The History of Radio

Some of the important inventions that paved the way for the radio we all know today will be discussed in this blog post.

Morse Code

Morse code was invented by Samuel Morse in 1844. Morse code is method of transmitting information confidentially by using a series of long and shorts signals to represent the alphabet. Morse was able to do this by attaching a pencil to the piece of metal his electromagnet was attached to so as to leave a record of the transmissions on a moving strip of paper. From there he obtained a grant from the US Government and proceeded to string copper wires on poles between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington over 40 miles, he then transmitted the message “What Hath God Wrought?”

Morse Code

http://troopleader.org/morse-code/

Samuel Morse

http://www.geekbookofdays.com/archives/1192

 

Gugliemo Marconi

Gugliemo Marconi in 1895, synthesized Heinrich Hertz’s dicoveries of electromagnetic waves tht raveled instantaneously without wires and the concept of transmitting messages encoded in dots and dashes via the electronic telegraph.

http://otecorporation.com/portfolio/marconi/

Radiotelephone

Reginald Fessenden, on Christmas Eve 1906, did the first ever transmission of a voice over radio without wires, so prersons who were listening heard a voice reading from  a bible and recording and violin playing.

Reginald Fessenden

Audion

Lee De Forest was the inventor of the Audion Vacuum tube. He invented the 3 element vacuum in 1906, this made more sophisticated circuits and application to amplify signals, permitted the development of small receivers, this was very important because radio transmitters and receivers about the size of a bread box played an important role in WW1.