Frolov, Petr Kozmich

Born Jan. 16 (27), 1775, at the Zmeinogorsk mine, Barnaul District (now Zmeinogorsk, Altai Krai); died Dec. 10 (22), 1839, in St. Petersburg. Russian mining engineer and inventor. The son of K. D. Frolov.

P. K. Frolov graduated from the St. Petersburg Mining School in 1793 and worked in the Altai region until 1830. In 1804 and 1805, he became the first to map the Irtysh River and its tributaries from Bukhtarma landing to Ust’-Kamenogorsk. He built the first cast-iron railway in Russia; the railway extended for about 2 km between the Zmeinogorsk mine and the Korbolikha silver smelter and used horses to haul loads. From 1817 to 1822, Frolov was the superintendent of the Kolyvan’-Voskresen’e works in the Altai region. In that capacity, he implemented a number of measures to develop metallurgical techniques for use at the works and to improve water-powered equipment.

Frolov also promoted the establishment of cultural institutions. In 1827 he organized the Barnaul Museum, which included various collections, such as the history of technology, “antiquities,” art objects, minerals and ores, rare manuscripts and books, instruments used in physics and in mine surveys, and flora and fauna. In 1830 he founded the first magnetic observatory in Western Siberia. The observatory carried out both meteorological and magnetic observations.