Born on December 27, 1894 (January 8, 1895) in the family of a Rostov manufacturer, he was interested in chemistry and aircraft modeling. In August 1923, Mints was appointed head of the Scientific Testing Institute of the Military-Technical Council of Army Communications (SRI VTSS RKKA ()), created in April of the same year on the basis of the Military Radio Engineering Laboratory (VRTL). Under his leadership, the first radio broadcasts of concerts, operas and performances from theater halls, as well as newsreels from streets and squares, were carried out. While studying room
acoustics, he proposed a method for mixing the signal from several microphones. Mints actively supported radio amateurs - he led radio circles, gave consultations, under the pseudonym "A. Modulator" wrote articles for popular science magazines. In 1928, when, on the initiative of
Sergo Ordzhonikidze, the construction of powerful
radio broadcasting stations was underway in the country, a small group of specialists under the leadership of Mints was transferred to Leningrad, receiving independent status as the "Bureau of Powerful Radio Construction". This team became the basis of the "Powerful Radio Construction Plant named after the Comintern", which included several factories, as well as scientific, design and installation organizations. In the fall of 1929, the 100 kW Radio Station named after the
All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, designed here, made the USSR one of the world leaders in radio construction. Foreign specialists came to learn the experience of building powerful radio stations. While working in Leningrad, Mintz became interested in radar, as well as the development of television equipment. In 1930, he organized the first television laboratory in the USSR. In February 1931, the head of the department of radio transmitting devices of the Central Radio Laboratory, Mints, along with six scientists, was arrested on charges of “sabotage work in the field of radio communications of the Red Army.” On June 6, 1931, Mints was sentenced to 5 years in prison. But already on July 18 of the same year, by a resolution of the
OGPU board, he was released - a decision was made to build a new long-wave radio broadcasting station with a then unheard-of power of 500 kW (at that time the largest radio transmitter in Europe had a power of 120 kW, in the USA - 50 kW). In 1932, Mintz graduated from the Moscow Communications Training Center as an external student and received a patent for a device for interstitial image scanning, the principle of which became the basis of the interlaced scanning system. Under his leadership,
Anton Breitbart developed an industrial complex of television equipment - a mechanical television with an image size of 27x27 cm and a clarity of 1200 resolution elements (30 lines at 12.5 frames per second), a transmitter with a frequency band of 14 kHz and studio equipment. Since 1946 he was a corresponding Member of the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. In the same year, to solve scientific and engineering problems within the framework of the Soviet atomic project, which was supervised by
Lavrentiy Beria, Laboratory No. 11 was organized as part of the
Lebedev Physical Institute (from 1947 - as part of LIPAN). Mints was appointed head of the laboratory. His employees were tasked with developing wide-range microwave generators for electron and proton accelerators, controlled thermonuclear fusion installations and radiophysical installations for applied purposes. In the 1950s, work began on large ground-based radar stations for space control, missile early warning, and missile defense systems. In 1956, by the Decree of the
Central Committee of the
CPSU and the
Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union "On Missile Defense", Mints was appointed one of the main designers of the long-range detection radar. In 1957, his laboratory was transformed into an independent Radio Engineering Institute of the
Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. In 1956 he was
rehabilitated in the second case, in 1958 in the first. He died on December 29, 1974, and was buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 7) in
Moscow. ==References==