History of radio

Last updated

Early pioneers of radio science and technology in the United States including Charles Steinmetz, David Sarnoff, Irving Langmuir and Alfred Goldsmith in 1921, photographed next to the antenna feed wires of the New Brunswick Marconi Station, one of the first transatlantic radio links. Photo includes Albert Einstein as a visiting guest. Albert Einstein with engineers and scientists - RCA radio station - Hagley Archives - restoration1.jpg
Early pioneers of radio science and technology in the United States including Charles Steinmetz, David Sarnoff, Irving Langmuir and Alfred Goldsmith in 1921, photographed next to the antenna feed wires of the New Brunswick Marconi Station, one of the first transatlantic radio links. Photo includes Albert Einstein as a visiting guest.

The early history of radio is the history of technology that produces and uses radio instruments that use radio waves. Within the timeline of radio, many people contributed theory and inventions in what became radio. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy". Later radio history increasingly involves matters of broadcasting.

Contents

Discovery

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856-1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz.jpg
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1856–1894) proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation.

In an 1864 presentation, published in 1865, James Clerk Maxwell proposed theories of electromagnetism and mathematical proofs demonstrating that light, radio and x-rays were all types of electromagnetic waves propagating through free space. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Between 1886 and 1888 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz published the results of experiments wherein he was able to transmit electromagnetic waves (radio waves) through the air, proving Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. [6] [7]

Exploration of optical qualities

Early experiment demonstrating refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897 Refraction of Hertzian waves by a paraffin lens 1897.png
Early experiment demonstrating refraction of microwaves by a paraffin lens by John Ambrose Fleming in 1897

After their discovery many scientists and inventors experimented with transmitting and detecting "Hertzian waves" (it would take almost 20 years for the term "radio" to be universally adopted for this type of electromagnetic radiation). [8] Maxwell's theory showing that light and Hertzian electromagnetic waves were the same phenomenon at different wavelengths led "Maxwellian" scientists such as John Perry, Frederick Thomas Trouton and Alexander Trotter to assume they would be analogous to optical light. [9] [10]

Following Hertz' untimely death in 1894, British physicist and writer Oliver Lodge presented a widely covered lecture on Hertzian waves at the Royal Institution on June 1 of the same year. [11] Lodge focused on the optical qualities of the waves and demonstrated how to transmit and detect them (using an improved variation of French physicist Édouard Branly's detector Lodge named the "coherer"). [12] Lodge further expanded on Hertz' experiments showing how these new waves exhibited like light refraction, diffraction, polarization, interference and standing waves, [13] confirming that Hertz' waves and light waves were both forms of Maxwell's electromagnetic waves. During part of the demonstration the waves were sent from the neighboring Clarendon Laboratory building, and received by apparatus in the lecture theater. [14]

Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves. PSM V83 D416 Oliver Joseph Lodge.png
Oliver Lodge's 1894 lectures on Hertz demonstrated how to transmit and detect radio waves.

After Lodge's demonstrations researchers pushed their experiments further down the electromagnetic spectrum towards visible light to further explore the quasioptical nature at these wavelengths. [15] Oliver Lodge and Augusto Righi experimented with 1.5 and 12 GHz microwaves respectively, generated by small metal ball spark resonators. [13] Russian physicist Pyotr Lebedev in 1895 conducted experiments in the 50 GHz 50 (6 millimeter) range. [13] Bengali Indian physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose conducted experiments at wavelengths of 60 GHz (5 millimeter) and invented waveguides, horn antennas, and semiconductor crystal detectors for use in his experiments. [16] He would later write an essay, "Adrisya Alok" ("Invisible Light") on how in November 1895 he conducted a public demonstration at the Town Hall of Kolkata, India using millimeter-range-wavelength microwaves to trigger detectors that ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance. [17]

Proposed applications

Between 1890 and 1892 physicists such as John Perry, Frederick Thomas Trouton and William Crookes proposed electromagnetic or Hertzian waves as a navigation aid or means of communication, with Crookes writing on the possibilities of wireless telegraphy based on Hertzian waves in 1892. [18] Among physicist, what were perceived as technical limitations to using these new waves, such as delicate equipment, the need for large amounts of power to transmit over limited ranges, and its similarity to already existent optical light transmitting devices, lead them to a belief that applications were very limited. The Serbian American engineer Nikola Tesla considered Hertzian waves relatively useless for long range transmission since "light" could not transmit further than line of sight. [19] There was speculation that this fog and stormy weather penetrating "invisible light" could be used in maritime applications such as lighthouses, [18] including the London journal The Electrician (December 1895) commenting on Bose's achievements, saying "we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionized by an Indian Bengali scientist working single handed[ly] in our Presidency College Laboratory." [20]

In 1895, adapting the techniques presented in Lodge's published lectures, Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov built a lightning detector that used a coherer based radio receiver. [21] He presented it to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895.

Marconi and radio telegraphy

British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897. Post Office Engineers.jpg
British Post Office engineers inspect Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy (radio) equipment in 1897.

In 1894, the young Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began working on the idea of building long-distance a wireless transmission systems based on the use of Hertzian waves (radio waves), a line of inquiry that he noted other inventors did not seem to be pursuing. [22] Marconi read through the literature and used the ideas of others who were experimenting with radio waves but did a great deal to develop devices such as portable transmitters and receiver systems that could work over long distances, [22] turning what was essentially a laboratory experiment into a useful communication system. [23] By August 1895, Marconi was field testing his system but even with improvements he was only able to transmit signals up to one-half mile, a distance Oliver Lodge had predicted in 1894 as the maximum transmission distance for radio waves. Marconi raised the height of his antenna and hit upon the idea of grounding his transmitter and receiver. With these improvements the system was capable of transmitting signals up to 2 miles (3.2 km) and over hills. [24] This apparatus proved to be the first engineering-complete, commercially successful radio transmission system [25] [26] [27] and Marconi went on to file British patent GB189612039A, Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for, in 1896. This patent was granted in the UK on 2 July 1897. [28]

Nautical and transatlantic transmissions

In 1897, Marconi established a radio station on the Isle of Wight, England and opened his "wireless" factory in the former silk-works at Hall Street, Chelmsford, England, in 1898, employing around 60 people.

On 12 December 1901, using a 500-foot (150 m) kite-supported antenna for reception—signals transmitted by the company's new high-power station at Poldhu, Cornwall, Marconi transmitted a message across the Atlantic Ocean to Signal Hill in St. John's, Newfoundland. [29] [30] [31] [32]

Marconi began to build high-powered stations on both sides of the Atlantic to communicate with ships at sea. In 1904, he established a commercial service to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which could incorporate them into their on-board newspapers. A regular transatlantic radio-telegraph service was finally begun on 17 October 1907 [33] [34] between Clifden, Ireland, and Glace Bay, but even after this the company struggled for many years to provide reliable communication to others.

