Alexander Stepanovich Popov was born in the Northern Urals in the working village "Turinsky Rudnik" on March 16, 1859. His father, Stefan Petrovich, was a local priest, and his mother, Anna Stepanovna, was a village teacher. In total, the Popovs had seven children. They lived modestly, barely making ends meet. At a young age, Alexander often wandered around the mine, observing the extraction of minerals. He especially liked the local mechanical workshop. The grimy little boy liked the manager of the mine - Nikolai Kuksinsky, who could spend hours telling him about the structure of various mechanisms. Alexander listened attentively, and at night imagined himself the creator of new, hitherto unseen, magical machines.
As he got older, he began to tinker himself. One of the first works of Popov was a small water mill, built on a stream flowing next to the house. And soon Alexander discovered an electric bell at Kuksinsky. The novelty so impressed the future electrical engineer that he did not calm down until he made himself exactly the same, including a galvanic battery for him. And after some time, broken walkers fell into Popov's hands. The guy took them apart, cleaned, repaired, reassembled and connected to a homemade bell. He got a primitive electric alarm clock.
Years passed, Alexander grew up. The time came when his parents had to think about his future. Of course, they wanted to send the boy to the gymnasium, but the tuition fees there were too high. At the age of nine, Popov left hundreds of kilometers from his home to comprehend theological sciences. Alexander spent eighteen years in the walls of the Dolmatovsky and Yekaterinburg theological schools, as well as in the Perm theological seminary. These were difficult years. Dead theological dogmas, so alien to his inquiring mind, did not interest Popov at all. Nevertheless, he studied diligently, not knowing literacy until the age of ten, he mastered it in just a month and a half.
Alexander had few friends; he did not find pleasure either in the pranks of the seminarians or in playing with his comrades. Nevertheless, the rest of the students treated him with respect - he often surprised them with some intricate devices. For example, a device for talking at a distance, made of two boxes with ends of a fish bubble, connected with a waxed thread.
In the spring of 1877, Popov received documents at the seminary, testifying to his completion of four classes. They said: "ability is excellent, diligence is excellent diligent." All subjects, including Greek, Latin and French, had top marks. Any of Popov's classmates could only envy such an impeccable certificate - it promised a brilliant career. But Alexander did not need this testimony, by that time he had already firmly decided not to go to the priesthood. His dream was to go to university. However, on the basis of a seminar certificate, they were not admitted there. There was only one way out - to pass exams, the so-called "certificate of maturity" for the entire gymnasium course. The seminarian Popov knew only by hearsay about some of the subjects studied by the gymnasium students. However, during the summer, he was able to fill all the gaps in knowledge and honorably emerged from the entrance examinations. A dream came true - Alexander entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University.
The young student chose the study of electricity as the main direction of his scientific activity. It should be noted that in those years there were practically no laboratories at the university. And very rarely professors showed any experiments at lectures. Dissatisfied with only theoretical knowledge, Alexander, as a simple electrical engineer, got a job at one of the first city power plants. He also took an active part in the lighting of Nevsky Prospekt and in the work of an electrical exhibition in Solyanoy Gorodok. It is not surprising that they soon began to speak of him with great respect - classmates and professors noted Alexander's extraordinary abilities, efficiency and perseverance. Such outstanding inventors as Yablochkov, Chikolev and Ladygin were interested in the young student.
In 1883, Popov graduated from the university and immediately refused the offer to stay within the walls of this institution to prepare for professorship. In November of the same year, he got married. His wife was the daughter of a lawyer, Raisa Alekseevna Bogdanova. Later, Raisa Alekseevna entered the Higher Medical Courses for Women, opened at the Nikolaev hospital, and became one of the first certified women doctors in our country. All her life she was engaged in medical practice. Subsequently, the Popovs had four children: sons Stepan and Alexander and daughters Raisa and Ekaterina.
Together with his wife, Alexander Stepanovich moved to Kronstadt and got a job in the Mine officer class. Popov taught galvanism classes and was in charge of the physics room. His duties also included the preparation of experiments and their demonstration at lectures. The physics cabinet of the Mine class had no shortage of instruments or scientific literature. Excellent conditions were created there for research work, to which Popov devoted himself with all his ardor.
