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History :: Early Radio

"A bronze portrait bust in memory of the Italian who invented the wireless telegraphy, forerunner of the modern radio, is on a double pedestal. The granite base was a gift by the Marconi Memorial Foundation at a cost of $32,555 under an Act of Congress approved April 13, 1938. Completed June 30, 1941." Photo by Elizabeth Thomsen Flickr (cc)

Derived From: Captain Linwood S. Howeth, USN (Retired), History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy, Bureau of Ships and Office of Naval History (1963) (Govt Work: public domain)

Basic Requirements

1820: Hans Christian Oersted concludes that a wire with a current running through it generates an electric field. [Rescue at Sea]

"Light, heat and electromagnetic waves all travel with the same velocity but differ in wave length. The sun sets up both light and heat waves in the ether which travel earthward and become perceptible to the senses through the eyes, as light, and through the skin, as heat. Electromagnetic waves are not perceptible to any of the human senses, therefore, their use for the telegraphic transmission of intelligence requires man made apparatus. In simplest form, this consists of: (1) equipment for generating and radiating these waves into the ether; and, (2) a conductor upon which these waves impinge, connected to a suitable receiving circuit. When the transmitted waves reach the conductor and travel down its length they set up a flow of alternating current within it. The voltage induced is directly proportional to the amplitude of the impinging wave at that point. When this conductor is connected to a receiving circuit capable of translating these voltage changes into aural or visual presentations the receiving equipment is complete." [Howeth]

Birth of the Science of Radio

"The beginning, but not the application, of the science of radio must be attributed to the scientific efforts and vision of Michael Faraday and the mathematical genius of James Clerk Maxwell. In devising a primitive dynamo, Faraday demonstrated that an energized conductor transmits lines of force into surrounding space and that these can be harnessed and translated into usable energy. He further envisioned that these lines of force extended to infinity and that they were, in some manner, related to light. Maxwell translated Faraday's ideas and visions into mathematical equations. He proved that electromagnetic waves travel through space, with a speed exactly equal to that of light, in a direction transverse to that in which they are propagated." [Howeth] See also [Rescue at Sea] [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

Hertz's Contributions to the Science of Radio

"Henrich Hertz was experimentally investigating the nature of electromagnetic waves. In conducting his experiments he developed an oscillator for generating high-frequency electromagnetic waves. Essentially, this oscillator was the first radio transmitter.

"A usable radio telegraph system still required a receiver capable of both detection and translation. Hertz developed a detector by adding metal balls to the ends of a wire about 7 feet long and then bending it into a ring with a short gap between the two balls. By increasing the area of the balls through the addition of small plates soldered to them, he was able to bring the ring into resonance with the oscillator. With the equipment in this "electrical condition" he was able to detect his oscillator transmissions, at distances up to 25 feet, by observing the spark across the gap of the detector.

"By further experimentation, Hertz was able to verify Maxwell's mathematical deductions. Additionally, he proved that electromagnetic waves obeyed the laws previously evolved concerning the action of light waves, and that they could be focused in beams of various widths by reflection from appropriately shaped metal surfaces." [Howeth]

In 1885 German physicist Heinrich Hertz thought his proof of Maxwell's theories;

1. that electromagnetic waves behave in the same way as light, and
2. that light itself is electromagnetic in nature;

had no practical value since he could only send signals a few yards. Further, he saw no way of improving or amplifying the signal so that it could be received at a greater distance. Finally, his experiments showed that if two transmitters operated in the same proximity, the nearby receiver found both signals, producing nothing but static and hiss.

1887: Hertz detected radio waves and created radio waves with a Spark Gap Transmitter. [IEEE] [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

Radio Pioneers & Core Technologies, FCC History:

"For the first two decades of radio (1885-1906), spark gap machines served as the transmitters for most wireless telegraphy. A spark gap transmitter worked in combination with an induction coil, a Morse key, some power source - usually a battery, an earth ground, and an aerial. Power was applied to the coil with the Morse key acting as the on/off device for the power. Once power was received, a capacitor was charged, which caused a spark to jump across the gap between the two metal balls of the spark gap transmitter. This, in turn, caused a current to flow in a tuned circuit, which produced oscillations. By adding an aerial and earth ground, these oscillations could be sent through the atmosphere. Tuning the frequency of the oscillations was dependent on the type and properties of the capacitor and coil.

