that time, Baroness Krüdener had a pretty, educated and serious girl, Fräulein Gertrude, serving as her chambermaid. Asher fell in love with a young chambermaid and began to seek her reciprocity. For nine years he persistently courted a girl who was initially embarrassed by his Jewish origin, but in the end he achieved his goal. The marriage turned out to be extremely happy. At first, Asher was engaged in construction contracts, then he served as a bailiff in the Yalta district. Having saved some money, he bought a plot of land from Ayu-Dag. The estate was called Kiziltash, which translated into Russian means “red stone”.

Alexander Vasilyevich gave his children an excellent education, and they all subsequently became good and kind people. The son, Sergei Aleksandrovich Asher, left a good memory of himself as an economic figure in the zemstvo. The daughter, Elizaveta Alexandrovna, who married the captain of the border guard, Baron Lode, completed a course at the Odessa Institute. On her estate she set up something like an educational boarding house, where for a small fee of 300 rubles. for a year she supported and taught children various subjects, including handicrafts and music. At that time, in Yalta, besides the district school, there were no other educational institutions, so Elizaveta Alexandrovna’s boarding house became truly a blessing for the residents of the city and its environs.

Asher's large and friendly family was distinguished by rare hospitality, so a crowded society, the entire then intelligentsia of the southern coast of Crimea, often gathered in their house.

He was well known in Crimea and Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov- the last owner of the estate, which first belonged to the Ushers, and then to the heirs of I.A. Fedoseeva.

The ancient noble family of the Beketovs has been known in Russia since the 15th century. For the first time in the books of boyars and noble children, Fyodor Beketov, who had six sons, is mentioned. This is where the Beketov family came from. Their surname appears in documents for the Samara, Penza and Simbirsk provinces. One of the Yenisei centurions, Cossack Pyotr Ivanovich Beketov, founded the city of Yakutsk. Later, this family gave Russia many wonderful people: pioneers, military men, actors and scientists, writers and architects, zemstvo leaders. The great Russian poet Alexander Blok, on his mother’s side, also belonged to the ancient Russian family of the Beketovs and was proud of it.

The poet's grandfather Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov is a famous botanist, the first elected rector of St. Petersburg University, one of the founders of the Higher Women's Courses, the so-called Bestuzhev Courses, although in fairness they should have been called Beketov Courses. He was the author of the first Russian original textbook, “Geography of Plants,” published in 1896. The scientist’s closest friends and associates were D.I. Mendeleev, I.I. Mechnikov, I.M. Sechenov, among his students - V.L. Komarov, future president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, K.I. Timiryazev and other outstanding botanists. Andrei Nikolaevich’s wife, Blok’s grandmother Elizaveta Grigorievna, according to the poet’s memoirs, spent her entire life translating scientific and artistic works. She was very well read, spoke several languages ​​and had a “surprisingly lively and original worldview.” Their daughters also inherited a love of literature from their parents; all three translated from foreign languages. The poet's mother, Alexandra Andreevna, excellently translated both prose and poetry from French.

Andrei Nikolaevich’s brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov, is an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, a physicist-chemist, a successor of Lomonosov’s ideas, and the leader of many studies in thermochemistry. In the 70s of the 19th century, he bought land in the Alushta region, now this place is called the Professor's Corner. Subsequently, his sons, Alexey, Vladimir, Peter and Nikolai, had dachas there. The most famous became the eldest son Alexey - a wonderful Ukrainian architect, academician, author of many significant buildings in Kharkov. He is also the author of the project for one of the most beautiful buildings in Simferopol - the Russian Drama Theater. Alexey Nikolaevich was married to the eldest daughter of the famous industrialist and banker Alexei Kirillovich Alchevsky, Anna, a graduate of the Kharkov Art School.

The dacha of Alexei Nikolaevich Beketov, built by him in 1896 according to his own design in the Professor's Corner in Alushta, has been preserved, it is equipped with a wonderful museum, the exhibition of which tells about the wonderful Beketov and Alchevsky families, who always vacationed with great pleasure on the southern coast of Crimea.

