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.Abbreviated History Timeline of Wireless Radio Communication

The early history of radio has been argued over for years. Presented here is an abbreviated timeline of the history of radio until 1920. It primarily describes events in the US and the UK, the two countries that I have lived in and have the most knowledge about. Many events and people are omitted to make the presentation brief.

  • 1873: Maxwell, as a result of his experiments, first describes the theoretical basis of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in his paper to the Royal Society, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field.
  • 1878: David Hughes transmits and receives radio waves when he notices that his induction balance causes noise in the receiver of his homemade telephone. In 1880 Hughes demonstrates it to the Royal Society in London, but was told it was merely “induction.”
  • 1884: Temistocle Calzecchi-Onesti at Fermo in Italy develops a glass tube filled with iron filings, called a "coherer". From 1884 to 1886 Edouard Branly of France develops an improved version of the coherer.
  • 1887: German physicist Heinrich Hertz validates Maxwell's theory through experiment. He demonstrates that radio radiation had all the properties of waves, which are now called Hertzian waves.
  • 1893: At St. Louis, Missouri, Tesla gives a public demonstration of "wireless" radio communication.
  • 1894: Marconi begins experimenting with Hertzian Waves.
  • 1896: Marconi performs his first official wireless experiment from the London Post Office to the Salisbury plain. In 1897 the British Ministry gives Marconi funding to continue his work.
  • 1900: The famous patent no. 7777 for Marconi’s Tuning equipment is granted. Marconi’s method of separating signals through ‘tuning’ is granted a patent in April and by good fortune happened to be allocated a memorable number: 7777.
  • 1901: Marconi allegedly receives a weak letter "S" signal, the first signal to cross an ocean, from Poldhu, Cornwell, England, to St. John's Newfoundland, Canada.
  • 1902: Marconi develops the Magnetic Detector. It begins production commercially in 1903.
  • 1904: Fleming invents the thermionic valve (or tube). Marconi starts to experiment with the Fleming valve. The company called "British Marconi" is established and begins communication between coastal wireless stations and ships at sea. Around the turn of the century, the Slaby-Arco wireless system is developed by Adolf Slaby and Georg von Arco (later incorporated as Telefunken).
  • 1905/6: Deforest is most known today for his development of the triode vacuum tube. Edison's electric lamp was modified by Ambrose Fleming, who in 1904 developed his Fleming Valve by adding a second element, a plate. Deforest inserts a third element, a grid to control and amplify signals and called his device the Audion.
  • 1906: 27 nations sign the International Wireless Telegraph Convention in Berlin which includes a number of agreements concerning wireless communication including the designation of SOS as the international distress call. Greenleaf Pickard invents the silicon crystal detector.
    On December 24, 1906, Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast for entertainment from Brant Rock, Massachusetts to the general public. Fessenden’s broadcast is a revolutionary departure from the transmission of dots and dashes common at the time. Ships at sea hear the broadcast that includes Fessenden playing O Holy Night on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible.
  • 1907: Marconi establishes the first permanent transatlantic wireless service from Clifden, Ireland to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
  • 1910: The Wireless Ship Act is passed by the United States Congress, requiring all US ships traveling over two-hundred miles off the coast and carrying over fifty passengers to be equipped with wireless radio equipment. The legislation is prompted by a shipping accident in 1909, where a single wireless operator saved the lives of 1200 people.
  • 1912: The RMS Titanic sinks. While in distress, it contacts several other ships by radio. Thereafter, wireless telegraphy using spark-gap transmitters quickly became universal on large ships. The Radio Act of 1912 required all seafaring vessels to maintain 24-hour radio watch.
  • 1914: Edwin Armstrong patents the regenerative radio receiver circuit, which uses positive feedback. Part of the amplified high-frequency signal is fed back to the tuning circuit to enhance selectivity and sensitivity.
  • 1917: All US amateur radio stations are ordered shut down by the government because of WWI. At the same time thousands of amateur radio operators serve the Army and Navy during WWI as radio operators.
  • 1918: Armstrong develops the superheterodyne radio receiver. The principle for this receiver is the basis for all radio receivers now in use.
  • 1920: Regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment begin in the US. In October, Westinghouse in Pittsburgh becomes the first US commercial broadcasting station to be licensed with the call letters KDKA.
  • 1922: Regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment begin in the UK from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle.
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