Marconi's apparatus is also credited with saving the 700 people who survived the tragic Titanic disaster. [35]

Audio transmission

Reginald Fessenden (around 1906) Reginald Fessenden, probably 1906.jpg
Reginald Fessenden (around 1906)

In the late 1890s, Canadian-American inventor Reginald Fessenden came to the conclusion that he could develop a far more efficient system than the spark-gap transmitter and coherer receiver combination. [36] [37] To this end he worked on developing a high-speed alternator (referred to as "an alternating-current dynamo") that generated "pure sine waves" and produced "a continuous train of radiant waves of substantially uniform strength", or, in modern terminology, a continuous-wave (CW) transmitter. [38] While working for the United States Weather Bureau on Cobb Island, Maryland, Fessenden researched using this setup for audio transmissions via radio. By fall of 1900, he successfully transmitted speech over a distance of about 1.6 kilometers (one mile), [39] which appears to have been the first successful audio transmission using radio signals. [40] [41] Although successful, the sound transmitted was far too distorted to be commercially practical. [42] According to some sources, notably Fessenden's wife Helen's biography, on Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden used an Alexanderson alternator and rotary spark-gap transmitter to make the first radio audio broadcast, from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Ships at sea heard a broadcast that included Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible. [43] [44]

Around the same time American inventor Lee de Forest experimented with an arc transmitter, which unlike the discontinuous pulses produced by spark transmitters, created steady "continuous wave" signal that could be used for amplitude modulated (AM) audio transmissions. In February 1907 he transmitted electronic telharmonium music from his laboratory station in New York City. [45] This was followed by tests that included, in the fall, Eugenia Farrar singing "I Love You Truly". [46] In July 1907 he made ship-to-shore transmissions by radiotelephone—race reports for the Annual Inter-Lakes Yachting Association (I-LYA) Regatta held on Lake Erie—which were sent from the steam yacht Thelma to his assistant, Frank E. Butler, located in the Fox's Dock Pavilion on South Bass Island. [47]

Broadcasting

The Dutch company Nederlandsche Radio-Industrie and its owner-engineer, Hanso Idzerda, made its first regular entertainment radio broadcast over station PCGG from its workshop in The Hague on 6 November 1919. The company manufactured both transmitters and receivers. Its popular program was broadcast four nights per week using narrow-band FM transmissions on 670 metres (448 kHz), [48] until 1924 when the company ran into financial trouble.

Regular entertainment broadcasts began in Argentina, pioneered by Enrique Telémaco Susini and his associates. At 9 pm on August 27, 1920, Sociedad Radio Argentina aired a live performance of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal from the Coliseo Theater in downtown Buenos Aires. Only about twenty homes in the city had receivers to tune in this program.

On 31 August 1920 the Detroit News began publicized daily news and entertainment "Detroit News Radiophone" broadcasts, originally as licensed amateur station 8MK, then later as WBL and WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.

Union College in Schenectady, New York began broadcasting on October 14, 1920, over 2ADD, an amateur station licensed to Wendell King, an African-American student at the school. [49] Broadcasts included a series of Thursday night concerts initially heard within a 100-mile (160 km) radius and later for a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) radius. [49] [50]

In 1922 regular audio broadcasts for entertainment began in the UK from the Marconi Research Centre 2MT at Writtle near Chelmsford, England.

Wavelength and frequency

In early radio, and to a limited extent much later, the transmission signal of the radio station was specified in meters, referring to the wavelength, the length of the radio wave. This is the origin of the terms long wave, medium wave, and short wave radio. [51] Portions of the radio spectrum reserved for specific purposes were often referred to by wavelength: the 40-meter band, used for amateur radio, for example. The relation between wavelength and frequency is reciprocal: the higher the frequency, the shorter the wave, and vice versa.

As equipment progressed, precise frequency control became possible; early stations often did not have a precise frequency, as it was affected by the temperature of the equipment, among other factors. Identifying a radio signal by its frequency rather than its length proved much more practical and useful, and starting in the 1920s this became the usual method of identifying a signal, especially in the United States. Frequencies specified in number of cycles per second (kilocycles, megacycles) were replaced by the more specific designation of hertz (cycles per second) about 1965.

Radio companies

Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906) Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company.jpg
Donald Manson working as an employee of the Marconi Company (England, 1906)

British Marconi

Using various patents, the British Marconi company was established in 1897 by Guglielmo Marconi and began communication between coast radio stations and ships at sea. [52] A year after, in 1898, they successfully introduced their first radio station in Chelmsford. This company, along with its subsidiaries Canadian Marconi and American Marconi, had a stranglehold on ship-to-shore communication. It operated much the way American Telephone and Telegraph operated until 1983, owning all of its equipment and refusing to communicate with non-Marconi equipped ships. Many inventions improved the quality of radio, and amateurs experimented with uses of radio, thus planting the first seeds of broadcasting.

Telefunken

The company Telefunken was founded on May 27, 1903, as "Telefunken society for wireless telefon" of Siemens & Halske (S & H) and the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (General Electricity Company) as joint undertakings for radio engineering in Berlin. [53] It continued as a joint venture of AEG and Siemens AG, until Siemens left in 1941. In 1911, Kaiser Wilhelm II sent Telefunken engineers to West Sayville, New York to erect three 600-foot (180-m) radio towers there. Nikola Tesla assisted in the construction. A similar station was erected in Nauen, creating the only wireless communication between North America and Europe.

Technological development

Amplitude-modulated (AM)

The invention of amplitude-modulated (AM) radio, which allows more closely spaced stations to simultaneously send signals (as opposed to spark-gap radio, where each transmission occupies a wide bandwidth) is attributed to Reginald Fessenden, Valdemar Poulsen and Lee de Forest.

Crystal set receivers

In the 1920s, the United States government publication, "Construction and Operation of a Simple Homemade Radio Receiving Outfit", showed how almost any person handy with simple tools could a build an effective crystal radio receiver. NBS 120 Set.jpg
In the 1920s, the United States government publication, "Construction and Operation of a Simple Homemade Radio Receiving Outfit", showed how almost any person handy with simple tools could a build an effective crystal radio receiver.

The most common type of receiver before vacuum tubes was the crystal set, although some early radios used some type of amplification through electric current or battery. Inventions of the triode amplifier, motor-generator, and detector enabled audio radio. The use of amplitude modulation (AM), by which soundwaves can be transmitted over a continuous-wave radio signal of narrow bandwidth (as opposed to spark-gap radio, which sent rapid strings of damped-wave pulses that consumed much bandwidth and were only suitable for Morse-code telegraphy) was pioneered by Fessenden, Poulsen and Lee de Forest. [54]

The art and science of crystal sets is still pursued as a hobby in the form of simple un-amplified radios that 'runs on nothing, forever'. They are used as a teaching tool by groups such as the Boy Scouts of America to introduce youngsters to electronics and radio. As the only energy available is that gathered by the antenna system, loudness is necessarily limited.

