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| A History of Radio |
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| The history of early radio cna be traced back to a select group of men who had an amazing influence on radio as we know it today. |
| Amber-Joy Boyd, Box 4216, Student I.D. 888787, (c) 2001 |
| Heirich Hertz 1857-1894 |
| - Born in Hamburg, Germany - Was a physicist - Confirmed Maxwell's theory of radio waves and was the first to prove the they existed - He created a simple transmitter and receiver to send sparks of electormagnetic radiation across the two poles, proving radio waves existed - His research led him to transmit the first radio waves - The unit of frequency (hertz) is named after him |
| Samuel Morse 1791-1872 |
| - Born in Charleston, Mass - Received Congress grant to build first long-distance telegraph line - 1835-1838 he developed the alphabetical code of dots and dashes, now known as Morse code - This code could be transmitted over telegraph lines by a means of electromagnets - His telegraph line ran from Washington to Baltimore and worked successfully |
| James Maxwell 1831-1879 |
| - Born in Edinburgh, Scotland - Was a physicist - Created theories of electro- magnetic radiation - First to identify light as an electromagnetic wave - Created a series of mathematical equation proving, not only that electromagnetic radiation existed, but that visible light was a form of high-frequency radio waves |
| Thomas Edison 1847-1931 |
| - Born in Milan, Ohio - Was an inventor and physicist - In December 1891 he received a patent for a wireless telegraph - He sold his patent to a man, Marconi, in 1903 |
| Guglielmo Marconi 1874-1937 |
| - Born in Italy - Was a physicisit - Developed a practical generator or radio waves - In 1901 he successfully sent a radio signal from Cornwall, England across the Atlantic ocean to an antenaa in Newfoundland - He shared the Nobel prize for physics in 1909 for inventing a practical radio - When he diedd as a tribut all the existing radio stations around the world had a two minute silence |