Karl Ferdinand Braun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Ferdinand Braun |
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| Born | June 6, 1850 Fulda, Hesse-Kassel, Germany |
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| Died | April 20, 1918 Brooklyn, New York |
| Residence |  Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Field | Inventor and physicist |
| Institution | University of Strassburg |
| Alma mater | University of Marburg University of Berlin |
| Academic advisor | August Kundt |
| Notable students | Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam |
| Known for | CRT, Cat's whisker diode |
| Notable prizes | Nobel Prize in Physics (1909) |
Karl Ferdinand Braun (6 June 1850 in Fulda, Germany – 20 April 1918 in New York City, USA) was a German inventor, physicist and Nobel Prize laureate.
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[edit] Biography
Braun was educated at the University of Marburg and received a Ph.D from the University of Berlin in 1872. In 1874 he discovered that a point-contact semiconductor rectifies alternating current. He became director of the Physical Institute and professor of physics at the University of Strassburg in 1895. In 1897 he built the first cathode-ray tube oscilloscope(1). CRT technology is to this day used by most television sets and computer monitors. The CRT is still called the "Braun tube" (Braunsche Röhre) in German-speaking countries (and in Japan: Buraun-kan).
During the development of radio, he also worked on wireless telegraphy. Around 1898, he invented a crystal diode rectifier or Cat's whisker diode. Guglielmo Marconi used Braun's patents (among others). Braun's British patent on tuning was used by Marconi in many of his tuning patents. Marconi would later admit to Braun himself that he had "borrowed" portions of Braun's work. In 1909 Braun shared the Nobel Prize for physics with Marconi for "contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy."
Braun went to the United States at the beginning of World War I to help defend the German wireless station at Sayville, N.Y. (on Long Island) against attacks by the British controlled Marconi Corporation. (At this time the U.S. had not yet entered the war). Braun died in his house in Brooklyn before the war ended in 1918.
[edit] References
1. Keller, P.A., "The 100th Anniversary of the Cathode-Ray Tube," Information Display, Vol. 13, No. 10, 1997, pp. 28-32.
[edit] See also
[edit] External articles and references
- Patent
- Other
- "Ferdinand Braun – Biography". Nobel Lectures. Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967.
- Naughton, Russell, "Karl Ferdinand Braun, Dr : 1850 - 1918".
- "Karl Ferdinand Braun ". Biographies of Famous Electrochemists and Physicists Contributed to Understanding of Electricity.
- Rybak, James P., "Forgotten" Pioneers of Wireless; Part 5 - Karl Ferdinand Braun".
- "Karl Ferdinand Braun, 1850-1918". (German) (English translation)
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1901: Röntgen 1902: Lorentz, Zeeman 1903: Becquerel, P.Curie, M.Curie 1904: Rayleigh 1905: Lenard 1906: Thomson 1907: Michelson 1908: Lippmann 1909: Marconi, Braun 1910: van der Waals 1911: Wien 1912: Dalén 1913: Kamerlingh Onnes 1914: von Laue 1915: W.L.Bragg, W.H.Bragg 1917: Barkla 1918: Planck 1919: Stark 1920: Guillaume 1921: Einstein 1922: N.Bohr 1923: Millikan 1924: Siegbahn 1925: Franck, Hertz |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Braun, Karl Ferdinand |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Inventor and physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 6, 1850 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fulda, Hesse-Kassel, Germany |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 20, 1918 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Brooklyn, New York |
