Edited by Gerald Boerner
Commentary
Today we take radio broadcasts as a given. We get sporting events, political rallies, music, and a variety of talk programs. But it took technical developments and theoretical understanding by men like Guglielmo Marconi to define and harness the promise of wireless telegraphy.
As I was growing up, both of my Grandmothers had large, free-standing radio consoles on which we would hear regular shows like “The Lone Ranger,” “The Cisco Kid,” and “Hopalong Cassidy.” (These programs would eventually become TV shows!) But it was not always so.
It wasn’t until the early 1920s that the earliest radio sets were available. It took men like Marconi, Tesler, and many others to put the total picture. Marconi was the co-recipient, with Karl Ferdinand Braun, of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. He also was awarded several patents (later disputed) for the technologies. His essential contribution was the understanding of using the electromagnetic spectrum to carry telegraphy signals. Without these contributions, we would not have today’s wireless networks (voice, data, LAN) or the mobile devices (computers or smartphones).
So, let’s get on with our exploration of these technologies… GLB
These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2010 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved[ 3881 Words ]
Quotations Related to WIRELESS
“Every day sees humanity more victorious in the struggle with space and time.”
— Guglielmo Marconi
“I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my high appreciation of the honour extended to me many years ago by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science by enrolling me amongst its members.”
— Guglielmo Marconi
“As we have seen, the wireless and the airplane have made the world so small and nations so dependent on each other that the only alternative to war is the United States of the World.”
— John Boyd Orr