Alexei Nikolaevich's younger brother Nikolai Nikolaevich was the owner of rich estates in Crimea. He graduated from a winemaking school in France and worked successfully in his Crimean possessions. His excellent wines were in great demand and were known not only on the peninsula, but also in many cities of the country. Guidebooks of the early 20th century recommended the wines and grape juice of the Bolgatur estate N.N. Beketova. He had his own stores in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Yekaterinburg, Sevastopol, Yalta, Gurzuf and Alushta.

Vast vineyards in the Alushta Valley near Gurzuf and Artek, wineries and wonderful wine cellars, famous for their wine, on the Bolgatur Beketov estate were readily available for inspection by everyone. Walks into the famous cellars were made not only by vacationers from famous resorts located in this area, but also by those who came for the same purpose by carriage or car from Simferopol. The turn from the main southern coastal route to the estate followed the well-maintained Beketovskaya road.

The wealthy winemaker was not only engaged in his own business, but also actively participated in the public life of the Yalta district, and was elected a public official. He communicated closely with representatives of the Partnership of Private Winemakers in the Professor's Corner, which was headed at that time by Professor A.E. Golubev.

Estate N.N. Beketov Ai-Gurzuf was located not far from the sea, to the east were the vineyards of Pervushin, to the west - the O.M. resort. Solovyova “Suuk-Su” and the Kiziltash estate, from the north - the lands of the Kiziltash villagers and private individuals. The estate occupied an area of ​​73 acres. The land was distributed as follows: under the estate there was 1 dessiatine, under tobacco plantations - 5 dessiatines, under crops - 3 dessiatines, land suitable for cultivation was more than 21 dessiatines, vineyards occupied an area of ​​20 dessiatines.

On the territory there were three comfortable residential two-story stone houses, one with an area of ​​72 square meters. fathoms, it has 9 rooms and a balcony, the other has an area of ​​54 sq. fathoms, it had 7 rooms. There was a stone basement under the house. The third house is 31 sq. fathom - with 5 rooms. In addition, a house for a tobacco planter, several stone one-story houses for various household needs, a cooperage, metalworking and carpentry workshops, a barracks, a kitchen, a laundry, a greenhouse, a building for still distillation, a barracks for workers, a tobacco stone barn, and a bottle warehouse were also built. , a stable, a warehouse for gardening and household equipment necessary for a fairly large number of a wide variety of jobs.

To store wines and wine materials, three cellars were built, one large, on three floors, for 70 thousand buckets, with a swimming pool. Another basement for 10 thousand buckets was located under a residential building and a third one for 5 thousand buckets.

A mountain stream flowed through the territory, from which a vegetable garden occupying more than 2 dessiatines was watered, and an orchard planted with dwarf trees up to 9 years old - different varieties of pears and apples - covering an area of ​​2 dessiatines of land. Water was collected through drainage ditches in three cemented basins. There was also a lake on the estate, where fish were released in 1920. But there was still not enough water for household needs, so it had to be taken from a public source in the village of Kiziltash.

In December 1920, the estate was nationalized. This procedure took place in the presence of Alexandra Alexandrovna Beketova, N.N.’s wife. Beketova, née Geltzel. A.A. Beketova, the owner of several estates, was then temporarily appointed head of what was once her own, and now Soviet, farm. She was entrusted with the honorable and responsible duty of monitoring the safety of state property. By this time she was already a widow.

Returning back, it should be said that in 1911 a terrible misfortune occurred in the Beketov family. On September 25, a charity bazaar was held in Yalta for the benefit of the poor and tuberculosis patients, which was called “White Flower Day.” The royal family and the owners of many South Coast villas and summer cottages took an active part in this event. Among them is the owner of the fashionable resort “Suuk-Su” Olga Mikhailovna Solovyova. On this day she was given the great honor of standing at the table next to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Her only daughter Ksenia was with her.

