2.1. About museum
T
he
A.S. Popov Central Museum of Communications, one of the oldest
museums of science and technology in the world, is located in the
historic centre of St.-Petersburg, near Isaac Square.
On September, 11th, 1872, the head of the Telegraph Department of Russia, Carl Carlovich Luders substantiated the foundation of this museum:
“…For the purpose of familiarization of all the telegraph workers and other interested persons with all innovations and improvements in the field of telegraphy, it is proposed to organize a permanent museum in Saint-Petersburg, based on objects presented on the Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition…”
Thus the beginnings of the Museum collections were laid. Nowadays these archives and collections contain well over 8 million items, they consist of authentic documents and objects relating to the history of post, telegraph and telephone, radio and broadcasting, space communication and all modern means of telecommunication. The Museum cares for 15 000 apparatuses and technical pieces, 50 000 archival documents, vast collections of “marks of postal payment”, including the eight-million items Russian National Collection of Philately, specialised research library with 50 000 books and periodicals.
Since 1945 the Museum bears the name of an outstanding Russian scientist and inventor professor Alexandr Stepanovich Popov, who first in the world demonstrated the transmission of radio signals over distance, and thereby has ushered in an epoch of radio communication.
The Central Museum of Communications is a leading in its field in Russian Federation and as such provides consulting supervision for other museums of the telecommunication industry.
T
he
new museum’s exposition exhibits not only valuable objects relating
to the history of the development of postal service, telegraphy,
telephony, radio, television, satellite and space communication, but
also provides for visitors a good opportunity to familiarize
themselves with the new achievements of Russian and foreign firms and
companies working in telecommunication industry that experiences
nowadays so rapid a development.
The Museum’s revival in the year of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg became real due to the initiative and continuous support of the Russian Federation Ministry of Communications and Information, the Russian Fund for the History of Communications, “OAO Svyazinvest”, and good will of sponsors.
2.2. General excursion over the museum
The first turn of the new exposition had been prepared by the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.
I
ts
first section is devoted to postal communication. It illustrates the
centuries-old history of Russian Post having started with
transporting correspondence via messengers and come up to the
present-day postal service technologies. There are original 19th
century sleigh and scale models of other means of transporting mail,
bells for a horse shaft-bows, postal horns, postmen badges, bags and
trunks. After introduction of the postal stationary envelopes in
1845, and later on postage stamps, mail boxes appeared on the
streets; letter boxes from several goubernyas (provinces), mail boxes
for wrappers and parcels, letter boxes with indicators of the time of
next correspondence pick-up, old automatic stamp-vending machines.
A scale model of the Chateau semaphore, or visual telegraph, widely used in Russia and Europe in 1830-ies, opens the exposition section devoted to the history of telegraphy in Russia. The original electromagnetic telegraph device invented by P.L. Schilling in 1832 is amongst the unique exhibits here. This very invention had begun the epoch of practicable electric telegraphy; its evolution is represented in the exposition by the S. Morse telegraph for transmitting messages in Morse Code, the D. Hughes type-printing telegraph, the G. Caselli facsimile telegraph, the “Neva” photo-telegraph, the N. Trousevich teletypewriter and others.
The J.P. Reis, A.G. Bell first telephone devices, the D. Hughes carbon microphone, transmitting-receiving telephone tubes, telephones of various systems represent major developments in telephony. There are also exhibits of switchgear: telephone exchange of the first Russian long-distance telephone line that connected St.-Petersburg and Moscow (1898), step-by-step switch for the electromechanical automatic telephone exchange station, the V.I. Kovalenkov electron tube telephone amplifier, and other equipment.
The Museum is named after an outstanding Russian physicist and inventor prof. A. S. Popov, who first in the world demonstrated radio signals transmission, and memorial collection of the devices and appliances used by him in his experiments is duly presented at the exposition. Diverse pieces of radio equipment made in the Nijegorodsky Radio Laboratory, a short-waveband radio transmitter, the A.V. Losev "Kristadin" radio receiver, transistor devices, various radio-sets well illustrate the history of radio communication development.
