Pupin, Michael Idvorsky, << pyoo PEEN, MIH kah ehl ihd VAWR skee >> (1858-1935), was a Serbian American electrical engineer, educator, and inventor. In 1900, he patented the loading coil, a device that improved telephone sound quality and enabled people to talk on the telephone over much greater distances than before. Pupin came to the United States in 1874 and taught at Columbia University from 1889 to 1931. In 1924, he received a Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography, From Immigrant to Inventor (1923). He was born on Oct. 4, 1858, in Idvor, north of Belgrade in Serbia. He died in New York City on March 12, 1935.
