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History of radio

The early history of radio is the history of technology that produced radio instruments
that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and
inventions in what became radio. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy".
Later radio history increasingly involves matters of programming and content.

Who invented the radio?

In the history of radio and development of "wireless telegraphy", several people are
claimed to have "invented the radio" leading to a great radio controversy. The most
commonly accepted claims are:

 Jagadish Chandra Bose

 Guglielmo Marconi, who equipped ships with life-saving wireless

communications, conducted a reported transatlantic radio communications
experiments in 1901 and established the first commercial transatlantic radio
service in 1907.
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 Alexander Stepanovich Popov

 Nikola Tesla, who developed means to produce radio frequency currents, publicly
demonstrated the principles of radio, and transmitted long distance signals.

Radio technology is a product of many different discoveries and developments.

Various scientists proposed that electricity and magnetism, both capable of causing
attraction and repulsion of objects, were linked. In 1802 Gian Domenico Romagnosi
suggested the relationship between electric current and magnetism, but his reports went
unnoticed. In 1820 Hans Christian Ørsted performed a widely known experiment on
man-made electric current and magnetism. He demonstrated that a wire carrying a current
could deflect a magnetized compass needle. Ørsted's experiments discovered the
relationship between electricity and magnetism in a very simple experiment. Ørsted's
work influenced André-Marie Ampère to produce a theory of electromagnetism. During
its early development and long after wide use of the technology, disputes persisted as to
who could claim sole credit for this obvious boon to mankind. Closely related, radio was
developed along with two other key inventions, the telegraph and the telephone.

Wireless experiments of the 19th century

In the late 19th century it was clear to various scientists and experimenters that wireless
communication was possible. Various theoretical and experimental innovations led to the
development of radio and the communication system we know today. Some early work
was done by local effects and experiments of electromagnetic induction. Many
understood that there was nothing similar to the "ethereal telegraphy" [2][3] and telegraphy
by induction; the phenomena being wholly distinct. Wireless telegraphy was beginning to
take hold and the practice of transmitting messages without wires was being developed.
Many people worked on developing the devices and improvements.

Faraday
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James Clerk Maxwell, a theoretical physicist who developed a set of equations describing
electromagnetic waves. These later became known as Maxwell's equations.

In 1831, Michael Faraday began a series of experiments in which he discovered

electromagnetic induction. The relation was mathematically modelled by Faraday's law,
which subsequently became one of the four Maxwell equations. Faraday proposed that
electromagnetic forces extended into the empty space around the conductor, but did not
complete his work involving that proposal.

Maxwell
Between 1861 and 1865, based on the earlier experimental work of Faraday and other
scientists, James Clerk Maxwell developed his theory of electromagnetism, which
predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves. In 1873 Maxwell described the
theoretical basis of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in his paper to the Royal
Society, "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field."

William Henry Ward

In April 1872 William Henry Ward received U.S. Patent 126,356 for radio development.
However, this patent did not refer to any known scientific theory of electromagnetism
and could never have received and transmitted radio waves.

Mahlon Loomis
A few months after Ward received his patent, Mahlon Loomis of West Virginia received
U.S. Patent 129,971 for a "wireless telegraph" in July 1872. This claimed to utilize
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atmospheric electricity to eliminate the overhead wire used by the existing telegraph
systems. It did not contain diagrams or specific methods and it did not refer to or
incorporate any known scientific theory. It is substantially similar to William Henry
Ward's patent and could not have transmitted and received radio waves.

Edison (1875)
Towards the end of 1875, while experimenting with the telegraph, Thomas Edison noted
a phenomenon that he termed "etheric force", announcing it to the press on November 28.
He abandoned this research when Elihu Thomson, among others, ridiculed the idea. The
idea was not based on the electromagnetic waves described by Maxwell.

David E. Hughes
In 1878, David E. Hughes noticed that sparks could be heard in a telephone receiver
when experimenting with his carbon microphone. He developed this carbon-based
detector further and eventually could detect signals over a few hundred yards. He
demonstrated his discovery to the Royal Society in 1880, but was told it was merely
induction, and therefore abandoned further research.

Calzecchi-Onesti
In 1884, Temistocle Calzecchi-Onesti at Fermo in Italy invented a primitive device that
responded to radio waves. It consisted of a tube filled with iron filings, called a "coherer".
This device was a critical discovery because it would later be developed to become the
first practical radio detector.

Edouard Branly
Between 1884 and 1886, Edouard Branly of France produced an improved version of the
coherer.

Edison (1885)
In 1885, Edison took out U.S. Patent 465,971 on a system of radio communication
between ships (which later he sold to Marconi). The patent, however, was not based on
the transmission and reception of electromagnetic waves.
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Hertz
Between 1886 and 1888, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz studied Maxwell's theory and validated it
through experiment. He demonstrated the transmission and reception of the
electromagnetic waves predicted by Maxwell and thus was the first person to
intentionally transmit and receive radio. He discovered that the electromagnetic equations
could be reformulated into a partial differential equation called the wave equation.
Famously, he saw no practical use for his discovery. For more information see Hertz'
radio work at Invention of radio.

Stubblefield
Claims have been made that Murray, Kentucky farmer Nathan Stubblefield developed
radio between 1885 and 1892, before either Tesla or Marconi, but his devices seemed to
have worked by induction transmission rather than radio transmission.

