In just the last few years, I have been experiencing the joy of being un-tethered every time we change a gadget that was previously connected to cables and unshackle it. It began with the first wireless phone in our home, then all our laptops and then the gaming console to our printers and AV speakers and then our TV set top box to the tablets and smart phones… at any given time over 7 devices are all using the airwaves to do their special “thing”. What were the original inventions and discoveries that paved the way to what we take for granted today? Was there a Eureka moment and a single inventor to thank? I began a little research, double clicked my way through many links and realized it is a path that is rich in theory, helped by many different accidental discoveries and stirred by lot of contentious debates.
Wireless telegraphy was the killer app of the day during the decades from 1897 to 1920. The term originated to describe primitive electrical signaling without the electric wires to connect the end points. The intent was to distinguish it from the conventional electric telegraph signaling of the day that required wire connection between the end points. The term was initially applied to a variety of competing technologies based on the theory of information transfer with radiant waves. The communication messages encoded as symbols largely grew as Morse code transmissions with electromagnetic waves.
While it may naively appear to have been a simpler time and the golden age of inventions, it was no less contentious than today’s competitive playing field. Theories and practice were vigorously challenges and debated.
In 1878 British scientist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Hughes) David E. Hughes noticed that sparks could be heard in a telephone receiver when experimenting with his carbon microphone. He developed this carbon-based detector further and eventually could detect signals over a few hundred yards. He demonstrated his discovery to the Royal Society in 1880, but was told it was merely induction, and was forced to abandon further research.
Between 1886 and 1888, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz demonstrated the transmission and reception of the electromagnetic waves predicted by Maxwell and intentionally transmitted and received radio ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_radio ). Hertz changed the frequency of his radiated waves by altering the inductance or capacity of his radiating conductor or antenna, and reflected and focused the electromagnetic waves, thus demonstrating the correctness of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light. Hertz’s setup for a source and detector of radio waves (then called Hertzian waves[33] in his honor) was the first intentional and unequivocal transmission and reception of radio waves through free space. Famously, he saw no practical use for his discovery
As the Tesla Society notes (http://www.teslasociety.com/radio.htm) early as 1892, Nikola Tesla created a basic design for radio. On November 8, 1898 he patented a radio controlled robot-boat. Tesla used this boat which was controlled by radio waves in the Electrical Exhibition in 1898, Madison Square Garden. Tesla's robot-boat was constructed with an antenna, which transmitted the radio waves coming from the command post where Tesla was standing. Those radio waves were received by a radio sensitive device called coherer, which transmitted the radio waves into mechanical movements of the propellers on the boat. Tesla changed the boat's direction, with manually operated controls on the command post. Since this was the first application of radio waves, it made front page news, in America, at that time.
Many think of Guglielmo Marconi as the father of Radio and Tesla is unknown for his work in radio. Marconi claimed all the first patents for radio, something originally developed by Tesla. Nikola Tesla tried to prove that he was the creator of radio but it wasn't until 1943, where Marconi's patents were deemed invalid; however, people still have no idea about Tesla's work with radio.
So when you hear about Tesla today and a visual of a red electric convertible roadster ( http://www.teslamotors.com/ )comes to mind also thank him for the Cell phone and Bluetooth accessories needed when you are in the car.
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