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100 Years of Radio
kubla2000 writes: "As CNN dutifully reports, January 23 marks the anniversary of the first long distance radio transmission by Guglielmo Marconi thereby crediting him as the inventor of the radio. I spend a fair bit of time in Poland and was surprised to hear on a children's television quiz show that there were two correct answers to the question, "Who is the father of radio". The other correct answer, was Alexander Popov. Still others would argue that the true father of radio was
Nikola Tesla. So in fact, we're witnessing something between the 100th and the 107th anniversary of the birth of radio. Whichever it is, I think that human ingenuity has shown remarkable progress in the last century. From the crystal set and the cat's whisker to IP. Quite something."
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Another cool site devoted to Bose: http://www.tuc.nrao.edu/~demerson/bose/bose.html
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
There is nothing to argue about.
The US Patent Office even agrees....
Marconi's patents were overturned in favour of Tesla.
Yet again, we encounter the ugly spectre of the Great Radio Controversy.
Yet again, we see confusion and uncertainty over matters historical- uncertainties which should not remain yet do because of our own willing embrace of ignorant but easily repeated lies and distortions.
How is it that in this enlightened era, so many still are confused as to who deserves the credit for the invention of radio?
How have we come to this?
Tragically, it is that very few people living today were brave enough to face the ridicule of their peers and plop down $15 to buy the 1991 album "Psychotic Supper" by a group of self-educated historians with big-metal-hair. A band named after a genius. A band called Tesla.
I think that by posting the lyrics to their song "Edison's Medicine (Man Out Of Time)" here on slashdot this very day, I will once and for all clear up any confusion as to who really invented radio. I will forever end the debate. I find great comfort in the knowledge that the truth will finally be known, and that I will no longer be ashamed to name this CD amongst my collection.
Edison's Medicine (Man Out Of Time)
You're guilty of crime in the first degree,
Second and third as well.
My jury finds you'll be serving your time
When you go straight to hell.
'Cause he was Lord of the Lightning,
Though "socially fright'ning",
But never out to sell.
Their nickels and pence
Meant more than did sense,
And not the sensible thing.
Nor did the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy. You was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
All along, world was wrong. You was right.
All that he saw, all he conceived,
They just could not believe.
Steinmetz and Twain were friends that remained,
Along with number three.
He was electromagnetic, completely kinetic,
"New Wizard of the West."
But they swindled and whined that he wasn't our kind,
And said Edison knew best.
He was the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy. You was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
Said you was outta your mind!
You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.
I spent twelve years of hard time,
More like the best years of my life.
Never heard or read a single word
About "the man" and his "wicked mind."
They'll sell you on Marconi.
Familiar, but a phony.
Story goes they sold their souls
And swore that you'd never know...
About the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy. You was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
Swore you was outta your mind!
You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.
Can you imagine? Because of those backwards times, we're all benefiting from the invention of radio and there aren't royalty checks going ANYWHERE!
Thank God for HDTV. Finally, content control over airwaves. And it only took 100 (or 107) years!
Heinrich Hertz: Hertz lived from 1857 to 1894 and was the first to demonstrate experimentally the production and detection of Maxwell's waves. This discovery of course lead directly to radio. [more..]
Guglielmo Marconi: The Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, repeated Hertz's experiments and eventually succeeded in getting secondary sparks over a distance of 30 feet (nine meters). [more..]
Nikola Tesla: Inventions related to radio ( the Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of Tesla) X-rays, the vacuum tube amplifier. [more..]
Lee De Forest: American inventor of the Audion vacuum tube, which made possible live radio broadcasting and became the key component of all radio, telephone, radar, television, and computer systems before the invention of the transistor in 1947. [more..]
Ernst F. W. Alexanderson: The engineer whose high-frequency alternator gave America its start in the field of radio communication. [more..]
It seems we can't truly give credit to any ONE inventor. For without all of the above, and countless others, I'm sure, radio and many other innovations would not be where they currently are. Hope these links help.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."
Nathan B. Stubblefield, the Philo T. Farnsworth of Radio, of Murray Kansas, demonstrated his
wireless *voice* communications in 1885. That's a full three years before Hertz proof that radio waves existed, and nine years before Marconi's wireless telegraph. There are good records of
Stubblefield's work from 1892, when he showed it
to Dr. Rainey T. Wells; who also happened to be an attorney.
He demonstrated the device for hundreds of people, even a wireless ship-to-shore
demonstration from a riverboat on the Potomac in 1902.
He even got a patent, #887357, May 12, 1908, for the "radiotelephone device."
Tell me again why Marconi is widely credited with
"inventing radio" whereas Stubblefield died broke?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I think the main reason Tesla isn't in the books is because he was kind of quiet, and did science for the sake of science, not for the sake of getting famouse.
Edison was an egomaniac, so was marconi.. so they make it into history. Tesla never built a huge empire on his inventions, he just licensed his technology out and quietly worked on more stuff.
And of course there is reluctance now for any institution to 'change the story of history' they've been telling for so long....
