Who contributed to the invention of the radio?

Radio owes its development to the telephone and the telegraph. If these two had not been invented, there would be no radio. In 1860, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell discovered the existence of radio waves. But many inventors played a role in the road to the invention of the radio.

We can say that the first radio in the world was originally invented by James Clark Maxwell in 1865. Because James Clark Maxwell established the theory of propagation of electronically generated radio waves. Then, German physicist Heinrich Hertz practically realized Maxwell's theory in 1888. Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, on the other hand, managed to consciously send and receive radio waves for the first time in 1895.

Radio; It is also of great importance as an auxiliary broadcasting device for telephone, telegraph, television, radar, and fax devices. The radio has never lost its importance since the day it was invented, and it has been the most important source of information, entertainment, and news used in every era. James Clerk Maxwell was the first to theorize that electromagnetic waves could propagate in space with the speed of light. However, the German physicist Heinrich Hertz made the first experiment on this subject between 1886 and 1888. Hertz achieved a high frequency of 75 megahertz by applying electricity to two plates. Near these plates, in the narrow air gap where the two ends of a metal ring converge, he saw flashes of sparks in the dark. Thus, it has been demonstrated that electrical energy can be broadcast from space with electromagnetic waves.

The first application of radio broadcasting was in 1896 when the Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi turned his work, which was started by Olive Lodge in 1890, into a walrus device.

The first broadcast reached a distance of one mile, and in 1901 it reached 200 miles. The application was mostly done in the form of transferring information from overseas regions in the form of telegrams.

In the Morse device developed by Marconi, electromagnetic waves reduced the resistance between the two ends of the tube by affecting the loose iron powders in a tube, and in this way, electromagnetic energy was converted into electrical energy.

The first attempt went like this. With the radio he developed, Marconi sent 3 letters S to his assistant on the shore from a ship via wireless telegraphy, as he called it. When his assistant received the signal, he fired into the air. When Marconi gave the command to send the 3 S, radio waves were emitted for the first time on earth, the 3 S traveled through space and reached the receiver. The experiment was successful. Thus, the first radio practically worked. This first use was for ship-to-coast communication. In 1898, the first radio began to be used officially. However, in the following years, when it was understood that high-frequency radio waves hit the ionosphere and returned, the use of radio began to spread rapidly.

Italian Inventor Guglielmo Marconi is recorded as the inventor of the radio. However, many people have emerged who claim that the radio is their own invention. Nikola Tesla, the owner of the wireless telegraph patent, Olive Lodge is one of those who put forward this claim. Russian inventor Alexander Stepanovitch Popov succeeded in transmitting the first intelligible radio waves but did not receive a patent for this invention. Alexander Stepanovich Popov is a Russian physicist who is known as the inventor of the radio in his home country and some Eastern European countries.

Popov's work, as a teacher at a Russian navy school, led him to investigate high-frequency electrical phenomena. In fact, Popov had thought of an innovation to be able to predict bad weather and lightning. He had thought of measuring the degree of static or atmospheric electricity in the air and, meanwhile, developed the radio. Those who listen to medium or long-wave stations have witnessed that impending bad weather conditions were noticed long ago by the interference received by the radios. Meanwhile, Popov, Lodge, and Marconi were also trying to develop an instrument that Edward Branly had found, called the Branly Tube, which was used to detect radio waves. These development efforts, which started in 1890, would end in 1895 with the development of Marconi and Popov unaware of each other. In 1896, it was transmitted intelligibly by Popov for the first time using Morse code-named “Heinrich Hertz”. It seems that Marconi and Popov invented the technique of making radio broadcasts at about the same time in 1895. Since Guglielmo Marconi was a good trader, he was the person who managed to announce his invention by traveling all over the world and achieving commercial success. Unable to get the support he sought in Italy, Marconi eventually went to England, where he patented the first radio. After this patent was obtained, many different versions were produced.

Radio technique has many fathers. The Italians, the British, of course, the Americans, and the Russians claim to have invented the radio technique themselves. Some Americans remind us that Edison developed the first diode and that radio is unthinkable without a diode. They also mention the name of Ernst Alexanderson, who invented the so-called high-frequency alternator and worked for the General Electric Company for 46 years. Entering the business in 1904, Alexanderson was the person who enabled the first experimental radio broadcast in America in 1906. Radio broadcasts officially started in America in 1921. In Russia, Alexander Stepanovich Popov is considered the father of radio. Even in a report prepared by the American Navy in 1963, the name of this Russian professor who lived between 1859 and 1906 is mentioned.

