Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov

Who was Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov?

Vasily Vladimirovich Petrov was a Russian experimental physicist, self-taught electrical technician, academician of Russian Academy of Sciences.

Vasily Petrov was born in the town of Oboyan in the family of a priest. He studied at a public school in Kharkov, and then at the St. Petersburg Teacher's College.

In 1788, he gained a position as mathematics and physics teacher at Kolyvansko-Voskresenskoe College of Mining, in the town of Barnaul. In 1791, he was transferred to Saint Petersburg to teach mathematics and Russian at the military Engineering College, in the Izmailovsky regiment. In 1793, Petrov was invited to teach mathematics and physics at the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgery School, at the military hospital. In 1795, he was promoted to the rank of 'Extraordinary Professor'. During the next few years, he built up a comprehensive physics laboratory.

His first published book, "A collection of new physical-chemical experiments and observations", was published in 1801. The bulk of this work was dedicated to the description of experiments related to combustion, as evidence against the then-popular phlogiston theory.