The exposition section devoted to the history of television and TV-broadcasting begins with display of unique devices of the first systems of mechano-optical television. It appears that first practicable ideas in electronic television were suggested by B.L. Rosing, who had invented the world’s first electronic receiving television tube, model of which is on display here. There is the first electronic transmitting tube, iconoscope, first Russian electronic TV-sets, “ТК-1”, “17ТН-1”, produced before 1941. Here one can see and first widely popular in the USSR TV-set “КВН-49”, the “КТ-116” colour television transmitting camera, a scale model of the antenna tower of the Ostankinsky TV-centre in Moscow, and some other exhibits.
The new exposition is supported by multimedia equipment, it allows visitors to see visual demonstration of the functioning principles of some unique historical devices and apparatuses on display and watch old documentary reels.
How many sections of the new exposition are described in the text?
Think over the name of each section to attract the visitors.
Situation: You are a guide of The Central Museum of Communications. Be ready to make the excursion over any two sections for the students from Scottish College of Radioelectronics.
Pre-reading task
Read the text and find the answers to the following questions.
Why is Maxwell considered to be the most influential scientist of the nineteenth century?
What is Maxwell's most important contribution?
TEXT 3
James Clerk Maxwell
[The work of Maxwell] ...
the most profound and the most fruitful that
physics has experienced since the time of Newton.
Albert Einstein, The Sunday Post
James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist. His most significant achievement was aggregating a set of equations in electricity, magnetism and inductance — Maxwell's equations — including an important modification of Ampère's Circuital Law. It was the most unified model of electromagnetism yet. It is famous for introducing to the physics community a detailed model of light as an electromagnetic phenomenon, building upon the earlier hypothesis advanced by Faraday (Faraday Effect).
He also developed the Maxwell distribution, a statistical means to describe aspects of the kinetic theory of gases. These two discoveries helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for future work in such fields as special relativity and quantum mechanics. He is also known for creating the first true colour photograph in 1861.
Maxwell demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space, in the form of waves, and at the constant speed of light. Finally, in 1861 Maxwell wrote a four-part publication in the Philosophical Magazine called On Physical Lines of Force where he first proposed that light was in fact undulations in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena.
Maxwell is considered by many physicists to be the scientist of the nineteenth century most influential on twentieth century physics. His contributions to physics are considered by many to be of the same magnitude as those of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.
Maxwell grew up on his father's estate in the Scottish countryside. He was encouraged by his father to pursue his scientific and mathematical interests. Maxwell entered college at the age of 16 and eventually graduated with high honours in mathematics.
In 1850, Maxwell left for Cambridge University and initially attended Peterhouse, but eventually left for Trinity College where he believed it was easier to obtain a fellowship. At Trinity, he was elected to the secret society known as the Cambridge Apostles. In November 1851, Maxwell studied under the tutor William Hopkins (nicknamed the "wrangler maker"). A considerable part of the translation of his electromagnetism equations was accomplished during Maxwell's career as an undergraduate in Trinity.
In 1854, Maxwell graduated with a degree as second wrangler in mathematics from Trinity (i.e. scoring second-highest in the final mathematics examination) and was declared equal with the senior wrangler of his year in the more exacting ordeal of the Smith's prize examination. Immediately after taking his degree, he read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society a novel memoir, On the Transformation of Surfaces by Bending. This is one of the few purely mathematical papers he published, and it exhibited at once to experts the full genius of its author. About the same time, his elaborate memoir, On Faraday's Lines of Force appeared, in which he gave the first indication of some of the electrical investigations which culminated in the greatest work of his life.
The greatest work of Maxwell's life was devoted to electricity. Maxwell's most important contribution was the extension and mathematical formulation of earlier work on electricity and magnetism by Michael Faraday, André-Marie Ampère, and others into a linked set of differential equations (originally, 20 equations in 20 variables, later re-expressed in quaternion- and vector-based notations). These equations, which are now collectively known as Maxwell's equations (or occasionally, "Maxwell's Wonderful Equations"), were first presented to the Royal Society in 1864, and together describe the behaviour and relation between electric and magnetic fields, as well as their interactions with matter.
