100 Years of Radio 101
kubla2000 writes: "As CNN dutifully reports, January 23 marks the anniversary of the first long distance radio transmission by Guglielmo Marconi thereby crediting him as the inventor of the radio. I spend a fair bit of time in Poland and was surprised to hear on a children's television quiz show that there were two correct answers to the question, "Who is the father of radio". The other correct answer, was Alexander Popov. Still others would argue that the true father of radio was
Nikola Tesla. So in fact, we're witnessing something between the 100th and the 107th anniversary of the birth of radio. Whichever it is, I think that human ingenuity has shown remarkable progress in the last century. From the crystal set and the cat's whisker to IP. Quite something."
Mahlon Loomis: Father of Radio (Score:2)
Thanks
Bruce
Who owns the airwaves? (Score:1)
Tesla, a case study or "Why geeks get the shaft" (Score:1)
Nobody talks anymore about what this man did, because he wasn't a blatant opportunist. Marconi was credited with radio because he made it an event. Marconi was a showman first, inventor second. Edison, Bill G. and Steve J. are from the same mold, exploiting the inventions of others as their own.
In 100 years, will Bill Gates be credited with inventing what then will be referred to as a computer? How about Jobs, for "inventing" the iMac? More startling, will Al Gore be heralded as the father of the internet? Doubtful, but all of these 'events' have made more splashes in the mainstream media than Linux, xBSD, RMS, ESR, K&R or anyone else who shook the geek universe.
So be opportunistic!
My 2 cents.
-- Len
Re:Indians don't think so.. (Score:2)
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
If Tesla was alive today? (Score:1)
Re:Why Marconi? (Score:1)
truth is stranger then fiction. (Score:1)
Actually it might happen. Any time you have two different cunduction meterials, a sounding board, and an attenna you can recieve AM type radio transmissions. True story: a gentleman had a cheap folding table that would recieve a local AM station that had an antenna nearby. You had to be really quite but you could hear a garbled voice. It is speculated that the rusted joints of the table legs were enough of a semi conductor to rectify the signal. It was very weird.
Re:Many fathers for a single child (Score:1)
hyacinthus.
The real radio foundation (Score:1)
Not much progress if you ask me ... (Score:2)
TESLA rules -- Marconi was a thief!!!! (Score:1)
Tesla invented radio. Marconi made his fortune on Tesla's patents.
PBS recently aired a documentary on Tesla -- you can view the Web site here: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ [pbs.org] .
Everyone said Tesla was crazy when he said you could generate AC power from Niagara Falls. They are the first installation of hydroelectric power anywhere in the world.
Tesla is the king (and the USA stole his "deathray" plans). They're also working on another weapon he designed.
In short, Tesla was robbed.
Tesla? Marconi? Popov who??? (Score:1)
Marconi and other inventors (Score:1)
of radio transmission, there is the fact that
they never build a long distance system with
a transmitter and a receiver.
Other experimenters made things to be used
in a laboratory, and almost not useful in
real life.
Marconi, in fact invented the antenna (guess
why the term is the same in italian and english?)
especially the transmitting antenna.
Popoff experimented on antennas user with receiver, but never built a transmitter.
Mike (from Italy... Am I a bit biased, isn't it?)
Others argue? (Score:2)
The US Patent Office even agrees....
Marconi's patents were overturned in favour of Tesla.
A Primer on History from an Erudite Source (Score:2)
Yet again, we see confusion and uncertainty over matters historical- uncertainties which should not remain yet do because of our own willing embrace of ignorant but easily repeated lies and distortions.
How is it that in this enlightened era, so many still are confused as to who deserves the credit for the invention of radio?
How have we come to this?
Tragically, it is that very few people living today were brave enough to face the ridicule of their peers and plop down $15 to buy the 1991 album "Psychotic Supper" by a group of self-educated historians with big-metal-hair. A band named after a genius. A band called Tesla.
I think that by posting the lyrics to their song "Edison's Medicine (Man Out Of Time)" here on slashdot this very day, I will once and for all clear up any confusion as to who really invented radio. I will forever end the debate. I find great comfort in the knowledge that the truth will finally be known, and that I will no longer be ashamed to name this CD amongst my collection.
[colombianet.net]
Edison's Medicine (Man Out Of Time)
You're guilty of crime in the first degree,
Second and third as well.
My jury finds you'll be serving your time
When you go straight to hell.
'Cause he was Lord of the Lightning,
Though "socially fright'ning",
But never out to sell.