However, the holiday was overshadowed by a terrible tragedy for Olga Mikhailovna’s neighbors and friends - the Beketov family. On this day, Nikolai Nikolaevich and his three sons went to sea on their sailing yacht. Nikolai Nikolaevich invited Ksenia for a walk, but Olga Mikhailovna, as if sensing trouble, did not allow her daughter to accept the neighbors’ invitation. In the evening of the same day, fatal news arrived - the yacht sank, all passengers died, their bodies were never found. One day Alexandra Alexandrovna Beketova lost her husband and three sons. Her son, who was sick with meningitis, was left in her arms.

The fate of this courageous and talented woman later turned tragic. After the establishment of Soviet power in Crimea, Alexandra Alexandrovna, like many other private owners, lost all her property and was forced to leave for Moscow, the city in which she was born. With the help of an old friend, Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, she, being a good translator, got a job. After living in the capital for several years, Alexandra Alexandrovna, or, as her family called her, Lina, went to stay with relatives in Ukraine, in the city of Kharkov.

There, during the Great Patriotic War, this already middle-aged woman worked in a hospital, risking her life, donating medicines and dressings to the partisans. She helped many Kharkov Jews escape death and escape the dungeons of the Gestapo. She herself could not avoid arrest. On February 27, 1943, Alexandra Aleksandrovna Beketova was arrested and shot by the Nazis in the forest park area of ​​the city of Kharkov. In the Book of Memory of Ukraine, among the numerous patriots of the Great Patriotic War, there is the name of Alexandra Alexandrovna Beketova, a worthy representative of the Russian nobility.

In the most difficult times, Olga Mikhailovna Aleksandrovskaya, devoted to her, was always next to Beketova, who served as her children’s teacher for many years. Together with Alexandra Alexandrovna, she went to Moscow, then to Kharkov, sharing with her all the sorrows and hardships that constantly haunted them. She outlived her former owner and after the war came to Crimea to visit dear places with which both the happy years of her life in the Beketov family and the days of the terrible tragedy that they all had to endure here were connected.

Olga Mikhailovna also turned out to be a witness to the nationalization of the Beketovs’ rich estates. This difficult time evoked painful memories even after many years! After those tragic events, the life of her owner, and herself, changed dramatically. Her former life seemed like a distant, distant past to her.

Vasily Efimovich Vashchenko, the chief winemaker of the Beketov estates, was appointed chairman of the working and control commission that carried out a detailed inventory.

The last to be nationalized was the small farm Kiziltash, which occupied an area of ​​only 2 dessiatines. It was located near the village of Kiziltash and was located above the Simferopol - Yalta highway.

Accounting for all the Beketovs' possessions was concentrated in the main office in the Bolgatur estate with an area of ​​54 dessiatines near the village of Gurzuf. The estate plan and all documents, according to A.A. Beketova, burned down in 1918. Judging by the inventory preserved in archival documents, the Bolgatur estate, like other estates of N.N. Beketov, was rich, with a well-organized economy. This is evidenced by the list of residential and outbuildings, food supplies (flour, cereals, dried fruits, a 20-bucket barrel of anchovy was also noted among the products). The inventory of the large library lists among the valuable books 83 volumes of the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, 1027 different books bound and unbound, dozens of French magazines, geographical maps, and illustrations.

An inventory of the wine harvest before 1920 in bottles, half-bottles and barrels was compiled in the memorable year 1920. Table and dessert wines, red and white, in large quantities and for every taste. Among the huge variety of wines available in the estate’s cellars, Muscat wines were especially famous.

Curious evidence has also been preserved of how much alcohol was confiscated from the Beketov estate during the arrival of the White Guard and how much was missing after the establishment of Bolshevik power. The Whites drank and took with them 708 bottles, the Red Army - 2,755 bottles, 23 buckets of wine and 5.5 buckets of alcohol. Of these, wine was requisitioned under 15 orders.

