In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Lazarevich and the family name is Poliakoff.
Joseph Poliakoff
Иосиф Поляков
Born
Iosif Lazarevich Polyakov
24 April 1873[1]
Kremenchuk, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire, now Poltava Oblast, Ukraine
Died
24 November 1959 (aged 86)[2]
London, England, U.K.
Nationality
British
Occupation(s)
Telephone and sound Engineer and Inventor
Known for
Founder of Multitone Electronics
Spouse
Flora Shabbat
Children
Alexander Poliakoff
Relatives
Sir Martyn Poliakoff (grandson) Stephen Poliakoff (grandson)
Joseph Lazarevich Poliakoff (Russian: Ио́сиф Ла́заревич Поляко́в; 24 April 1873 – 24 November 1959) was a Ukrainian-born British telephone and sound engineer and inventor, particularly of hearing aids.[3]
Poliakoff was a Ukrainian who experienced first-hand the communist revolution in Russia from the family's Moscow flat across from the Kremlin.[4] Near starvation after the revolution, he was given a government job as a district telephone inspector from an admiring commissar and he helped build Moscow's first automatic telephone exchange.[4] He then fled with his family from the Soviet Union to the UK in 1924.[5][6]
Poliakoff was a renowned inventor of electrical devices[7] whose many inventions included a selenium photograph telephony shutter in 1899 (US patent 700,083, 13 May 1902),[8][9] which, along with electrical sound amplification, allowed for synchronized audio on film, the radio volume control, a magnetic induction loop that allowed hearing-impaired people to hear in auditoriums or theatres,[10][11] and the paging beeper.[12]
He also founded the Multitone Electric Company of London, England in 1931 that produced hearing aid devices,[13] with their most prestigious client being Winston Churchill.[12] Poliakoff was managing director until 1938.[3]
He married Flora Shabbat, a granddaughter of a textile millionaire.[14] His son, Alexander Poliakoff (1910–1996) was chairman of Multitone Electronics for over 40 years,[14] and his grandsons are the chemist Sir Martyn Poliakoff and the dramatist/director Stephen Poliakoff.
^1939 England and Wales Register
^England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995
^ abProQuest (2 January 1960). "Obituary: JOSEPH POLIAKOFF - ProQuest". Retrieved 12 April 2017 – via ProQuest.
^ abPoliakoff, Stephen (28 May 2008). "Ringside at the revolution". The Guardian.
^Wroe, Nicholas (27 November 2009). "A life in drama: Stephen Poliakoff". The Guardian.
^Information, Reed Business (12 January 1978). New Scientist. p. 97. Retrieved 5 December 2016. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)
^Periodic Videos (27 October 2016). "Geissler Tubes – Periodic Table of Videos" – via YouTube.
^Western Electrician. 1902. p. 382. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
^The Electrical World and Engineer. 1901. p. 299. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
^"Induction Loops Around the World Where are we? – Part I–Robert Traynor–Hearing International". Hearinghealthmatters.org. 29 November 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
^"Patent US2252641 – Method of and apparatus for the transmission of speech and other sounds - Google Patents". Google.com. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
^ abGarvey, Alison (9 May 2011). "Marketing Content Company: Multitone, the inventor of the first paging system celebrates its 80th birthday today". Mccinternational.blogspot.com. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
^"History of T-Coils—General Information". Hearingaidmuseum.com. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
^ abJeanne Vronskaya (30 July 1996). "Obituary: Alexander Poliakoff". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
Joseph Lazarevich Poliakoff (Russian: Ио́сиф Ла́заревич Поляко́в; 24 April 1873 – 24 November 1959) was a Ukrainian-born British telephone and sound engineer...
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over 40 years. Poliakoff was born in 1910 at his parents' country house at Losino-Ostrovskaya, near Moscow, the only son of JosephPoliakoff, a Russian-Jewish...
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founded by JosephPoliakoff in London in 1931, with a £500 loan from Henry Myer, his lawyer.[non-primary source needed] JosephPoliakoff was a Russian-born...
induction loop communication system was invented by JosephPoliakoff (grandfather of Sir Martyn Poliakoff) in Great Britain in 1937. The pickup coil in a...
Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. ExplorePAHistory.com Poliakoff, Martyn. "Joseph Priestley". The Periodic Table of Videos. University of Nottingham...
yeshiva network. In 1901, with financial support from Yaakov and Eliezer Poliakoff he opened spinning and weaving mills in Dubrovno and Mahilyow and established...
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Other artists he met included Serge Poliakoff, who then started visiting L'Equipe. At the time of their meeting Poliakoff was still committed to figuration...
Pierre Soulages, Nicolas de Staël, Hans Hartung, Gérard Schneider, Serge Poliakoff, Georges Mathieu and Jean Messagier, among several others. (See list of...
Christopher Nolan's film The Prestige (2006). She appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's Joe's Palace in 2007, in addition to appearing in several other television...
from the original on 4 December 2015. "BBC Two announces new Stephen Poliakoff drama with stellar cast". BBC News. 30 March 2015. Archived from the original...
(Press release). "The Family Way: Claire Skinner warms to her role in Poliakoff's new drama" (Press release). Time Out–London: Plugged In section, by Emma...
biographical drama about John's life written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, was released in 2003. On 17 July 1917, due to a growing anti-German sentiment...
Lorna Doone. He won critical acclaim for his performances in the Stephen Poliakoff film Close My Eyes (1991) about a brother and sister who embark on an...
longtime performer with the Blackpool Tower Circus Coco the Clown (Nicolai Poliakoff) - longtime star clown of the Bertram Mills Circus, after making a name...
Retrieved 29 January 2019. "Nottingham tram named in honour of Sir Martyn Poliakoff". BBC News. 16 December 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2022. Tram Names. Honouring...
earned Weeks a Young Artist Award nomination. He also appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's The Lost Prince (filmed 2002, released 2003) as the young George, Duke...
Warehouse Theatre, London (1978) Mike, Shout Across The River by Stephen Poliakoff for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Warehouse Theatre, London (1978)...
adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel James Bond music Outline of James Bond Poliakoff, Keith (2000). "License to Copyright – The Ongoing Dispute Over the Ownership...
"Jericho Gets Jewish Center" (PDF). The New York Times. June 28, 1959. Poliakoff, Ira. Synagogues of Long Island, Arcadia Publishing, 2017. ISBN 9781439663493...
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