Vacuum tubes

The first commercial AM Audion vacuum tube radio transmitter, built in 1914 by Lee De Forest who invented the Audion (triode) in 1906 First vacuum tube AM radio transmitter.jpg
The first commercial AM Audion vacuum tube radio transmitter, built in 1914 by Lee De Forest who invented the Audion (triode) in 1906

During the mid-1920s, amplifying vacuum tubes revolutionized radio receivers and transmitters. John Ambrose Fleming developed a vacuum tube diode. Lee de Forest placed a screen, added a "grid" electrode, creating the triode. [55]

Early radios ran the entire power of the transmitter through a carbon microphone. In the 1920s, the Westinghouse company bought Lee de Forest's and Edwin Armstrong's patent. During the mid-1920s, Amplifying vacuum tubes revolutionized radio receivers and transmitters. Westinghouse engineers developed a more modern vacuum tube.

The first radios still required batteries, but in 1926 the "battery eliminator" was introduced to the market. This tube technology allowed radios to be powered through the grid instead. They still required batteries to heat up the vacuum-tube filaments, but after the invention of indirectly heated vacuum tubes, the first completely battery free radios became available in 1927. [56]

In 1929 a new screen grid tube called UY-224 was introduced, an amplifier designed to operate directly on alternating current. [57]

A problem with the early radios was fading stations and fluctuating volume. The invention of the superheterodyne receiver solved this problem, and the first radios with a heterodyne radio receiver went for sale in 1924. But it was costly, and the technology was shelved while waiting for the technology to mature, and in 1929 the Radiola 66 and Radiola 67 went for sale. [58] [59] [60]

Loudspeakers

In the early days one had to use headphones to listen to radio. Later loudspeakers in the form of a horn of the type used by phonographs, equipped with a telephone receiver, became available. But the sound quality was poor. In 1926 the first radios with electrodynamic loudspeakers went for sale, which improved the quality significantly. At first the loudspeakers were separated from the radio, but soon radios would come with a built-in loudspeaker. [61]

Other inventions related to sound included the automatic volume control (AVC), first commercially available in 1928. [62] In 1930 a tone control knob was added to the radios. This allowed listeners to improve imperfect broadcasting. [63]

The magnetic cartridge, which was introduced in the mid 20's, greatly improved the broadcasting of music. When playing music from a phonograph before the magnetic cartridge, a microphone had to be placed close to a horn loudspeaker. The invention allowed the electric signals to be amplified and then fed directly to the broadcast transmitter. [64]

Transistor technology

The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. Size: 3x5x1.25 inch (7.6x12.7x3.2 cm) Vintage Regency TR-1 4-Transistor Radio, Mandarin Red, Made in USA, Introduced In 1954 (8622359295).jpg
The Regency TR-1, which used Texas Instruments' NPN transistors, was the world's first commercially produced transistor radio in 1954. Size: 3×5×1.25 inch (7.6×12.7×3.2 cm)

Following development of transistor technology, bipolar junction transistors led to the development of the transistor radio. In 1954, the Regency company introduced a pocket transistor radio, the TR-1, powered by a "standard 22.5 V Battery." In 1955, the newly formed Sony company introduced its first transistorized radio, the TR-55. [65] It was small enough to fit in a vest pocket, powered by a small battery. It was durable, because it had no vacuum tubes to burn out. In 1957, Sony introduced the TR-63, the first mass-produced transistor radio, leading to the mass-market penetration of transistor radios. [66] Over the next 20 years, transistors replaced tubes almost completely except for high-power transmitters.

By the mid-1960s, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) were using metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) in their consumer products, including FM radio, television and amplifiers. [67] Metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) large-scale integration (LSI) provided a practical and economic solution for radio technology, and was used in mobile radio systems by the early 1970s. [68]

Integrated circuit

The first integrated circuit (IC) radio, P1740 by General Electric, became available in 1966. [69]

Car radio

The first car radio was introduced in 1922, but it was so large that it took up too much space in the car. [70] The first commercial car radio that could easily be installed in most cars went for sale in 1930. [71] [72]

Radio telex

Telegraphy did not go away on radio. Instead, the degree of automation increased. On land-lines in the 1930s, teletypewriters automated encoding, and were adapted to pulse-code dialing to automate routing, a service called telex. For thirty years, telex was the cheapest form of long-distance communication, because up to 25 telex channels could occupy the same bandwidth as one voice channel. For business and government, it was an advantage that telex directly produced written documents.

Telex systems were adapted to short-wave radio by sending tones over single sideband. CCITT R.44 (the most advanced pure-telex standard) incorporated character-level error detection and retransmission as well as automated encoding and routing. For many years, telex-on-radio (TOR) was the only reliable way to reach some third-world countries. TOR remains reliable, though less-expensive forms of e-mail are displacing it. Many national telecom companies historically ran nearly pure telex networks for their governments, and they ran many of these links over short wave radio.

Documents including maps and photographs went by radiofax, or wireless photoradiogram, invented in 1924 by Richard H. Ranger of Radio Corporation of America (RCA). This method prospered in the mid-20th century and faded late in the century.

Radio navigation

One of the first developments in the early 20th century was that aircraft used commercial AM radio stations for navigation, AM stations are still marked on U.S. aviation charts. Radio navigation played an important role during war time, especially in World War II. Before the discovery of the crystal oscillator, radio navigation had many limits. [73] However, as radio technology expanding, navigation is easier to use, and it provides a better position. Although there are many advantages, the radio navigation systems often comes with complex equipment such as the radio compass receiver, compass indicator, or the radar plan position indicator. All of these require users to obtain certain knowledge.

In the 1960s VOR systems became widespread. In the 1970s, LORAN became the premier radio navigation system. Soon, the US Navy experimented with satellite navigation. In 1987, the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation of satellites was launched; it was followed by other GNSS systems like Glonass, BeiDou and Galileo.

FM

In 1933, FM radio was patented by inventor Edwin H. Armstrong. [74] FM uses frequency modulation of the radio wave to reduce static and interference from electrical equipment and the atmosphere. In 1937, W1XOJ, the first experimental FM radio station after Armstrong's W2XMN in Alpine, New Jersey, was granted a construction permit by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

FM in Europe

After World War II, FM radio broadcasting was introduced in Germany. At a meeting in Copenhagen in 1948, a new wavelength plan was set up for Europe. Because of the recent war, Germany (which did not exist as a state and so was not invited) was only given a small number of medium-wave frequencies, which were not very good for broadcasting. For this reason Germany began broadcasting on UKW ("Ultrakurzwelle", i.e. ultra short wave, nowadays called VHF) which was not covered by the Copenhagen plan. After some amplitude modulation experience with VHF, it was realized that FM radio was a much better alternative for VHF radio than AM. Because of this history, FM radio is still referred to as "UKW Radio" in Germany. Other European nations followed a bit later, when the superior sound quality of FM and the ability to run many more local stations because of the more limited range of VHF broadcasts were realized.

