Michael Idvorsky PupinDied 12 Mar 1935 at age 76 (born 4 Oct 1858). Serbian-American physicist who devised a means of greatly extending the range of long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils (of wire) at predetermined intervals along the transmitting wire. His parents were illiterate, but they encouraged his education. Pupin became an instructor in mathematical physics (1890) at Columbia University, New York City. In 1986, he discovered that atoms struck by X rays emit secondary X-ray radiation. He also invented a means for taking short-exposure X-ray photographs. The Bell Telephone Company, in 1901, acquired the patent for his invention for long-distance telephony. Pupin won a Pulitzer Prize (1924) for his autobiographical work, From Immigrant to Inventor (1923). |
