Sigizmund Grigorevich Voislav

Voislav, Sigizmund Grigor’evich 

Born 1850, in Mariampol’, now Kapsukas; died Jan. 25 (Feb. 7), 1904, in St. Petersburg. Russian mining engineer.

Voislav graduated from the University of Warsaw (1871) and from the St. Petersburg Mining Institute (1876). He worked in the Urals, then taught (1877 to 1894) at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute and, starting in 1894, at the Moscow Agricultural Institute. He proposed a hand drill with an off-center tool (known as a Voislav drill, 1876), which is used in exploring for minerals. In 1888 he created the Bureau of Soil Analysis, which promoted a geological study of Russia. He developed an original theory of exploration for gas deposits. Voislav was one of the founders of the Society of Mining Engineers in Russia and was the editor (from 1897) of the Izvestii of the society.

WORKS

Razvedka plastovykh, gnezdovykh i zhil’nykh mestorozhdenii poleznykh iskopaemykh, 3rd ed. St. Petersburg, 1899.

REFERENCE

Shukhardin, S. V. “Raboty S. G. Voislava v oblasti gornogo dela.” In Trudy po istorii tekhniki, issue 4. Moscow, 1954.