Giu 28 2014

Professor Hidetsugu Yagi. 1886 – 1976.

Professor Hidetsugu Yagi was born in year 19 of the Meiji Era (January 28 1886 to you and I) in Osaka prefecture, Japan. I have been unable to discover anything about his early life but he graduated in engineering from Tokyo Imperial University in 1909.

After graduating he went to Germany, where he continued his education under the direction of Heinricti Barkhausen, inventor of the Barkhausen oscillator.

Yagi’s research in Germany concerned resonant transformers used in wireless systems. The outbreak of the First World War forced his hurried departure, leaving all his experimental data behind. He later published a paper on the theoretical part of this research in the December 1917 Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers.

Yagi had fled Germany to Great Britain where he studied with John A. Fleming until 1916. Before returning to Japan, Yagi visited the United States and spent some time at Harvard University with George W. Pierce. Yagi then began his teaching career at Tohoku Imperial University, which awarded him a doctorate in engineering in 1919.

At Tohoku University, Yagi initiated a research program in radio-electronics, drawing on the knowledge that he had learned with Barkhausen, Fleming, and Pierce. Other members of the faculty and advanced students, including Okabe and Shintaro Uda, became participants in a collective research effort.

A perceived need for better communication between islands and with ships led them to focus on short wave communication with directive antennas. The Yagi group received financial support for the research from a private foundation in Sendai.

In 1925 Yagi and Uda published their first report on the wave projector antenna in a Japanese publication. In the paper, they discussed the design and performance of a directive antenna that they called a “wave projector” or “wave canal” and which had been developed at the University.

The antenna employed a number of parasitic elements called directors and reflectors and would come to be known as the Yagi antenna or (as it should properly be called) Yagi-Uda antenna.

Yagi applied for patents on the new antenna both in Japan and the United States. His Japanese patent was issued in 1925 and the U.S. patent was issued in 1932 and assigned to the Radio Corporation of America.

Yagi made another visit to the United States in 1928 and gave talks on the Japanese short wave research at Institute of Radio Engineers meetings in several cities and for a group of engineers at General Electric.

His visit stimulated a renewed interest in magnetrons at GE and they developed a 400-MHz magnetron and tested it with a wave projector during the summer of 1928.

The Bureau of Standards engineers also used a Yagi-Uda antenna in an experimental aircraft landing system in 1930.

In 1933 Yagi moved to Osaka Imperial University, the newest and the last Imperial University established with the support from the industry rather than the government, as the 1st chair of the physics department in the faculty of science, the director of a laboratory where developmental work on radar took place. Yagi promoted pure science and encouraged the younger professors and researchers to pursue fundamental physics rather than applied physics while doing the applied part himself to fulfil the industry’s needs. Also that year the short-wave system developed at Tohoku University was used to establish a government radio telephone link between Sakata and Tobishima Island, a distance of about 40 km.

In 1939 he was made Dean of the Faculty of Science at the Osaka Imperial University. In 1944 he became President of the Technology Institute of the Cabinet.

Yagi served as a Civilian Consultant on radar and communication to the Japanese military during World War II. Unfortunately his home, library and most of his personal papers were lost during a bombing raid in April 1945.

Soon after the end of the war he was interviewed by Roger I. Wilkinson, William R. Hewlett and others concerning Japanese developments during the war. In these interviews Yagi expressed frustration over the poor communication and cooperation between the military services and civilian experts.

Gentai Sato, who studied under Yagi, wrote about the surprise to the Japanese when they captured British radar systems equipped with Yagi antennas and a document on Yagi arrays found when Singapore was taken. Sato also noted the irony of the American use of Yagi antennas to determine the height of the explosion of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

After the war Yagi served as a consultant on the technological rehabilitation of Japan and assisted in the formulation of television standards. In 1946 he was installed as the 4th President of Osaka Imperial University, and was also President of Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL). He also served as president of the Yagi Antenna Company and was awarded Japan’s Order of Cultural Merit in 1956. He died on January 19 1976, just 9 days short of his 90th birthday.

Yagi was an excellent manager and producer of science, though his methods were, sometimes, unorthodox. It is reported that Professor Yagi had a sharp tongue and encouraged Dr. Hideki Yukawa in very special way with the bitter words “We originally planned to employ Dr. Shinnichiro Tomonaga. However since your elder brother begged us to employ you, we recruited you instead. Please do not make us disappointed. Work harder than Dr. Tomonaga”. Shortly afterwards Dr. Yukawa published his first paper which later brought him the 1st Nobel Prize in Japan. It is believed that the words of Professor Yagi urged Dr. Yukawa to publish his MESON theory although nobody knows what really happened between Professor Yagi and Dr. Yukawa.