Their nickels and pence
Meant more than did sense,
And not the sensible thing.
Nor did the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy. You was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
All along, world was wrong. You was right.
All that he saw, all he conceived,
They just could not believe.
Steinmetz and Twain were friends that remained,
Along with number three.
He was electromagnetic, completely kinetic,
"New Wizard of the West."
But they swindled and whined that he wasn't our kind,
And said Edison knew best.
He was the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy. You was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
Said you was outta your mind!
You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.
I spent twelve years of hard time,
More like the best years of my life.
Never heard or read a single word
About "the man" and his "wicked mind."
They'll sell you on Marconi.
Familiar, but a phony.
Story goes they sold their souls
And swore that you'd never know...
About the man outta time, man outta time.
Thought you was crazy. You was one of a kind.
Man outta time, man outta time.
Swore you was outta your mind!
You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine.
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine.
Re:Oh man, you said the T - Word (Score:1)
Now we have to listen to the freaks come out and talk about
...
What a bastard Edison was
Well... considering that Edison wanted power transmitted as DC, and Tesla wanted AC, i'd say that Edison is a bastard. Think of the clunkier mess we'd have for powerlines if we used DC. Damn.
Re:Oh man, you said the T - Word (Score:1)
------------------------
Hooray for progress! (Score:2)
Can you imagine? Because of those backwards times, we're all benefiting from the invention of radio and there aren't royalty checks going ANYWHERE!
Thank God for HDTV. Finally, content control over airwaves. And it only took 100 (or 107) years!
Three Hoorays For Radio !!! (Score:1)
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
The Smithsonian's exclusion of Tesla has more to do with Edison's legacy than to do with secretive applications for Tesla's work.
Edison's estate and the philathropic foundations he started are high up on the donor list for the Smithsonian. You don't piss off your big money makers. That's why the statue mentioned in the link you gave above is currently displayed in a side hallway to a restroom at the Museum of American History.
Many fathers for a single child (Score:3)
Guglielmo Marconi: The Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, repeated Hertz's experiments and eventually succeeded in getting secondary sparks over a distance of 30 feet (nine meters). [more..] [alpcom.it]
Nikola Tesla: Inventions related to radio ( the Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of Tesla) X-rays, the vacuum tube amplifier. [more..] [rr.com]
Lee De Forest: American inventor of the Audion vacuum tube, which made possible live radio broadcasting and became the key component of all radio, telephone, radar, television, and computer systems before the invention of the transistor in 1947. [more..] [britannica.com]
Ernst F. W. Alexanderson: The engineer whose high-frequency alternator gave America its start in the field of radio communication. [more..] [invent.org]
It seems we can't truly give credit to any ONE inventor. For without all of the above, and countless others, I'm sure, radio and many other innovations would not be where they currently are. Hope these links help.
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
--
Nature of Invention (Score:1)
I think that the nature of invention has long been misunderstood. There's a tendency to look at a technological breakthrough and see the incremental improvement that put a concept over the top, rather than long buildup to that point. The credit goes to the person who brought an idea into prominance, rather than the people who laid the groundwork. In that sense it's rather odd that the Soviets were as eager to promote their national hero as the true inventor of whatever as anyone, given the Marxist view of history as the result of broad trends rather than individual initiative.
It's interesting to consider whether the concept of patents, in which an inventor is allowed to profit greatly from his inventions, has contributed to the heroic view of invention or was a product of it. It certainly motivates inventors to try to claim as much of an invention as their as they can possibly get away with!
Re:Marconi VS Tesla (Score:1)
Nathan Stubblefield (Score:3)
wireless *voice* communications in 1885. That's a full three years before Hertz proof that radio waves existed, and nine years before Marconi's wireless telegraph. There are good records of
Stubblefield's work from 1892, when he showed it
to Dr. Rainey T. Wells; who also happened to be an attorney.
He demonstrated the device for hundreds of people, even a wireless ship-to-shore
demonstration from a riverboat on the Potomac in 1902.
He even got a patent, #887357, May 12, 1908, for the "radiotelephone device."
Tell me again why Marconi is widely credited with
"inventing radio" whereas Stubblefield died broke?
Re:Mahlon Loomis: Father of Radio (Score:1)
Interesting, Bruce, but why has nobody mentioned Heinrich Hertz?
73
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:2)
Edison was an egomaniac, so was marconi.. so they make it into history. Tesla never built a huge empire on his inventions, he just licensed his technology out and quietly worked on more stuff.
