Zarubin, Pavel Alekseevich

Born May 10 (22), 1816, in Puchezh, in present-day Ivanovo Oblast; died July 31 (Aug. 12), 1886, in St. Petersburg. Russian self-educated inventor and writer.

Zarubin built a number of original devices for measuring the area of figures in a plane (including the rolling planimeter, which can measure the area of extended figures of any length), depth gauges, speedometers for ships, and a device to automatically plot the route of a ship on a map, as well as a harvester, a fire-fighting pump, and a water-lifting device.

The St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences awarded Zarubin the Demidov Prize twice (1854, 1856) for his inventions. Zarubin is also known as the author of the novel Dark and Bright Sides of Russian Life (1872). During 1867-78 he was the editor of Peterburgskii Listok.