How the Medium Started

HISTORY OF RADIO
What do they have in common?
PRESENTING… the parents of radio!
 It all started with RADIO WAVES…
• It all started as a
theory by James
Maxwell in the
1860s, but was
proven TRUE by
Heinrich Hertz.
 James Clerk Maxwell
• With the publication of "A Dynamical Theory
of the Electromagnetic Field" in 1865, Maxwell
demonstrated that electric and magnetic
fields travel through space as waves moving at
the speed of light.
 Electromagnetic Waves
• Electromagnetic waves or EM waves are
waves that are created as a result of vibrations
between an electric field and a magnetic field.
In other words, EM waves are composed of
oscillating magnetic and electric fields.
 Heinrich Hertz
• The first time Hertz thought seriously about proving
Maxwell’s theory was in 1879, when he was a 22 year-
old student in Berlin. He decided against it. It seemed
too hard, and anyway he wanted to concentrate on
completing his doctorate.
• In 1883, after getting his first lecturing job, he revisited
Maxwell’s theory. He wrote an impressive paper,
reworking the theory mathematically.
• In 1885 he moved to the University of Karlsruhe as a
full professor of experimental physics. Now he decided
the time was ripe to look for a way to prove Maxwell’s
theory.
 And then, there’s a free-for-all…
• With Oliver Lodge,
Jagdish Chandra
Bose, and
Alexander Popov.
• Edouard Branly
invented the
coherer — the first
real detector of
radio waves.
And then this little guy was invented…
• The first diode tube was
invented by John Fleming of
England in 1904.
• In 1906, American Lee de
Forest invented the triode
vacuum tube that quickly
made radio even better
because of the amplification
and oscillation it could
provide.
 Then came Guglielmo Marconi…
• …who discovered
the commercial and
military viability of
sending radio
signals, by
conducting a series
of experiments
from his room, his
attic, across the hill
from his home, and
from across the SEA
(or a distance of 6
KILOMETERS!)
This led him to a patent battle with
this genius…
• Which Tesla eventually
won, but he died soon
after winning. (6
months after his death
the US Supreme Court
ruled that all of
Marconi’s radio patents
were invalid and that
Tesla was awarded the
patents.)
The Real Inventor
• Tesla actually invented the idea of
radio in 1892 — not too long after
Heinrich Hertz demonstrated UHF
spark wireless transmissions in
Germany in 1885. In 1898, he
developed a radio-controlled
robotic boat which he
demonstrated by driving the boat
remotely around the waters of
Manhattan from a set of controls
at Madison Square Garden. But
despite this amazing feat, he tried
for years to sell the idea to the
Navy without success.
 First Radio Broadcast! (FINALLY!)
• Credited to
Reginald Fessenden
– When: Christmas
Eve of 1906
– What: Violin music
and Christmas
songs, and a few
Bible passages