Alexander Stepanovich was one of those teachers who teach not by stories, but by demonstrations - the experimental part was the core of his teaching. He closely followed the latest scientific achievements and as soon as he learned about new experiments, he immediately repeated them and showed them to his listeners. Popov often conducted conversations with students that went far beyond the scope of the lectured course. He attached great importance to this kind of communication with students and never spared time for these conversations. Contemporaries wrote: “Alexander Stepanovich's reading style was simple - without oratorical tricks, without any affectation. The face remained calm, natural excitement was deeply hidden by a man, no doubt accustomed to controlling his feelings. He made a strong impression with the deep content of the lectures, thought out to the smallest detail and brilliantly staging the experiments, sometimes with original lighting, and interesting parallelisms. Among the sailors, Popov was considered an exceptional lecturer; the audience was always crowded. The inventor did not limit himself to the experiments described in the literature, he often set his own - originally conceived and skillfully executed. If a scientist came across a description of a new device in some magazine, he could not calm down until he assembled it with his own hands. In everything that concerned design, Alexander Stepanovich could do without outside help. He had an excellent mastery of turning, carpentry and glass-blowing crafts, and made the most complex parts with his own hands.
At the end of the eighties, every physics journal wrote about the work of Heinrich Hertz. Among other things, this outstanding scientist studied the oscillations of electromagnetic waves. The German physicist was very close to the discovery of the wireless telegraph, but his work was interrupted by the tragic death of January 1, 1894. Popov attached great importance to Hertz's experiments. Since 1889, Alexander Stepanovich has been working on improving the devices used by the German. And, nevertheless, Popov was not satisfied with what he had achieved. His work was continued only in the fall of 1894, after the English physicist Oliver Lodge managed to create a completely new type of resonator. Instead of the usual circle of wire, he used a glass tube with metal filings, which, under the influence of electromagnetic waves, changed their resistance and made it possible to catch even the weakest waves. However, the new device, the coherer, also had a drawback - each time the tube with sawdust had to be shaken. Lodge had only one step to take towards the invention of the radio, but he, like Hertz, stopped at the threshold of the greatest discovery.
But the resonator of the British scientist was immediately appreciated by Alexander Popov. Finally, this device gained sensitivity, which made it possible to enter into a struggle for the range of reception of electromagnetic waves. Of course, the Russian inventor understood that it was very tedious to stand at the apparatus, shaking it every time after receiving a signal. And then Popov came to mind one of his children's inventions - an electric alarm clock. Soon the new device was ready - at the moment of receiving electromagnetic waves, the bell hammer, notifying people, hit the metal bowl, and on the way back hit the glass tube, shaking it. Rybkin recalled: “The new design has shown excellent results. The device worked quite clearly. The receiving station responded with a short ring to a small spark that excited vibrations. Alexander Stepanovich achieved his goal, the device was accurate, visual and worked automatically.
The spring of 1895 was marked by new successful experiments. Popov was confident that his laboratory experience would soon become a unique technical invention. The bell rang even when the resonator was installed in the fifth room from the hall in which the vibrator was located. And one day in May, Alexander Stepanovich took his invention out of the Mine class. The transmitter was installed by the window, and the receiver was carried deep into the garden, set up fifty meters from it. The most important test was ahead, determining the future of the new wireless form of communication. The scientist closed the key of the transmitter and immediately the bell rang. The device did not fail at a distance of sixty and seventy meters. It was a victory. No other inventor of that time could have dreamed of receiving signals at such a distance.
The bell was silenced only eighty meters away. However, Alexander Stepanovich did not despair. He hung several meters of wire from a tree above the receiver, attaching the lower end of the wire to the coherer. Popov's calculation was fully justified, with the help of the wire it was possible to catch electromagnetic oscillations, and the bell rang again. This is how the world's first antenna was born, without which no radio station can do today.
On May 7, 1895, Popov presented his invention at a meeting of the Russian Physicochemical Society. Before the meeting began, a small box with a receiver was set up on a table by the lectern, and a vibrator was located at the other end of the room. Alexander Stepanovich went up to the department, out of habit, stooping a little. He was laconic. His schemes, his devices and the iridescent trill of the bell, the working apparatus, most eloquently showed those gathered in the hall the irrefutability of the scientist's arguments. All those present unanimously came to the conclusion that the invention of Alexander Stepanovich is an absolutely new means of communication. So May 7, 1895 forever remained in the history of science, as the date of birth of radio.
