Everything about Alexander Stepanovich Popov totally explained
Alexander Stepanovich Popov (
Russian:
Александр Степанович Попов) (Gregorian:
March 16 1859 -
January 13 1906, Julian:
March 4 1859 -
December 31 1905) was a
Russian
physicist who demonstrated the practical application of electromagnetic (
radio) waves, although he didn't apply for a patent for his invention.
Beginning in the early 1890s he continued the experiments of other
radio pioneers, such as
Heinrich Hertz. In
1894 he built his first radio receiver, a version of the
coherer. Further refined as a
lightning detector, it was presented 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.
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 conducted experiments along the lines of
Heinrich Hertz's research. In
1894 he built his first
radio receiver, which contained a
coherer. Further refined as a
lightning detector, it was presented 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 (
December 15, 1895). In 1896, the article depicting Popov's invention was reprinted in the 'Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society'. In March 1896, he effected transmission of radio waves between different campus buildings in St. Petersburg. In November 1897, the French
entrepreneur Eugene Ducretet made a
transmitter and
receiver based on
wireless telegraphy in his own laboratory. According to Ducretet, he built his
devices using Popov's lightning detector as a model. By 1898 Ducretet was manufacturing equipment of wireless telegraphy based on Popov's instructions. At the same time Popov effected ship-to-shore communication over a distance of 6 miles in 1898 and 30 miles in 1899.
In
1900 a radio station was established under Popov's instructions on
Hogland island (Suursaari) to provide two-way communication by wireless telegraphy between the Russian naval base and the crew of the battleship
General-Admiral Apraksin. The battleship ran aground on Hogland island in the
Gulf of Finland in November,
1899. The crew of the
Apraksin were not in immediate danger, but the water in the Gulf began to freeze. Due to bad weather and bureaucratic red tape, the crew of
Apraksin didn't arrive until January 1900 to establish a wireless station on Hogland Island . By
February 5, however, messages were being received reliably. The wireless messages were relayed to Hogland 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 Hogland Island served by telegraph wires connected to Russian
naval headquarters.
By the time the
Apraksin was freed from the rocks by the
icebreaker Yermak at the end of April, 440 official telegraph messages had been handled by the Hogland Island wireless station. Besides the rescue of the Apraksin's crew, more than 50 Finnish fishermen, who were stranded on a piece of
drift ice in the Gulf of Finland, were saved by the icebreaker
Yermak following distress telegrams sent by wireless telegraphy.
In
1901 Alexander Popov was appointed as professor at the
Electrotechnical Institute, which now bears his name. In 1905 he was elected director of the institute.
Death and legacy
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.
A
minor planet 3074 Popov discovered by
Soviet astronomer
Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1979 is named after him.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Alexander Stepanovich Popov'.
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