Television

In the 1930s, regular analog television broadcasting began in some parts of Europe and North America. By the end of the decade there were roughly 25,000 all-electronic television receivers in existence worldwide, the majority of them in the UK. In the US, Armstrong's FM system was designated by the FCC to transmit and receive television sound.

Color television

By 1963, color television was being broadcast commercially (though not all broadcasts or programs were in color), and the first (radio) communication satellite, Telstar , was launched. In the 1970s,

Mobile phones

In 1947 AT&T commercialized the Mobile Telephone Service. From its start in St. Louis in 1946, AT&T then introduced Mobile Telephone Service to one hundred towns and highway corridors by 1948. Mobile Telephone Service was a rarity with only 5,000 customers placing about 30,000 calls each week. Because only three radio channels were available, only three customers in any given city could make mobile telephone calls at one time. [76] Mobile Telephone Service was expensive, costing US$15 per month, plus $0.30–0.40 per local call, equivalent to (in 2012 US dollars) about $176 per month and $3.50–4.75 per call. [77] The Advanced Mobile Phone System analog mobile phone system, developed by Bell Labs, was introduced in the Americas in 1978, [78] [79] [80] gave much more capacity. It was the primary analog mobile phone system in North America (and other locales) through the 1980s and into the 2000s.

The development of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) large-scale integration (LSI) technology, information theory and cellular networking led to the development of affordable mobile communications. [81] The Advanced Mobile Phone System analog mobile phone system, developed by Bell Labs and introduced in the Americas in 1978, [78] [79] [80] gave much more capacity. It was the primary analog mobile phone system in North America (and other locales) through the 1980s and into the 2000s.

The British government and the state-owned postal services found themselves under massive pressure from the wireless industry (including telegraphy) and early radio adopters to open up to the new medium. In an internal confidential report from February 25, 1924, the Imperial Wireless Telegraphy Committee stated:

"We have been asked 'to consider and advise on the policy to be adopted as regards the Imperial Wireless Services so as to protect and facilitate public interest.' It was impressed upon us that the question was urgent. We did not feel called upon to explore the past or to comment on the delays which have occurred in the building of the Empire Wireless Chain. We concentrated our attention on essential matters, examining and considering the facts and circumstances which have a direct bearing on policy and the condition which safeguard public interests." [82]

When radio was introduced in the early 1920s, many predicted it would kill the phonograph record industry. Radio was a free medium for the public to hear music for which they would normally pay. While some companies saw radio as a new avenue for promotion, others feared it would cut into profits from record sales and live performances. Many record companies would not license their records to be played over the radio, and had their major stars sign agreements that they would not perform on radio broadcasts. [83] [84]

Indeed, the music recording industry had a severe drop in profits after the introduction of the radio. For a while, it appeared as though radio was a definite threat to the record industry. Radio ownership grew from two out of five homes in 1931 to four out of five homes in 1938. Meanwhile, record sales fell from $75 million in 1929 to $26 million in 1938 (with a low point of $5 million in 1933), though the economics of the situation were also affected by the Great Depression. [85]

The copyright owners were concerned that they would see no gain from the popularity of radio and the 'free' music it provided. What they needed to make this new medium work for them already existed in previous copyright law. The copyright holder for a song had control over all public performances 'for profit.' The problem now was proving that the radio industry, which was just figuring out for itself how to make money from advertising and currently offered free music to anyone with a receiver, was making a profit from the songs.

The test case was against Bamberger's Department Store in Newark, New Jersey in 1922. The store was broadcasting music from its store on the radio station WOR. No advertisements were heard, except at the beginning of the broadcast which announced "L. Bamberger and Co., One of America's Great Stores, Newark, New Jersey." It was determined through this and previous cases (such as the lawsuit against Shanley's Restaurant) that Bamberger was using the songs for commercial gain, thus making it a public performance for profit, which meant the copyright owners were due payment.

With this ruling the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) began collecting licensing fees from radio stations in 1923. The beginning sum was $250 for all music protected under ASCAP, but for larger stations the price soon ballooned to $5,000. Edward Samuels reports in his book The Illustrated Story of Copyright that "radio and TV licensing represents the single greatest source of revenue for ASCAP and its composers […] and [a]n average member of ASCAP gets about $150–$200 per work per year, or about $5,000-$6,000 for all of a member's compositions." Not long after the Bamberger ruling, ASCAP had to once again defend their right to charge fees, in 1924. The Dill Radio Bill would have allowed radio stations to play music without paying and licensing fees to ASCAP or any other music-licensing corporations. The bill did not pass. [86]

Regulations of radio stations in the U.S

Wireless Ship Act of 1910

Radio technology was first used for ships to communicate at sea. To ensure safety, the Wireless Ship Act of 1910 marks the first time the U.S. government implies regulations on radio systems on ships. [87] This act requires ships to have a radio system with a professional operator if they want to travel more than 200 miles offshore or have more than 50 people on board. However, this act had many flaws including the competition of radio operators including the two majors company (British and American Marconi). They tended to delay communication for ships that used their competitor's system. This contributed to the tragic incident of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

Radio Act of 1912

In 1912, distress calls to aid the sinking Titanic were met with a large amount of interfering radio traffic, severely hampering the rescue effort. Subsequently, the US government passed the Radio Act of 1912 to help mitigate the repeat of such a tragedy. The act helps distinguish between normal radio traffic and (primarily maritime) emergency communication, and specifies the role of government during such an emergency. [88]

The Radio Act of 1927

The Radio Act of 1927 gave the Federal Radio Commission the power to grant and deny licenses, and to assign frequencies and power levels for each licensee. In 1928 it began requiring licenses of existing stations and setting controls on who could broadcast from where on what frequency and at what power. Some stations could not obtain a license and ceased operations. In section 29, the Radio Act of 1927 mentioned that the content of the broadcast should be freely present, and the government cannot interfere with this. [89]

The Communications Act of 1934

The introduction of the Communications Act of 1934 led to the establishment of the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC). The FCC's responsibility is to control the industry including "telephone, telegraph, and radio communications." [90] Under this Act, all carriers have to keep records of authorized interference and unauthorized interference. This Act also supports the President in time of war. If the government needs to use the communication facilities in time of war, they are allowed to.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first significant overhaul in over 60 years amending the work of the Communications Act of 1934. Coming only two dozen years after the breakup of AT&T, the act sets out to move telecommunications into a state of competition with their markets and the networks they are a part of. [91] Up to this point the effects of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have been seen, but some of the changes the Act set out to fix are still ongoing problems, such as being unable to create an open competitive market.