When Shintaro Uda visited the United States in 1951 he expressed astonishment at the ubiquity of the Yagi-Uda antennas used as home television antennas.

Feb 24 2013

Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872)

Samuel Finley Breese Morse, l’inventore della telegrafia, nacque il 27 aprile 1791 a Charlestown Massachusetts e morì di polmonite a quasi ottant’anni il 2 aprile 1872 a Poughkeepsie (New York). Uomo dal multiforme ingegno, tanto da essere anche pittore, è stato però paradossalmente anche uno studente pigro e privo di volontà, i cui interessi convergevano solo nell’elettricità e nella pittura di ritratti in miniatura.

Malgrado la svogliatezza di fondo, Morse si laureò comunque presso il collegio di Yale nel 1810, mentre l’anno dopo si recò a Londra dove intraprese sempre più seriamente lo studio della pittura. Tornato negli Stati Uniti nel 1815, una decina di anni dopo fondò con altri artisti la “Società di belle arti” e successivamente la “National Accademy of Design”. Attirato dall’arte italiana e dall’immenso patrimonio artistico celato sul suolo italico, tornò nel Bel Paese nel 1829 dove visitò molte città. Con l’occasione, volle visitare anche la Francia, dove rimase affascinato dalle molte bellezze di quella nazione.

Ad ogni modo, il soggiorno italiano risvegliò la sua vena creativa, tanto che arrivò a dipingere una gran quantità di tele. Ma anche la sua curiosità scientifica era tutt’altro che assopita. E’ proprio mentre rientrava negli Stati Uniti nel 1832 a bordo della nave bastimento Sully che, durante la traversata, si interrogò su di un metodo efficace per comunicare anche in condizioni difficili. Una soluzione la intravide nell’elettromagnetismo e ne fu tanto persuaso che alcune settimane dopo si mise a costruire il primo apparato telegrafico, composto inizialmente dalla sola cornice di un quadro recuperata dal suo studio di pittura, alcune ruote in legno ricavate da un vecchio orologio e un’elettrocalamita (dono di un suo vecchio professore).

Ma è solamente nel 1835 che questo rudimentale telegrafo, dopo innumerevoli tentativi, fu ultimato e sperimentato.

Nello stesso anno Morse entrò a far parte del corpo insegnante dell’Università di New York come professore di storia dell’arte, andando ad abitare in una casa a Washington Square. Qui installò un laboratorio e progettò un trasmettitore automatico con il quale sperimentò il prototipo del codice che poi prese il suo nome. Due anni dopo Morse trovò due soci che lo aiutarono a perfezionare il telegrafo di sua invenzione: Leonard Gale, un professore di scienze dell’Università di New York, e Alfred Vail. Con l’aiuto dei suoi nuovi soci, Morse nel 1837 richiese un brevetto per il nuovo apparecchio, a cui si aggiunse successivamente l’invenzione di un codice punto-linea che sostituiva le lettere e che rendeva più fulminea la comunicazione. Tranne alcune successive modifiche di dettaglio, era infatti nato il codice Morse.

Il 24 Maggio 1844 fu inaugurata la prima linea telegrafica che collegava Washington con Baltimora. In quell’anno il caso volle che proprio a Baltimora si tenesse la Convenzione del Partito Whig e fu proprio in quelle circostanze che la sua invenzione ebbe una risonanza straordinaria, tale da renderlo finalmente famoso, grazie al fatto che telegrafando a Washington, i risultati della Convenzione arrivarono due ore prima del treno che ne portava le notizie.

In breve, l’uso della telegrafia, in parallelo con la quasi coetanea invenzione della radio da parte di Marconi, si diffuse in tutto il mondo con un successo incontrastato, grazie al fatto che con essa era possibile comunicare a grandi distanze con mezzi tutto sommato semplici. In Italia la prima linea telegrafica fu realizzata nel 1847 e collegava Livorno con Pisa. L’invenzione dell’alfabeto Morse, poi, ha rappresentato una svolta nella storia dell’umanità, nella sicurezza, nelle comunicazioni in tempo reale. La storia della marineria, civile e militare, è piena di esempi di grandi salvataggi realizzati grazie al Telegrafo senza fili.

