Vasilii Semennikov

Born Aug. 1 (13), 1831; in Viatka Province; died 1898. Russian metallurgist.

Semennikov graduated from the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers in St. Petersburg in 1852 and trained at the Votkinsk Factory. For approximately 20 years he worked at the Bogoslovsk factories in the Urals, where he became supervisor of the copper mines in 1853 and supervisor of the gold fields in the Bogoslovsk Region in 1854. In 1863 he became the manager of the Bogoslovsk Copper-smelting Factory. In 1866, Semennikov was the first to use the Bessemer process to convert copper matte into blister copper. He demonstrated the feasibility of raising the copper content in matte to 76 percent.