Karl Braun

Updated: 09/15/2017 by Computer Hope
Karl Braun

Name: Karl Ferdinand Braun

Born: June 6, 1850, in Fulda, Electorate of Hessen, Germany

Death: April 20, 1918 (Age: 67)

Computer-related contributions

  • German inventor, physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics.
  • Contributed significantly to the development of the radio and television technology: he shared with Guglielmo Marconi the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics.
  • In 1874, he discovered that a point-contact semiconductor rectifies alternating current.
  • In 1897, he built the first CRT (cathode ray tube) and cathode ray tube oscilloscope. The CRT is still called the "Braun tube" in German-speaking countries (Braunsche Röhre) and in Japan.
  • Around 1898, he invented a crystal diode rectifier or cat's whisker diode.

Honors and awards

  • Nobel Prize in Physics (1909).