Contribution of Prof Alexander S Popov to the development of wireless communications

Alexander S. Popov (1859 - 1906) physicist and electrical engineer elaborated the first reliable receiver of the electromagnetic waves. The receiver comprising the self-restoring coherer and antenna made it possible to "accept" the electromagnetic waves excited by Hertz's "vibrator" as well as waves radiated by the natural atmospheric discharges. The first demonstration of the receiver took place at a meeting of the Russian Physical Chemical Society in St.- Petersburg on the 7-th of May 1895. Transmission of intelligent signals was demonstrated by A. Popov in March 1896. A. Popov developed the first wireless communication systems in Russia. In cooperation with P. Rybkin, A. Popov discovered In May 1900 "new properties of the coherer which opened up possibilities of using the nonlinear element as a detector in the modern sense of the word. In 1901 A. Popov became professor at St.-Petersburg Institute of Electrical Engineering and in 1905 was elected director (rector of this Institute.

[1]  C. Susskind Popov and the Beginnings of Radiotelegraphy , 1962, Proceedings of the IRE.