Karl Ferdinand Braun (6 June 1850 – 20 April 1918) was a German
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
,
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and
Nobel laureate in physicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
(1909). Braun contributed significantly to the development of the radio and TV technology: won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909.
Braun was born in
FuldaFulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, and 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
semiconductorA semiconductor is a material that has an electrical resistivity between that of a conductor and an insulator, that is, generally in the range 10
3 Siemens/cm to 10
−8 S/cm. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics, including radio,...
rectifiesA rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current to direct current , a process known as rectification. Rectifiers have many uses including as components of power supplies and as detectors of radio signals...
alternating currentIn alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. An electric charge would for instance move forward, then backward, then forward, then backward, over and over again...
.
Karl Ferdinand Braun (6 June 1850 – 20 April 1918) was a German
inventorAn inventor is a person who creates or discovers a new method, form, device or other useful means. The word inventor comes form the latin verb invenire, invent-, to find...
,
physicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and
Nobel laureate in physicsThe Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Prize in literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
(1909). Braun contributed significantly to the development of the radio and TV technology: won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909.
Biography
Braun was born in
FuldaFulda is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district .- Early Middle Ages :...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, and 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
semiconductorA semiconductor is a material that has an electrical resistivity between that of a conductor and an insulator, that is, generally in the range 10
3 Siemens/cm to 10
−8 S/cm. Devices made from semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics, including radio,...
rectifiesA rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current to direct current , a process known as rectification. Rectifiers have many uses including as components of power supplies and as detectors of radio signals...
alternating currentIn alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. An electric charge would for instance move forward, then backward, then forward, then backward, over and over again...
. He became director of the Physical Institute and professor of
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
at the University of Strassburg in 1895.
In 1897 he built the first
cathode-ray tubeThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen...
and cathode ray tube
oscilloscopeAn oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows signal voltages to be viewed, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences plotted as a function of time or of some other voltage...
. CRT technology is only now, over a century later, gradually being replaced by flat screen technologies (such as LCD, LED and Plasma) on television sets and computer monitors. The
CRTThe cathode ray tube is a vacuum tube containing an electron gun and a fluorescent screen, with internal or external means to accelerate and deflect the electron beam, used to create images in the form of light emitted from the fluorescent screen...
is still called the "Braun tube" (
Braunsche Röhre) in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
-speaking countries (and in Japan:
Buraun-kan).
During the
development of radioThe early history of radio is the history of technology that produced radio instruments that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and inventions in what became radio. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...
, he also worked on
wirelessWireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires". The distances involved may be short or long . When the context is clear, the term is often shortened to "wireless"...
telegraphyTelegraphy is the long-distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters. It is a compound term formed from the Greek words tele = far and graphein = write. Radiotelegraphy or wireless telegraphy transmits messages using radio...
. Around 1898, he invented a
crystal diode rectifierIn electronics a diode is a two-terminal electronic component which conducts electric current asymmetrically or unidirectionally; that is, it conducts current more easily in one direction than in the opposite direction. The term usually refers to a semiconductor diode, the most common type today,...
or
Cat's whisker diodeCat’s whisker refers to a thin wire that lightly touches a semiconducting crystal to make an imperfect contact-junction detector in a crystal radio...
.
Guglielmo MarconiMarchese Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, best known for his development of a radiotelegraph system, which served as the foundation for the establishment of numerous affiliated companies worldwide...
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 PrizeThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
for physics with Marconi for "contributions to the development of
wireless telegraphyThe term wireless telegraphy is a historic term used today as applied to early radio telegraph communications techniques and practices. Wireless telegraphy originated as a term to describe electrical signaling without the electric wires to connect the end points...
."
Braun went to the United States at the beginning of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
(before the U.S. had entered the war) to help defend the German wireless station at
Sayville, New YorkSayville is the name of a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York, on Long Island. The population was 16,735 at the 2000 census.Sayville is a community in the southeast part of the Town of Islip.- History :...
, against attacks by the British-controlled Marconi Corporation. After the US entered the war, Braun was being
detainedDetention may refer to:* Detention * School punishment#Detention, a punishment used in schools*Detention , Episode 58 of CBS TV Drama Cold Case....
, but could move freely within Brooklyn, New York. Braun died in his house in Brooklyn, before the war ended in 1918.
External links
- "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)
- The Ferdinand-Braun-Institut fuer Hoechstfrequenztechnik Berlin, Germany
- Alfred Thomas Story A Story of Wireless Telegraphy. D. Appleton and company 1904