2021-04-20 Tue

Karl Ferdinand Braun was a German electrical engineer, inventor, physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. Braun contributed significantly to the development of radio and television technology. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Guglielmo Marconi "for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".

Braun received his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1872. Braun is also known as the developer of the cathode-ray oscilloscope. He demonstrated the first oscilloscope (Braun tube) in 1897, after work on high-frequency alternating currents. Cathode-ray tubes had previously been characterized by uncontrolled rays; Braun succeeded in producing a narrow stream of electrons, guided by means of alternating voltage, that could trace patterns on a fluorescent screen. This invention, the forerunner of the television tube and radarscope, also became an important laboratory research instrument.

To honour him Guinea Bissau Postal Department has issued a stamp of value 450 francs.

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