Maxwell showed that the equations predict the existence of waves of oscillating electric and magnetic fields that travel through empty space at a speed that could be predicted from simple electrical experiments; using the data available at the time, Maxwell obtained a velocity of 310,740,000 m/s. In his 1864 paper A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field, Maxwell wrote,
The agreement of the results seems to show that light and magnetism are affections of the same substance, and that light is an electromagnetic disturbance propagated through the field according to electromagnetic laws.
Maxwell was proven correct, and his quantitative connection between light and electromagnetism is considered one of the great triumphs of 19th century physics.
At that time, Maxwell believed that the propagation of light required a medium for the waves, dubbed the luminiferous aether. Over time, the existence of such a medium, permeating all space and yet apparently undetectable by mechanical means, proved more and more difficult to reconcile with experiments such as the Michelson-Morley experiment. Moreover, it seemed to require an absolute frame of reference in which the equations were valid, with the distasteful result that the equations changed form for a moving observer. These difficulties inspired Albert Einstein to formulate the theory of special relativity, and in the process Einstein dispensed with the requirement of a luminiferous aether.
Make a detailed plan of the text.
Be ready to speak on the topic “Scientists” according to this plan.
Pre-reading task
Where do people use radio? What things or places are connected with the name of A.S. Popov?
Read the text and find the answers to the following questions:
Why is "Radio Day" celebrated in the Russian Federation on May, 7?
How did the invention of A.Popov help to rescue the Apraksin's crew?
TEXT 4
Alexander Popov
A
lexander
Stepanovich Popov (Gregorian: March
16,
1859
- January
13,
1906,
Julian: March
4,
1859
- December
31,
1905)
was a Russian
physicist
who was the first to demonstrate the practical application of
electromagnetic (radio)
waves, although he did not care to apply for a patent for his
invention.
Born in the village Turinskiye Rudniki (now Krasnoturinsk, Sverdlovsk Province) in the Ural mountains as the son of a priest, he became interested in natural sciences early in his youth. His father ensured that Alexander received a good education at the seminary at Perm, and later studying physics at the St. Petersburg university. After graduation in 1882 he started to work as a laboratory assistant at the university. However, due to the bad funding of the university he changed to a teaching job at the Russian Navy's Torpedo School in Kronstadt on Kotlin Island.
Beginning in the early 1890s he conducted experiments along the lines of Heinrich Hertz's research. In 1894 he built his first radio receiver, which contained a coherer. Further refined as a lightning detector, it was presented to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895 — the day has been celebrated in the Russian Federation as "Radio Day". The paper on his findings was published the same year (December 15, 1895). In 1896, the article depicting Popov's invention was reprinted in the 'Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society'. In March 1896, he effected transmission of radio waves between different campus buildings in St. Petersburg. In November 1897, the French entrepreneur Eugene Ducretet made a transmitter and receiver based on wireless telegraphy in his own laboratory. According to Ducretet, he built his devices using Popov's lightning detector as a model. By 1898 Ducretet was manufacturing equipment of wireless telegraphy based on Popov's instructions. At the same time Popov effected ship-to-shore communication over a distance of 6 miles in 1898 and 30 miles in 1899.
In 1900 a radio station was established under Popov's instructions on Hogland island (Suursaari) to provide two-way communication by wireless telegraphy between the Russian naval base and the crew of the battleship General-Admiral Apraksin. The battleship ran aground on Hogland island in the Gulf of Finland in November, 1899. The crew of the Apraksin was not in immediate danger, but the water in the Gulf began to freeze. If the ship were to survive without serious damage until spring, it would likely have been crushed by moving ice floes. Due to bad weather and bureaucratic red tape, the crew of Apraksin to establish a wireless station on Hogland Island did not arrive there until January 1900. By February 5, however, messages were being received reliably. The wireless messages were relayed to Hogland Island by a station some 25 miles away at Kotka on the Finnish coast. Kotka was selected as the location for the wireless relay station because it was the point closest to Hogland Island served by telegraph wires connected to Russian naval headquarters.
By the time the Apraksin was freed from the rocks by the icebreaker Yermak at the end of April, 440 official telegraph messages had been handled by the Hogland Island wireless station. Besides the rescue of the Apraksin's crew, more than 50 Finnish fishermen, who were stranded on a piece of drift ice in the Gulf of Finland, were saved by the icebreaker Yermak following distress telegrams sent by wireless telegraphy.