The area of ​​Kiziltash (Red Stone) near the modern village of Krasnokamenka above Gurzuf is the only place in Crimea where grapes grow, from which the best dessert drink in the world is now produced - White Muscat of Red Stone. This vintage liqueur wine is a true masterpiece of Crimean winemaking. It has been produced since 1944 from white Muscat grapes, which are harvested only around the Red Stone rock.

A giant block of marble-like brown-red limestone, 72 m high, with an area of ​​125 sq. m attracts the attention of everyone passing along the South Coast Highway. Historians claim that in the Middle Ages there was a small fortification on this rock, which was connected by a smoke alarm with the same coastal fortifications and covered the approaches to the pass that led to the Kacha River valley. The remains of an ancient settlement are preserved on top of the stone. The Tatars nicknamed it Gelin-kaya, that is, the Bride's Stone, assuring that a bride riding on horseback turned into it and vowed to turn into stone for the awkwardness she made publicly....

Kiziltash (the current village of Krasnokamenka) has never had a warm climate, since, located on a hill, it is less protected from the north and is completely open from the northeast, from where an unfavorable east wind blows, which has a bad effect on the harvest, especially orchards. But these real inconveniences were always compensated by a beautiful view of the sea, mountains, vineyards, dachas, immersed in the dense greenery of exotic plants.