Tesla

Derived From: Radio Pioneers & Core Technologies, FCC History

After selling his patents to Westinghouse in 1885, Tesla set up his own lab and worked on a wide variety of projects. These ranged from a carbon button lamp to experiments on the power of electrical resonance.

This last set of experiments, on what Tesla called "a simpler device" for the production of electric oscillations, resulted, in 1891, in the device known today as the Tesla Coil. A Tesla Coil is a transformer made up of two parts - a primary and secondary coil, one inside the other. When electrically charged the interaction between the two coils produces a voltage high enough to make the air conduct electric currents. Getting the power high enough to make the air an effective conductor of currents is key to wireless transmission of radio waves.

Tesla pursued the application of his coil technology to radio. By tuning a coil to a specific frequency he showed that the radio signal could be greatly magnified through resonant action. However, before he was able to fully demonstrate sending a radio signal 50 miles, his laboratory and equipment were destroyed in a fire.

1893: Nikola Tesla transmits radio waves. [IEEE]

One of the factors that helped the alternating current approach was Westinghouse's winning the contract to provide electrical light at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. This Expo is identified by many scholars as one of the key events in America's burgeoning sense of itself as a major industrial power, leading the way in new technologies. The successful lighting of the Expo was then a factor in Westinghouse winning the contract to install the first hydroelectric power machinery at Niagara Falls. All of the enormous motors at the power station bore Tesla's name and patent numbers.

Theories and Developments Following Hertz's Disclosures

"Following disclosure of the knowledge gained by the efforts of Hertz, numerous individuals, in this country and abroad, intensified their efforts to develop a system of telegraphic communications without wires. In 1892, Sir William Preece signaled between two points on the Bristol Channel, Loch Ness, Scotland, employing both induction and conduction to affect one circuit by the current flowing in another. In the same year, another Englishman, C. A. Stevenson, suggested, without experimentation, that telegraphic communications could be established between ships by coils of wire, "the larger the diameter the better to get induction at a great distance." In a lecture before The Franklin Institute, in February 1893, Nikola Tesla described a plan for the transmission of power without wires. [Howeth]

"Prof. Edouard Branly, of France, developed his famous coherer in 1892. This device consists of a cell containing a granular conductor between two electrodes. When subjected to an electric current the granules cohere and become highly conductive. Unless the cell is jarred these granules continue to adhere to each other. When utilized in a radio receiving circuit the cell responds to the voltage rise, set up by the impinging radio waves, but afterwards continues to be a good conductor, unless, while the transmitting circuit is opened, it is jarred enough to decohere the granules. [Howeth]

"The addition of a trembler, activated by local battery, was a simple solution which required no intricate timing system, since it made little difference if the cell was continuously tapped.

"Sir Oliver Lodge is credited as being the first to conceive the idea of using this device for receiving radio signals. His receiver was made up of a spark gap (antenna) across the terminals of the coherer which in turn was also connected in series in a circuit containing a battery and a relay for closing a separate battery-powered local circuit containing the battery, an ink recorder, and the trembler in series. In 1894, he demonstrated this equipment before the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Despite the fact that all the necessary components were at hand, Lodge, occupied with his teaching at the University of Liverpool, neglected to commercialize his system immediately. [Howeth]

"The following year, Prof. A. S. Popoff improved Lodge's receiver by the insertion of choke coils on each side of the relay to protect the coherer and by replacing the spark gap with a vertical antenna insulated at its upper end and connected to the ground through the coherer. Popoff utilized his equipment to obtain information for a study of atmospheric electricity. Like Lodge, he was too engrossed with teaching and science to concern himself over its practical aspects. On 7 May 1895, in a lecture before the Russian Physicist Society of St. Petersburg, he stated he had transmitted and received signals at an intervening distance of 6 hundred yards. [Howeth]

Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi (1908) Source: Library of Congress (pd)

"Guglielmo Marconi, son of an Italian nobleman and an Irish mother"

"Marconi ... contribution was more in the fields of applied research and engineering development. He possessed a very practical business acumen [Howeth]

In this era, telegraph was king, and the king of telegraph was Western Union. But telegraph depended upon wires - and wires don't reach boats too well - and wires don't hop ponds too well. Marconi saw a business opportunity - the ability to offer a communications service that wired telegraphy could not offer, and an opportunity to directly compete with Western Union.

1895: Marconi "by using a Hertz oscillator and an antenna and a receiver very similar to Popoff's, successfully transmitted and received signals within the limits of his father's estate at Bologna, Italy. [Howeth] See also [Rescue at Sea] [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

1896: "Foreseeing little success in commercializing a radio system in Italy, he immediately set out for England where he applied for a British patent on his system, issued, in 1896 as No. 12,039. [Bradford (Marconi moved to England in 1896 after Italian government showed little interest)] [Nobel] [IEEE (1897: Guglelimo Marconi awarded radio patent.)] The British Admiralty, with its need to be able to communicate with its ships, was quite receptive to the the possibilities of Marconi's work. [PBS Marconi]

1897

"Through the efforts of Sir William Preece, and with the asset of a British patent guaranteeing his future rights, he succeeded in obtaining the financial support of wealthy Englishmen. On 20 July 1897, the Wireless Telegraphy and Signal Co., Ltd., was incorporated in England with a capitalization of £100,000. This company paid Marconi £15,000 in cash and £60,000 in stock for his patent in all countries, except Italy and her dependencies, which rights Marconi reserved for himself. The original purpose of the company was to provide radio telegraphy for lightships and lighthouses around the coast of England. In 1900, its name was changed to Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd.; its purpose, to establish a worldwide monopoly in radio telegraphy. [Howeth] [Bradford][Nobel]

Patent Wars: "In the effort to popularize the concept of monopoly control of wireless telegraphy and to further encourage other British people to invest, wide publicity was given the progress made in increasing the range of the equipment. Paralleling this, much effort was expended in educating people to consider Marconi as "the father of wireless telegraphy." These actions prompted an English writer to publish an article advising that, outside of England and a few of its colonies, other important commercial systems of wireless telegraphy were in more general use. Nevertheless, the founders of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph considered that only the Marconi interests had legal rights in this field and that their patent invalidated the use of radio by others, regardless of the circuitry used. In future years, this claim would be challenged many times and become the subject of considerable litigation. This concept did much to slow the development of radio. " [Howeth]

1898

• Telsa demonstrates a remote control boat. [IEEE]
• "Radio has been a primary medium for the distribution of news for many years. The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Co. did not underestimate the possibilities promised by this field. The Dublin, Ireland, Daily Express, impressed with the Marconi claims, saw a possible opportunity to "scoop" their competitors. Its owners invited Marconi to radio reports of the Kingston Regatta of July 1898 from the steamer Flying Huntress, the first ship fitted with radio equipment for commercial purposes. Marconi stated that his reporting of the races was entirely satisfactory in every respect and that over 700 messages were sent and received during the regatta. Mr. M. V. Snyder, representative of the New York Herald, reported to Mr. James Gordon Bennett, its owner, the success of the Daily Express' use of radio bulletins. He was later instrumental in bringing Marconi to America for a like purpose. [Howeth] 1899: Marconi transmits results from the America's Cup in the waters off New York. [Rescue at Sea]

1899

Marconi transmitted a signal across the English channel. "The United States Army established wireless communications with a lightship off Fire Island, New York. Two years later the Navy adopted a wireless system. Up to then, the Navy had been using visual signaling and homing pigeons for communication." [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