One summer day in 1895, Alexander Stepanovich appeared in the laboratory with many multi-colored balloons. And after a while, the students of the Mine class could observe an extraordinary sight. Popov and Rybkin climbed onto the roof, and a moment later a motley cluster of balls rose up, pulling an antenna, to the end of which a galvanoscope was attached. Under the influence of the still unexplored atmospheric discharges, the arrows of the galvanoscope deviated either weaker or stronger. And soon the researcher made his apparatus note their strength. To do this, he needed only a clockwork rotating a drum with a piece of paper glued to it, and a writing pen. Each closure and opening of the receiver circuit was pushed by the pen, writing a zigzag line on the paper, the magnitude and number of zigzags of which corresponded to the strength and number of discharges occurring somewhere. Alexander Stepanovich dubbed this device "lightning detector", in fact it was the first radio receiver in the world. There were no transmitting stations at that time. The only thing that Popov caught were the echoes of a thunderstorm.
A year passed, and the lightning detector of the Russian scientist turned into a real radiotelegraph. The bell replaced the Morse code. An excellent technician, Alexander Stepanovich made him record electromagnetic waves, marking each spark of the transmitter on a crawling tape with either a dash or a dot. By controlling the duration of sparks - dots and dashes - the sender could transmit any letter, word, phrase in Morse code. Popov understood that the time was not far off when the people who remained on the shore would be able to communicate with those who had gone on distant sea voyages, and sailors, wherever their fate had thrown them, would be able to send signals to the shore. But for this, it still remained to conquer the distance - to strengthen the departure station, build high antennas and conduct many new experiments and tests.
Popov loved his job. The need for new research never seemed burdensome to him. However, money was required … Until now, Popov and Rybkin spent part of their own salary on experiments. However, their modest means were clearly not enough for new experiments. The inventor decided to contact the Admiralty. The leaders of the fleet were not inclined to attach particular importance to the research of the civilian teacher of the Mine class. However, the captain of the second rank Vasiliev was ordered to familiarize himself with the works of the scientist. Vasiliev was an executive man, he began to regularly visit the physics laboratory. Popov's radio telegraph made a favorable impression on the captain. Vasiliev appealed to the Naval Ministry for the allocation of money, and in response he asked Alexander Stepanovich to keep his technical invention a secret, write and talk about it as little as possible. All this further prevented the scientist from taking a patent for his invention.
On March 12, 1896 Popov and Rybkin demonstrated the work of their radiotelegraph. The transmitter was installed at the Institute of Chemistry, and the receiver, a quarter of a kilometer away, on the table of the university's physical auditorium. The antenna of the receiver was brought out through the window and mounted on the roof. Bypassing all obstacles - wood, brick, glass - invisible electromagnetic waves penetrated into the physical audience. The anchor of the apparatus, methodically tapping, knocked out the world's first radiogram, which everyone in the room could read: "HEINRICH HERZ". As always, Popov was infinitely modest in assessing his own merits. On this significant day, he was not thinking about himself, he simply wanted to pay tribute to the early deceased physicist.
To complete the work begun on improving the radiotelegraph, the inventor still needed money. Alexander Stepanovich wrote reports to the Admiralty with a request to allocate him one thousand rubles. The chairman of the Marine Technical Committee, Dikov, was an educated man and perfectly understood how important Popov's invention was for the fleet. However, unfortunately, the issue of money did not depend on him. Vice-Admiral Tyrtov, head of the Naval Ministry, was a man of a completely different kind. He stated that a wireless telegraph could not exist in principle and did not intend to spend money on "chimerical" projects. Rybkin wrote: “Conservatism and mistrust of the authorities, lack of funds - all this did not bode well for success. On the way of the wireless telegraph there were enormous difficulties, which were a direct consequence of the social system that prevailed in Russia."