Licensed commercial public radio stations

Around 1920, radio broadcasting started to get popular. The Brox Sisters, a popular singing group, gathered around the radio at the time. Brox (Sisters) LCCN2014717186.jpg
Around 1920, radio broadcasting started to get popular. The Brox Sisters, a popular singing group, gathered around the radio at the time.

The question of the 'first' publicly targeted licensed radio station in the U.S. has more than one answer and depends on semantics. Settlement of this 'first' question may hang largely upon what constitutes 'regular' programming

See also

Footnotes

  1. "James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879)". (sparkmuseum.com).
  2. Ralph Baierlein (1992). Newton to Einstein: The Trail of Light. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0521423236 . Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  3. G. R. M. Garratt, The Early History of Radio: From Faraday to Marconi, IET – 1994, p. 27
  4. "Magnetic Fields and Maxwell Revisited". lumenlearning.com.
  5. "Electromagnetism (glossary)". uoregon.edu.
  6. Peter Rowlands, Oliver Lodge and the Liverpool Physical Society, Liverpool University Press, 1990, p. 24
  7. Electric waves; being research on the propagation of electric action with finite velocity through space by Heinrich Rudolph Hertz (English translation by Daniel Evan Jones), Macmillan and Co., 1893, pp. 1–5
  8. "Section 22: Word Origins". earlyradiohistory.us.
  9. W. Bernard Carlson, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age, 2013, pp. 125–126
  10. Sungook Hong, Wireless: From Marconi's Black-box to the Audion, MIT Press, 2001, p. 2
  11. "Thread:Milestone-Proposal talk:First generation and experimental proof of electromagnetic waves 1886–1888./Hertz milestone proposal/reply (6)". ETHW. December 11, 2018. Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  12. Hugh G.J. Aitken, Syntony and Spark – The Origins of Radio, Princeton University Press – 2014, p. 103
  13. 1 2 3 Sarkar, T. K.; Mailloux, Robert; Oliner, Arthur A. (2006). History of Wireless. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 474–86. ISBN   978-0471783015.
  14. James P. Rybak, Oliver Lodge: Almost the Father of Radio Archived 2018-10-03 at the Wayback Machine , pp. 5–6, from Antique Wireless
  15. Jagadis Chandra Bose, Prantosh Bhattacharyya, Meher H., J.C. Bose and Microwaves: A Collection, Bose Institute – 1995, p. 2
  16. Visvapriya Mukherji, Jagadis Chandra Bose, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India · 1983, chapter 5 – Researches into Hertzian Waves
  17. Mukherji, Visvapriya, Jagadish Chandra Bose, 2nd ed. 1994. Builders of Modern India series, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. ISBN   8123000472.
  18. 1 2 Hong (2001) pp. 5–10
  19. Thomas H. White (1 November 2012). "Nikola Tesla: The Guy Who DIDN'T 'Invent Radio'". earlyradiohistory.us.
  20. Ghosh, Kunal (July 4, 2022). "Jagadish Chandra Bose: The first complete biography investigates his life as well as his science". Scroll.in.
  21. Christopher H. Sterling, Encyclopedia of Radio, Routledge – 2003, p. 1820
  22. 1 2 John W. Klooster (2009). Icons of Invention: the Makers of the Modern World from Gutenberg to Gates. ABC-CLIO. ISBN   978-0313347436 . Retrieved 3 February 2018.
  23. Hong (2001) p. 22
  24. Hong (2001) pp. 20–22
  25. Correspondence to the editor of the Saturday Review, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art: "The Inventor of Wireless Telegraphy: A Reply" from Guglielmo Marconi (3 May 1902, pp. 556–58) and "Wireless Telegraphy: A Rejoinder" from Silvanus P. Thompson (10 May 1902, pp. 598–99)
  26. Lodovico Gualandi. "Marconi e lo Stravolgimento della Verità Storica Sulla Sua Opera". radiomarconi.com.
  27. "Wireless Telegraphy" by G. Marconi (discussion), Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, (vol. 28, March 2, 1899), p. 294.
  28. https://worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/032189896/publication/GB189612039A?q=pn%3DGB189612039A%5B‍%5D
  29. "125 Years Discovery of Electromagnetic Waves". Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. May 16, 2022. Archived from the original on July 14, 2022. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
  30. Bondyopadhyay, Prebir K. (1995) "Guglielmo Marconi – The father of long distance radio communication – An engineer's tribute", 25th European Microwave Conference: Volume 2, pp. 879–85
  31. "1890s – 1930s: Radio". Elon University. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
  32. Belrose, John S. (5–7 September 1995). "Radio's First Message – Fessenden and Marconi". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers . Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  33. "The Clifden Station of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph System". Scientific American. 23 November 1907.
  34. Second Test of the Marconi Over-Ocean Wireless System Proved Entirely Successful Archived 19 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine . Sydney Daily Post. 24 October 1907.
  35. "A Short History of Radio", Winter 2003–2004 (FCC.gov)
  36. The Continuous Wave by Hugh G. J. Aitken, 1985, p. 50.
  37. Fessenden, Helen (1940), pp. 60–61, 76.
  38. US 706737 patent: "Wireless Telegraphy"
  39. "Experiments and Results in Wireless Telephony" by John Grant, The American Telephone Journal. Part I: January 26, 1907, pp. 49–51; Part II: February 2, 1907, pp. 68–70, 79–80.
  40. T. K. Sarkar, Robert Mailloux, Arthur A. Oliner, Magdalena Salazar-Palma, Dipak L. Sengupta, History of Wireless, Wiley – 2006, p. 92
  41. John W. Klooster, Icons of Invention – The Makers of the Modern World from Gutenberg to Gates – Vol. 1, Greenwood Press – 2009, p. 400
  42. Hugh G. J. Aitken, The Continuous Wave: Technology and American Radio, 1900–1932. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey – 1985, p. 61
  43. "The Early History of Radio in the United States" by H. P. Davis, in The Radio Industry: The Story of its Development, 1928, p. 190.
  44. Helen M. Fessenden, Reginald Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrow, New York: Coward-McCann, 1940
  45. Father of Radio by Lee de Forest, 1950, p. 225.
  46. I Looked and I Listened by Ben Gross, 1954, p. 48.
  47. "Reporting Yacht Races by Wireless Telephony", Electrical World, August 10, 1907, pp. 293–94. (archive.org)
  48. "Radio Soireé-Musicale" Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, 05 November 1919, p. 16
  49. 1 2 Rowan Wakefield (February 1959). "Radio Broadcasting at Union College". W2UC.union.edu. Archived from the original on May 15, 2008. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  50. "From a Shed to the World Wide Web". Union College Magazine. 1 November 1995. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  51. "Radio Waves and the Electromagnetic Spectrum" (PDF). radiojove.