"Early in 1899 two dramatic incidents focused worldwide attention upon the value of radio for maritime safety. In January of that year, the East Goodwin Sands Lightship, battered by heavy seas and with part of its bulwarks carried away, sent a radio message which quickly brought assistance. Only a few months later, the same lightship had a very narrow escape from sinking when, in a dense fog at 4 o'clock in the morning, March 1899, it was rammed by the steamer R. F. Mathews outward bound from London. The East Goodwin Lightship was one of four light vessels marking the Goodwin Sands, and fortunately it happened to be the one with a radio installation. It immediately flashed "We have just been run into by the steamer R. F. Mathews , of London. Steamship is standing by us. Our bows badly damaged." Received by the South Foreland Lighthouse, the message was relayed to Trinity House authorities at Ramsgate. Tugs were dispatched, the lightship was towed out of danger and the entire crew saved. It was later proven in Admiralty Court that property to the value of £52,588, had been salvaged by the action resulting from the one short radio report of the accident. [Howeth]

For wireless telegraphs had begun to appear on ocean-going vessels as early as 1891 - many of them donated for demonstration purposes by Marconi. For it was the opportunity to save lives and property on large ships that provided much of the early impetus to develop wireless communications via the radio waves. The 1899 collision between the coal-laden R. F. Matthews and the East Goodwin Lightship was just the first instance where the use of wireless radio saved lives. Because of the extremely dense fog and strong tides present that day, the lifeboats that came to the rescue might not have seen flares in time to get to the crash site prior to some loss of life. Thankfully the Trinity House Corporation, owner of the East Goodwin, was participating in a demonstration of Marconi radio systems and the ship's captain was able to quickly signal for help. [FCC]

1900

Reginald Fessenden made the first transmission of voice in 1900 while under contract to the Weather Bureau. His continuous wave theory - whereby a sound wave is combined with a radio wave and transmitted to a receiver where the radio wave is removed so that the listener hears only the original sound - describes how radio works today. [IEEE] [FCC] Fessenden proved his theory on December 23, 1900 from an island in the Potomac River. Speaking to an associate who was a mile away with a receiving unit, Fessenden said:

"One - two - three - four, is it snowing where you are Mr. Thiessen? If it is, would you telegraph back to me?"

Thiessen replied in the affirmative

1901

"Marconi's December 12, 1901 transmission of a wireless signal from Ireland to St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada was an expression of faith as well as applied science. Marconi later described the prevailing skepticism of learned individuals by noting that achieving long distance wireless transmission of sound: [FCC] [Rescue at Sea] [Bradford (first towers built in Poldhu England and Cape Code were blown down by storms in the Fall of 1901)]

"...had been declared to be impossible by some of the principal mathematicians of the time - (the) chief question mark (being) whether wireless waves would be stopped by the curvature of the earth...some eminent men held that the roundness of the earth would prevent communication over such great distances as the Atlantic."

But the "pip-pip-pip" (Morse code for the letter "s") that Marconi reported he heard at 12:30 p.m. on December 12, 1901 was just one of many remarkable events that gave true meaning to Oliver Lodge's proclamation that wireless communications had created a new " epoch in history." [FCC][Bradford]

Thus, Marconi's integration of the work of Hertz, Righi, Branly, Lodge, and others led to an improved radio system based upon:

• Using a coherer to improve detection of the signal,
• Designing both the transmitting and receiving antennas so that they could be tuned to a specific frequency,
• Increasing the power, and
• Decreasing the transmitting frequency into the medium or short wave range.

Anticipating a legal challenge from the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, Marconi moved from Newfoundland to Cape Breton in December 1901. Marconi had three radio stations in Cape Breton:

• Glace Bay
• South of Glace Bay
• Louisbourg

Dec. 15, 1902, Marconi successfully transmitted to Poldhu from his new Cape Breton station. After experimenting, Marconi settled on transmitting on 37.5 KHz and 54.5 KHz. A good history of the Canadian Towers is recounted by Bradford. The Cape Breton stations closed in 1926.