The vice admiral's refusal actually meant the prohibition of all further work in this direction, but Popov, at his own peril and risk, continued to improve the devices. At that time, his soul was bitter, he did not know how to apply his invention for the good of the Motherland. However, he had one way out - only the words of the scientist were enough, and the work would have budged. He was persistently invited to America. Enterprising people overseas had already heard about the experiments of Alexander Stepanovich and wanted to organize a company with all the rights to the Russian invention. Popov was offered the help of engineers, materials, tools, money. Only for the move he was allocated thirty thousand rubles. The inventor refused to even consider moving to the USA, and explained to his friends that he regards it as treason: “I am a Russian person, and all my work, all my achievements, all my knowledge I have the right to give only to my Fatherland …”.
In the summer of 1896, unexpected news appeared in the press: a young Italian student, Guglielmo Marconi, had invented a wireless telegraph. There were no details in the newspapers, the Italian kept the invention a secret, and his instruments were hidden in sealed boxes. Only a year later, the diagram of the device was published in the popular magazine "Electrician". Marconi did not bring anything new to science - he used the Branly coherer, a vibrator improved by the Italian professor Augusto Rigi, and Popov's receiving apparatus.
What seemed to be the most essential to the Russian patriot did not bother the Italian at all - he was absolutely indifferent to where to sell the device. Extensive contacts led Guglielmo to William Pris, the head of the English Postal and Telegraph Union. Immediately assessing the capabilities of the new device, Pris organized funding for the work and provided Marconi with technically competent assistants. After obtaining a patent in 1897 in England, the business was put on a commercial basis, and soon the "Guglielmo Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company" was born, which for many years became the world's leading corporation in the field of radio communications.
Marconi's work has become a favorite topic of the press. Russian editions echoed foreign newspapers and magazines. In the race for sensation and fashion, no one mentioned the merits of the Russian inventor. The compatriot was "remembered" only in the "Petersburg newspaper". But as they remembered. The following was written: “Our inventors are far from foreigners. A Russian scientist will make an ingenious discovery, for example, wireless telegraphy (Mr. Popov), and out of fear of advertising and noise, out of modesty, he sits in the silence of his office at the opening. " The reproach thrown was completely undeserved, Alexander Popov's conscience was clear. The inventor did everything possible to put his brainchild on its feet in time, single-handedly fought against the rigidities of the bureaucratic apparatus, so that the largest revolution in the field of communications went down in history with a Russian name. And in the end, Russian journalists accused him, Popov, of "clumsiness."
When Marconi transmitted the first radiogram across the nine-mile Bristol Bay, even the blind realized that a telegraph without poles and wires is not a "chimera." Only then did Vice Admiral Tyrtov finally announce that he was ready to give money to the Russian scientist Popov … as much as nine hundred rubles! At the same time, the clever businessman Marconi had a capital of two million. The best technicians and engineers worked for him, and his orders were carried out by the most famous companies. However, even with this small amount in his hands, Popov plunged into work with all his passion. The tests of the radiotelegraph at sea began, the transmission distance rose from tens to several thousand meters. In 1898, experiments were resumed on ships of the Baltic Fleet. At the end of the summer, a permanent telegraph connection was organized between the transport ship "Europe" and the cruiser "Africa", the first telegraph magazines appeared on the ships. In ten days, over one hundred and thirty messages were received and sent. And in the head of Alexander Stepanovich more and more new ideas were born. For example, he is known to have been preparing for the "application of a source of electromagnetic waves to beacons as an addition to sound or light signals." Essentially, it was about the current direction finder.
In the first half of 1899, Popov went on a business trip abroad. He visited a number of large laboratories, personally met famous specialists and scientists, observed the teaching of electrical disciplines in educational institutions. Later, when we returned, he said: “I learned and saw everything I could. We are not far behind the others. " However, this "not very" was the usual modesty of the Russian genius. By the way, in competent scientific circles, Alexander Stepanovich was given his due. Summing up the results of his stay in Paris, the scientist wrote to his colleagues: “Everywhere I visited, I was received as a friend, at times with open arms, expressing joy in words and showing great attention when I wanted to see something…”.
