Vasily Petrov was born in the town of Oboyan, Belgorod Province, Russian Empire, in the family of a priest.

In 1791, he was transferred to Saint Petersburg to teach mathematics and Russian at the military Engineering College, in the Izmailovsky regiment.

The chapters, describing luminosity of phosphors of mineral and organic origins have elicited vivid interest in scientific circles.

In 1802, Petrov discovered the electric arc effect, thanks to his building the world's largest and most powerful Voltaic pile at the time, which consisted of around 4,200 copper and zinc discs.

The book was the first time in world literature that a series of important physical phenomena related to electricity were described in detail.