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 Previous: Push to Identify Unlicensed 10-Meter Operators Continues |  Next: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
October 10, 2003
Last week, we figured out who invented television (not!) and this week, we figure out who invented radio (not likely).
Ask the average person "Who invented radio?" and the average answer will be "Marconi." Ask the same question on the Internet, and the average answer will not likely be "Marconi." Instead, try one of the following on for size: Nikola Tesla, Alexander Popov, Oliver Lodge, Reginald Fessenden, Heinrich Hertz, Mahlon Loomis, Nathan Stubblefield, James Clerk Maxwell and even Thomas Edison, among others.
Tesla has a lot of support for filling the radio inventor shoes. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) "Tesla Life and Legacy" Web site is a good place to begin researching Tesla's contribution to the radio art. Make sure to check out "Who Invented Radio?".
How about Nathan Stubblefield? A Web page titled "Did Nathan B. Stubblefield really invent the wireless telephone?" answers, "Yes" and "today we call it radio."
 Who invented radio? Maybe, that honor belongs to Nathan Stubblefield, maybe not. But a Web page dedicated to Stubblefield's accomplishments seems to think so. |
The "Anomalies" Web site also discusses Stubblefield's early radio work.
Oliver Lodge has supporters at "The Campaign for Philosophical Freedom" Web site and the Oliver Lodge: "Almost the Father of Radio" Web page of the Antique Wireless Association.
The Hammond Museum of Radio in Ontario dedicates a Web page to Reginald Fessenden's contributions to the field. Born in Quebec, Fessenden may be best known for his Christmas Eve 1906 broadcast from Massachusetts, which is reputed to have been the first radiotelephone transmission. (He accomplished the feat by modulating a spark-gap transmitter.)
The "Spark Museum and Early Radio and Scientific Apparatus" Web site "The Discovery of Radio Waves-1888" page claims that German scientist Heinrich Rudolph Hertz was "the first to send and receive radio waves."
The "The First Electronic Church of America" Web site poses the question: "Russia's Popov: Did he 'invent' radio?" According to this account, Alexander Popov is the "radio man." Among other things, it notes that Popov reported sending and receiving a wireless signal across a 600 yards distance in 1895. Two years later, it says, he set up a shore station at Kronstadt and equipped the Russian navy cruiser Africa with his wireless communications apparatus to provide ship-to-shore communication.
The "What You Need to Know About" Web site states that Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell "predicted the existence of radio waves," while the "Adventures in Cybersound" Web page of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image tells how Dr Mahlon Loomis, an American dentist and pioneer in radiotelegraphy, transmitted and received radio messages in 1879.
Further discussion of the "Who invented radio?" question can be found at the "RFdesign" Web site, which includes an article by Don Bishop aptly titled "Who Invented Radio?" Among other things, it points out that in 1943, the US Supreme Court invalidated Marconi's patents due to Tesla's "prior art," but Marconi was already dead by then, and Tesla died that same year.
Amateur Radio operators have explored this issue. B. Eric Rhoads, N7JY, the author of A Pictorial History of Radio's First 75 Years discusses it in "Just Who Invented Radio and Which Was The First Station?" on his Web site, while Glen E. Zook, W5UOJ, addresses the question on his in the article "Just Who Did Invent Radio?"
The David Sarnoff Library devotes its "Radio" Web page to the subject and says the answer "lies in how you define 'radio' or 'wireless.'"
Read them all and make up your own mind, because I'm confounded!
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note:
Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, has been a QST
writer for over 25 years, an Amateur Radio operator for over 35 years, and a
Boston Red Sox fan for over 45 years. As a result, instead of transmitting on
the radio this week, Stan will be monitoring the broadcast band following the
exploits of his beloved team during the American League Championship Series. To
contact Stan, send e-mail to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: Push to Identify Unlicensed 10-Meter Operators Continues | Next: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler |
