Boris Pavlovich Grabovsky (, , 26 May 1901 – 13 January 1966) was a
Soviet
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
of
Ukrainian descent who invented a first fully
electronic TV set (video transmitting tube and video receiver) that was demonstrated in 1928.
In 1925, one of the pioneers of television
Boris Rosing advised and helped him apply for a
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
(''issued under No 5592'') of a fully electronic TV set called Telefot. Boris is the son of the
Ukrainian poet
Pavlo Hrabovsky.
Invention
In his method patented in 1925, Grabovsky proposed a new principle of the
TV imaging based on the vertical and horizontal
electron beam
Since the mid-20th century, electron-beam technology has provided the basis for a variety of novel and specialized applications in semiconductor manufacturing, microelectromechanical systems, nanoelectromechanical systems, and microscopy.
Mechani ...
sweeping under high
voltage
Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
that is widely used in the modern cathode-ray tubes.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
and
ethnographer Boris Golender (Ukrainian: ''Борис Голендер'') in his video lecture described in details where and how the
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
Boris Grabovsky demonstrated a first fully electronic TV set to committee and public in summer 1928.
[Invention of television and Boris Grabovsky](_blank)
/ref> Although this date of demonstration of the fully electronic TV set is the earliest known so far, most of the modern historians claim that either Vladimir Zworykin
Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (1888/1889July 29, 1982) was a Russian-American inventor, engineer, and pioneer of television technology. Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode-ray tubes. He played a role in t ...
or Philo Farnsworth
Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971), "The father of television", was the American inventor and pioneer who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States Government.
Burns, R. W. (1998), ''Televisi ...
[K. Krull, The boy who invented TV: The story of Philo Farnsworth, 2014] were supposedly first. Contribution made by Boris Grabovsky to the development of early television was acknowledged by the Government of the USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.
Biography
Boris Grabovsky was born in 1901 in Tobolsk, Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
, where his father, a prominent Ukrainian poet Pavlo Hrabovsky was living in exile as a member of the Russian revolutionary movement Narodnaya Volya
Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...
. After the death of his father the next year, the family moved to Odessa
ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
then to Kharkov
Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine. . In 1917, they had to move to Central Asia, to Kyrgyz village Tokmok
Tokmok (; ) is a city in the Chüy Valley, northern Kyrgyzstan, east of the country's capital of Bishkek, with a population of 71,443 in 2021. Its elevation is 816 m above sea level. From 2003 to 2006, it was the administrative seat of Chüy R ...
. He died in January 1966 in Frunze, the capital of the Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic.
Education
Boris Grabovsky started his education in Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
special school. Then he entered preparational faculty of Central Asian University in Tashkent where he worked with Prof. G. Popov. In the university he read articles by Boris Rosing in the field of electronic telescopy. Being excited by the idea of the transmission of images over a distance, he invented the cathode
A cathode is the electrode from which a conventional current leaves a polarized electrical device such as a lead-acid battery. This definition can be recalled by using the mnemonic ''CCD'' for ''Cathode Current Departs''. Conventional curren ...
commutator, which was the first prototype of his transmitting tube.
Honours
In 1965, Boris Grabovsky was awarded the title of the Honored Inventor of Uzbekistan
, image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg
, image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg
, symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem
, national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...
.
In 1977, the museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
of electronic television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
named Boris Grabovsky was founded in Tashkent.
There is a museum named after Boris Grabovsky in the Tyumen
Tyumen ( ; rus, Тюмень, p=tʲʉˈmʲenʲ, a=Ru-Tyumen.ogg) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Tyumen Oblast, Russia. It is situated just east of the Ural Mountains, along the Tura ( ...
Industrial Institute.
There is a museum named after Boris Grabovsky in the village of Pushkarne (now Grabovske) in Sumy region .
In the Vinnytsia
Vinnytsia ( ; , ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative centre, administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also s ...
National Technical University at the Faculty of Radio Electronics in the early 2000s, a photo gallery of prominent scientist
A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
s — radio pioneers with a description of their achievements was created. Ukrainian scientists (with Boris Grabovsky) are presented with Maxwell
Maxwell may refer to:
People
* Maxwell (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
** James Clerk Maxwell, mathematician and physicist
* Justice Maxwell (disambiguation)
* Maxwell baronets, in the Baronetage of N ...
, Heinrich Hertz
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (; ; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves predicted by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism.
Biography
Heinri ...
, Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess of Marconi ( ; ; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegraphy, wireless tel ...
, Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla (;["Tesla"](_blank)
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 10 July 1856 – 7 ...
, Alexander Stepanovich Popov.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grabovsky, Boris
Soviet engineers
Television pioneers
1901 births
1966 deaths
Soviet inventors