And of course there is reluctance now for any institution to 'change the story of history' they've been telling for so long....
Re:The real story of radio, as I see it. (Score:1)
Marconi started a transmission station in Galway, Ireland in 1904 or so. He had previously made the first trans-Atlantic transmission in 1901, from New Foundland to Cornwall.
I had the good fortune to interview his daughter, Elettra, in Galway, in 1995. At that point, we were actually close to the 100th anniversary of the transmission by Marconi over a distance of 1 mile, which first occurred in either 1895 or 1896 (can't remember exactly).
Regarding the claims of others, such as Tesla, I think that radio is a mix of several items:
wireless transmission
communication
and so I would think Marconi's claim to the title is reasonable.
Andrew
Re:I love radio (Score:1)
Actually, Television broadcasts use radio waves in the VHF and UHF Radio bands. And now Sprints wireless broadband service spread spectrum microwave bands. And what could be more intimate than the internet? Not a one way medium.
Father Murgas preceded Marconi (in NE Pa, USA) (Score:1)
All this happened -before- Marconi's own work was reported in the literature.
Worth a look to any historian wanting to set tht record straight on this tidbit of techonology history.
Do we have a radio historian in the audience...?
Re:A Primer on History from an Erudite Source (Score:1)
It's great to see someone who also enjoys the music of Tesla and respects the great man who gives the band its name.
Flavio
Re:Nathan Stubblefield (Score:1)
Bill Gates invented the Internet (Score:2)
By this principle, it's not unreasonable that in 50-100 years' time, most people will believe that Bill Gates invented the Internet (or whatever it's called then).
Re:Why Marconi? (Score:2)
Tesla had the same experience. He arrived in America, went to Edison, who told him, basically, to screw off. They met again (as competitors) when people were trying to decide whether to adopt AC or DC current for electrical distribution networks. Tesla was trumpeting his AC model, with simple generators, motors, and transformers, as well as better distribution characteristics, while Edison was pushing DC for city-wide distribution. Edison even went so far as to hire local kids to steal neighborhood pets so he could electrocute them in an AC-based rig, to show the dangers of AC power.
To put it in a more modern perspective (though I may be reaching a bit here), Edison was Bill Gates, and Tesla was Steve Jobs. One was a much better promotor, marketer, and perhaps engineer, while the other was a more powerful visionary, thinker, and inventor.
radio... gotta be more than 100 years (Score:1)
Tesla (Score:1)
Actually... (Score:2)
Of course, If you have Tesla's album Great Radio Controversy, read the liner notes.
-----------------------------
1,2,3,4 Moderation has to Go!
I love radio (Score:4)
Radio has an intimacy, based on all of the associations humans have with the voice and the spoken word, that television and the Net can't surpass. It is also a low-cost technology that anyone can learn to use for communication.
I can listen to National Public Radio and hear all the news I want without having to train my eyes on one location, or hear (many) ads. I especially like the BBC world service when I am pulling an allnighter.
I participated in a live webradio broadcast at the Independent Media Center [indymedia.org] in Cincinnatti, and people from Prague, Los Angeles and London tuned in.
This is a cheap, ubiquitous technology that is easy to learn to use. I also had a low power (40 watt) FM transmitter with a few co-conspirators, we attached a 20 foot antenna to a 6 story building and reached 3 counties.
The FCC [fcc.gov] which has long kept the airwaves private, "legalized" low power FM but made the paperwork and technological threshholds insurmountable for community and home users. We want real free radio.
Tahing it further, the FCC screwed shit up royally when it allowed the same person to own radio stations and TV stations in the same market [fcc.gov]. Monopoly ownership breeds..well, what you probably have on most of your dial-
Top forty, Christian, country, and crap.
Patronize independently owned, low power, nonprofit and community radio and cable access TV in your town.
Did radio live to 100? (Score:1)
If you count downloading BBC Essential Mix broadcasts and listening to digitallyimported.com as "radio," then yes, it's alive and well. But as for the old "radio-frequency transmission" public broadcasting idea, it's rather dead.
Change of Eras (Score:3)
Conspiracy theories (Score:3)
If nothing else, it's fun to speculate about such things. As I said, take it with a huge grain of salt.
Re:And on this day in history... (Score:1)
Oh man, you said the T - Word (Score:2)
Broadcasting power over long distances
What a bastard Edison was
How Tesla could have split the world in half or produced earthquakes or some such rot
How the government dicked him over
Great... yawn...