Una curiosità: per la prima volta dopo 60 anni viene aggiunto un simbolo all’alfabeto in codice inventato da Samuel Morse; è il 3 maggio 2004 il giorno del battesimo della chiocciola telematica ‘@’.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was a well-known portrait painter who turned to science in mid-career and pioneered the electric telegraph.

Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on April 27, 1791, Morse was the oldest son of Jedidiah Morse, an eminent geographer and Congregational clergyman. Heattended Yale, where he developed an interest in painting miniatures and attending lectures on electricity. After graduation, Morse sailed to England, where he studied painting from 1811 to 1815. On his return to Boston, Massachusetts, Morse opened a studio and soon found that portraiture was the only typeof art that would sell. Within a few years, he developed a distinguished reputation as a portrait painter.

Burdened with financial concerns and mourning the successive deaths of his young wife, his father, and his mother, Morse returned to Europe in 1829 to continue his artistic studies. His return voyage to the United States in 1832 aboard the Sully became the turning point of his life. A conversation with fellow passengers–one of whom was the chemist Charles T. Jackson (1805-1880)–about experiments with electromagnetism piqued Morse’s imagination. He immediately thought of sending messages over a wire via electricity, and spent the rest of the voyage sketching preliminary ideas. Morse’s interest in developingthe telegraph, coupled with disappointments in his artistic career, promptedhim to give up painting in 1837. Morse built some prototypes of his telegraphin 1835, but his lack of background in science hobbled his efforts. At thistime Morse was Professor of Arts and Design at the University of the City ofNew York. He turned to a fellow professor in the university’s chemistry department, Leonard Gale, for help. Gale showed Morse how to improve both his electromagnet and his battery. Gale also introduced Morse to Joseph Henry, who freely shared his impressive knowledge about electromagnetism. Morse was now able to invent an electromagnetic relay system, which renewed the current along a line from relay to relay and made long-distance message transmission possible; he filed an intent to patent it in 1837.

In September of that year Morse met young Alfred Vail while demonstrating histelegraph in New York. The two men became partners, and Vail made many practical improvements to Morse’s device and to the code used to transmit messages, which became known as the Morse code. Also in 1837, Morse applied for a grant offered by the United States Congress to construct a telegraph system. Seven long years of discouragement and poverty followed for Morse until finally,in the closing session of the 1843 Congress, he secured a $30,000 appropriation to build a telegraph line between Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. With the aid of Vail and Ezra Cornell, Morse did just that, sending his famous first message “What hath God wrought!” on May 24, 1844.

Morse and Vail had intended to sell all rights in their telegraph to the United States government for $100,000, but Congress rejected their offer. The partners, along with Amos Kendall, then formed the Magnetic Telegraph Company todevelop telegraph lines privately. Most of Morse’s attention was taken up byprolonged and contentious litigation over patent rights to the telegraph, one of his opponents being Jackson. During this controversy, Morse unfortunately denied that Henry had ever helped him. Morse’s patent rights were upheld bythe United States Supreme Court in 1854.

The success of the telegraph brought Morse fame and wealth. His interests turned to politics; he supported the nativist movement, opposed abolitionism, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1854. In 1857-58 Morse was an electrician for Cyrus Field’s (1819-1892) attempt to lay a transatlantic telegraph cable. He built an estate near Poughkeepsie, New York, called Locust Grove (a historic landmark today), and enjoyed the company of his second wife, whom he had married in 1848, and his many children and grandchildren. He was a founderand trustee of Vassar College, and served in 1861 as the president of the National Academy of Design, which he had helped found in 1826 and led as president from 1826 until 1845. In his later years, Morse was a noted philanthropist. The telegraph operators of the United States honored Morse with a bronze statue in New York’s Central Park in 1871. Morse died in New York on April 2, 1872.

Feb 24 2013

Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859-1906)

Fisico russo, nasce nel 1859 e si laurea nel 1882 con una tesi sulla dinamo e sugli elettromagneti. Proseguendo le ricerche di Herz a proposito della produzione di onde si convince della possibilità di per la realizzazione di un sistema di comunicazione senza fili. Nel corso delle sue sperimentazioni sviluppa generatori di alta frequenza a scintilla estremamente efficienti. Dopo i primi esperimenti, in cui si raggiungono distanze di una sessantina di metri, aggiunge un’importantissima innovazione. Applicando al ricevitore un filo verticale, una prima rudimentale antenna.

Nel 1895 rende pubbliche le sue scoperte dandone notizia alla Società russa di fisica e chimica. Nel 1897, durante alcune prove di comunicazione tra mezzi navali, raggiunge una distanza di cinque chilometri. Nel 1901 brevetta un sistema per l’ascolto in cuffia dei segnali radiotelegrafici. Durante le sue ricerche si rende conto che i ricevitori per radioonde sono in grado di rilevare fulmini caduti anche a grande distanza, questa scoperta gli da l’impulso, negli ultimi anni della sua vita, a tentare di sviluppare un sistema di previsioni meteorologiche per i mezzi in navigazione. Popov muore a Pietroburgo nel 1906.

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was born on 4th (16th in old calendar) March 1859 in the Ural village Turyinskiye Rudniki of Verkhoturskiy Uyesd in Permskaya Gubernya.

Alexander had six other siblings through his father’s family. His father was a priest. They lived quite modestly. At the age of ten Alexander Popov was sent to the Dalmatovskoye Uchilische priesthood. There he studied from 1869 until 1871. In 1871 Alexander Popov moved to another priesthood: Yekaterinburgskoye Dukhovnoye Uchilische.

In 1873 he moved again, this time to the Perm theological seminary. After finishing his general education classes, he graduated in 1877 and successfully passed exams to enter the Physics and Maths faculty in Peterburgskiy University. Years of study in the University did not go easily for Popov. Being short of money he had to work in his free time as an electrician in a place called ‘Electrotechnology’. During these years his scientific views took their final shape: he was particularly attracted to new physics and electro-technological problems.

Having successfully graduated in 1882 he was invited to stay and prepare to become a professor in the Physics faculty. In 1882 Popov successfully defended his thesis entitled ‘On the principles of direct current magneto and dynamo electric machines’.

In 1901 A.S. Popov became professor of Physics at the Imperior Alexander III Electrotechnical Institute. He was also an honorary Electrical Engineer (1899) and an honorary member of the Russian Technical Society (1901).

Popov’s device arose out of special equipment he made back in 1889 to demonstrate Hertz’s experiments to his students. He used the Hertz vibrator as a transmitter. At the beginning of 1895 he became interested in Lodge’s experiments. (Lodge perfected the coherer and built a radio receiver based on it, through which, in 1894, he managed to receive radio signals at a distance of 40 meters). Popov tried to replicate them, having built his own modified version of Lodge’s receiver.

The main difference between Popov’s receiver and Lodge’s was the following: the Branly-Lodge coherer was a glass tube filled with metal filings, which were able to suddenly change their resistance hundreds of times under the influence of a radio signal. To return the coherer to its initial state to detect a new wave, one had to shake it to re-settle the filings. To this end, Lodge used to insert an automatic drum into his glass tube, which was designed to constantly ‘hit’ the tube. Popov added automatic feedback to the design: the radio signal switched on a relay, which would itself start a bell. The drum would then begin simultaneously hitting the glass tube with filings inside. In his experiments, Popov used a grounded outboard aerial, invented by Tesla in 1893.

On 25th April (7th May new calendar) 1895, at a meeting of the Russian Physics-Chemistry Society in Peterburg University, Popov introduced his invention for the first time. The topic of his lecture was ‘On the effect of metallic powders on alternating current’. In his published description of his device, Popov noted its usefulness for lectures as well as for registering atmospheric perturbations. He also demonstrated his hope that his ‘device would, in the future, with further improvement, be applied to the actual receiving of signals from a distance with the aid of high rate alternating current (as soon as it became possible to generate such high rate alternating current)’. Later, from 1945 on, this event would be celebrated in the USSR as ‘Radio Day’. Working in a marine institution meant limitations for publishing the results of his research. That is why, in keeping with the oath of secrecy he took, he never published new results of his work.

The Central Museum of Communications, named after A.S. Popov, is one of the oldest scientific-technical museums. It is located in the center of St. Petersburg, not far from Isaakiyevskaya Square. The Museum’s unique collection is dedicated to the history and development of different means of communications in Russia and has more than 8 million exhibits in store.

Feb 24 2013

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894)

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz è stato il primo a dimostrare le onde elettromagnetiche.

