Smyslov, Petr
Smyslov, Petr Mikhailovich
Born June 28, 1827, in Novgorod Province; died Dec. 6, 1891, in Vilnius. Russian astronomer and geodesist.
Smyslov was a staff member of the Military Topographical Depot from 1841 to 1851 and of the Pulkovo Observatory from 1860 to 1866. He was director of the Vilnius Observatory from 1866 to 1882. Between 1855 and 1859, Smyslov took part in a series of expeditions to determine the longitudes of such cities as Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan. In 1863, together with M. F. Khandrikov, he made use of telegraphy to determine the difference in longitude of the Moscow and Pulkovo observatories. Between 1865 and 1868, A. N. Savich, R. E. Lents, and Smyslov together carried out the first (in Russia) absolute determinations of the acceleration of gravity by means of a reversible pendulum.
WORKS
Repsol’dov krug: Khronometry: Khronometricheskaia ekspeditsiia 1859 g. St. Petersburg, 1863.Opyty dlia sravnitel’noi otsenki razlichnykh sposobov telegraficheskoi pe-redachi vremeni pri opredelenii raznosti dolgot Pulkovskoi i Moskovskoi observatorii. St. Petersburg, 1865. (Zapiski Voenno-topografiche-skogo otd. Glavnogo shtaba, part 27. St. Petersburg, 1866.)