Kolong, Ivan Petrovich

Kolong, Ivan Petrovich 

(I. P. de-Kolong). Born Feb. 22 (Mar. 6), 1839; died May 13 (26), 1901, in St. Petersburg. Russian scientist in the field of naval navigation; corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1896); major general (1893). A student of M. V. Ostrogradskii. Son of a dvorianstvo (nobility or gentry) family from Courland Province.

Kolong graduated from the Nicholas Naval Academy and began teaching there in 1870. In 1878 he was placed in charge of compass engineering in the navy, and in 1898 he was appointed assistant chief of the Main Hydrographical Directorate. Kolong was one of the founders of the theory of deviation of a magnetic compass. In 1875 he designed and built a deflector, which is an instrument for measuring and eliminating deviation; he later perfected the instrument. Kolong’s methods have been adopted by all the navies of the world. In 1882 the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences awarded the Lomonosov Prize to Kolong for his work on deviation.

WORKS

O novom pribore dlia unichtozheniia deviatsii kompasov. St. Petersburg, 1879.
Teoriia deviatsii. St. Petersburg, 1892.

REFERENCE

Rykachev, M. A. “I. P. de Kolong” [obituary]. Izv. imp. Akademii nauk, 5th series, 1901, vol. 15, no. 1.