Life story
Beketov Nikolay Nikolaevich
Chemist, ordinary academician; born January 1, 1827, educated in the first St. Petersburg gymnasium; in 1844 he entered St. Petersburg University, but from the third year he moved to Kazan, where in 1849 he received a candidate of natural sciences degree. Having then moved to St. Petersburg, he began to study chemistry under the guidance of N.N. Zinina. In 1854 he received a master's degree in chemistry, in 1855 he was appointed adjunct in the department of chemistry at Kharkov University, where, as a professor of chemistry, he remained for 32 years, i.e. until 1887, when he was elected an ordinary academician of the St. Petersburg Academy Sci. For many years he lectured in chemistry at higher women's courses. In 1887 - 89 I read chemistry to the Heir Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, now Emperor Nicholas II. One direction runs through all of Beketov’s scientific activities as a bright thread - that of a chemist-philosopher. Beketov, in all his works on theoretical chemistry, sought to resolve the question of what is the cause, the source of chemical affinity. In this area, Beketov made a remarkable generalization: he showed that those substances that have the greatest proximity to each other are most strongly connected to each other. This research was reported by Beketov to the Chemical Society in Paris back in 1859, and appeared in Russian in 1865 (“Research on the phenomena of displacement of some elements by others,” Kharkov, 1865). Based on this principle, Beketov tried to confirm it with experiments and made a whole series of observations: for example, he proved by experiment that aluminum does not displace barium from its chloride compound, but displaces it from the oxide, which could hardly have been foreseen without proceeding from the principle that Beketov adhered to. The first idea about the dependence of the affinity of elements on the quantity called “atomic weight” in chemistry belongs to Beketov. The second and no less important idea given by Beketov was that the amount of heat released when combining these simple bodies cannot serve as a measure of their affinity, but represents the difference between “the affinities of homogeneous and the affinities of dissimilar atoms.” This view was illustrated with examples (acetylene, etc.) and presented by Beketov at a meeting of the Chemical Society in Kharkov. An absolutely identical view was later expressed by J. Thomsen ("Thermochemische Untersuchungen", vol. II, 1862, Einlitung). Finally, the third very interesting conclusion, usually attributed to Muller-Erzbach (Lothar Meyer, “Die modernen Theorien der Chemie”, 5th ed., 1884, p. 446) and consisting in the fact that if metal A displaces another metal B from its connection with substance C, then the sum of the volumes of substances obtained in the solid state is less than the sum of the volumes of substances taken - does not belong to Muller-Erzbach, but to Beketov. In his above-mentioned work, Beketov definitely says: “Considering cases of displacement of one element by another, one can involuntarily, one might say, be struck by one almost constant condition of reaction, namely the fact that a less dense body displaces a more dense one” (loc. cit., p. 33). From this position the Muller-Erzbach rule can be derived through very simple calculations. Beketov's actual discoveries have always been of great interest. Before Beketov, no one had pure alkali metal oxides. Beketov's most important works: “On some new cases of chemical combinations and general comments about these phenomena” (St. Petersburg, 1853); “On the effect of hydrogen under pressure on solutions of silver” (1859); “On the reduction of metallic barium by means of aluminum” (1859); “On the formation of potassium permanganate by fusing manganese peroxide with caustic potassium” (1859); “On the effect of zinc in a vapor state in a stream of hydrogen on barium chloride, aluminum chloride and silicon chloride”; “Research on the phenomena of displacement of some metals by others” (1865); “On the formation of formic acid during the electrolysis of sodium bicarbonate” (1869); "Projectile for condensing gases" (1869); "On the atomicity of elements"; "On the effect of synerod on formic acid"; "On Cyanocyanide" (1870); "On the atomicity of chlorine and fluorine"; "On the dissociation of sulfur, selenide and telluride hydrogen"; “On the difference between elements and complex bodies” (1873); “On the effect of hydrogen on silver nitrate” (1874); “On the influence of high masses of elements on the reaction of substitution and double exchange” (1875); “On the heat of the union of carbon with hydrogen” (1875); “On the effect of silver oxide on potassium iodide in the absence of water” (1876); "On the solubility of silver oxide in water" (1878); “On the determination of the heat capacity of hydrogen in the solid state” (1879); "Hydration of anhydrous sodium oxide and the relationship of metallic sodium to caustic soda and hydrogen to sodium oxide"; “On the effect of carbonic anhydride, carbon monoxide and mercury oxide on sodium oxide” - this work was awarded the Lomonosov Prize; “On anhydrous potassium oxide and anhydrous lithium oxide” (1881 and 1883); “On the issue of mutual displacement of halides” (1881); "On the question of the limit of displacement of metals" (1883); “On the relation of the temperature of dissociation to the heat of formation and to the relative weight of united atoms” (1883); “On the production of metallic rubidium from caustic rubidium and aluminum” (1885); "The dynamic side of chemical phenomena"; “Basic principles of thermochemistry” (4 lectures, 1890); "Mendeleev's periodic system in relation to new gases" (Journal of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society, 1902, vol. 34); “On chemical energy in connection with the phenomena represented by radium” (ibid., 1903, vol. 35); “Radium as an intermediary between real weighty matter and ether” (ibid., 1904, vol. 36); “On the energy of the elements” (ibid., 1908, vol. 40).

Beketov Nikolay Nikolaevich

(b. 1827 - d. 1911)

Chemist. Considered by many to be the founder of physical chemistry.

Russian and Western historians of science argue not only about who discovered the Periodic Table of Elements, invented radio, or was the first to reach Antarctica. With the level of development of science that the Russian Empire reached in the 19th century, more and more new studies independent of the West were bound to appear, which repeated, slightly advanced similar studies of foreign colleagues, or lagged behind them. So this eternal dispute also affected such a science as physical chemistry. German scientists are convinced that priority in this area belongs to their compatriot, the chemist Ostwald. Their Russian colleagues call a different surname. After all, a course in physical chemistry was taught at Kharkov University by chemist Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov back in 1865, when Ostwald was only 12 years old!

