Projecting Chemistry in Lomonosov’s Russia (1741–1765)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55283/jhk.19178Keywords:
Mikhail Lomonosov, 18th-century Russian chemistry, projects, patronage, serfdomAbstract
This paper describes the projecting career of a polymath, academician, professor of chemistry, and “father of Russian science” Mikhail Vasil'evich Lomonosov (1711–1765). Hitherto, scholars have treated Lomonosov’s scholarly career as primarily motivated by a disinterested quest to bolster the sciences in Russia. This paper argues that Lomonosov’s promotion of chemistry at the Imperial Academy of Sciences and the Russian court was inextricably tied to his entrepreneurial ambitions as a projector. Examining selected examples of Lomonosov’s projects and projecting strategies, this paper shows how projects contoured his orations, odes, and scholarship, and in doing so underscores the centrality of projects to the crystallization of Russia’s popular scientific culture and discourse, and the development of chemistry as an academic discipline.
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