In 1901 Alexander Popov was appointed as professor at the Electrotechnical Institute, which now bears his name. In 1905 he was elected director of the institute.
In 1905 he became seriously ill, after being very uneasy about the suppression of a student movement. He died of a brain hemorrhage on December 31, 1905 which corresponds to January 13, 1906 in the Gregorian calendar.
A minor planet 3074 Popov discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1979 is named after him.
Make a detailed plan of the text.
Be ready to speak on the topic “Inventors and their inventions” according to this plan.
Pre-reading task
Read the text and find the answers to the following questions:
What is the origin of the word “telecommunication”?
What are the means of communication in earlier and modern times?
What are the basic elements of a telecommunication system?
TEXT 5
Telecommunications
Telecommunication1 is the assisted transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, this may have involved the use of smoke signals, drums, semaphore, flags, or heliograph. In modern times, telecommunication typically involves the use of electronic transmitters such as the telephone, television, radio or computer. Early inventors in the field of telecommunication include Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi and John Logie Baird. Telecommunication is an important part of the world economy and the telecommunication industry's revenue has been placed at just under 3 percent of the gross world product.
Basic elements
A telecommunication system consists of three basic elements:
a transmitter that takes information and converts it to a signal;
a transmission medium that carries the signal; and,
a receiver that receives the signal and converts it back into usable information.
For example, in a radio broadcast the broadcast tower is the transmitter, free space is the transmission medium and the radio is the receiver. Often telecommunication systems are two-way with a single device acting as both a transmitter and receiver or transceiver. For example, a mobile phone is a transceiver.
Telecommunication over a phone line is called point-to-point communication because it is between one transmitter and one receiver. Telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called broadcast communication because it is between one powerful transmitter and numerous receivers.
Signals can be either analogue or digital. In an analogue signal, the signal is varied continuously with respect to the information. In a digital signal, the information is encoded as a set of discrete values (for example ones and zeros). During transmission the information contained in analogue signals will be degraded by noise. Conversely, unless the noise exceeds a certain threshold, the information contained in digital signals will remain intact. This noise resistance represents a key advantage of digital signals over analogue signals.
A collection of transmitters, receivers or transceivers that communicate with each other is known as a network. Digital networks may consist of one or more routers that route information to the correct user. An analogue network may consist of one or more switches that establish a connection between two or more users. For both types of network, repeaters may be necessary to amplify or recreate the signal when it is being transmitted over long distances. This is to combat attenuation that can render the signal indistinguishable from noise.
A channel is a division in a transmission medium so that it can be used to send multiple streams of information. For example, a radio station may broadcast at 96.1 MHz while another radio station may broadcast at 94.5 MHz. In this case, the medium has been divided by frequency and each channel has received a separate frequency to broadcast on. Alternatively, one could allocate each channel a recurring segment of time over which to broadcast — this is known as time-division multiplexing and is sometimes used in digital communication.
The shaping of a signal to convey information is known as modulation. Modulation can be used to represent a digital message as an analogue waveform. This is known as keying and several keying techniques exist (these include phase-shift keying, frequency-shift keying and amplitude-shift keying). Bluetooth, for example, uses phase-shift keying to exchange information between devices.
Modulation can also be used to transmit the information of analogue signals at higher frequencies. This is helpful because low-frequency analogue signals cannot be effectively transmitted over free space. Hence the information from a low-frequency analogue signal must be superimposed on a higher-frequency signal (known as a carrier wave) before transmission. There are several different modulation schemes available to achieve this (two of the most basic being amplitude modulation and frequency modulation). An example of this process is a DJ's voice being superimposed on a 96 MHz carrier wave using frequency modulation (the voice would then be received on a radio as the channel “96 FM”).
Write out the definitions of the following terms and translate these sentences:
“analogue signal”, “digital signal”, “network”, “channel”, “modulation”
Pre-reading task
Read the text and find the answers to the following questions:
What early forms of telecommunication were popular in different countries?
Who developed the first telegraph system?
When did the electrical transmission of voice become possible?
Whose names is the development of radio and television connected with?
What is ARPANET?
TEXT 6
History of Telecommunications