Gorbov, Aleksandr

Born May 11 (23), 1859, in Moscow; died Jan. 26, 1939, in Leningrad. Soviet chemist.

In 1882, Gorbov graduated from the University of St. Petersburg, where he had been a student of A. M. Butlerov. In 1894 he became the director of the chemistry laboratory of the Engineering Academy, and from 1918 to 1924 he was a professor there. Beginning in 1927 he was the editor of Zhurnal prikladnoi khimii (Journal of Applied Chemistry).

In 1885, Gorbov and A. E. Kessler invented a device for fractional distillation under reduced pressure (the instrument is sometimes named after J. W. Brühl, who described a similar device in 1888). Gorbov did research on the properties of concrete and facilitated its rational use in military installations. He developed the composition of cartridges used for making smoke screens. In 1907–10, together with V. F. Mit-kevich, he built the first equipment in Russia for producing nitric acid from air using the arc method.