On the corner of Streets Matoušova and Preslova, in the direction of the river, above the entrance to the commercial space, there is a black plaque with bilingual text commemorating the place where the Ukrainian physicist and scientist, electrical engineer and important inventor Ivan Pavlovich Puluj (Puljuj; 1845, Hrymajlov near Ternopol - 1918, Prague) lived and died. Puluj was a prominent figure of the first wave of Ukrainian emigration in the Bohemian lands and an important member of the academic community of the German Technical University in Prague.

In the country to which I. P. Puluj gave most of his creative powers, his name has unfortunately fallen almost into oblivion. The black marble plaque was made on the initiative of Ukrainian students in Prague and unveiled on the Smíchov house No. 1268, today Preslova Street 5, on 22 June 1930. The plaque bears a commemorative inscription in Ukrainian and Czech:

Ivan P. Puluj (1845, Hrymajlov near Ternopol - 1918, Prague) spent almost half of his life in Bohemia and Prague. He made a name for himself mainly in electronics, telecommunications and as an inventor and designer of instruments for measuring physical quantities such as the mechanical equivalent of heat. It was for this device that he received a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Paris (1878). He also received further industry awards for his electrical inventions and devices at the next Paris World Exhibition in 1881. He was also honoured with the Order of the Iron Crown (1906) for his scientific and teaching activities.

He obtained his university diplomas in Vienna (at the faculties of theology and philosophy) and then taught as a high school teacher of physics and mathematics in a number of places. He defended his dissertation in Strasbourg in 1876, and in 1884, when he became a professor, he worked in experimental and technical physics at the German Technical University in Prague. In the same year he married his former student, and they had three sons and three daughters whom they raised in Prague, albeit in a Ukrainian-German language environment.

In 1888-1889 Puluj was the rector of the Prague German Technical University, and in 1902 he was appointed head of the newly established department of electrical engineering at the German Technical University in Prague. Puluj’s research focused on cathode ray research and as early as 1881 he constructed the so-called phosphor lamp, a vacuum tube in which the impact of cathode rays on oxides or sulphides of calcium, magnesium, strontium or barium produced not only visible light but, as it turned out in November 1895, radiation. Puluj’s research and this precursor of the “ X-ray” lamp made the eminent Prague-based Ukrainian researcher one of a plethora of scientists who worked simultaneously on a discovery that has been associated since 1896 with Prof. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the first Nobel Prize recipient in physics.

Puluj also became popular as a pioneer of electrification of our towns, e.g. in Mariánské Lázně, Havlíčkův (then German) Brod, Cvikov or Vyšší Brod. Puluj’s initiative and the project of the oldest Czech thermoelectric power plant in Prague’s Holešovice, which has been in continuous operation since 1899, is also not to be forgotten.

I. P. Puluj had high scientific and social authority. In 1910 he was appointed a court councillor and in 1916 he was even recommended for a ministerial post. He collaborated with a number of prominent experts, e.g. F. Křižík, E. Kolben and Č. Daňek. In 1911-1912 he was not only a neighbour but also a professional colleague of A. Einstein. Moreover, he was an important figure in Czech-Ukrainian relations as a publicist and political organizer.

Keywords: physics; Ivan Pavlovich Puluj (Puljuj); Puluj lamp; X-ray radiation; German Technical University in Prague; electrification

Kraus, I.: Slyšené slovo pomíjí, napsané trvá. Rozhledy matematicko-fyzikální, 50/2020), č. 1, s. 44–49. – URL: https://dml.cz/handle/10338.dmlcz/148129 [31. 1. 2022].

Bártík, V.: Puluj Ivan – Na domě čp. 1268 v Preslově ulici 15 v Praze 5 – Smíchov. – URL: https://www.pametni-desky-v-praze.cz/2020/10/04/puluj-ivan-na-dome-cp-1268-v-preslove-ulici-15-v-praze-5-smichov/ [25. 1. 2022].

Národní technické muzeum, Fondy a sbírky – Puluj Ivan Pavlovič (Puluj Johann), NAD 651 (1869–1918/1971). – URL: https://www.ntm.cz/archiv-knihovna/archiv-ntm/fondy-sbirky [31. 1. 2022].

Commemorative Plaque to Ivan Puluj in Smíchov, Prague