Radio as we now have come to understand it has evolved through the work of several well-known inventors and scientists. Rather than pointing to one specific date for the invention of "radio," which is still debated, you might consider several dates as historical turning points moving closer to what we now call amptitude modulation and frequency modulation (AM and FM radio). The first radio technology was know as radio-telegraphy or spark transmitters, and did not resemble the public broadcasted form we have come to know and love.
Radio owes its development to two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone, all three technologies are closely related. Radio technology began as "wireless telegraphy".
Radio can refer to either the electronic appliance that we listen with or the content listened to. However, it all started with the discovery of "radio waves" - electromagnetic waves that have the capacity to transmit music, speech, pictures and other data invisibly through the air. Many devices work by using electromagnetic waves including: radio, microwaves, cordless phones, remote controlled toys, television broadcasts, and more.
During the 1860s, Scottish physicist, James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves; and in 1886, German physicist, Heinrich Rudolph Hertz demonstrated that rapid variations of electric current could be projected into space in the form of radio waves similar to those of light and heat.
In 1866, Mahlon Loomis, an American dentist, successfully demonstrated "wireless telegraphy."
If you are forced to use one date, then I suggest using the date Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor, proved the feasibility of radio communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895.
However, keep in mind that In addition to Marconi, two of his contemporaries Nikola Tesla and Nathan Stufflefield took out patents for wireless radio transmitters. Nikola Tesla is now credited with being the first person to patent radio technology; the Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of Tesla.
This rudementary form of communication, which in no way resembles public radio broadcasting as we know it today.Radiotelegraph and Spark-Gap Transmitters called spark-gap machines were developed mainly for ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship communication.
In 1909, Robert E. Peary, arctic explorer, radiotelegraphed: "I found the Pole". In 1910 Marconi opened regular American-European radiotelegraph service.
The initial radiotelegraph transmitter discharged electricity within the circuit and between the electrodes and was unstable causing a high amount of interference. The Alexanderson high-frequency alternator and the De Forest tube resolved many of these early technical problems.
Lee Deforest invented space telegraphy, the triode amplifier and the Audion. In the early 1900s, the great requirement for further development of radio was an efficient and delicate detector of electromagnetic radiation.
Lee De Forest provided that detector. It made it possible to amplify the radio frequency signal picked up by the antenna before application to the receiver detector; thus, much weaker signals could be utilized than had previously been possible. De Forest was also the person who first used the word "radio".
The result of Lee DeForest's work was the invention of amplitude-modulated or AM radio that allowed for a multitude of radio stations. The earlier spark-gap transmitters did not allow for this.
The first time the human voice was transmitted by radio is debateable. Claims to that distinction range from the phase, "Hello Rainey" spoken by Natan B. Stubblefield to a test partner near Murray, Kentucky, in 1892, to an experimental program of talk and music by
Reginald A. Fessenden, in 1906, which was heard by radio-equipped ships within several hundred miles. Reginald A. Fessenden is best known for his invention of the modulation of radio waves and the fathometer. True Broadcasting Begins in 1915, when a speech was first transmitted across the continent from New York City to San Francisco and across the Atlantic Ocean from Naval radio station NAA at Arlington, Virginia, to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
To answer your original question - When was the radio invented? This depends on what you consider "radio." If you are referring to public broadcasting, the discovery of "radio waves," legal patent filings, or the first radio-telegraphy communication. Of course the RCA Corporation made radio popular after it obtained the patents from the U.S. government following the first World War. Just like any technology their is usually a race between competiting corporations or inventors. Inventions never occur in isolation, but are the result of years of prior research and technological development.
2007-02-18 03:54:27
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answer #1
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answered by Gavin O 1
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