Lev Savelievich Vaksel ( 1776 - 1816 ) - Russian naturalist, entomologist, archaeologist, specialist in the field of mechanics; Colonel engineer.
| Lev Savelievich Waxel | |
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| Academic rank | Corresponding Member of SPbAN |
Biography
Born March 2, 1776 . Grandfather - Swede Sven (Xavier Lavrentievich) Waxel , born in Stockholm and has been in Russian service since 1724. Father - Savely Ksaverievich Vaksel, just like his father and brother was a naval officer; mother Anna Ivanovna came from a well-known Korsakov family. In 1778, Waxelles received hereditary nobility, and at the end of the XVIII century - land holdings in the Dorogobuzh district of Smolensk province .
His biography has hardly been studied. It is known that in the years 1797-1798 L. S. Waxel traveled around the Crimea. He collected coins, searched for ancient Greek and Genoese inscriptions on the stones and walls of ancient structures. It is also known that in November 1801 he became a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences , in February 1804 - its corresponding member-boarder.
In 1801, he was a court counselor ; in 1805, a college counselor .
From 1805 or earlier, Waxel worked in London. At the meetings of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Vaxel’s letters addressed to the academy were read out with information about his scientific research and findings (for example, finding the bones of ancient animals), about the observations of the scientist himself (for example, when L.S. Waxel moved from London in 1805 to St. Petersburg on the ship "Almeria" he observed the so-called "false sun"). Waxel informed the Academy about the possibility of acquiring a collection of birds and animals and sent samples and entire collections of minerals, vegetation, stuffed animals and animal bones to St. Petersburg. The Academy of Sciences also received books from him. Returning to Russia, Waxel continued his research work. So, in August 1812, he sent from Tver to the Academy of Sciences several boxes with minerals.
Publications by L.V. Waxel:
- Images of various ancient monuments found on the shores of the Black Sea belonging to the Russian Empire .: Removed from the originals in 1797 and 1798: With the application of a geographic map of the places where these monuments are found with ancient names. - St. Petersburg: Printed by I.K. Shnor, 1801. - 8 p., [15] p. ill., cards .;
- Description of the cast-iron road (Iron Rail Way) established in the county of Surrey, in England, in 1802, invented for the most convenient and easiest transportation of various loads and heavy loads, by horses. - SPb .: In a medical printing house, 1805. - 25, [1] c .: tab., [1] l. heck.
In the first work, he tried to decipher some of the medieval inscriptions that were discovered by him in an ancient fortress in Sudak . Waxel pointed out that he did not try to “explain” each inscription: he considered it his task to indicate the places where they were found, to describe the shape and features of the objects found with inscriptions. As a result, he made many drawings, copied the texts of the originals, and presented geographical maps showing the locations of the finds. In a second work, he outlined the benefits of the railway.
Literature
- Waxel, Lev Savelievich // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- Belkov P.L. Chapter 6. Rapanui carvings from collection No. 736 (Cook – Waxel collection) // Essays on the History of the Early Oceanian Collections of the MAE. - St. Petersburg: MAE RAS, 2015 .-- S. 220—231. - ISBN 978-5-88431-289-0 .