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Jan 13, 1096
Death
Died in (aged 46) St. Peterburg, Russian Empire -
Birthday
Born in the town Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Urals as the son of a priest, he became interested in natural sciences when he was a child. -
Education
His father wanted Alexander to join the priesthood and sent him to the Seminary School at Yekaterinburg.There he developed an interest in science and mathematics and instead of going on to Theology School in 1877 he enrolled at St. Petersburg university where he studied physics. -
University
After graduation with honors he stayed on as a laboratory assistant at the university. However the salary at the university was inadequate to support his family. -
Post as teacher
He took a post as teacher and head of laboratory at the Russian Navy's Torpedo School in Kronstadt on Kotlin Island. -
Demonstration
Heinrich Hertz had demonstrated the generation and reception of radio waves. Beginning in the early 1890s Popov conducted experiments along the lines of Hertz's research. -
Popov's receiver
British radio researcher Oliver Lodge had demonstrated the transmission of radio waves over a distance of 50 meters. Popov read of Lodge's experiments, and set to work to design a longer-range receiver that could be used as a lightning detector, to warn of thunderstorms by detecting the electromagnetic pulses of lightning strikes.He built a coherer receiver which improved on Lodge's design by automatically resetting. -
Demonstrations
Popov demonstrated his receiver to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society in St. Petersburg, showing it could receive radio signals from a spark gap transmitter. -
"Radio Day"
Most Eastern sources regard Popov as the first person to communicate by radio, and the 7th of May has been celebrated since 1945 in the Russian Federation as "Radio Day".
