The invention of the radio occurred during the turbulent scientific and technological revolution. Along with some other innovations, wireless communication has become an important stage in the overall human progress, affecting both the technological picture
world, and socio-economic, giving humanity new opportunities.
Wireless Background
The first step that predetermined the invention of the radio was the discovery in 1883 by Thomas Edison of the effect of atomization of a substance from an incandescent filament of a light bulb. The inventor noted that the positive voltage applied to the electrode generates a current in vacuum between the filament and the electrode. That is, he first discovered that current can be transmitted through the external environment, without the help of conductors. This process has been called the "Edison effect." In 1868, the prototype of wireless communications was first created by the American scientist Mahlon Loomis. In fact, this was a system of transmitting and receiving antennas with a length of 22 km. However, it was too cumbersome and was not yet a full line. To create a full wireless connection you need
It was still to learn how to use the natural electricity of the atmosphere to transmit information over distances. Important for the subsequent technical novelty was the creation by James Maxwell in 1865 of the
electromagnetic field theory
, on which both
Alexander Popov and Guglielmo Marconi relied. However, at that time it was still just an assumption, not all accepted. The theory of electromagnetic waves was practically confirmed when, in 1887,
Heinrich Hertz showed the world his generator and resonator of electromagnetic waves. The work of these physicists became an important foundation for the last step in creating the device, all of them to some extent share the invention of radio. Another thing is that all these attempts were just laboratory experiments and were not brought to their logical conclusion.
The invention of radio: so who was the first?
In our country, it is traditionally believed that the right of the discoverer belongs to Alexander Popov. However, in the West they will tell you that it was the Italian Guglielmo Marconi who invented the radio. Both of these scientists almost simultaneously
improved the device of Hertz. And even their technical solution was almost the same. They both added grounding and an antenna to the device, as well as the so-called coherer - a glass tube, which served as a resistor, the resistance at the ends of which took only extreme values and executed commands to turn the device on and off. In 1895, the invention of radio by Popov was announced. The presentation took place on May 7 at the Russian Physicochemical Society. And in the spring of the same year, Marconi conducts an identical experiment, but the first to manage to file an application for a
patent of the invention. Thus, the invention of the radio is difficult to give unambiguously to just one person, this was the result of a long development of the theory of electromagnetic waves and its almost simultaneous implementation in practice.