  52. "Marconi Company Limited | Science Museum Group Collection". collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  53. "History & Origin". Telefunken Elektroakustik. Archived from the original on 2020-04-23. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  54. Basalla, George (1988). The Evolution of Technology. Cambridge University Press. p. 44.
  55. "Vacuum Tube Radio". nps.gov. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  56. The Race for Wireless: How Radio was Invented (or Discovered?)
  57. Popular Science Aug 1929
  58. late 1920s Archives | The Saturday Evening Post
  59. A Radio for the Great Depression – WSHU
  60. Radiola: The Golden Age of RCA, 1919–1929
  61. Audio Engineering Explained
  62. JI f()IU 112~ A\ IL – California Historical Radio Society
  63. Popular Science des 1930
  64. Dawn of the Electronic Age: Electrical Technologies in the Shaping of the Modern World, 1914 to 1945
  65. "Transistor Radios". ScienCentral (pbs.org). 1999. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  66. Skrabec, Quentin R. Jr. (2012). The 100 Most Significant Events in American Business: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 195–97. ISBN   978-0313398636.
  67. 1 2 Harrison, Linden T. (2005). Current Sources and Voltage References: A Design Reference for Electronics Engineers. Elsevier. p. 185. ISBN   978-0080455556.
  68. Zeidler, G.; Becker, D. (1974). "MOS LSI Custom Circuits Offer New Prospects for Communications Equipment Design". Electrical Communication. 49–50. Western Electric Company: 88–92. In many fields of communications equipment design, MOS LSI custom built circuits provide the only practical and economic solution. (...) A complete list of all applications is beyond the scope of this paper since new MOS developments are constantly being initiated in the various technical areas. Typical examples of completed and present MOS developments are:
    — crosspoints
    — multiplexers
    — modems
    — mobile radios
  69. Electronics World (November, 1966, Vol. 76, No. 51. p. 44)
  70. The First Car With a Radio – Techhistorian
  71. Can AM Radio Be Saved? Should It Be? | The Well News
  72. Entrepreneur – Founder Of Motorola – Paul Galvin
  73. ""Flying the Beam" | Time and Navigation". timeandnavigation.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  74. "Edwin H. Armstrong | Lemelson-MIT Program". lemelson.mit.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-28.[ permanent dead link ]
  75. Amos, S. W.; James, Mike (2013). Principles of Transistor Circuits: Introduction to the Design of Amplifiers, Receivers and Digital Circuits. Elsevier. p. 332. ISBN   978-1483293905.
  76. Gordon A. Gow, Richard K. Smith Mobile and wireless communications: an introduction, McGraw-Hill International, 2006 ISBN   0335217613 p. 23
  77. "1946: First Mobile Telephone Call". corp.att.com. AT&T Intellectual Property. 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  78. 1 2 AT&T Tech Channel (2011-06-13). "AT&T Archives: Testing the First Public Cell Phone Network". Techchannel.att.com. Retrieved 2013-09-28.
  79. 1 2 Private Line: Daily Notes Archive (October 2003) by Tom Farley Archived 2012-06-10 at the Wayback Machine .
  80. 1 2 "Turning on the Future: October 13, 1983" Archived October 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine by Kathi Ann Brown (extract from Bringing Information to People, 1993) (MilestonesPast.com)
  81. Srivastava, Viranjay M.; Singh, Ghanshyam (2013). MOSFET Technologies for Double-Pole Four-Throw Radio-Frequency Switch. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 1. ISBN   978-3319011653.
  82. Report of the Imperial Wireless Telegraphy Committee, 1924. Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty. National Archives, London, Reference: CAB 24/165/38
  83. "liebowitz.dvi" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-12-29. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
  84. Callie Taintor (27 May 2004). "Chronology: Technology And The Music Industry". Frontline: The Way the Music Died (Inside the Music Industry) (PBS.org).
  85. Edward Samuels (April 19, 2002). "Creativity Wants to be Paid". edwardsamuels.com. Archived from the original on October 30, 2006. Retrieved November 12, 2006.
  86. "Music and Sound Recordings (chapter two)". The Illustrated Story of Copyright (edwardsamuels.com). 2002. Archived from the original on 2006-10-30. Retrieved 2006-11-12.
  87. Tullai, Margaret. "Wireless Ship Act of 1910". www.mtsu.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  88. Morrison, Sharon L. "Radio Act of 1912". www.mtsu.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  89. Morrison, Sharon L. "Radio Act of 1927". www.mtsu.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  90. "The Communications Act of 1934". it.ojp.gov. Retrieved 2020-06-09.
  91. Economides, Nicholas (1999-12-01). "The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and its impact1Presented at the Annual Telecommunications Policy Conference, Tokyo, Japan, 4 December 1997. I thank Hajime Hori, Bob Kargoll, Steve Levinson, and two anonymous referees for helpful comments.1". Japan and the World Economy. 11 (4): 455–83. doi: 10.1016/S0922-1425(98)00056-5 . ISSN   0922-1425.
  92. "The Pennsylvania Center for the Book – KDKA". pabook2.libraries.psu.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  93. Sterling, Christopher (2009). The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio. Sterling. p. 847. ISBN   978-0415995337.
  94. A Tower in Babel by Eric Barnouw, 1966, pp. 62–64
  95. Larry Wolters, "Radio Illusions Dispelled By DeForest." Chicago Tribune, 13 September 1936, p. SW 7
  96. "Radio's Anniversary," Boston Globe, 30 September 1928, p. B27.
  97. "Highbridge Station Reports (1917)". earlyradiohistory.us.
  98. Donna L. Halper (2001-01-02). "The Rise and Fall of WGI". The Boston Radio Archives (bostonradio.org).
  99. lombardi (2010-05-11). "NIST Time and Frequency Division History". NIST. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  100. Schmidt, Sarah. "Subject Research, Course Guides, Documentation: Archives & Special Collections: WRUC (Union College Radio Station)". libguides.union.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-05-28.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guglielmo Marconi</span> Italian electrical engineer and inventor (1874–1937)

Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marchese of Marconi was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, physicist and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This led to Marconi being credited as the inventor of radio and sharing the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy". His work laid the foundation for the development of radio, television and all modern wireless communication systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wireless telegraphy</span> Method of communication

Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is the transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term wireless telegraphy was also used for other experimental technologies for transmitting telegraph signals without wires. In radiotelegraphy, information is transmitted by pulses of radio waves of two different lengths called "dots" and "dashes", which spell out text messages, usually in Morse code. In a manual system, the sending operator taps on a switch called a telegraph key which turns the transmitter on and off, producing the pulses of radio waves. At the receiver the pulses are audible in the receiver's speaker as beeps, which are translated back to text by an operator who knows Morse code.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frequency-hopping spread spectrum</span> Radio signal transmission method

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly changing the carrier frequency among many frequencies occupying a large spectral band. The changes are controlled by a code known to both transmitter and receiver. FHSS is used to avoid interference, to prevent eavesdropping, and to enable code-division multiple access (CDMA) communications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shortwave radio</span> Radio transmissions using wavelengths between 10 m and 100 m

Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz ; above the medium frequency band (MF), to the bottom of the VHF band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transmitter</span> Electronic device that emits radio waves

In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna with the purpose of signal transmission up to a radio receiver. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the antenna. When excited by this alternating current, the antenna radiates radio waves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reginald Fessenden</span> Canadian-born American electrical engineer and inventor (1866–1932)

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was a Canadian-born American electrical engineer and inventor who received hundreds of patents in various fields, most notably ones related to radio and sonar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AM broadcasting</span> Radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation

AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave transmissions, but also on the longwave and shortwave radio bands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wireless</span> Transfer of information or power that does not require the use of physical wires

Wireless communication is the transfer of information (telecommunication) between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most common wireless technologies use radio waves. With radio waves, intended distances can be short, such as a few meters for Bluetooth, or as far as millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications. It encompasses various types of fixed, mobile, and portable applications, including two-way radios, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless networking. Other examples of applications of radio wireless technology include GPS units, garage door openers, wireless computer mouse, keyboards and headsets, headphones, radio receivers, satellite television, broadcast television and cordless telephones. Somewhat less common methods of achieving wireless communications involve other electromagnetic phenomena, such as light and magnetic or electric fields, or the use of sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee de Forest</span> American inventor (1873–1961)

Lee de Forest was an American inventor, electrical engineer and an early pioneer in electronics of fundamental importance. He invented the first practical electronic amplifier, the three-element "Audion" triode vacuum tube in 1906. This helped start the Electronic Age, and enabled the development of the electronic oscillator. These made radio broadcasting and long distance telephone lines possible, and led to the development of talking motion pictures, among countless other applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coherer</span> Early radio wave detector

The coherer was a primitive form of radio signal detector used in the first radio receivers during the wireless telegraphy era at the beginning of the 20th century. Its use in radio was based on the 1890 findings of French physicist Édouard Branly and adapted by other physicists and inventors over the next ten years. The device consists of a tube or capsule containing two electrodes spaced a small distance apart with loose metal filings in the space between. When a radio frequency signal is applied to the device, the metal particles would cling together or "cohere", reducing the initial high resistance of the device, thereby allowing a much greater direct current to flow through it. In a receiver, the current would activate a bell, or a Morse paper tape recorder to make a record of the received signal. The metal filings in the coherer remained conductive after the signal (pulse) ended so that the coherer had to be "decohered" by tapping it with a clapper actuated by an electromagnet, each time a signal was received, thereby restoring the coherer to its original state. Coherers remained in widespread use until about 1907, when they were replaced by more sensitive electrolytic and crystal detectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio receiver</span> Device for receiving radio broadcasts

In radio communications, a radio receiver, also known as a receiver, a wireless, or simply a radio, is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna. The antenna intercepts radio waves and converts them to tiny alternating currents which are applied to the receiver, and the receiver extracts the desired information. The receiver uses electronic filters to separate the desired radio frequency signal from all the other signals picked up by the antenna, an electronic amplifier to increase the power of the signal for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through demodulation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleksandr Popov (physicist)</span> Russian physicist (1859–1906)

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was a Russian physicist who was one of the first people to invent a radio receiving device.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spark-gap transmitter</span> Type of radio transmitter

A spark-gap transmitter is an obsolete type of radio transmitter which generates radio waves by means of an electric spark. Spark-gap transmitters were the first type of radio transmitter, and were the main type used during the wireless telegraphy or "spark" era, the first three decades of radio, from 1887 to the end of World War I. German physicist Heinrich Hertz built the first experimental spark-gap transmitters in 1887, with which he proved the existence of radio waves and studied their properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invention of radio</span>

The invention of radio communication was preceded by many decades of establishing theoretical underpinnings, discovery and experimental investigation of radio waves, and engineering and technical developments related to their transmission and detection. These developments allowed Guglielmo Marconi to turn radio waves into a wireless communication system.

The timeline of radio lists within the history of radio, the technology and events that produced instruments that use radio waves and activities that people undertook. Later, the history is dominated by programming and contents, which is closer to general history.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to telecommunication:

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to radio:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radio</span> Use of radio waves to carry information

Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connected to an antenna which radiates oscillating electrical energy, often characterized as a wave. They can be received by other antennas connected to a radio receiver; this is the fundamental principle of radio communication. In addition to communication, radio is used for radar, radio navigation, remote control, remote sensing, and other applications.

The following timeline tables list the discoveries and inventions in the history of electrical and electronic engineering.

This article details the history of electronics engineering. Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary (1972) defines electronics as "The science and technology of the conduction of electricity in a vacuum, a gas, or a semiconductor, and devices based thereon".

References

Primary sources

  • De Lee Forest. Father of Radio: The Autobiography of Lee de Forest (1950).
  • Gleason L. Archer Personal Papers (MS108), Suffolk University Archives, Suffolk University; Boston, Massachusetts. Gleason L. Archer Personal Papers (MS108) finding aid
  • Kahn Frank J., ed. Documents of American Broadcasting, fourth edition (Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984).
  • Lichty Lawrence W., and Topping Malachi C., eds. American Broadcasting: A Source Book on the History of Radio and Television (Hastings House, 1975).

