Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin

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Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (1854-1935)
Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin (1854-1935)

Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin, Ph.D, LL.D. (4 October 1854 – 12 March 1935; Serbian Cyrillic: Михајло Идворски Пупин), also known as Michael I. Pupin, was a Serbian physicist and physical chemist. Pupin is best known for his landmark theory of modern electrical filters as well as for his numerous patents, including 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 (known as pupinization).

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[edit] Biography

Pupin was born in the village of Idvor near Pančevo (in Banat, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today in Serbia). His parents were illiterate immigrants from the village of Vevcani, in south-western Macedonia. Though a strong Serbian patriot, Pupin emigrated to U.S. when he was only 20. He spent the next few years in a series of menial jobs (most notably, the biscuit factory on Cortlandt Street in Manhattan), learning English and American ways; the library at Cooper Union was an important resource for him. He entered Columbia College in 1879, where he became known as an exceptional athlete and scholar. A popular student, he was elected president of his class in his Junior year. He graduated with honors in 1883 at Columbia College, New York and became an American citizen at the same time. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Berlin under Hermann von Helmholtz and in 1889, he returned to Columbia University to become a teacher of mathematical physics in the newly formed Department of Electrical Engineering. Pupin's research pioneered carrier wave detection and current analysis.

Pupin's 1894 invention, now known as "Pupin coil", greatly extended the range of long-distance telephones. This was a very important invention, and, when the American rights to the patent were acquired by American Telephone and Telegraph, made him wealthy. Pupin's work followed closely on the pioneering work of the English physicist and mathematician Oliver Heaviside, which predates Pupin's patent by some 7 years. Pupin discovered that spacing the coils would make them more effective.

Pupin was among the first to replicate Roentgen's production of x-rays in the United States. He in 1896 invented the method of placing a sheet of paper impregnated with fluorescent dyes next to the photographic plate, thereby permitting an exposure of only a few seconds, rather than that of an hour or more. He also carried out the first medically-oriented studies of the utility of x-rays in the United States. Shortly afterwards, in April 1896, he contracted pneumonia, and nearly died. His wife, who nursed him, also contracted it, and died. He was never able to return to his studies of x-rays.

In 1901, he became a professor and, in 1931, a professor emeritus of Columbia University. Professor Pupin was a resident of New York, New York and Norfolk, Connecticut, where he built a Serbian-style manor house on his estate, Hemlock Hill Farm.

In 1911 Pupin became a consul of Kingdom of Serbia in New York. In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, known as the Fourteen Points speech, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson, inspired by his conversations with Pupin, insisted on the restoration of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as autonomy for the peoples of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Michael Pupin's autobiography, "From Immigrant to Inventor", won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924. He also wrote "The New Reformation" (1927) and "Romance of the Machine" (1930), as well as many technical papers. In his many popular writings, Pupin advanced the view that modern science supported and enhanced belief in God. Pupin was active with the Serb émigré societies in the USA, he was the first president and founder of the Serbian National Defense Council of America. In 1918, professor Pupin edited a book on Serbian monuments, under the title "Serbian Orthodox Church".

[edit] Honors and tributes

Pupin was president of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1917 and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1925-1926. Pupin was president of the New York Academy of Science, member of the French Academy of Science and the Serbian Academy of Science. In 1920, he received AIEE's Edison Medal 'For his work in mathematical physics and its application to the electric transmission of intelligence.' Columbia University's Pupin Hall, the site of Pupin Physics Laboratories, is a building completed in 1927 and named after him in 1935. A small crater on the Moon was named in his honor. The Mihajlo Pupin Institute, an engineering and technological research insititution, was founded in 1946 in Belgrade.

[edit] Patents


[edit] External links

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