Nato ad Amburgo nel 1857, lo studioso Hertz mostra fin da ragazzo la sua particolare predisposizione per lo studio delle scienze delle lingue straniere.

All’Università, che frequenta a Berlino, ha la fortuna di avere tra i suoi professori gli scienziati Kirchhoff ed Helmholtz. Dopo aver conseguito la laurea, si dedica con passione alla carriera universitaria, rivestendo il ruolo di direttore di fisica teorica.

Heinrich Rudolph Hertz è noto per aver scoperto una particolare tipologia di onde elettromagnetiche, le stesse che più tardi Guglielmo Marconi utilizza nell’ingegnosa invenzione della radiotelegrafia.

In precedenza, il fisico inglese Carl Maxwell aveva studiato ipotizzato l’esistenza di tali onde, studiandone la caratteristiche, ma soltanto a livello teorico. Le “onde hertziane” hanno le stesse proprietà di quelle luminose: si muovono alla medesima velocità (300 mila km. al secondo), danno vita ai fenomeni di rifrazione, interferenza, polarizzazione.

Hertz raggiunge la popolarità nel campo della fisica a partire dal 1880, quando pubblica uno studio riguardante l’elettricità in movimento, in particolare sull’inerzia.

Nel 1887, chiamato a far parte della Royal Society di Londra, lo studioso tedesco fornisce la dimostrazione pratica della teoria delle onde, il cui precursore è stato appunto Maxwell.

Ma Hertz aggiunge elementi importanti, quali la relazione esistente tra la luce e l’elettricità, il modo in cui le onde si propagano, le proprietà dei gas rarefatti. Ad Hertz, inoltre, si attribuisce il merito di aver prodotto oscillazioni di tre metri di lunghezza.

A tal fine, lo scienziato crea un apparecchio specifico, chiamato appunto “oscillatore”. La rifrazione delle onde elettromagnetiche viene invece dimostrata tramite l’utilizzo di un prisma di pece.

Hertz scopre che gli oggetti carichi di elettricità perdono la carica quando li si espone ad una luce ultravioletta. Tale principio sarà poi ripreso e perfezionato da Albert Einstein.

Lo sperimentatore delle onde elettromagnetiche muore a Bonn nel 1894, all’età di trentasei anni. Nel 1925 suo nipote vince il Premio Nobel per la fisica. Sono trascorsi 155 anni dalla sua nascita.

The German physicist Heinrich Hertz is widely known for being one of the first scientists to broadcast and receive electromagnetic waves, but is also important for his contributions to the field of optics. Most notably, Hertz was the first investigator ever to observe the phenomenon that would eventually come to be known as the photoelectric effect. The discovery of this phenomenon, which is generally defined as the emission of electrons from a surface exposed to electromagnetic radiation above a certain threshold frequency, had a tremendous influence on the perception of light, which was just beginning to be understood in terms of a duality between waves and particles late in Hertz’s lifetime, and which would not come to be widely accepted until many years after his death.

Heinrich Hertz was born on February 22, 1857 in Hamburg, Germany, but studied in a number of different cities, including Dresden, Munich, and Berlin, under a number of prestigious scientists, such as Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff. Hemholtz reportedly had a particularly strong influence on the young scientist, who would continue to study with him for several years after he received his doctorate degree magna cum laude in 1880. In 1883, however, Hertz accepted a position as lecturer of theoretical physics at the University of Kiel. He was appointed as a full professor at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic in 1885, a post he retained until 1889, when he became a professor of physics at the University of Bonn. It was at Karlsruhe that Hertz carried out many of his most important experiments.

In the late 1800s, a number of physicists attempted to detect and generate electromagnetic waves in order to prove James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism, which was published in 1865. The first to actually accomplish this feat was Heinrich Hertz, who constructed an oscillator formed from brass knobs. Each of the knobs was connected to a high voltage induction coil and was separated from the other knob by a small gap, over which sparks could travel. If Maxwell’s theory was correct, Hertz postulated, when a spark created a conducting path between the brass knobs, electromagnetic radiation would be emitted as charge rapidly vacillated back and forth between them. To detect the radiation Hertz built a simple receiver from copper wire with a brass knob located at one end and the other end formed into a point. The wire was bent into a circle so that the knob was very close to, but not touching, the pointed end of the wire. The design enabled the presence of charge to be detected through the observation of a spark crossing the gap between the knob and point. Utilizing these basic instruments, Hertz was able to clearly demonstrate that electromagnetic waves did exist and that they travel, as suggested by Maxwell, at the speed of light.

