Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin
Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin
Born	October 4, 1858(1858-10-04) Idvor in Banat, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire
Died	March 12, 1935(1935-03-12) (aged 76)
Nationality	Serbian
Fields	Physics
Alma mater	Columbia College
Known for	long-distance telephone communication
Notable awards	IEEE Medal of Honor[1] Edison Medal[2] 1924 Pulitzer Prize

Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin, Ph.D, LL.D. (4 October 1858^[3] – 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 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").

Contents 1 Biography 2 Pupin Hall 3 List of patents 4 Honors and tributes 5 See also 6 Notes 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit] Biography

Pupin was born to Macedonian parents, settlers in the village of Idvor (part of Kovačica) in Banat, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (today in Serbia).

After the sudden death of his father, Pupin emigrated to the United States of America in 1874. Pupin says, "I bless the stars that the immigration laws were different then than they are now ... My admission by a special favor of the examiners was a puzzle and a disappointment to me.^[4]" After a short time as a farm laborer in Delaware, he spent the next few years in a series of menial jobs in New York City (most notably, the biscuit factory on Cortlandt Street in Manhattan), learning English and American ways; the library and lectures at Cooper Union were an important resource for him.

He entered Columbia College in 1879, where he became known as an exceptional athlete and scholar. A friend of Pupin's predicted that his physique would make him a splendid oarsman, and that Columbia would do anything for a good oarsman.^[4] A popular student, he was elected president of his class in his Junior year. He graduated with honors in 1883 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 lecturer of mathematical physics in the newly formed Department of Electrical Engineering. Pupin's research pioneered carrier wave detection and current analysis.

Pupin's 1899 patent for loading coils, archaically called "Pupin coils", followed closely on the pioneering work of the English physicist and mathematician Oliver Heaviside, which predates Pupin's patent by some seven years. The importance of the patent was made clear when the American rights to it were acquired by American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), making him wealthy. Although AT&T bought Pupin's patent, they made little use of it, as they already had their own development in hand led by George Campbell and had up to this point been challenging Pupin with Campbell's own patent. AT&T were afraid they would lose control of an invention which was immensely valuable due to its ability to greatly extend the range of long distance telephones.

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 one of the first medically-oriented studies of the utility of x-rays in the United States. Shortly afterward, in April 1896, he contracted pneumonia, and nearly died. His wife, who nursed him, also contracted it, and died. He never returned 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".

Among the students of Pupin who made major scientific contributions were: Robert Andrews Millikan, Irving Langmuir, and Edwin Howard Armstrong. Millikan and Langmuir went on to receive Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry respectively.

[edit] Pupin Hall

The Physical Laboratories building on the Columbia university, built in 1927 is named Pupin Hall in his honor. It houses the physics and astronomy departments of the university. During Pupins tenure, in the year 1931. Harold C. Urey, in his work with hydrogen isotope deuterium demonstrated the existence of heavy water, the first major scientific breakthrough in the newly founded laboratories. Urey won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934. for this work.

[edit] List of patents

Pupin released about 70 tehnical articles and reviews^[5] and 34 patents.^[6]

Patents released in America

Number of patent	Date
U.S. Patent 519,346 Apparatus for telegraphic or telephonic transmission	8. may 1894.
U.S. Patent 519,347 Transformer for telegraphic, telephonic or other electrical systems	8. may 1894.
U.S. Patent 640,515 Art of distributing electrical energy by alternating currents	2. January 1900.
U.S. Patent 640,516 Electrical transmission by resonance circuits	2. january 1900.
U.S. Patent 652,230 Art of reducing attenuation of electrical waves and apparatus therefore	19. june 1900.
U.S. Patent 652,231 Method of reducing attenuation of electrical waves and apparatus therefore	19. june 1900.
U.S. Patent 697,660 Winding-machine	15. april 1902.
U.S. Patent 707,007 Multiple telegraphy	12. аugust 1902.
U.S. Patent 707,008 Multiple telegraphy	12. аugust 1902.
U.S. Patent 713,044 Producing asymmetrical currents from symmetrical alternating electromotive process	4. november 1902.
U.S. Patent 768,301 Wireless electrical signalling	23. august 1904.
U.S. Patent 761,995 Apparatus for reducing attenuation of electric waves	7. june 1904.
U.S. Patent 1,334,165 Electric wave transmission	16. march 1920.
U.S. Patent 1,336,378 Antenna with distributed positive resistance	6. april 1920.
U.S. Patent 1,388,877 Sound generator	3. december 1921.
U.S. Patent 1,388,441 Multiple antenna for electrical wave transmission	23. december 1921.
U.S. Patent 1,415,845 Selective opposing impedance to received electrical oscillation	9. may 1922.
U.S. Patent 1,416,061 Radio receiving system having high selectivity	10. may 1922.
U.S. Patent 1,456,909 Wave conductor	29. may 1922.
U.S. Patent 1,452,833 Selective amplifying apparatus	24. аpril 1923.
U.S. Patent 1,446,769 Aperiodic pilot conductor	23. febreuary 1923.
U.S. Patent 1,488,514 Selective amplifying apparatus	1. april 1923.
U.S. Patent 1,494,803 Electrical tuning	29. may 1923.
U.S. Patent 1,503,875 Tone producing radio receiver	29. april 1923.

