Petr Konstantinovich Sobolevskii

Born Oct. 7 (19), 1868, in Biala-Podlaska, now in Lublin Wojewödztwo, Polish People’s Republic; died Mar. 4, 1949, in Moscow. Soviet scientist in the field of mine surveying. Doctor of engineering sciences (1936).

After graduating from the St. Petersburg Institute of Mines in 1898, Sobolevskii worked at the Golubovka and Troitskii mines in the Donbas. He was a professor at the Tomsk Technological Institute from 1903 to 1920, at the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute from 1920 to 1933, at the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute from 1933 to 1947, and at the Moscow Mining Institute from 1939 to 1949.

Sobolevskii’s achievements include the development of methods for the geometrization of mineral deposits (seeMINING GEOMETRY), the calculation of mineral reserves, and the measurement of the depth of a mine shaft. He invented various measuring instruments used in mining and geoexploration—for example, the deformatograph, stereoautograph, and aerial aneroid barometer.

Sobolevskii was awarded two orders and several medals.