In fact, it all started even earlier. The famous scientist and encyclopedist Mikhail Lomonosov read a course in physical chemistry - “Introduction to true physical chemistry” - to students of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He also developed a “Plan for a course in physical chemistry” and a program of experimental work (“Experience in Physical Chemistry”), defining this science as “explaining, on the basis of the principles and experiments of physics, what happens in mixed bodies during chemical operations.” There is nothing unusual in the early appearance of such a name. After all, chemistry and physics were both natural sciences that studied the laws of nature regarding inanimate objects - be they materials, liquids or solids. Having become separate sciences, these disciplines regularly intersected; their best representatives sought to generalize the results obtained and synthesize data. A broad view of things generally distinguishes great scientists. Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov also had such views.

He was born into the noble Beketov family, whose family has been known in Russia since the 16th century. This significant event in the history of Russian chemistry took place on the night of December 31, 1826 to January 1, 1827 (from January 12 to 13, new style) in the village of Novaya Beketovka, Penza province. His father was a naval officer. Nikolai Nikolaevich's brother Andrei later became a famous botanist, rector of St. Petersburg University, his grandson was the poet Alexander Blok. (Nikolai Nikolaevich often visited his niece and her son in Shakhmatovo and, according to Blok, brought terrible boredom to him with his scientific conversations.)

Nikolai Nikolaevich received a traditional education and, at that time, the best possible education. To begin with, there was home education (needless to say, this intelligent noble family had an excellent library; capable children had every opportunity to obtain all the necessary information, literature, etc.). Then Nikolai entered the 1st St. Petersburg Gymnasium, after which in 1844 he became a student in the department of natural sciences of the Faculty of Philosophy of the capital's university. The Beketov brothers studied together and were part of a circle of talented metropolitan youth. Grigorovich and Pleshcheev knew them, and Andrei and Nikolai rented the same apartment with Fyodor Dostoevsky.

It soon turned out that St. Petersburg University could not provide Nikolai with sufficient training in the field of knowledge that interested him most - chemistry. In this regard, he transferred to Kazan University. At that time, Nikolai Zinin, the luminary of Russian science, gave lectures there. His area of ​​interest was organic compounds. Zinin also prepared a capable student for their research. Beketov defended his thesis on the topic “Reasoning about the effect of elevated temperature on organic compounds.” But later Nikolai Nikolaevich chose a different path and a different topic in chemistry. In 1849, he graduated from the university, returned to the capital, worked at the Medical-Surgical Academy, where he continued to work on organic chemistry, and in 1853 defended his master's thesis, where he presented important conclusions regarding the formation of new compounds. For two years Nikolai Beketov was an assistant at the Department of Chemistry and Technology at St. Petersburg University, and in the summer of 1855 he was appointed extraordinary professor at Kharkov University.

At that time, chemistry teaching at the university was at a fairly low level. For example, practical classes were not conducted with students. (It’s the same as learning football only from textbooks and notes.) Creating a laboratory base was one of Nikolai Nikolaevich’s main tasks at his new place of work. In the new laboratories, both practical classes and research work of Beketov himself and his colleagues were conducted. All this was combined with quite active lecture work.

In 1858, the Kharkov chemist received a scientific trip abroad for 15 months. He visited Great Britain, France, Germany, listened to lectures by prominent scientists, met many of them - Mitscherlich, Dumas, Wohler, Bunsen, etc. In Paris, Beketov purchased equipment for the university laboratory with money specially allocated to him by the university.

And soon, in Kharkov, that very step was taken towards the development of a new industry - physical chemistry, which we talked about at the beginning of the article. In 1860, Beketov began giving a course of lectures on physical chemistry at Kharkov University, and in 1864 he organized a department for the training of physical chemists. (He achieved that the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics was divided into three “categories”, one of which was Physics and Chemistry.) In a memo justifying the creation of a new specialty, Beketov wrote: “Knowing chemistry... is impossible without a thorough acquaintance with physics, and therefore also with mathematics... Although we distinguish between the chemical and physical properties of bodies, both are an expression of the structure and properties of the smallest particles... The structure of matter... depends on physical conditions and chemical properties"

In 1865, Nikolai Nikolaevich defended his doctoral dissertation “Research on the phenomena of displacement of some elements by others.” In this work, the scientist showed the influence of the initial concentrations of reagents on the direction of reactions, its dependence on pressure, the influence of which he understood as the influence of the concentration of gases. Thus, Beketov, in fact, anticipated the discovery of the law of mass action. At the same time, Nikolai Nikolaevich compiled a series of metals based on their ability to displace each other, which subsequently coincided exactly with the series of voltages.

