Alexander Stepanovich Popov
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Alexander Stepanovich Popov (Russian: Александр Степанович Попов) (March 4/16 1859 - January 13/December 31 1905/6) was a Russian physicist who publicly demonstrate transmission of radio waves (but didn't apply for a patent for this great invention).
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Birth
Born in the village Turinskiye Rudniki (now Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast) in the Ural mountains as the son of a priest, he became interested in natural sciences early in his youth. His father ensured that Alexander received a good education at the seminary at Perm, and later studying physics at the St. Petersburg university. After graduation in 1882 he started to work as a laboratory assistant at the university. However due to the bad funding of the university he changed to a teaching job at the Russian Navy's Torpedo School in Kronstadt on Kotlin Island.
Radio
Beginning in the early 1890s he continued the experiments of Heinrich Hertz. In 1894 he built his first radio receiver, the coherer. Further refined as a lightning detector, he presented it to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895 — the day has been celebrated in the Russian Federation as "Radio Day". The paper on his findings was published the same year. In March 1896, he effected transmission of radio waves between different campus buildings in St Petersburg. Upon learning about Guglielmo Marconi's system, he effected ship-to-shore communication over a distance of 6 miles in 1898 and 30 miles in 1899. In 1900 radio station established under Popov's instructions on Gogland island provided a two-way communication by wireless telegraphy between Russian navy base and crew of General-Admiral Apraksin battleship. The battleship run aground Gogland island in the Gulf of Finland in November, 1899. The crew of the Apraksin was not in immediate danger, but the water in the Gulf was beginning to freeze. If the ship survived without serious damage until spring, it likely would be crushed by moving ice floes. Due to bad weather and bureaucratic red tape, the crew of Apraksin to establish a wireless station on Gogland Island did not arrive there until January of 1900. By February 5, however, messages were being received reliably. The wireless messages were relayed to Gogland Island by a station some 25 miles away at Kotka on the Finnish coast. Kotka was selected as the location for the wireless relay station because it was the point closest to Gogland Island served by telegraph wires connected to Russian naval headquarters. By the time the Apraksin was freed from the rocks by Ermak icebreaker at the end of April, 440 official telegraph messages had been handled by the Gogland Island wireless station. Besides Apraksin's crew, more than 50 lives of Finnish fishermen, which were stranded on a piece of ice in the Gulf of Finland, were saved by Ermak icebreaker because of distress telegrams sent by wireless telegraphy. At the very same time, Guglielmo Marconi was making his first experiments of signal transmission. In 1901 Alexander Popov was appointed as professor at the Electrotechnical Institute which now bears his name. In 1905 he was elected as the director of the institute.
Death
In 1905 he became seriously ill, after being very uneasy about the suppression of a student movement. He died of a brain hemorrhage on December 31, 1905 which corresponds to January 13, 1906 in the Gregorian calendar.
See also
Resources
- Alexander Popov: Russia's Radio Pioneer by James P. Rybak
- Short biographies of Popov
- Alexander Stepanovich Popov : Life and Inventionsde:Alexander Stepanowitsch Popow
el:Αλέξανδρος Ποπόφ es:Alejandro S. Popov fr:Alexandre Popov (Physicien) la:Alexander Popov nl:Aleksandr Popov ja:アレクサンドル・ポポフ (物理学者) pl:Aleksander Popow ro:Alexandr Popov (fizician) ru:Попов, Александр Степанович sr:Александар Степанович Попов fi:Aleksandr Popov (fyysikko) uk:Попов Олександр Степанович zh:亚历山大·波波夫