Human Ingenuity (Score:2)
Ever since medieval times we have been throwing these conceptions out of the window, and creating in a no nonsense, take-no-prisoners style.
If we are to continue in this vein, we must make sure that nothing is sacred.
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
Radio Button (Score:1)
How many people will claim inventing radio button
in the next 100 years ?
And on this day in history... (Score:2)
Marconi VS Tesla (Score:5)
the page on patents [pbs.org] is especially interesting. For example, he invented a radio remote control mechanism for a boat [pbs.org] in 1898!
I tend to side with Tesla on this as far as the radio question goes. These paragraphs from the soon to be slashed website on Tesla perhaps summarize it best:
Despite the fact that almost every book mentions Guglielmo Marconi as the inventor of radio, the only thing Marconi did seems to be nothing more than reproducing apparati Nikola Tesla had registered years ago. Marconi copied Tesla, made some modifications, built a large industry producing radio devices in Europe and spent huge amounts to advertise his supposed invention.
Nine months after Tesla's death, the Supreme Patent Court of the USA decides that Nikola Tesla must be considered the father of wireless transmission and radio. Justifying its decision the court notes that in Marconi's related Patent (Íï. 764772 of 1904) there is nothing new not having been earlier published and registered by Tesla. The Court considered Marconi's claim that he did not knew of Tesla's patents false
Tesla (Score:2)
Wireless (Score:3)
http://users.ids.net/~newsm/
The New England Wireless and Steam Museum is Rhode Island's Best Kept Secret when it comes to old technology. The 1907 Massie Station is the _oldest existing wireless station in the world_.
If you're a machinist or engineer or radio junkie, The tune-ups and steam-ups are not to be missed.
Indians don't think so.. (Score:2)
In the words of IEEE: "the origin and first major use of the solid state diode detector devices led to the discovery that the first transatlantic wireless signal in Marconi's world famous experiment was received by Marconi using the iron-mercury-iron coherer with a telephone detector invented by Sir J.C.Bose in 1898".
You can find more stuff at here [vigyanprasar.com]
Well, a search on Jagdish Chandra Bose on Google shows a lots of links which confirm this statement.
Re:Did radio live to 100? (Score:1)
In fact, in the UK, a good dozen radio stations started up in the last decade, including Kiss FM which is (I think) the second most popular in London.
Re:Radio Button (Score:2)
crystal set to ip (Score:1)
I bet that if the scientists of 100 years ago had the tiny components we use, they would have been able to put them together into the kinds of toys we have today.
You see software and hardware hackers swaggering around like they are responsbile for the new wave of technology. Don't kid yourself - all hail the materials scientist, who shrinks the bits that build the future.
Whoa (Score:1)
Re:Oh man, you said the T - Word (Score:1)
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:2)
I have heard about building a funky "smoke-ring" gun, that shoots ammonia gas rings, thereby setting up a path to "shoot" a branch of lightning down with a Tesla coil.
As far as the voice-to-skull (VTS) tech is concerned - I ran across this, and started investigating what I could dig up on the net - NASA has done research on it, and I read about the modulated microwave experiments, and there are patents out for ultrasonic versions (in which ultrasound acts as the carrier wave, and the ultrasounds is attenuated and stripped from the sound source via the skull).
Some strange stuff out there they don't want you to know about!
Worldcom [worldcom.com] - Generation Duh!
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
One story goes that Edison put a good deal of money into developing the electric chair as a AC-based device (as opposed to DC) to give people the impression that AC was dangerous. Apparently it took a good deal of work (hint: defibrilation paddles are AC based). From what I can tell, it would have been much easier with DC, but Edison would have nothing to do with a DC electric chair.
Once it became clear that AC was a far better solution to most electricity problems, Edison pretended that it was his idea all along, and has tried (mostly effectively) to wipe Tesla out of the history books as a serious inventor.
Given that Tesla was pretty much the god of AC, and radio depends on AC, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Tesla had a hand in early radio work.
I think that http://www.concentric.net/~jwwagner/ [concentric.net]is the site that tells a lot about this story.
--
What's more incredible than Radio? (Score:2)
gotta be more than 100... not sure why this is such a big deal
It's not! That's what's so incredible.
But if that's incredible, consider that from Kittyhawk to Apollo 11 was only, what, 66 years?
Yeah, from first flight to the moon. 66 years.
IP is impressive, and spread spectrum RF is cool. Cellphones are amazing.
But radio pales in comparison.