Ask some people off the street who invented the automobile, and most of them will tell you it was Henry Ford. It's easier to remember this (false) factoid than to remember more obscure names and histories, which is why the Ford-invented-the-automobile meme is a fitter replicator than alternative memes representing accounts closer to reality.
By this principle, it's not unreasonable that in 50-100 years' time, most people will believe that Bill Gates invented the Internet (or whatever it's called then).
Tesla had the same experience. He arrived in America, went to Edison, who told him, basically, to screw off. They met again (as competitors) when people were trying to decide whether to adopt AC or DC current for electrical distribution networks. Tesla was trumpeting his AC model, with simple generators, motors, and transformers, as well as better distribution characteristics, while Edison was pushing DC for city-wide distribution. Edison even went so far as to hire local kids to steal neighborhood pets so he could electrocute them in an AC-based rig, to show the dangers of AC power.
To put it in a more modern perspective (though I may be reaching a bit here), Edison was Bill Gates, and Tesla was Steve Jobs. One was a much better promotor, marketer, and perhaps engineer, while the other was a more powerful visionary, thinker, and inventor.
I've lost the link, but the USSC recognises Tesla as the inventor of Radio. There's a lot more to the mess than you'd think.
:D
Of course, If you have Tesla's album Great Radio Controversy, read the liner notes.
-----------------------------
1,2,3,4 Moderation has to Go!
No matter who invented it, I am definitely thankful for it.
Radio has an intimacy, based on all of the associations humans have with the voice and the spoken word, that television and the Net can't surpass. It is also a low-cost technology that anyone can learn to use for communication.
I can listen to National Public Radio and hear all the news I want without having to train my eyes on one location, or hear (many) ads. I especially like the BBC world service when I am pulling an allnighter.
I participated in a live webradio broadcast at the Independent Media Center in Cincinnatti, and people from Prague, Los Angeles and London tuned in.
This is a cheap, ubiquitous technology that is easy to learn to use. I also had a low power (40 watt) FM transmitter with a few co-conspirators, we attached a 20 foot antenna to a 6 story building and reached 3 counties.
The FCC which has long kept the airwaves private, "legalized" low power FM but made the paperwork and technological threshholds insurmountable for community and home users. We want real free radio.
Tahing it further, the FCC screwed shit up royally when it allowed the same person to own radio stations and TV stations in the same market. Monopoly ownership breeds..well, what you probably have on most of your dial-
Top forty, Christian, country, and crap.
Patronize independently owned, low power, nonprofit and community radio and cable access TV in your town.
Goat sex free since 2001
Also, yesterday was the 100th of Queen Victoria's death. How's that for the end of the Victorian era: her death one day, the first successful long distance radio transmission the next?
If nothing else, it's fun to speculate about such things. As I said, take it with a huge grain of salt.
Free Hans!
Broadcasting power over long distances
What a bastard Edison was
How Tesla could have split the world in half or produced earthquakes or some such rot
How the government dicked him over
Great... yawn...
DrLunch.com The site that tells you what's for lunch!
Ever since medieval times we have been throwing these conceptions out of the window, and creating in a no nonsense, take-no-prisoners style.
If we are to continue in this vein, we must make sure that nothing is sacred.
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
I think of little else but you.
...for the first time, a man with a metal plate in his head said: "Where is that music coming from!?!".
-- Gordon Worley
the page on patents is especially interesting. For example, he invented a radio remote control mechanism for a boat in 1898!
I tend to side with Tesla on this as far as the radio question goes. These paragraphs from the soon to be slashed website on Tesla perhaps summarize it best:
Despite the fact that almost every book mentions Guglielmo Marconi as the inventor of radio, the only thing Marconi did seems to be nothing more than reproducing apparati Nikola Tesla had registered years ago. Marconi copied Tesla, made some modifications, built a large industry producing radio devices in Europe and spent huge amounts to advertise his supposed invention.
Nine months after Tesla's death, the Supreme Patent Court of the USA decides that Nikola Tesla must be considered the father of wireless transmission and radio. Justifying its decision the court notes that in Marconi's related Patent (Íï. 764772 of 1904) there is nothing new not having been earlier published and registered by Tesla. The Court considered Marconi's claim that he did not knew of Tesla's patents false
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
It seems to me, after reading the posts so far, that most nerds give Tesla the credit. At least some people remember this great man whose life and death are both equally mysterious. Check out some great files, courtesy of parascope.com, here or specifically, here. Any geeks want to comment on the system in the second article? It would seem good in theory, but are there any complications that might be unforseen? We need more research into some of Tesla's work.
Pax Digitalia
For a true Geek Experience, go HERE:
http://users.ids.net/~newsm/
The New England Wireless and Steam Museum is Rhode Island's Best Kept Secret when it comes to old technology. The 1907 Massie Station is the _oldest existing wireless station in the world_.
If you're a machinist or engineer or radio junkie, The tune-ups and steam-ups are not to be missed.
In the words of IEEE: "the origin and first major use of the solid state diode detector devices led to the discovery that the first transatlantic wireless signal in Marconi's world famous experiment was received by Marconi using the iron-mercury-iron coherer with a telephone detector invented by Sir J.C.Bose in 1898".