In the course of his experiments with electromagnetic radiation, Hertz did encounter some problems, primarily involving the detection of the small spark produced in the receiver. To aid in the visibility of the spark, he sometimes enclosed the receiver in a dark case, which he observed had an unusual effect on the maximum length of the spark, making it smaller than when no case was utilized. His findings led him to more thoroughly investigate the matter, resulting in his determination that the spark produced was stronger if it was exposed to ultraviolet light. Though he offered no explanation for this puzzling matter, other scientists recognized the import of the discovery, and, by 1899, J. J. Thomson ascertained that the ultraviolet light caused the emission of electrons, hence the more vigorous spark. This phenomenon, which was later dubbed the photoelectric effect, is central to the modern understanding of modern physics.

Although his contributions to science were significant, Heinrich Hertz would likely have had an even more fruitful career if his life had not ended prematurely. At the age of 37, the eminent scientist, who made great scientific leaps while maintaining his characteristic modesty, died of blood poisoning. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth, and two daughters. The common unit of frequency, Hertz (Hz; cycles per second), was named in his honor and became officially included in the metric system in 1933.

Feb 24 2013

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge Biography

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (Penkhull, 12 giugno 1851 – Wilsford, 22 agosto 1940) è stato un fisico britannico.

È stato fra i maggiori pionieri nelle ricerche sulla propagazione delle onde elettromagnetiche e di quelle radio. Concentrò le sue indagini sulle onde elettromagnetiche dette hertziane (scoperte da Heinrich Rudolf Hertz), ossia sulle onde radio. Fu inoltre presidente della Society for Psychical Research dal 1901 al 1903, e nuovamente nel 1932 assieme a Eleanor Sidgwick.

Nel 1894, Lodge diede una piena dimostrazione delle proprietà fisiche delle onde hertziane e, prima di Guglielmo Marconi, offrì una prova che esse potevano essere utilizzate per il telegrafo senza fili. Ma fece uso di correnti a bassa frequenza, che non erano pratiche e avevano un raggio di trasmissione troppo limitato.

Per captare le onde hertziane, Lodge aveva ideato e costruito un coherer, cioè un dispositivo, progenitore dei tubi elettronici e dei transistor, che nella sua prima versione di tubetto a limatura era stato ideato e sperimentato, nel 1884, dal fisico italianoTemistocle Calzecchi-Onesti (1853–1922).
Il coherer venne poi perfezionato da Edouard Branly.

Nel 1897, Lodge brevettò il sintonizzatore che, migliorato da Lord Parker, fu acquistato da Marconi nel 1911. Il suo libro migliore è Moderne vedute sull’elettricità (1899), impostato sulla teoria di James Clerk Maxwell.

Studiò all’University College di Londra. Dal 1881 fu professore di fisica generale all’University College di Liverpool e dal 1900 primo presidente dell’Università di Birmingham. Fu politicamente schierato con il fabianesimo.

Birth: June 12, 1851 in Penkhull, Staffordshire, England

Death: August 22, 1940 in Amersham, Wiltshire, England

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

World famous British physicist and a fearless champion of after-death survival. He missed no opportunity to declare his belief that death is not the end, that there are higher beings in the scale of existence, and that intercommunication between this world and the next is possible. Lodge was born June 12, 1851, at Penkhull, Staffordshire, England, and studied at University of London (B.S., 1875; D.Sc. 1877). He was professor of physics at University of London (1877) and at University of Liverpool (1881-90) and served as principal of Birmingham University (1900-19). Lodge was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1887, awarded the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for his pioneer work in wireless telegraphy, and was knighted in 1902. He was president of the British Association in 1913. His great reputation as a physicist was established by his research in electricity, thermoelectricity, and in wireless (radio) and theories of matter and ether. Lodge developed the spark plug that bears his name.

His first experiences in psychic research occurred in 1883-84, when he joined Malcolm Guthrie on his investigations of thought-transference in Liverpool. Lodge undertook similar experiments himself in 1892 in Carinthia at Portschach am See and reported them in Proceedings of the SPR (Vol. 7, part 20, 1892).