Fact: Encarta facts vary by translation (Score:2)
In another well-known case (was it Windows 95?), the time zone control panel included a map which showed the border between India and Pakistan. This is a disputed border, so Microsoft was caught in a no-win situation. I think they got rid of the map.
Re:NOT tesla!!! (Score:1)
You know, Tesla came to the USA to harness the hydroelectric power (as we know it now) at Niagra Falls. He was the first, afaik, to output AC power from a hydro source as great as the Falls.
But hey, I'm just rambling.
Tesla should be the king (Score:2)
--
Re:Oh man, you said the T - Word (Score:2)
Accually we do transmit power as DC. In fact all the really big power lines are DC. The main advantage of AC is the ability to use transformers to change the voltage quickly and easially.
AC does not allow two way feeds. There are phase problems if you attempt to connect any sort of a loop, or connect generators at both ends, with cities at both ends. That is if city A is drawing more power then city B, then the generator at B will attempt to make up the need, but the power arriving at A will be out of phase. (In this simple example it is possibal to make the phases come out right, but if B needs extra power latter the phases will be wrong again)
In addition there is a maximun voltage any wire can take, before you get leakage. We measure AC voltage as RMS (root mean square), which means you 120v line will accually reach 170 volts for a moment, but RMS (Think of like average if you don't understand what it means) is 120 volts. Europe will reach about 300 volts despite 220 RMS. The maximun voltage before this leakage it the same, but AC will give less power as at the max voltage your RMS is much less.
Of course electrical engineers have proper terms for the above which they will emeadiatly remember as soon as I point this out.
PS, I hate to defend Eddison against Telsa, but the fact remains that netiher was smart enough to realise that a compromise of both DC and AC was best.
telegraph most significant innovation (Score:2)
information media. Everything since has been
an elaboration. The culmination will be personal
interactive video everywhere with seamless communication
between humans and vast computer media databases.
This expected to be fully implemented about two
centuries after the telegraph.
Re:crystal set to ip (Score:1)
And in addition it took another 30 years until someone was able to describe how the crystal actually worked! (Walter Schottky, 1938)
Re:Indians don't think so.. (Score:1)
Remembering Sir. J.C. Bose [ernet.in] says:
[indolink.com]
Bose or Marconi? questions:
And here is an interesting analysis why Bose wouldn't have patented...
[vigyanprasar.com]
J.C. BOSE: The Inventor Who Wouldn't Patent
[vigyanprasar.com]
and some more
analyses:
and many more at google!
-Sas
some people would *argue*? (Score:1)
It's actually kinda disturbing that they would even put that "other guy" as the inventor. It's been widely held as fact that Tesla invented radio for the past 60 years. Yet still the old saying that "history is written by the winners". Still remains to be true, even on slashdot.
SW anyone? (Score:1)
Re:Why Marconi? (Score:2)
Tesla gets way too little credit. Really, how many times is he mentioned in your average high school American history text book? Yet we fawn over Edison, who may have been smart, but was greedy, corrupt, and basically a mean person. Alas, that is usually the way it goes with American history.
66 years for powered flight, but (Score:1)
Shoot, the idea of flight goes back to the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun. When was the first concept of radio transmission?
Somebody in the 1830's must have thought, "this telegraph is great, but could we do this without wires?"
Thessenden, not Tesla or Marconi, invented radio! (Score:1)
me too (Score:1)
Information about Tesla (Score:2)
Re:Human Ingenuity (Score:2)
Albert Einstein
Leonardo Da Vinci
In addition, taking this IBM study to support your position requires a fair amount of extrapolation and assumption on your part. I'd be interested in the actual findings of the study. Is there a link?
Remember, "In order for a man to do great things, there must be things which he will not do."
Let's duke it out... (Score:1)
* Marconi
* Tesla
* Edison
* Popov
* CowboyNeal
* The little green men who have been transmitting their signals straight into my brain.
* God
* Pulsars (the stars, not the watch company)
* Pulsra (the watch company, not the stars)
intellectual property??? (Score:2)
Since when is Intellectual Property one of the greatest achievements of mankind?
Note for humor impaired: above is a joke.
100 years or not... (Score:1)
Tesla (Score:1)
i takes a village... (Score:2)
Why Marconi? (Score:4)
Marconi is so often credited because he went farther with it. He crossed the Atlantic ocean. He started a successful company.
It didn't matter that Tesla experimented and Popov deployed remote lightning detectors before any of this because Marconi started a company. It's not who does the initial work, it's who profits from it, at least to the general populace.
