Ochorowicz, Julian

Born Feb. 23, 1850, in Radzymin, in what is now the Polish People’s Republic; died May 1, 1917, in Warsaw. Polish positivist philosopher, psychologist, and inventor in telephony.

Ochorowicz graduated from the faculty of physics and mathematics at Warsaw University in 1872 and received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Leipzig the following year. From 1875 to 1882 he was a docent in the subdepartment of psychology at the University of L’vov. Living in Paris between 1882 and 1892, he collaborated with J. M. Charcot, C. Richet, and T. Ribot on the scientific problems of hypnosis and on psychotherapeutic methods. Ochorowicz’s inventions in telephony—a double-diaphragm electromagnetic telephone receiver and a thermal microphone—date from the same period. In 1886, at the third electrical-engineering exhibition in St. Petersburg, Ochorowicz arranged the first wire broadcast of opera performances.