His most notable observations in physical research were made with the medium Eusapia Palladino. In Charles Richet’s house on the Ile Roubaud, he attended four séances and reported on them in the Journal of the SPR (November 1894), affirming the reality of Palladino’s phenomena:

“However the facts are to be explained, the possibility of the facts I am constrained to admit; there is no further room in my mind for doubt. Any person without invincible prejudice who had the same experience would come to the same broad conclusion, viz., that things hitherto held impossible do actually occur. If one such fact is clearly established, the conceivability of others may be more readily granted, and I concentrated my attention mainly on what seemed to me the most simple and definite thing, viz., the movement of an untouched object in sufficient light for no doubt of its motion to exist. This I have now witnessed several times; the fact of movement being vouched for by both sight and hearing, sometimes also by touch, and the objectivity of the movement being demonstrated by the sounds heard by an outside observer, and by permanent alteration in the position of the objects. The result of my experience is to convince me that certain phenomena usually considered abnormal do belong to the order of nature, and as a corollary from this, that these phenomena ought to be investigated and recorded by persons and societies interested in natural knowledge.”

When Palladino was exposed in fraud in the following year at Cambridge, Lodge, who attended two of the sittings there, defended his earlier observations. He declared that there was no resemblance between the Cambridge phenomena and those observed on the Ile Roubaud. In the field of mental phenomena, Lenora Piper was his chief source of enlightenment. His first investigations with Piper took place in 1889, when the medium was tested in England by the Society for Psychical Research. Lodge received many evidential messages, which soon convinced him that the dead were still live.

His first report was published in 1890. Nineteen years later, in discussing the evidence for the return through the mediumship of Piper of F. W. H. Myers, Edmund Gurney, and many others, he referred to his experiences:

“The old series of sittings with Mrs. Piper convinced me of survival for reasons which I should find it hard to formulate in any strict fashion, but that was their distinct effect. They also made me suspect–or more than suspect–that surviving intelligences were in some cases consciously communicating–yes, in some few cases consciously; though more usually the messages came, in all probability, from an unconscious stratum, being received by the medium in an inspirational manner analogous to psychometry. The hypothesis of surviving intelligence and personality–not only surviving but anxious and able with difficulty to communicate–is the simplest and most straightforward and the only one that fits all the facts” (from The Survival of Man, 1909).

Lodge openly stated for the first time, in 1908, that he believed he had genuinely conversed with late friends and that the boundary between the two worlds was wearing thin in places. Five years later, speaking from the presidential chair to the British Association in September 1913, he boldly declared that his own investigations convinced him that “memory and affection are not limited to that association with matter by which alone they can manifest themselves here and now, and that personality persists beyond bodily death.”

The widest publicity to Lodge’s belief in survival appeared in his famous book, Raymond: or, Life and Death (1916). The story of the return of his son, who died in action in World War I, is one of the best-attested cases of spirit identity. It begins with the celebrated “Faunus” message, delivered through Piper on August 8, 1915. It purported to come from the spirit of psychic researcher Richard Hodgson and began abruptly: “Now, Lodge, while we are not here as of old, i.e., not quite, we are here enough to give and take messages. Myers says you take the part of the poet, and he will act as Faunus. FAUNUS. Myers. Protect: he will U.D. (understand). What have you to say Lodge? Good work ask Verrall, she will also U.D. Arthur says so.”

The message reached Sir Oliver Lodge in early September 1915. On September 17, the War Office notified him that Raymond was killed in action on September 14. Before this blow fell, Lodge wrote to Margaret Verrall, a well-known classical scholar and asked her, “Does the poet and Faunus mean anything to you? Did one protect the other?” She replied at once that “the reference is to Horace’s account of his narrow escape from death, from a falling tree, which he ascribes to the intervention of Faunus.”

The Rev. M. A. Bayfield attached to the incident the following interpretation: “Horace does not, in any reference to his escape, say clearly whether the tree struck him, but I have always thought it did. He says Faunus lightened the blow; he does not say `turned it aside.’ As bearing on your terrible loss, the meaning seems to be that the blow would fall, but would not crush; it would be `lightened’ by the assurance, conveyed afresh to you by a special message from the still living Myers, that your boy still lives.”

On September 25, Lady Lodge had a sitting with Gladys Osborne Leonard. Raymond sent this message: “Tell Father I have met some friends of his.” On asking for names, Myers was mentioned. Two days later, medium Alfred Vout Peters spoke about a photograph of a group of officers with Raymond among them. Various other messages came from different mediums, as did the cross-correspondence on the Faunus message.