At the same time, his colleague Pyotr Rybkin was engaged in further tests of the radiotelegraph on military ships in accordance with the program drawn up by Popov before leaving abroad. One day, while tuning the receiver of the Milyutin fort, Pyotr Nikolaevich and Captain Troitsky connected the telephone tubes to the coherer and heard the radio transmitter signal from the Konstantin fort in them. This was an extremely important discovery of Russian radiotelegraphy, which suggested a new way of receiving radio messages - by ear. Rybkin, immediately assessing the significance of the find, urgently sent a telegram to Popov. The scientist, postponing his trip to Switzerland, hastened to return to his homeland, carefully checked all the experiments and soon assembled a special - radiotelephone - receiver. This device, again the first in the world, was patented by him in Russia, England and France. The radiotelephone, in addition to a completely new method of reception, was distinguished by the fact that it picked up weaker signals and, as a result, could work at a much greater distance. With his help, he immediately succeeded in transmitting a signal for thirty kilometers.
At the end of autumn 1899, the battleship General-Admiral Apraksin, heading from Kronstadt to Libau, ran into pitfalls off the coast of Gogland Island and got holes. Leaving the ship tightly stuck until spring was risky - during the ice drift, the ship could suffer even more. The Maritime Ministry decided to start rescue work without delay. However, one obstacle arose - there was no connection between the mainland and Gogland. The laying of a telegraph cable under water would cost the state fifty thousand rubles and could begin only in the spring. It was then that once again they remembered about Popov's device. Alexander Stepanovich accepted the offer of the ministry. However, his wireless telegraph now had to send signals forty kilometers away, while in recent experiments they had only reached thirty. Fortunately, he was given ten thousand rubles, which Popov spent on creating new, more powerful devices.
Alexander Stepanovich worked on the Finnish coast in the city of Kotka, where the post and telegraph office nearest to the accident site was located. There he immediately set about building a radio station, which included a radio tower twenty meters high and a small collapsible equipment house. And Rybkin went to the Gogland Island on the Ermak icebreaker along with the necessary materials, who had an even more difficult task of erecting a radio station on a bare rock. Pyotr Nikolaevich wrote: “The cliff was a real anthill. At the same time, they set up a house for the station, collected arrows to raise the mast, with dynamite tore a hole in the rock for the base, drilled holes in the granite for butts. We worked from dawn to dusk, taking one half-hour break to warm up by the fire and eat. " Their work was not in vain, after a series of unsuccessful attempts, on February 6, 1900, Gogland finally spoke up. Admiral Makarov, who perfectly understands the importance of the radio system of the fleet, wrote to the inventor: “On behalf of all the sailors of Kronstadt, I cordially greet you with the splendid success of your invention. The creation of a wireless telegraph communication from Gogland to Kotka is a major scientific victory. " And after a while an unusual telegram came from Kotka: “To the commander of“Yermak”. An ice floe with fishermen came off near Lavensari. Help. " The icebreaker, having taken off from the parking lot, breaking the ice, set off on a mission. Returned "Ermak" only in the evening, on board were twenty-seven rescued fishermen. After this event, Alexander Stepanovich said that he had never in his life experienced such pleasure from his work.
The battleship was removed from the stones only in the spring of 1900. "By the highest order" Popov was given gratitude. In the memorandum of the Chairman of the Technical Committee, Vice-Admiral Dikov, it was said: "The time has come for the introduction of wireless telegraph on the ships of our fleet." Now no one objected to this, not even Vice Admiral Tyrtov. By this time, this "figure" from the naval ministry had managed to take a different, more convenient position. When Dikov and Makarov advised him to take up the introduction of radio more energetically, Tyrtov agreed that the business was indeed progressing slowly. However, of course, only the inventor is to blame for this, since he is unhurried and lack of initiative….
There was one more problem. Before starting the introduction of radiotelegraph into the army and navy, it was necessary to arrange the supply of appropriate equipment. And here opinions differed. One group of officials believed the easiest way to order the devices was overseas. However, such a decision had to cost a large sum, and most importantly, make the country dependent on foreign companies and factories. Another group was in favor of organizing production at home. Popov adhered to similar views on the development of the radio industry in Russia. However, in the influential circles of the departmental bureaucracy, there was still a strong distrust of everything that did not come from abroad. And in the Maritime Ministry, the majority adhered to the view that the production of radio devices is a troublesome, long business and without any guarantees regarding the quality of future products. The German company Telefunken received an order for the radio system of the Russian fleet. Alexander Stepanovich was very upset by this. He studied the received devices and sent a message to the command about the disgusting performance of German radio stations. Unfortunately, the leaders of the fleet did not attach importance to Popov's warnings. All this led to the fact that during the Japanese war, our ships were left without communication.
Popov spent the summer of 1901 testing radio stations on the ships of the Black Sea Fleet. The results were remarkable, the reception range increased to 148 kilometers. Returning to St. Petersburg, the scientist went to the Technical Committee to report on the results of the summer work. We met him very kindly. Popov was told a lot of pleasant things, but the conversation ended quite unexpectedly. The chairman of the committee invited him to leave Kronstadt and go to the Electrotechnical Institute, taking the place of a professor there. Popov did not give an answer right away, he did not like ill-considered decisions at all. For eighteen years, the inventor worked in the Naval Department, in recent years he was engaged in the introduction of a new means of communication, which, Popov knew well, needed it badly. Therefore, he agreed to move to a new position only on the condition of "preserving the right to serve in the Naval Department."
At the sight of the poorly equipped laboratory rooms of the Electrotechnical Institute, Alexander Stepanovich sadly recalled the physics room of the Mine class. Often, in an effort to replenish laboratories, Professor Popov, as in former times, independently manufactured the necessary devices. The new work did not allow the inventor to completely surrender to his ideas. Nevertheless, he remotely supervised the introduction of a new means of communication on the ships of the fleet, took part in the training of specialists. Soviet scientist A. A. Petrovsky said: “As a rule, Alexander Stepanovich came to us once or twice in the summer to get acquainted with the current work, to distribute his instructions. His appearance was a kind of holiday, brought uplift and revitalization in our ranks."
On January 11, 1905, Popov, together with other members of the Russian Physicochemical Society, signed a protest against the shooting of the demonstration on January 9. The situation in the country was alarming. It was also alarming at the Electrotechnical Institute, the professors and students of which were in bad standing with the police. Arrests and searches did not stop, and student unrest was the answer. Alexander Stepanovich, who became the first elected director of the institute, tried in every possible way to protect his wards from the persecution of the Security Department.
At the end of December 1905, the Minister of Internal Affairs was informed that Lenin spoke to the students at the institute. The enraged minister summoned Popov. He waved his arms and shouted in front of the face of the eminent scientist. The minister said that from now on, guards will be present at the institute in order to monitor the students. Perhaps, for the first time in his life, Alexander Stepanovich could not restrain himself. He sharply said that while he remained in the post of director, no security guard - overt or undercover - would be admitted to the institute. He barely got home, he felt so bad. In the evening of the same day, Popov had to go to the RFHO meeting. There he was unanimously elected chairman of the physics department. Returning from the meeting, Popov immediately fell ill, and a couple of weeks later, on January 13, 1906, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He left in the prime of life, he was only forty-six years old.
This was the life path of the true creator of the radiotelegraph - Alexander Stepanovich Popov. The massive advertising of Marconi's company did its dirty work, forcing not only the general public, but even the scientific world to forget the name of the true inventor. Of course, the merits of the Italian are undeniable - his efforts made it possible for radio communications in just a few years to conquer the world, find application in various fields and, one might say, enter every home. However, it was only business acumen, not scientific genius, that allowed Guglielmo Marconi to defeat his competitors. As one scientist put it, "he attributed to himself everything that was a product of the brain activity of his predecessors." Not disdaining anything, by any means the Italian sought to be spoken of as the one and only creator of radio. It is known that he recognized only the radio equipment of his own company and forbade receiving signals (even distress signals) from ships, the equipment of which was made by other companies.
Today in the West, the name of Popov is practically forgotten, but in our country it is still held in high esteem. And the point here is not even the priority of invention - this is a question of the historians of science. Alexander Stepanovich is the embodiment of the best traits of the Russian intellectual. This is indifference to wealth, and the aforementioned modesty, and casual, discreet appearance and concern for the welfare of the people, from which he came himself. And, of course, patriotism coming from the heart.
