Joseph Poliakoff
Who was Joseph Poliakoff?
Russian-British engineer
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Joseph Poliakoff (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Joseph Lazarevich Poliakoff (24 April 1873 – 24 November 1959) was a Russian-born British engineer and inventor best known for his work in hearing aid technology and electrical audio devices. Born in Kremenchuk, then part of the Russian Empire, he studied at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, one of Russia's top engineering schools. He had a wide-ranging career as an inventor and electrical engineer, contributing to telephony, cinema sound, and hearing aid technology.
Before Fame
Growing up as a Russian Jew in the late 1800s, Poliakoff experienced significant social and technological changes in the Russian Empire. He went to Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which put him right in the middle of Russia's budding industrial and engineering culture. This education gave him the technical skills he needed for his later inventions. In 1899, he developed a selenium photograph telephony shutter, crucial for synchronizing audio with film, and he received US patent 700,083 for it in May 1902. This early success showed his ability to blend optics, telephony, and electrical engineering long before such innovation was common.
Key Achievements
- Invented a selenium photograph telephony shutter in 1899 (US patent 700,083, 1902) enabling synchronized audio on film
- Developed the radio volume control, a fundamental feature of broadcast audio devices
- Invented the magnetic induction loop system allowing hearing-impaired individuals to hear in public venues
- Founded the Multitone Electric Company of London in 1931, a leading producer of hearing aid technology
- Contributed to the construction of Moscow's first automatic telephone exchange following the Russian Revolution
Did You Know?
- 01.Poliakoff lived in a Moscow flat directly across from the Kremlin during the Bolshevik Revolution, witnessing the upheaval of 1917 at close quarters.
- 02.After the revolution left his family near starvation, he was rescued by an admiring commissar who gave him a government post as a district telephone inspector, a role through which he helped construct Moscow's first automatic telephone exchange.
- 03.His invention of a magnetic induction loop allowed hearing-impaired audiences to hear clearly in theatres and auditoriums, a technology that remains in widespread use in public venues around the world.
- 04.Winston Churchill was among the most prominent clients of Multitone Electric Company, the hearing aid firm Poliakoff founded in London in 1931.
- 05.His grandson Sir Martyn Poliakoff became a distinguished chemist and public science communicator, while another grandson, Stephen Poliakoff, became a celebrated British dramatist and film director.