[FCC]

"Radiotelegraph service was instituted between five Hawaiian Islands." [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

Lee de Forest establishes American de Forest Wireless Telegraph. [deForest]

1902

"The years 1902 and 1903 saw interest in radio increasing rapidly with the number of stations mushrooming, with their operations completely free and unrestricted. Commercial rivalry in the field was increasing in this country, much as it had in Europe a few years before. Unregulated competition, and the interference incident thereto, began to present a problem. Although some form of regulation had been advocated ever since the turn of the century, in this Nation, dedicated to the philosophy of free enterprise, it was slow in materializing.

"The Marconi interests were making rapid progress in establishing their radio monopoly by constructing shore stations in all the principal maritime countries. These stations were prohibited from handling messages from ships which did not lease Marconi equipment, thus making it undesirable for shipowners to equip their vessels with equipment of other manufacturers since such equipment would have limited use. The Marconi companies cannot be adjudged guilty of stock peddling. Although most of them operated under deficits for almost a decade, they made no fanciful promises to investors.

"In the United States the American De Forest Co. was the only serious competitor of the Marconi interests. Their ship installations were leased at far more reasonable costs but their business was almost totally limited to vessels engaged in the coastwise trade. [Howeth Chap VII]

Dec. 24: "Reginald Fessenden, who had previously engaged in experiments on the Outer Banks (Buxton), made the first intentional wireless radio broadcast, playing his violin and reading a passage from the Bible." [R. A. Fessenden on the Outer Banks: The Beginnings of Radio, NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources]

1903

• "Marconi station located in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, carried an exchange or greetings between President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII." [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]
• June 1903 Marconni attempts to demonstrate wireless telegraph. Nevil Maskelyne, hired by the Eastern Telegraph Company and who was skilled in the use of the wireless technology, hijacked Marconni's transmitting frequencies and during the demonstration Marconni's telegraph tapped out Maskelyne's message "“Rats rats rats rats,” it began. “There was a young fellow of Italy, who diddled the public quite prettily ...”" Maskelyne published what he had done in the Times, arguing on behalf of the incumbent telegraph company that Marconni's invention was not secure. [McMullan] [See USPS arguing that email is not safe]

1905: "the naval battle of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese war was reported by wireless" [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

1906

Canadian Reginald Fessenden was the larger than life man whose work, in combination with those others, introduced, in 1906, what we think of today as radio: music, news, talk, in fact any sound human beings can make. Experiences as the chief chemist in Edison's labs, work at Westinghouse, professorships in electrical engineering at Purdue University and the University of Pennsylvania, research in North Carolina for the U.S. Weather Bureau, and, finally, a founding partnership in the National Electric Signaling Company uniquely qualified him to solve the riddle of how sound waves traveled and what was necessary to transmit those waves wirelessly from one point to another. [FCC] [Rescue at Sea] [B]est known for his 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast of music and voice from Brant Rock, Massachusetts

"the U.S. Weather Bureau experimented with radiotelegraphy to speed notice of weather conditions." [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

Lee DeForest, an Iowa preacher's son who earned a Yale PhD, announced his Audion vacuum tube in a Scientific American article in 1906. Although he acknowledged in this article that he didn't have a "completely satisfactory theory" as to why the tube amplified the reception of radio signals, understanding this curious tube led other researchers, such as Edwin Armstrong, to significant breakthroughs in amplifying both radio transmissions and reception before, during, and after WWI. [Rescue at Sea]

1909

• "Robert E. Peary, arctic explorer, radiotelegraphed: "I found the Pole"." " [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]
• Marconi receives Nobel Prize in Physics [Nobel Prize]

1910: "Marconi opened regular American-European radiotelegraph service, which several months later, enabled an escaped British murderer to be apprehended on the high seas." [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]

1912: "the first transpacific radiotelegraph service linked San Francisco with Hawaii." [A Short History of Electronic Communications, FCC 1977]