Nikolai Beketov's scientific works are devoted to the study of the dependence of the direction of chemical reactions on the state of the reagents and external conditions, the study of chemical affinity and what properties determine this affinity. Beketov discovered the displacement of metals from solutions of their salts by hydrogen under pressure; established the possibility of the reaction occurring in two directions and gave a precise definition of the equilibrium state; investigated the displacement of some elements by others from their compounds and connected these processes with “the original chemical properties of the elements - what is called chemical affinity.” In an effort to connect chemical phenomena with “relative masses and distances between active particles,” Beketov came close to the idea that the chemical properties of substances are determined by the properties of their atoms - atomic mass and radius. (Meanwhile, this conclusion was made even before the publication of the Periodic Law, it is no wonder that Nikolai Nikolaevich accepted Mendeleev’s theory with such enthusiasm.) Based on his ideas about the “strength” (in modern terminology - stability) of the combination of elements with close atomic masses, Beketov proposed aluminum as the most powerful reducing agent. With its help, the chemist carried out the reduction of some metals from their oxides at high temperatures, creating the basis of a method that later came into practice under the name aluminothermy. This method is now widely used in metallurgy.

Students remembered Beketov as an excellent lecturer who knew how to captivate his audience. Often during the lecture, Nikolai Nikolaevich was distracted from the main line of presentation by subjects that seemed to be of secondary importance. But it was they who unexpectedly captured the professor. Right in front of the students and, as it were, together with them, he began to work on solving a problem that he had not thought about before, drew prospects, and found connections with other important issues of chemical and physical science. The same thing happened in practice. Nikolai Beketov made many of his discoveries together with his students and laboratory assistants. During the exams, the professor was gentle and condescending (both students and St. Petersburg academicians called him “the kindest Nikolai Nikolaevich”), but despite this, the respect for him was so great that the students came well prepared. The reason for this is probably the good attendance at Beketov’s interesting lectures during the academic year. Among the students of one of the fathers of physical chemistry are the famous scientists Flavitsky, Eltekov, Khrushchev.

“The amazing ease of use, endless kindness and cordiality, directness and artlessness captivated everyone who knew N.N. Beketov,” recalled another of his students, Professor Tanatar in 1912.

In 1868, Beketov was elected as an ordinary professor in the department of chemistry at Novorossiysk University, but at the request of the Kharkov University staff he remained in the city. Since 1872, the Kharkov Physico-Chemical Society operated at the university under the leadership of Nikolai Beketov. His activities in the field of chemical research were extremely active. Together with his students, in the thermochemical laboratories he organized, he determined the heat of formation of oxides and chlorides of alkali metals, and in 1870 he first obtained anhydrous oxides of alkali metals. (Nine years later, for this he received the Lomonosov Prize of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.) In 1886, Beketov actually put forward the idea of ​​a chain mechanism of combustion and explosion. In the same year, his textbook “Physical Chemistry” was published.

Nikolai Nikolaevich was called a “chemist-philosopher” for his love of general discussions on chemical topics. While some researchers believe that this indicates the scientist’s broad outlook, others call Beketov’s attitude to chemistry naive and patriarchal. There were scientists who believed that Beketov was nothing more than a “gray thermochemist” who had clearly insufficient knowledge of physics and mathematics to be able to seriously talk about him as the founder of physical chemistry. Thus, the author of the journal “Issues of Natural Science and Technology” Dmitriev writes that Nikolai Beketov could, in a sense, be considered the third chemist in Russia after Butlerov and Mendeleev, but only keeping in mind the magnitude of the distance and if one does not take into account the achievements of Western science in the field of physical chemistry.

But the positive role played by Nikolai Nikolaevich Beketov in the life of Kharkov is undeniable. He was one of the initiators and organizers of the creation of the Public Library, the Society for the Promotion of Literacy among the People, and the Society for Aid to Needy Students. By the way, it was Beketov who was the first to study the properties of mineral waters in the area of ​​the Berezovka farm. Now the inscription on the water label reminds us of this.

In the 70s, the professor's health deteriorated somewhat. In Alushta, he bought himself a dacha, where he lived with his family every summer, and loved to make sketches of Crimean nature and the sea. He passed on his drawing abilities to his son, the famous architect Alexei Beketov.

In 1884, university autonomy was liquidated, and soon the physicochemical category was abolished (the development of the natural sciences was not included in the program of the reactionaries who came to power). Nikolai Nikolaevich at this time (as before) complained about the lack of funds. For his experiments, he, like Zinin once did, used the simplest equipment; he did not have enough money for reagents. He was not satisfied with both the apartment and the salary. In 1886, he was elected academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, moved to the capital and began work in the Chemical Laboratory of the Academy. Until 1901, he taught at the Higher Women's Courses, taught chemistry to the heir to the throne for three years, and was elected president of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society many times.

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BEKETOV
Nikolai Nikolaevich

(13.01.1827 - 13.12.1911)

Russian physical chemist, academician St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Nikolai Nikolaevich , who was of Penza origin, went through life in parallel with Andrey Nikolaevich: in 1844 at the end Petersburg gymnasium he entered to the capital university, But from 3rd year moved to Kazansky. In 1849 left with a PhD in Natural Sciences to St. Petersburg, where he improved under the guidance of the founder of the Russian scientific school of chemists, the future academician Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin(1812-1880) - also native of Penza.

In 1854 Nikolai Nikolaevich received master's degree, A in 1855 he was invited to Kharkov University to whom I gave 32 years own life. Here on offer Beketova was open physico-chemical department. N. N. Beketov was elected professor at Novorossiysk University.

The essence of scientific ideology N. N. Beketova expressed Professor of Kharkov University A. N. Shimkov:

“All your main works represent a consistent development of a general and extremely important topic: you set out to elucidate the mechanism of chemical compounds and brought a lot of light into this difficult and generally inaccessible area. You put forward several propositions here and their fruitfulness was confirmed by the brilliant agreement of your conclusions with your own and other observed facts. These provisions stand as guiding milestones: using them, you sometimes raised chemistry to the heights of deductive science, and they will also be used for a long time by those who later begin to work in this field ».

The first major scientific work Nikolai Nikolaevich there was a monograph “Research on the phenomenon of displacement of some elements by others” for which he in 1865 received Doctor of Chemistry degree. To work "On the effect of carbon antifreeze, carbon monoxide and mercuric monoxide on this compound" Academy of Sciences awarded N. N. Beketov Lomonosov Prize. At university courses “The relationship of physics and chemical phenomena with each other” And "Physical chemistry" he determined the place of physical chemistry as an independent scientific and educational discipline.

In 1879scientist is elected Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences.

In 1886 Nikolai Nikolaevich left Kharkiv, where he established himself as a scientist and teacher of higher education, and moved to St. Petersburg for service in the academic chemical laboratory And Higher women's courses, where he lectured.

In 1886he is elected Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

In 1887-1889taught chemistry to the heir Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich(to the future Nicholas II).

In 1890 N. N. Beketov was invited to Moscow University where I read well "Basic principles of thermochemistry" .

K. A. Timiryazevcalled N. N. Beketova direct successor of the business M. V. Lomonosova.

A. A. Blokvalued communication extremely with Nikolai Nikolaevich, constantly experiencing its progressive influence. In December 1911, refusing to participate in the memorial service for his father, Alexander Blok came to the funeral N. N. Beketova.

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