The
Media in
the Age
of Radio
& cinema
c1920AD –
1950AD
The development of
wireless
transmissions.
Marconi
Does Marconi
deserve the
title ‘The Father
of Radio‘?
Early scientific discoveries
and explorations that made
radio possible.
Timeline of significant events
1600: William Gilbert. First book about
electricity and magnets.
 William Gilbert was a pioneer of the experimental method and the first to
explain the magnetic compass. In 1600, Gilbert published De Magnete –
the first ever book about experimental physics.
 He was also the first person to use the terms "electric force," "magnetic
pole," and "electric attraction".
 Gilbert was also court physician to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and
briefly to James VI/I.
Early observations of magnetism
and electric current
1681 July 24: Lightning Damages a Ship's Compass. An early observation of
the relationship between magnetism and electric current.
1732 December 6: Lightning Magnetizes Cutlery. An early observation of
the relationship between magnetism and electric current
1746 January: Pieter van Musschenbroek. Discovery of the Leyden jar
(electrical capacitor)
1748-49 February 22 (4 March 1749 N.S.): Lightning Destroys the Polarity
of a Mariners Compass
Names familiar to those who study the
sciences.
 1781: Luigi Galvani. The electric effect of different metals
 1785: Charles Augustin de Coulomb. Coulomb's Law of Electrostatic Force
 1800: Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta. The first battery to supply electric
current.
 1809: Von Soemmering's electric telegraph
 1820: Hans Christian Oersted. Observation of magnetic effect of an electric current
 1826: Andre Marie Ampere. Mathematical analysis of magnetic effect of electric current
 1827: Georg Simon Ohm. Publication of Ohm's Law
 1831: Michael Faraday. Discovery of electromagnetic induction
The Possibility of Wireless Becomes Reality
1884 October 11:
Communication between Ships at
Sea. Telegraphing across the
ocean without a cable.
1888: Heinrich Hertz. Proof of the
existence of electromagnetic
radiation (radio waves)
1890: Edouard Branly. Invents a way to detect
electromagnetic waves
The first practical instrument for detecting Hertzian waves. The
coherer was a very useful device in the early days of
experimentation with electromagnetic waves.
We all are immersed continuously in a wash of electromagnetic
radiation coming from all directions, yet – without suitable
instruments – we are wholly unaware of it. Today we have an
amazing variety of everyday devices that are able to detect
the presence of electromagnetic radiation, from ordinary radio
receivers, mobile phones to GPS receivers.
1895 May 7: Alexander Stepanovich Popov.
Early radio receiver
Alexander Popov was working on a
way to detect thunderstorms using
atmospheric radio waves.
In 1894 he built an apparatus that
could register electrical disturbances
due to lightning, and suggested that
it could be used for receiving manmade signals. It contained a coherer.
This was a primitive radio receiver.
In 1896, he demonstrated the
transmission of radio wave signals
between different parts of the
University of St. Petersburg.
1895: Marconi's early wireless experiments in
Switzerland
1896 June 2: British Patent number 12039
Guglielmo Marconi is awarded British Patent
number 12039, the world's first patent for a
system of telegraphy using Hertzian waves
(radio).
1897 January 29: Bose lectures on
electromagnetic radiation
In this 1897 lecture, Bose
demonstrated his devices for
the generation and detection
of radio waves. More than five
hundred people including
Oliver Lodge, James John
Thomson and Lord Kelvin had
assembled to hear Bose.
1897: Braun Invents the Cathode Ray Tube
Oscillograph
Braun’s invention the first cathode ray tube (CRT) is an
essential tool for working with radio waves. Beginning in
the 1920s and to the present day, millions of CRT
devices have been manufactured and sold, for
oscilloscopes, television receivers, computer monitors,
hospital electronic and monitoring devices, etc.
In 1909, Braun was awarded the Nobel Prize jointly with
Guglielmo Marconi.
Commercialisation Begins
In 1897, with the help of wealthy relatives,
Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph and
Signal Company.
The company was registered 20 July 1897.
On 24 March 1900, the name was changed
to Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company
Limited.
1898 July 20: Kingstown Regatta Reported by
Wireless
 The results of the yacht races were not
especially interesting, but the technology used
to transmit them was revolutionary.
 Marconi was commissioned by T.P. Gill, editor of
the Dublin Daily Express newspaper, to report
the results of the races "direct from the high
seas".
 The newspaper chartered a yacht and
Marconi followed the regatta 10 miles out into
Dublin Bay.
 On July 20th, 1898, sent back the first-ever press
report by wireless telegraphy to a land station.
1900 June 3: Brazilian broadcast of the human
voice
Father Roberto Landell de Moura, a Roman Catholic
priest and inventor, is said to have publicly
demonstrated a radio broadcast of the human voice
on 3 June 1900 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The ancient terror of silence
Until the dawn of this century (1900) ships great and small sailed for distant
ports and, once they had passed over the horizon, were lost to the world
until weeks or months later when they were again sighted on shore. Once
out of sight of land those who went down to the sea in ships belonged to
another world — a world of stark loneliness and utter silence. Ships burned
or foundered in storms with not so much as a whisper reaching land to tell
their fate. The crew of a sinking or burning ship fought their battle for life,
silently and alone. Wireless telegraphy with its magic powers was to wrest
from the sea its ancient terror of silence and to give speech to ships which
had been mute since the dawn of navigation.
1901 October: International Yacht Races of 1901,
at New York. Radio fiasco