Ivan Pulyui

Ivan Pulyui (Іван Пулюй, Johann Puluj) (born February 2, 1845 in Hrymayliv village; died January 31, 1918 in Prague) was a Ukrainian-born physicist, inventor and patriot who has been championed as an early developer of the use of X-rays for medical imaging. His contributions were largely neglected until the end of the 20th century.

Biography
Ivan Pulyui graduated with honors from Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna, later also from the Department of Philosophy. In 1876 Pulyui finished his doctorate on internal friction in gases at the University of Strasbourg under supervision of August Kundt. Pulyui taught at the Navy academy in Fiume (Rijeka, Croatia), University of Vienna and Higher Technical School in Prague. He was elected the dean of the Faculty of electrical engineering in Higher Technical School in Prague in 1888-1889. Pulyui also worked as a state adviser on electrical engineering for Czech and Moravian governments.

Scientific contribution
As a result of experiments into what he called cold light Pulyui is reputed to have developed an X-ray emitting device as early as 1881. Pulyui reputedly first demonstrated an X-ray photograph of a 13-year-old boy's broken arm and an X-ray photograph of his daughter's hand with a pin lying under it. The device became known as the Pulyui lamp and was mass-produced for a period. Reputedly, Pulyui personally presented one to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen who went on to be credited as the major developer of the technology.

Pulyui published his results in a scientific paper, Luminous Electrical Matter and the Fourth State of Matter in the Notes of the Austrian Imperial Academy of Sciences (1880-1883), but expressed his ideas in an obscure manner using obsolete terminology. Pulyui did gain some recognition when the work was translated and published as a book by the Royal Society in the UK.

Pulyui made many other discoveries as well. He is particularly noted for inventing a device for determining the mechanical equivalent of heat that was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1878. Pulyui also participated in opening of several power plants in Austria-Hungary.

Quotes about Puluj

 * "World history has never been just to certain individuals or certain nations. Small nations and their achievements are often neglected while the accomplishments of large nations are at times exaggerated."
 * Slavko Bokshan, a Serbian scientist who worked in the same department as Pulyui and Roentgen
 * "Not only Ukraine, but the whole world, will shortly talk about the man who enlightened science and spirituality with reason."
 * Ukrainian writer Panteleymon Kulish
 * The name Ivan Pulyui "belongs to those who formed the world at the turn of the centuries."
 * Science historian Wilhelm Formann

Honours

 * Ukraine's Ternopil State Ivan Pul'yu Technical University is named after him.
 * A stamp published on the occasion of Pulyui's 150th Birth Anniversary in 1995.
 * A streets in Kyiv, Lviv and other ukrainan cities has the name of Ivan Pulyui.



Pulyui's publications about X-rays

 * Strahlende Elektrodenmaterie //Wiener Berichte I. - 1880. - 81. - S.864 -923; II. - 1881. - 83. - S.402-420; III. 1881. - 83. - S.693-708; IV. - 1882. - 85. - S.871-881.
 * Strahlende Elektrodenmaterie und der sogenannte vierte Aggregatzustand' - Wien; Verlag Carl Gerold Sohn, 1883.
 * Radiant Elektrode Matter and the so Called Fourth State. -London: Physical Memoirs, 1889. - Vol. l, Pt.2. - P.233-331.
 * Über die Entstehung der Röntgenstrahlen und ihre photographische Wirkung// Wiener Berichte II Abt. 1896. - 105. - S.228-238.

Support of Ukrainian culture
Pulyui is also known for his contribution in promoting Ukrainian culture. He actively supported opening of a Ukrainian university in Lviv and published articles to support Ukrainian language. Together with P. Kulish and I. Nechuy-Levytsky he translated Gospels and Psalter in Ukrainian. Being a professor Pulyui organized scholarships for Ukrainian students in Austria-Hungary.