Secondary sources

  • Aitkin, Hugh G. J. The Continuous Wave: Technology and the American Radio, 1900–1932 (Princeton University Press, 1985).
  • Anderson, Leland. "Nikola Tesla On His Work With Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, Telephony, and Transmission of Power", Sun Publishing Company, LC 92-60482, ISBN   0963265202 (ed. excerpts available online)
  • Anderson, Leland I. Priority in the Invention of Radio – Tesla vs. Marconi , Antique Wireless Association monograph, 1980, examining the 1943 decision by the US Supreme Court holding the key Marconi patent invalid (9 pages). (21st Century Books)
  • Archer, Gleason L. Big Business and Radio (The American Historical Society, Inc., 1939)
  • Archer, Gleason L. History of Radio to 1926 (The American Historical Society, Inc., 1938).
  • Barnouw, Erik. The Golden Web (Oxford University Press, 1968); The Sponsor (1978); A Tower in Babel (1966).
  • Belrose, John S., " Fessenden and Marconi: Their Differing Technologies and Transatlantic Experiments During the First Decade of this Century ". International Conference on 100 Years of Radio (5–7 September 1995).
  • Briggs, Asa. The BBC – the First Fifty Years (Oxford University Press, 1984).
  • Briggs, Asa. The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom (Oxford University Press, 1961).
  • Brodsky, Ira. "The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses" (Telescope Books, 2008)
  • Butler, Lloyd (VK5BR), " Before Valve Amplification Archived 2020-08-08 at the Wayback Machine – Wireless Communication of an Early Era"
  • Coe, Douglas and Kreigh Collins (ills), "Marconi, pioneer of radio". New York, J. Messner, Inc., 1943. LCCN   43-10048
  • Covert, Cathy and Stevens John L. Mass Media Between the Wars (Syracuse University Press, 1984).
  • Craig, Douglas B. Fireside Politics: Radio and Political Culture in the United States, 1920–1940 (2005)
  • Crook, Tim. International Radio Journalism: History, Theory and Practice Routledge, 1998
  • Douglas, Susan J., Listening in : radio and the American imagination : from Amos 'n' Andy and Edward R. Murrow to Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern , New York: Times Books, 1999.
  • Ewbank Henry and Lawton Sherman P. Broadcasting: Radio and Television (Harper & Brothers, 1952).
  • Garratt, G. R. M., "The early history of radio : from Faraday to Marconi", London, Institution of Electrical Engineers in association with the Science Museum, History of technology series, 1994. ISBN   0852968450 LCCN   94-11611
  • Geddes, Keith, "Guglielmo Marconi, 1874–1937". London : H.M.S.O., A Science Museum booklet, 1974. ISBN   0112901980 LCCN   75-329825 (ed. Obtainable in the US from Pendragon House Inc., Palo Alto, California.)
  • Gibson, George H. Public Broadcasting; The Role of the Federal Government, 1919–1976 (Praeger Publishers, 1977).
  • Hancock, Harry Edgar, "Wireless at sea; the first fifty years. A history of the progress and development of marine wireless communications written to commemorate the jubilee of the Marconi International Marine Communication Company limited". Chelmsford, Eng., Marconi International Marine Communication Co., 1950. LCCN   51-40529
  • Jackaway, Gwenyth L. Media at War: Radio's Challenge to the Newspapers, 1924–1939 Praeger Publishers, 1995
  • Journal of the Franklin Institute. " Notes and comments; Telegraphy without wires ", Journal of the Franklin Institute, December 1897, pp. 463–64.
  • Katz, Randy H., " Look Ma, No Wires": Marconi and the Invention of Radio ". History of Communications Infrastructures.
  • Lazarsfeld, Paul F. The People Look at Radio (University of North Carolina Press, 1946).
  • Maclaurin, W. Rupert. Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry (The Macmillan Company, 1949).
  • Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, "Year book of wireless telegraphy and telephony", London : Published for the Marconi Press Agency Ltd., by the St. Catherine Press / Wireless Press. LCCN   14-17875 LCCN   86-35439
  • Marincic, Aleksandar and Djuradj Budimir, " Tesla contribution to radio wave propagation ". (PDF)
  • Masini, Giancarlo. "Guglielmo Marconi". Turin: Turinese typographical-publishing union, 1975. LCCN   77-472455 (ed. Contains 32 tables outside of the text)
  • Massie, Walter Wentworth, "Wireless telegraphy and telephony popularly explained". New York, Van Nostrand, 1908.
  • McChesney, Robert W. Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928–1935 Oxford University Press, 1994
  • McCourt, Tom. Conflicting Communication Interests in America: The Case of National Public Radio Praeger Publishers, 1999
  • McNicol, Donald. " The Early Days of Radio in America ". The Electrical Experimenter, April 1917, pp. 893, 911.
  • Peers, Frank W. The Politics of Canadian Broadcasting, 1920–1951 (University of Toronto Press, 1969).
  • Pimsleur, J. L. " Invention of Radio Celebrated in S.F.; 100th birthday exhibit this weekend ". San Francisco Chronicle, 1995.
  • The Prestige, 2006, Touchstone Pictures.
  • The Radio Staff of the Detroit News, WWJ-The Detroit News (The Evening News Association, Detroit, 1922).
  • Ray, William B. FCC: The Ups and Downs of Radio-TV Regulation (Iowa State University Press, 1990).
  • Rosen, Philip T. The Modern Stentors; Radio Broadcasting and the Federal Government 1920–1934 (Greenwood Press, 1980).
    • Rugh, William A. Arab Mass Media: Newspapers, Radio, and Television in Arab Politics Praeger, 2004
  • Scannell, Paddy, and Cardiff, David. A Social History of British Broadcasting, Volume One, 1922–1939 (Basil Blackwell, 1991).
  • Schramm Wilbur, ed. Mass Communications (University of Illinois Press, 1960).
  • Schwoch James. The American Radio Industry and Its Latin American Activities, 1900–1939 (University of Illinois Press, 1990).
  • Seifer, Marc J., "The Secret History of Wireless". Kingston, Rhode Island.
  • Slater, Robert. This ... is CBS: A Chronicle of 60 Years (Prentice Hall, 1988).
  • Smith, F. Leslie, John W. Wright II, David H. Ostroff; Perspectives on Radio and Television: Telecommunication in the United States Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998
  • Sterling, Christopher H. Electronic Media, A Guide to Trends in Broadcasting and Newer Technologies 1920–1983 (Praeger, 1984).
  • Sterling, Christopher, and Kittross John M. Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting (Wadsworth, 1978).
  • Stone, John Stone. "John Stone Stone on Nikola Tesla's Priority in Radio and Continuous-Wave Radiofrequency Apparatus". Twenty First Century Books, 2005.
  • Sungook Hong, "Wireless: from Marconi's Black-box to the Audion", Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2001, ISBN   0262082985
  • Waldron, Richard Arthur, "Theory of guided electromagnetic waves". London, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970. ISBN   0442091672 LCCN   69-19848
  • Weightman, Gavin, "Signor Marconi's magic box : the most remarkable invention of the 19th century & the amateur inventor whose genius sparked a revolution" 1st Da Capo Press ed., Cambridge, Massachusetts : Da Capo Press, 2003.
  • White, Llewellyn. The American Radio (University of Chicago Press, 1947).
  • White, Thomas H. " Pioneering U.S. Radio Activities (1897–1917) ", United States Early Radio History.
  • Wunsch, A. David " Misreading the Supreme Court: A Puzzling Chapter in the History of Radio " Mercurians.org.

Media and documentaries