[edit] Honors and tributes

Mihajlo Pupin was:

• President of the institute of radio engineering 1917, SAD
• President of American Institute of Electrical Engineers 1925-1926.
• President of American Association for the Advancement of Sciences
• President of New York's academy of sciences
• Member of French academy of sciences
• Member of Serbian academy of sciences

Titles:

• Doctor of science, Columbia university (1904)
• Honorable doctor of science, Johns Hopkins university (1915)
• Doctor of science, Princeton University (1924)
• Honorable doctor of science, New York university (1924)
• Honorable doctor of science, Muhlenberg college (1924)
• Doctor of engineering, School of ? science (1925)
• Doctor of science, George Washington university (1925)
• Doctor of science, Union college (1925)
• Honorable doctor of science, Mariette college (1926)
• Honorable doctor of science, university of California (1926)
• Doctor of science, Rutgers university (1926)
• Honorable doctor of science, Delawere university (1926)
• Honorable doctor of science, Canyon college (1926)
• Doctor of science, Brown university (1927)
• Doctor of science, Rochester university (1927)
• Honorable doctor of science, Middlebury college (1928)
• Doctor of science, university in Belgrade (1929)
• Doctor of science, University in Prague (1929)

Medals

• Eliot Kresson Medal , of Franklin Institute 1902.
• Herbert's award of French academy 1916.
• Edison's medal of American Institute of Electrical Engineers 1919.
• Honorable medal of American radio institute 1924.
• Honorable medal of institute of social sciences 1924.
• Prize George Washington from western association of engineers 1928.
• White eagle, first degree, Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1929.
• White lion, first degree , the greatest medal of Czecho-Slovakia 1929.
• Medal John Frice, four American national association inženjera elektrotehnike 1931.[17]

Mihajlo Pupin was pictured on the old 50 million Yugoslav dinar banknote.

The Central Radio Institute was renamed the Telecommunication and Automation Institute "Mihailo Pupin" in his honor in 1956.^[7]

One smaller lunar impact crater, in the eastern part of the Mare Imbrium, was named in honor of Pupin.

He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1926-1929.

[edit] See also

• List of Serbs
• Nikola Tesla
• List of science and religion scholars

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Edward Davis, "Michael Idvorsky Pupin: Cosmic Beauty, Created Order, and the Divine Word." In Eminent Lives in Twentieth-Century Science & Religion, ed. Nicolaas Rupke (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 197–217.
• Michael Pupin, "From Immigrant to Inventor" (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924)

[edit] External links

• Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin at Find a Grave
• Michael I. Pupin at IEEE History Center
• Michael I. Pupin's autobiography "From Immigrant to Inventor“ online

v · d · eIEEE Edison Medal 1909–1925 Elihu Thomson (1909) · Frank J. Sprague (1910) · George Westinghouse (1911) · William Stanley, Jr. (1912) · Charles F. Brush (1913) · Alexander Graham Bell (1914) · Nikola Tesla (1916) · John J. Carty (1917) · Benjamin G. Lamme (1918) · William Le Roy Emmet (1919) · Mihajlo I. Pupin (1920) · Cummings C. Chesney (1921) · Robert A. Millikan (1922) · John W. Lieb (1923) · John W. Howell (1924) · Harris J. Ryan (1925) Complete roster: 1909–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present

v · d · eIEEE Medal of Honor 1917–1925 Edwin H. Armstrong (1917) · Ernst Alexanderson (1919) · Guglielmo Marconi (1920) · Reginald A. Fessenden (1921) · Lee De Forest (1922) · John Stone Stone (1923) · Michael I. Pupin (1924) Complete roster: 1917–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present

v · d · ePulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1917–1925) Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott, assisted by Florence Howe Hall (1917) · William Cabell Bruce (1918) · Henry Adams (1919) · Albert J. Beveridge (1920) · Edward W. Bok (1921) · Hamlin Garland (1922) · Burton J. Hendrick (1923) · Michael I. Pupin (1924) · M. A. Dewolfe Howe (1925) · Complete list · (1917–1925) · (1926–1950) · (1951–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025)

Persondata
Name	Pupin, Mihajlo Idvorski
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1858-10-04
Place of birth	Idvor in Banat, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire
Date of death	1935-03-12
Place of death