Landell de Moura
Between 1893 and 1894, Roberto Landell de Moura, a Brazilian priest and scientist,
conducted experiments in wireless transmissions. He did not publicize his achievement
until 1900, when he held a public demonstration of a wireless transmission of voice in
São Paulo, Brazil on June 3.

Beginnings of radio
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Nikola Tesla developed means to reliably produce radio frequencies, publicly

demonstrated the principles of radio, and transmitted long distant signals.

There are varying disputed claims about who invented radio, which in the beginning was
called "wireless telegraphy". The key invention for the beginning of "wireless
transmission of data using the entire frequency spectrum", known as the spark-gap
transmitter, has been attributed to various men. Marconi equipped ships with lifesaving
wireless communications and established the first transatlantic radio service. Tesla
developed means to reliably produce radio frequency electrical currents, publicly
demonstrated the principles of radio, and transmitted long distance signals.

Nikola Tesla
In 1891 Tesla began his research into radio. He later published an article, "The True
Wireless", concerning this research.[4] In 1892 he gave a lecture called "Experiments with
Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency", in London (Available at
Project Gutenberg).[5] In 1893, at St. Louis, Missouri, Tesla gave a public demonstration
of "wireless" radio communication. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and
the National Electric Light Association, he described in detail the principles of radio
communication.[6]

The apparatus that Tesla used contained all the elements that were incorporated into radio
systems before the development of the "oscillation valve", the early vacuum tube. Tesla
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initially used sensitive electromagnetic receivers,[7] that were unlike the less responsive
coherers later used by Marconi and other early experimenters.

Afterward, the principle of radio communication (sending signals through space to

receivers) was publicized widely from Tesla's experiments and demonstrations. Various
scientists, inventors, and experimenters began to investigate wireless methods. For more
information see Tesla's wireless work.

Oliver Lodge
Oliver Lodge transmitted radio signals on August 14, 1894 (one year after Tesla, five
years after Heinrich Hertz and one year before Marconi) at a meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University.[8] (In 1995, the Royal
Society recognized this scientific breakthrough at a special ceremony at Oxford
University. For more information, see Past Years: An Autobiography, New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, p231.)

On 19 August 1894 Lodge demonstrated the reception of Morse code signalling via radio
waves using a "coherer". He improved Edouard Branly's coherer radio wave detector by
adding a "trembler" which dislodged clumped filings, thus restoring the device's
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sensitivity. In August 1898 he got U.S. Patent 609,154, "Electric Telegraphy", that
made wireless signals using Ruhmkorff coils or Tesla coils for the transmitter and a
Branly coherer for the detector. This was key to the "syntonic" tuning concept. In 1912
Lodge sold the patent to Marconi.

Jagdish Chandra Bose

In November 1894, the Indian physicist, Jagdish Chandra Bose, demonstrated publicly
the use of radio waves in Calcutta, but he was not interested in patenting his work.[10]
Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using electromagnetic waves,
proving that communication signals can be sent without using wires. He was thus the first
to send and receive radio waves over a significant distance but did not commercially
exploit this achievement.
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The 1895 public demonstration by Bose in Calcutta was before Marconi's wireless
signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain in England in May 1897. In 1896, the Daily
Chronicle of England reported on his UHF experiments: "The inventor (J.C. Bose) has
transmitted signals to a distance of nearly a mile and herein lies the first and obvious and
exceedingly valuable application of this new theoretical marvel."

Alexander Popov

Popov was the first man to demonstrate the practical applications of radio waves.

In 1895, the Russian physicist Alexander Popov built a coherer. On May 7, 1895, Popov
performed a public demonstration of transmission and reception of radio waves used for
communication at the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, using his coherer:[13] this
day has since been celebrated in Russia as "Radio Day". He did not apply for a patent for
this invention. Popov's early experiments were transmissions of only 600 yards (550 m).
Popov was the first to develop a practical communication system based on the coherer,
and is usually considered by the Russians to have been the inventor of radio.

Around March 1896 Popov demonstrated in public the transmission of radio waves,
between different campus buildings, to the Saint Petersburg Physical Society. (This was
before the public demonstration of the Marconi system around September 1896.) Per
other accounts, however, Popov achieved these results only in December 1897—that is,
after publication of Marconi's patent. In 1898 his signal was received 6 miles (9.7 km)
away, and in 1899 30 miles away. In 1900, Popov stated at the Congress of Russian
Electrical Engineers that,"the emission and reception of signals by Marconi by means of
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electric oscillations was nothing new, as in America Nikola Tesla did the same
experiments in 1893."

Later Popov experimented with ship-to-shore communication. Popov died in 1905 and
his claim was not pressed by the Russian government until 1945.

Early radio telegraphy and telephony

British Marconi

Using various patents, the company called British Marconi was established in 1897 and
began communication between coast radio stations and ships at sea. This company along
with its subsidiary American Marconi, had a stranglehold on ship to shore
communication. It operated much the way American Telephone and Telegraph operated
until 1983, owning all of its equipment and refusing to communicate with non-Marconi
equipped ships. Many inventions improved the quality of radio, and amateurs
experimented with uses of radio, thus the first seeds of broadcasting were planted.