Fig. 14. Alexander Popov

Pre-questions:

What do you know about A. Popov? What is he famous for?

12.1. Words and word combinations to be remembered:

1. priest	священник
2. natural sciences	естественные науки
3. graduation	окончание (вуза)
4. due to	в результате, из-за
5.poor	плохой, недостаточный
6. funding	финансирование
7. Kotlin Island	Котлин - остров в Финском заливе Балтийского моря, в 30 км западнее центра Санкт-Петербурга
8. to conduct	проводить
9. along	параллельно
10. radio receiver	радиоприемник
11. coherer	когерер (это активный элемент, резистор, сопротивление которого по командам управления принимает только крайние значения. Такой элемент в радиотехнике называется ключом)
12. to contain	содержать в себе, включать,
13. refined	улучшенный, усовершенствованный
14. to publish	публиковать
15. to apply	обращаться с просьбой
16. to depict	описывать
17. to reprint	переиздавать
18. to effect	осуществлять, совершать, выполнять
19. campus	кампус, территория университета
20.entrepreneur	бизнесмен, предприниматель
21. equipment	оборудование
22. ship-to-shore communication	связь между кораблем и берегом
23. crew	судовая команда, экипаж (судна)
24.battleship	линейный корабль, линкор
25. gulf	морской залив
26.to be in immediate danger	быть в непосредственной опасности
27. to freeze	замерзать, покрываться льдом
28. bureaucratic	бюрократический
29. red tape	волокита
30. reliably	достоверно, надежно
31. to relay	передавать, транслировать
32. Hogland Island	Остров Гогланд расположен в 180 км западнее Санкт-Петербурга, территория России
33. Kymi	Кюми - административная единица на Ю.-В. Финляндии. Главный город - Котка
34. naval headquarters	Военно-морская штаб-квартира
35. point	пункт
36. to free	освобождать
37. icebreaker	ледокол
38. to handle	разбирать, обрабатывать
39. wireless station	радиостанция
40. emission	распространение
41.reception	прием, получение
42. to appoint	назначать
43. to elect	выбирать
44. uneasy	обеспокоенный, потревоженный
45. suppression of a student movement	подавление студенческого движения
46. brain hemorrhage	кровоизлияние в мозг

12.2. Read and translate the text:

Alexander Stepanovich Popov, born 1859 was a Russian physicist who was the first person to demonstrate the practical application of electromagnetic radio waves.

Born in the town Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Urals as the son of a priest, he became interested in natural sciences when he was a child. Alexander received a good education at the seminary at Perm, and later studied 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 poor funding of the university he changed to a teaching job at the Russian Navy's Torpedo School in Kronstadt on Kotlin Island.

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. 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). He did not apply for a patent for his invention. 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.

On December 18, 1897, Popov sent the telegram with the words Heinrich Hertz.

In 1900 a radio station was established under Popov's instructions on Hogland Island 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 did not 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 Kymi (nowadays 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 1900, Popov stated (in front of the Congress of Russian Electrical Engineers) the emission and reception of signals by means of electric oscillations.

In 1901 Alexander Popov was appointed as professor at the Electrotechnical Institute, which now bears his name. In 1905 he was elected a director of the institute.

In 1905 he became seriously ill, after being very stressed about the suppression of a student movement. He died of a brain hemorrhage on January 13, 1906.

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