Zworykin Vladimir Kozmich: biography, personal life, activities

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In Soviet times, when many significant discoveries for mankind suddenly turned out to come from Russia, for example, like a steam locomotive or an airplane, one of the creators of modern television was bashfully silent about one of the creators of modern television. Recently, Vladimir Kosma Zworykin has been increasingly cited as a Russian-born American engineer who made a significant contribution to the development of television technology.

Origin

Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin was born on July 17 (30), 1888 in the city of Murom, Vladimir province. Father - Kozma Zworykin - a Murom merchant of the first guild, was engaged in grain trading, owned the company "Shipping Company along the Oka Zworykin" and the Murom Public Bank. Mom came from a poor bourgeois family. The couple had seven children, of which Vladimir was the youngest.

However, it was on him, his second son, that the father pinned all his hopes oncontinuation of the family business. Since the elder Nikolai showed no interest in the matter, he was completely passionate about science, was a student of the famous Russian physicist Alexander Stoletov. Subsequently, he worked in Georgia for many years, supervising the construction of many hydraulic structures. His uncle, Konstantin Alekseevich, also became a scientist who became famous for his work on the theory of metal cutting.

Education

Father early tried to involve a smart boy in the family business, but he was not at all interested in large ledgers that recorded the movement of goods, routes, income and expenses. Vladimir liked ship technology more, even in his childhood he could fix the signal on the ship, mounted electric bells made by himself.

Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin received his secondary education at a local real school, which he graduated in 1906. In the same year he moved to St. Petersburg, where he entered the university. However, the father, who was worried that the youngest son would become interested in science, convincingly suggested that he transfer to the Institute of Technology. It was created with the aim of training engineering and management personnel for industry. The young man did not dare to go against the will of his parents.

Choice of profession

One of his institute teachers was Professor Boris Lvovich Rosing, who de alt with the issues of image transmission at a distance. Like many of his fellow students, Vladimir did not escape the influence of revolutionary ideas, taking an active part in the political struggle - he wentto rallies and strikes. However, science attracted him more. An inquisitive student began to devote a lot of time to research in the laboratory. By the time he graduated, Vladimir Zworykin became a loyal follower and favorite student of the professor.

In 1912 he graduated from the Institute with honors, having received the speci alty of an engineer-technologist. Father insisted on returning to his native city, but Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin managed to negotiate with him and continue his education in France. Professor Rosing recommended the able student the College de France, where the famous scientist Paul Langevin became his supervisor.

Introduction to farsightedness

Scientists in many countries of the world tried to solve the problem of transmitting images at a distance. At that time, "mechanical television" was considered the most promising direction, when light rays through a special Nipkow disk with holes drilled in a spiral fell on photocells and formed an image. True, it was not possible to achieve image clarity in any way and the quality depended on the number of holes.

However, Professor Rosing was one of the first proponents of "electronic television", then a very dubious theoretical concept. Scientists for a long time could not amplify the signal so much as to cause a noticeable reaction in the photocell. In 2011, Boris Lvovich presented his invention to his colleagues for the first time. Vladimir Zworykin, who became his faithful assistant and was very impressed with the work of his teacher, forever becamesupporter of the electronic way of development of far-sightedness. According to many experts, these works became the basis for the further development of television. For his work, Rosing was awarded the gold medal of the Russian Technical Society.

In military service

Training in France ended two years later, with the outbreak of the First World War, Zworykin returned to his homeland. Almost immediately, the young man was mobilized into the army and sent to serve in the signal troops in Grodno. The inventor Vladimir Zworykin arrived at the military unit with a radio transmitter of his own design. A year and a half later, he was awarded another rank - second lieutenant and transferred to an officer radio school in Petrograd.

The young officer moved to a new duty station, where he continued his scientific work, for which he almost paid with his life. After the February revolution, a soldier wrote a statement to Zvorykin, claiming that the officer mocked him. He made me speak into a box with holes when he himself was in the next room. He was lucky - the members of the tribunal knew a little about electrical engineering, and he was acquitted.

Escape from the country

When the widespread arrest of officers began, he managed to escape and hide in Moscow for some time. These were the most difficult years in the biography of Vladimir Zworykin. Then he decided to flee to Omsk, the capital of the white movement in Russia. The government of Admiral Kolchak instructed him to deal with the equipment of a powerful radio station.

In 1918, Zworykin for the first time went on a business trip to America to buyradio equipment, and after completing the business trip, he returned to Omsk. When he was on his second trip to the US, the Reds took over the city and he had nowhere to go back to.

First years in America

Vladimir Zworykin was helped to get a job at the Westinghouse research laboratory in Pittsburgh, where he started developing image transmission at a distance. By 1923, the first broadcasting electron tube was developed, which the scientist called the "inoscope". The image was of such poor quality that Zworykin himself called his invention "television". Nevertheless, he applied for it, and a year later, for a receiving tube - a kinescope.

In 1924, Zworykin received American citizenship and entered the University of Pittsburgh. Two years later, he received his Ph. D.

The main work of life

In 1928, he managed to negotiate with David Sarnov, the head of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), to finance research. A year later, Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin developed a vacuum television receiving tube. Other elements of television equipment were also created that made it possible to transmit an image. In subsequent years, the scientist managed to decompose the light beam into blue, green and red colors, laying the foundation for color television.

These inventions were used in the first television broadcasts in the US in 1936. The works of the scientist received worldwide recognition, photo by VladimirZworykin was published by the world's leading publications. He received lecture and consulting invitations from many countries around the world, including the Soviet Union. With the assistance of RCA and personally Vladimir Kozmich, a television broadcasting center was built in the USSR in 1938 and the production of the first television sets began.

In 1944, Vladimir Zworykin invented devices that made it possible to develop night vision devices and television-guided aerial bombs.

Return or not to the USSR?

In 1933, the scientist first came to the Soviet Union to give lectures in Moscow and Leningrad. And after many years of separation, he meets with his sisters and older brother Nikolai. He understands that he remained Russian and misses his homeland very much. Having lived in America for a decade and a half, Zworykin spoke English with a terrible accent and did not assimilate too much.

A year later, having returned to the USSR, he decides to consult with his relatives - whether he should return for good. Shortly before this, representatives of the Soviet government promised him the most favorable conditions for life and work. And he almost decided to come back. As Vladimir Zworykin recalled in a brief biography, the sisters would be glad to see him move. Only Anna's sister's husband, Professor of the Mining Institute Dmitry Nalivkin, did not advise doing this. And it’s good that reason outweighed emotions when making a decision. Soon mass repressions began in the country.

In the post-war years, he visited the Soviet Union eight more times, met with relatives, scientists and lectured. He even managed to visit Murom (closed to foreigners) when he simply ran away from official events in Vladimir and took a taxi to his hometown.

Recent years

From the beginning of the 50s, Zworykin was engaged in fundamental research in the field of television technologies. He began work on the use of electronics in other areas - meteorology, optics and medicine. The eminent scientist directed the Center for Medical Electronics at the Rockefeller Institute and the International Association for Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering. The scientist participated in the development of electronic medical equipment, including microscopes, endoscopes and radiosondes.

Vladimir Zworykin received 120 patents for his inventions, his name is inscribed on the honor roll of the American National Inventors Gallery of Fame. He is the author of more than 80 scientific papers and has received numerous awards and prizes, including the US National Medal of Science and the French Legion of Honor.

Personal Information

The first time Vladimir Kozmich Zworykin married in 1916, a student at a dental school, Tatyana Vasilyeva. In 1919, she managed to come to her husband in America. A year later, the first daughter, Nina, was born, and seven years later, Elena. However, family happiness did not last long, in 1930 they divorced.

Happy changes in the personal life of the scientist occurred only in 1951, when he married a Russian emigrant E. A. Polevitskaya, a professor of microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. They first met fortwenty years before that, then Ekaterina Andreevna was married and raised children. Zworykin was engaged in science and paid almost no attention to everything else. When Polevitskaya became a widow, he proposed to her. The couple were then over sixty, but they were an extremely happy and beautiful couple. Together they lived for over thirty years. TV inventor Vladimir Zworykin died in 1982, Yekaterina Polevitskaya survived him by only a year.