The US Navy, which has been pursuing patent litigation with Marconi for years regarding the communication rights on warships and therefore has studied the technique of radio broadcasting best, notes that Popov is a better scientist than Marconi. Working on behalf of Russia's navy, Popov developed the radio broadcast and receiver technique by evaluating the inventions of British James Clerk Maxwell and German Heinrich Hertz and even won the big gold medal at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. However, today, the inventor of the modern radio, Nikola Tesla, is counted as a result of some legal regulations.

The subject of the radio patent has two aspects, one for Tesla and the other for Marconi: The first is the application aspect of the business. As with everything, there are some rules and guidelines in science. An idea is not enough to get a patent. A working model must have been produced. Therefore, Marconi is generally regarded as the inventor of the radio, as the first to produce a useful and the working radio. But it is obvious that Marconi is rising on Tesla's shoulders. For example, while the first radio produced by Marconi could only transmit data from one end of a lake to the other, Tesla succeeded in sending waves crossing the English Channel as a result of using the coil. In addition, Marconi's 4 radio-related patents were canceled in 1943, due to some of Tesla's preliminary studies and patents. But all this alone does not at least not bring Tesla the title of "inventor of the radio". Because it was Marconi who enabled the radio to work as we know it and to reach long ranges. But in doing so, he benefited greatly from Tesla's designs. Therefore, in our opinion, the title of "inventor of radio" should be shared between Marconi and Tesla.

The second aspect of the subject is a formality. There were many different events between Marconi and Tesla. Marconi patented the first wireless telegraph, or radio, in 1896, not in the USA, but in England. Tesla applied for a patent for basic radio applications in the USA in 1897. He received these patents in 1900. Therefore, when Marconi applied for the same patent in the USA, his application was rejected. Marconi continuously improved his designs for the next 3 years, but he could not overcome the Tesla barrier. The Patent Office has given Tesla priority each time. He even made a statement in 1903 accusing Marconi of not understanding Tesla's products. However, in the early 1900s, Marconi's firm began to gain strength in stock markets, turning the tide. Giants such as Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie made financial investments in the company, whose stock value increased from $3 to $22. Using this financial support wisely, Marconi succeeded in sending the first radio wave across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901. Tesla commented on these breakthroughs of Marconi: “Marconi is a good friend. Let him do it. After all, he's using my 17 patents."

This trust brought the end of Tesla in radio. In 1904, the Patent Office changed its decision and recognized Marconi as the inventor of the radio. Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1911. Subsequently, Tesla was enraged by the Nobel Prize awarded to Marconi and sued Marconi's firm. However, as his financial situation was insufficient at this point, he could not continue the case. Finally, in 1943, a few months after Tesla's death, the US Supreme Court took the radio's patent (Patent No: 645576) from Marconi and gave it to Tesla. But the reason for this was not exactly Tesla's rightness. In this process, Marconi Company filed a lawsuit against the US Government.

The justification for the lawsuit was the unauthorized use of Marconi's patents, including radio, by the US Government during World War I. So the US Government thought that if it passed the patent to Tesla, Marconi's case would automatically be void. Anyway, since Tesla was dead, he wouldn't be able to sue. So, with the Supreme Court's decision, the U.S. Government won all kinds of cases. Thus, even though the inventor of the radio was “officially” Tesla, Marconi was the first person to actually manufacture and use this product.

It was discovered by the British physicist Charles Evans Hughes in 1900 that the needle slightly touching the carbon plate from its tip could be used as an electromagnetic wave detector. Based on this invention, American engineer Greenleaf Whittier Pickard in 1906 found that the crystal he made from silicon also passed electromagnetic waves. Before that, radio developed with great strides when, in 1904, J. Fleming discovered the electron tube and in 1907 the De Forest triode electron tube could be used as a detector or counter. Lee De Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong made major changes in radio technology in America. By using tubes and circuits, they gave it a completely different state. The invention of the transistor in 1947 was a revolution for radio technology.

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1890s – 1930s: Radio

https://www.elon.edu/u/imagining/time-capsule/150-years/back-1890-1930/