You can find more stuff at here
Well, a search on Jagdish Chandra Bose on Google shows a lots of links which confirm this statement.
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
Whoever first put them in old car radio sets... probably. That is where the word came from.
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
gotta be more than 100... not sure why this is such a big deal
It's not! That's what's so incredible.
But if that's incredible, consider that from Kittyhawk to Apollo 11 was only, what, 66 years?
Yeah, from first flight to the moon. 66 years.
IP is impressive, and spread spectrum RF is cool. Cellphones are amazing.
But radio pales in comparison.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
About a year ago (sorry, I have only a paper clipping, if that), the Wall Street Journal ran an article on "facts" in Microsoft Encarta - usually the names of inventors - which varied by translation. The French translation preferred French, the Italian edition Italians, and so on. There weren't a lot of examples, just such judgement calls: radio, the light bulb, the airplane etc.
In another well-known case (was it Windows 95?), the time zone control panel included a map which showed the border between India and Pakistan. This is a disputed border, so Microsoft was caught in a no-win situation. I think they got rid of the map.
--
The telegraph was the first lightspeed global
information media. Everything since has been
an elaboration. The culmination will be personal
interactive video everywhere with seamless communication
between humans and vast computer media databases.
This expected to be fully implemented about two
centuries after the telegraph.
I think your analogy is messed up. Edison was probably Gates, and Tesla was probably Wozniak or that Flowers guy in WWII that invented the first computer (well, British one at least...shortly before the Neumann bombes/collossus, etc.).
Tesla gets way too little credit. Really, how many times is he mentioned in your average high school American history text book? Yet we fawn over Edison, who may have been smart, but was greedy, corrupt, and basically a mean person. Alas, that is usually the way it goes with American history.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
A good book about Tesla is Tesla: Man out of Time, by Margeret Cheney.
Since when is Intellectual Property one of the greatest achievements of mankind?
Note for humor impaired: above is a joke.
Be ot or bot ne ot, taht is the nestquoi.
one day we may stop worshipping inventors, leaders... and come to realize that we are all in this together. we build upon other's ideas, without which there would be very little progress. yes, inventors and even leaders can be special, but it is strange how certain ideas often manifest themselves in different places at the same general time.
I'm from Newfoundland, so there was a focus on Marconi in my school.
:-)*
Marconi is so often credited because he went farther with it. He crossed the Atlantic ocean. He started a successful company.
It didn't matter that Tesla experimented and Popov deployed remote lightning detectors before any of this because Marconi started a company. It's not who does the initial work, it's who profits from it, at least to the general populace.
Hey, we should call Bill Gates the father of computing. He has lots of money.
Actually, in a similar vein, the real father of modern radio is often forgotten as well. Until Reginald Fessenden, radio was only dits and dahs. This Canadian guy was the first to transmit normal sound.
Fessenden wanted to work for Thomas Edison, who basically told him to screw off. A full bio can be read here.
A few points: :) ).
* Voice communication was invented by Reginald Aubrey Fessenden.
* Yes, Nickola Tesla invented radio transmission, but not originally for communications, he found that electricity could be transfered through air.
* I am fairly sure that Marconii only really came onto the scene in the 1930's, and when he put in a patent for wireless radio transmissions, he found out that a patent already existed, and by that time, had passed. (correct me if I am wrong - with proof)
* Eddison and Tesla knew each other, Tesla solved one of his Eddison's problems with wide-spread power distribution, Tesla had invented the use of radio signals over wires (50 or 60 cycles (or Hertz) a second), but Tesla wanted too take it further, Eddison didn't want a bar of this, and that is why we use the radio waves for communications, and not for power.
* Tesla also found it hard to sell his ideas, the only way to compare this to what business if like these days is Eddison can be compared too Microsoft, and Tesla could be compared too Amiga, in the context of money, ideas, popularity & know-how (although, if Amiga gets anywhere in the next few years, thia analogy will be wrong, I have crossed fingers
VK3TST
-- "People aren't stupid. Usually." -- jd
November 21,1783 was the first recorded manned flight in a hot air balloon. 1793 was first balloon flight in USA.
Bah! Balloons! No engine, no point.
Even so, remember Around the World in 80 Days? That was set in 1888. Well less than a century later, we could do the circumference of the planet in under 88 minutes.
That's an order of magnitude.
Shoot, the idea of flight goes back to the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun. When was the first concept of radio transmission? Somebody in the 1830's must have thought, "this telegraph is great, but could we do this without wires?"True. I think it was really Faraday and Oerstead who pioneered in radio, though they didn't understand it. Tesla made the first practical broadband transmitters (!) later in the century and then it was Marconi who actually saw the broader picture and was able to harness all the concepts discovered by the others.
Of course, that's subject to very volatile debates among radio afficionados.
But, really, since then, what has happened? We haven't got radio waves to travel faster than the speed of light. All we've managed to do is refine the transmitters and receivers to the point where they're small, efficient, and can often change freqency on the fly. You still really have only two ways of modulating a carrier, and one of those (AM) hearkens right back to the dawn of the era with the first spark gap transmitters.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.