Turning the pages back...

February 2, 1845

A fascinating polymath, Ivan Puluj was born in the town of Hrymaliv, near Ternopil, on February 2, 1845. Sent to Vienna for his studies, he obtained a degree in theology in 1869, then went on to study physics, graduating in 1872. Five years later, with a Ph.D. in physics from Strasbourg, he returned to Vienna University to teach.

In 1884, he moved to Prague, the city of magic and alchemy, where he served as full professor of experimental physics and electrical technology at the Polytechnical Institute until 1916, as its rector (1899-1900) and the first dean of the electrical technology faculty.

Puluj made major contributions in the fields of molecular physics, cathode rays, electrical discharges in gases and the technology of alternating currents.

While working on a cathode-ray tube of his own invention (known in Europe at the time as a "Puluj tube"), he observed and captured on film some mysterious invisible rays, several years before Wilhelm Roentgen did so. Unfortunately, he published his records later than the German scientist, and so X-rays are not presently measured in "Pulujs."

Nevertheless, he made many advances in the field of electric incandescent lamps (Ukraine's Edison), of telemetry and thermal measurement.

Apart from the over 50 technical and scientific books in German he authored, Puluj also produced over 30 articles and brochures on the Ukrainian question. Active in Ukrainian community life in both Vienna and Prague, he served on many relief committees and founded the Society of Ukrainian Theologians in 1868 (later known as the Sich student society).

In 1871, he published the first Ukrainian colloquial prayerbook. Together with the writer Panteleimon Kulish, he translated the New Testament into Ukrainian (1880), then teamed up with Ivan Nechui-Levytsky to render the Old Testament. Together, these became part of the Ukrainian Bible published by the British Bible Society in 1903.

Ivan Puluj; died in Prague, two days short of his 73rd birthday, in 1918.

Sources: "Puliui, Ivan," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 4 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993).

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 28, 1996, No. 4, Vol. LXIV

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