On November 25, Mrs. Cheves, a complete stranger, wrote a letter saying that she had a photograph of the officers of the South Lancashire Regiment of which Raymond Lodge was a second lieutenant and offered to send it. In a séance on December 3, Gladys Leonard described the photograph, featuring Raymond sitting on the ground and an officer placing his hand on Raymond’s shoulder. The photograph arrived on December 7 and corresponded with the description in every detail.

Many other messages, bearing the authentic stamp of Raymond’s identity, came through. The most curious was one about “Mr. Jackson.” “Feda,” Leonard’s control, said that Raymond mixed it up with a bird and a pedestal. The truth of the matter was that Jackson was a peacock which, after its death, was stuffed and put on a pedestal.

Lodge displayed the whole mass of evidential communications in his book Raymond, including the reference to cigars and whiskey and soda in the afterlife. Owing to this, many ridiculed the book, although many others accept the idea that dead spirits can furnish the afterlife with familiar associations of everyday physical life. Some critics suggested that Lodge’s bereavement led him into Spiritualism, but his book repudiates this notion. “My conclusion,” Lodge wrote, “has been gradually forming itself for years, though, undoubtedly, it is based on experience of the same sort of thing. But this event has strengthened and liberated my testimony. It can now be associated with a private experience of my own, instead of with the private experience of others.”

The book Raymond was followed by other important publications on psychic research in which Lodge elaborated his previous conclusions. Before the Modern Churchmen’s Conference in September 1931 in Oxford, Lodge declared:

“If I find myself an opportunity of communicating I shall try to establish my identity by detailing a perfectly preposterous and absurdly childish peculiarity which I have already taken the trouble to record with some care in a sealed document deposited in the custody of the English S.P.R. I hope to remember the details of this document and relate them in no unmistakable fashion. The value of the communication will not consist in the substance of what is communicated, but in the fact that I have never mentioned it to a living soul, and no one has any idea what it contains. People of sense will not take its absurd triviality as anything but helpful in contributing to the proof of the survival of personal identity.”

He reiterated this viewpoint two years later in his book My Philosophy: “Basing my conclusions on experience I am absolutely convinced not only of survival but of demonstrated survival, demonstrated by occasional interaction with matter in such a way as to produce physical results.”

Lodge died August 22, 1940, at Amersham, Wiltshire, England. His correspondence is preserved in the Lodge Collection of the Society for Psychical Research in London.

The post-mortal identity test of Lodge’s survival involved the depositing of a set of envelopes with the Society for Psychical Research and the London Spiritualist Alliance, with instructions for consecutive opening of the envelopes. The packet in the possession of the Society for Psychical Research contained seven envelopes, one inside another, containing clues when opened consecutively. The instructions were somewhat complex and, owing to the war years following his death, could not be applied. The final envelope with the test message was opened February 10, 1947. No psychic had identified it. The test did not lead to the evidence of survival hoped for (see Journal of the SPR Vol. 38, pp. 121-134).

Gen 27 2013

Maximilian Kolbe (SP3RN) Patron saint of amateur radio

SP3RN

Father Maximillian Kolbe, SP3RN is recognized by the Catholic church as the patron saint of amateur radio. After the Polish occupation and in the early years of World War II he used his station to report on the atrocities being committed by the Nazis on the Poles. In the end he volunteered to be sent to a concentration camp instead of another man.

Biography

He was born Raymund Kolbe on 8 January 1894 in Zduńska Wola, in the Kingdom of Poland, which was a part of the Russian Empire, the second son of Julius Kolbe and Maria Dabrowska. His father was an ethnic German^[6] and his mother was Polish. He had four brothers, Francis, Joseph, Walenty (who lived a year) and Andrew (who lived four years).^{[citation needed]}

Kolbe’s family moved to Pabianice, where his parents initially worked as basket weavers. Later, his mother worked as a midwife (often donating her services), and operated a shop in part of their rented house, where she sold groceries and household goods. Julius Kolbe worked at the Krushe and Ender Mill and also worked on a parcel of rented land where he grew vegetables. In 1914, Julius joined Józef Piłsudski‘s Polish Legions and was captured by the Russians and hanged for fighting for the independence of a partitioned Poland.^{[citation needed]}

Kolbe’s life was strongly influenced by a childhood vision of the Virgin Mary that he later described:

That night, I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me, a Child of Faith. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.^[7]

WATCH THE VIDEO OF Maximilian Kolbe