Hey, we should call Bill Gates the father of computing. He has lots of money.
Actually, in a similar vein, the real father of modern radio is often forgotten as well. Until Reginald Fessenden [ryerson.ca], radio was only dits and dahs. This Canadian guy was the first to transmit normal sound.
Fessenden wanted to work for Thomas Edison, who basically told him to screw off [kwarc.on.ca]. A full bio can be read here [kwarc.on.ca].
Who invented radio? (Score:1)
also (Score:1)
Re:Did radio live to 100? (Score:1)
I doubt it.. In Hamburg/Germany one radio station has a 810+x title user voted music countdown each year. Takes three days.
The real story of radio, as I see it. (Score:2)
* Voice communication was invented by Reginald Aubrey Fessenden [kwarc.org].
* Yes, Nickola Tesla invented radio transmission, but not originally for communications, he found that electricity could be transfered through air.
* I am fairly sure that Marconii only really came onto the scene in the 1930's, and when he put in a patent for wireless radio transmissions, he found out that a patent already existed, and by that time, had passed. (correct me if I am wrong - with proof)
* Eddison and Tesla knew each other, Tesla solved one of his Eddison's problems with wide-spread power distribution, Tesla had invented the use of radio signals over wires (50 or 60 cycles (or Hertz) a second), but Tesla wanted too take it further, Eddison didn't want a bar of this, and that is why we use the radio waves for communications, and not for power.
* Tesla also found it hard to sell his ideas, the only way to compare this to what business if like these days is Eddison can be compared too Microsoft, and Tesla could be compared too Amiga, in the context of money, ideas, popularity & know-how (although, if Amiga gets anywhere in the next few years, thia analogy will be wrong, I have crossed fingers
You call yourself an existentialist? (Score:1)
The *real* inventor of radio was... (Score:1)
Re:radio... gotta be more than 100 years (Score:1)
Yeah, I mean, if it isn't directly related to computers, what good is it? I mean, who cares if they can split the atom, or splice genes. I just want my Napster.
</SARCASM>
Yet another contender ... (Score:1)
Seems the idea was in the air, so to speak ...
J.C.Bose (Score:1)
Why Tesla won... (Score:1)
Re:A Primer on History from an Erudite Source (Score:1)
I'm glad I know.
Plus, they rocked!
Re:66 years for powered flight, but (Score:2)
November 21,1783 was the first recorded manned flight in a hot air balloon. 1793 was first balloon flight in USA.
Bah! Balloons! No engine, no point.
Even so, remember Around the World in 80 Days? That was set in 1888. Well less than a century later, we could do the circumference of the planet in under 88 minutes.
That's an order of magnitude.
Shoot, the idea of flight goes back to the myth of Icarus flying too close to the sun. When was the first concept of radio transmission? Somebody in the 1830's must have thought, "this telegraph is great, but could we do this without wires?"True. I think it was really Faraday and Oerstead who pioneered in radio, though they didn't understand it. Tesla made the first practical broadband transmitters (!) later in the century and then it was Marconi who actually saw the broader picture and was able to harness all the concepts discovered by the others.
Of course, that's subject to very volatile debates among radio afficionados.
But, really, since then, what has happened? We haven't got radio waves to travel faster than the speed of light. All we've managed to do is refine the transmitters and receivers to the point where they're small, efficient, and can often change freqency on the fly. You still really have only two ways of modulating a carrier, and one of those (AM) hearkens right back to the dawn of the era with the first spark gap transmitters.
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
Actually, modern defibs are DC-based. The original ones were AC, but they needed to be plugged in and were generally awkward to use. Modern defib units use pulses of DC, which means they can be easily powered from a portable battery pack. Some info here [brown.edu].
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
Asshole.
Re:Conspiracy theories (Score:1)
A defiBULator if it existed, would rip out the fibula... a bone in the lower leg.
Dumbass.
Re:Did radio live to 100? (Score:1)
Plus we have the JJJ Hottest 100, which they say is the biggest user voted music countdown in the world. They have really nifty talkback radio on during the day too...
Check it out --> TripleJ [abc.net.au]
Re:Human Ingenuity (Score:1)
Radio Rocks! (Score:1)
Commit Crimes.. Go Shopping.. Confirm an EBay bandit... There are even continuous chess games played over shortwave. To radio, I take my hat off.
Seeka
Re:Marconi VS Tesla (Score:2)
The Patent Office made the following comment in 1903: