Invention of radio

This article covers the main arguments about who had what part in the early development of radio.

For the general history of radio, see History of radio.

"Great Radio Controversy" redirects here. For the album by the band Tesla, see The Great Radio Controversy

Within the timeline of radio, many people were involved in the invention of radio transmission of information as we know it today. Despite this, during its early development and long after wide use of the technology, disputes persisted as to who could claim sole credit for this obvious boon to mankind. Closely related, radio was developed after two other key inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy". A radio communication system requires two tuned circuits each at the transmitter and receiver, all four tuned to the same frequency.

Wireless work and engineering

Scientific theory and verification

James Clerk Maxwell performed the theoretical physical research that correctly predicted the existence of radio (and all other electromagnetic) waves. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was the experimental physicist who confirmed Maxwell's work. He transmitted and received radio waves in a controlled laboratory manner. Neither Maxwell nor Hertz, though, devised systems for actual general use or described the application of the technology.

Developments, parallel to these individuals and after, are engineering investigations that lead to the 'invention of radio': the objects, processes, or techniques of information transception. Many individuals contributed to the art of wireless, in the air, earth, and water; this includes the precursory work in wireless telephony and wireless telegraphy

SLF and UHF experimentation

Main article: Wireless

David E. Hughes, years before Hertz's experiments and nearly two decades before Guglielmo Marconi's demonstrations, induced electromagnetic waves in a signalling system. Hughes transmitted Morse code by an induction apparatus. In 1879, Hughes's induction transmission method utilized a "clockwork transmitter" to transmit signals. In 1885, T. A. Edison used a vibrator magnet for induction transmission. In 1888, Edison deployed a system of signalling on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In 1892, Edison attained the wireless patent for this method using inductance (U.S. patent 465,971).

From 1886 to 1888 inclusive in his classic UHF experiments, Heinrich Hertz had proved that the properties of radio waves were consistent with Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. He demonstrated that radio radiation had all the properties of waves (now called Hertzian waves), and discovered that the electromagnetic equations could be reformulated into a partial differential equation called the wave equation.

Of the three basic forms of wireless aerial launching structures, the Hertz antenna was a center-fed half-wavelength dipole (with the other forms being the Marconi antenna and Tesla antenna). Hertz’s setup for a source and detector of radio waves (archaically called Hertzian waves or Hertz waves in his honor), comprised a primitive radio system capable of transmitting and receiving space waves through free space. His transmitter was not at all efficient and was severely limited in power output. Its dipole antenna differed from the vertical quarter-wavelength antenna that was subsequently adopted by Marconi and others in that it was not grounded.

Hertz used the damped oscillating currents in a dipole antenna, triggered by a high-voltage electrical capacitive spark discharge, as his source of radio waves. His detector in some experiments was another dipole antenna connected to a narrow spark gap. A small spark in this gap signified detection of the radio wave. When he added cylindrical reflectors behind his dipole antennas, Hertz could detect radio waves about 20 metres from the transmitter in his laboratory. He did not try to transmit further because he wanted to prove electromagnetic theory, not to develop wireless communications.

Hertz seemed uninterested in the practical importance of his experiments. He stated that "It's of no use whatsoever ... this is just an experiment that proves Maestro Maxwell was right - we just have these mysterious electromagnetic waves that we cannot see with the naked eye. But they are there." Asked about the ramifications of his discoveries, Hertz replied, "Nothing, I guess." Hertz also stated, "I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application." Hertz died in 1894, so the art of radio was left to others to implement into a practical useful form. His discoveries would later be taken up by entrepreneurs looking to make their fortunes. Marconi's 1895 experiments followed Hertz's work (among others') by using a spark source in what became known as a spark-gap transmitter.

Tesla's work

Nikola Tesla : Serbian physicist, inventor, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. According to Lord Kelvin, Tesla "contributed more to electrical science than any man up to his time."

Radio frequency generation

The electromechanical engineer Nikola Tesla, called the father of wireless telegraphy, was one of the first to patent a means to reliably produce radio frequency waves. Tesla's U.S. patent 447,920, "Method of Operating Arc-Lamps" (March 10, 1891), describes an alternator that produced high-frequency (for that time period) current of around 10,000 cycles per second. (The term cycles-per-second was later changed to "hertz.") His patentable innovation was suppression of the sound produced by arc lamps that were operated on alternating or pulsating current by using frequencies beyond the range of human hearing. The alternator produced frequencies in the Very Low Frequency (VLF) band.

Continued research and patents

Around July 1891, he established his New York laboratory and constructed various apparatuses that produced between 15,000 to 18,000 cycles per second. At this location, he also lit vacuum tubes wirelessly (thus providing hard evidence for the potential of wireless transmissions). Transmission and radiation of radio frequency energy was a feature exhibited in the experiments by Tesla and was noted early on to be used for the telecommunication of information.

After 1892, Tesla delivered a widely reported presentation before the Institution of Electrical Engineers of London in which he noted, among other things, that intelligible messages could be transmitted without wires. Later, a variety of Tesla's radio frequency systems were demonstrated during another widely known lecture, presented to meetings of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis, Missouri and the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. According to the IEEE, "the apparatus that he employed contained all the elements of spark and continuous wave that were incorporated into radio transmitters before the advent of the vacuum tube". However, "he almost perversely rejected the notion of transmission by Hertzian waves, which he considered to be wasteful of energy." Wireless transmissions could be done by "Hertzian" waves with his devices acting as a radiator, but Tesla claimed to be using longitudinal waves as more desirable (setting up standing surface waves through resonance).

Between 1895 and 1899, Tesla received wireless signals transmitted from actions at long distances. After 1896, the transmitter consisted of an RF alternator and produced undamped (or continuous) waves in the neighborhood of 50,000 cycles per second. The receiver consisted of a powerful electromagnet, two large condensers, and a taut steel wire. The wire was placed within the magnetic field, and in conjunction with the condensers formed a tuned circuit. In 1899 Tesla established an "Experimental Station" in Colorado Springs where he continued his research into wireless transmission principles often using a form of electrical oscillator known as the magnifying transmitter.

US645576 Transmitter
An early Tesla transmitter consisting of a flat-spiral quarter-wave resonator and an elevated terminal. This image is from one of Tesla's patents.

Early on in his research Tesla used his high voltage resonance transformer — the Tesla coil — in radio-wave propagation experiments. The aerial consisted of a top-loaded electrical conductor that was connected to a high-voltage terminal of the transformer. The opposing high-voltage terminal was grounded. The secondary winding was driven by a primary circuit consisting of a few turns of heavy wire, a capacitor bank, a circuit controller, and a power supply transformer. The launching structure radiated as a common "Hertz wave" antenna. In Tesla's own words,

"The popular impression is that my wireless work was begun in 1893, but as a matter of fact I spent the two preceding years in investigations, employing forms of apparatus, some of which were almost like those of today. . . ."

After a while he began to favor another technique that he called the “disturbed charge of ground and air method.” Tesla's wireless system used the same basic apparatus, however instead of using electromagnetic space waves the energy is carried by the conduction of electrical currents through the earth and along with accompanying surface waves. In one form of the system the ‘return’ path closing the circuit is an electrical current flow established between two elevated terminals, one belonging to the transmitter and the other the receiver. These consist of conduction currents flowing through plasma and also electrostatic induction. Once again in Tesla's own words,

"... It was clear to me from the very start that the successful consummation could only be brought about by a number of radical improvements. Suitable high frequency generators and electrical oscillators had first to be produced. The energy of these had to be transformed in effective transmitters and collected at a distance in proper receivers. Such a system would be manifestly circumscribed in its usefulness if all extraneous interference were not prevented and exclusiveness secured. In time, however, I recognized that devices of this kind, to be most effective and efficient, should be designed with due regard to the physical properties of this planet and the electrical conditions obtaining on the same ..."

In other words, Tesla’s structure injected a large alternating current into the earth via the ground terminal. Tesla's discovery of importance was the "Surface wave" method. The production of surface waves as described by Arnold Sommerfeld and Jonathan Zenneck was partially the consequence of adding a deep ground connection to the transmitter. Tesla said in 1893 that "One of the terminals of the source would be connected to Earth [as a electric ground connection ...] the other to an insulated body of large surface.

A shallow buried ground plane or an elevated insulated counterpoise is commonly used in the construction of low and medium frequency 1/4-wavelength radio antennas. These lend to the development of the Norton Surface Wave. This method led to longer transmission ranges. Many AM stations use this same principle to boost reception of their signals. This also allows modern grounded AM 1/4 wavelength monopole antennas to be more practical in order to overcome the restrictions imposed upon designers by the large physical dimensions required for these structures.

Radio antennas radiate electromagnetic waves that can reach the receiver either by ground-wave propagation or by refraction from the ionosphere, known as sky-wave propagation. The ground-wave component is the portion of the radiated electromagnetic wave that propagates close to the earth's surface. It has both direct-wave and ground-reflected components, and under certain conditions a tropospheric ducting component. The direct-wave is limited only by the distance from the transmitter to the horizon plus a small distance added by atmospheric diffraction around the curvature of the earth. The ground-reflected portion of the radiated wave reaches the receiving antenna after being reflected from the earth's surface. A portion of the ground-wave energy radiated by the antenna may also be guided by the earth's surface as a ground-hugging surface wave.

Nikola Tesla's rights to radio were based upon these patents:

• Division of U.S. patent 645,576 "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy", March 20, 1900 (March 20, 1900; filed Sept. 2, 1897). In US645576, Tesla cited the well-known radiant energy phenomena and corrected previous errors in theory of behavior. Within this specification, Tesla declared, "The apparatus which I have shown will obviously have many other valuable uses - as, for instance, when it is desired to transmit intelligible messages to great distances [...]".
• U.S. patent 649,621, "Apparatus for Transmission of Electrical Energy" (May 15, 1900; filed February 19, 1900). In US649621, Tesla established a system which was composed of a transmitting coil (or conductor) arranged and excited to cause oscillations (or currents) to propagate via conduction through the natural medium from one point to another remote point therefrom and a receiver coil, or conductor, of the transmitted signals.

Popov's work

Beginning in the early 1890s, Alexander Stepanovich Popov conducted experiments along the lines of Hertz's research. In 1894 he built his first radio receiver, which contained a coherer. Further refined as a lightning detector, he presented it to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895 — the day has been celebrated in the Russian Federation as "Radio Day". The paper on his findings was published the same year (December 15 1895). Popov had recorded, at the end of 1895, that he was hoping for distant signaling with radio waves. In 1900, Popov stated (in front of the Congress of Russian Electrical Engineers),

"[...] the emission and reception of signals by Marconi by means of electric oscillations [was] nothing new. In America, the famous engineer Nikola Tesla carried the same experiments in 1893."

Bose's work

Jagdish Chandra Bose in his lab.

In November 1894, the Bengali Indian physicist, Jagdish Chandra Bose, demonstrated publicly the use of radio waves in Calcutta, but he was not interested in patenting his work. In 1894, Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using electromagnetic waves, showing independently that communication signals can be sent without using wires. In 1896, the Daily Chronicle of England reported on his UHF experiments: "The inventor (J.C. Bose) has transmitted signals to a distance of nearly a mile and herein lies the first and obvious and exceedingly valuable application of this new theoretical marvel." The 1895 public demonstration by Bose in Calcutta was before Marconi's wireless signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain in England in May 1897. Bose did his demonstration shortly after Tesla had performed radio communication earlier in 1892 and 1893.

Bose was not interested in the commercial applications of the experiment's transmitter. He did not try to file patent protection for sending signals. In 1899, Bose announced the development of a "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London. Later he received U.S. patent 755,840, "Detector for electrical disturbances" (1904), for a specific electromagnetic receiver. Though he did not file any patents for transmission, he is recognized for contributing to the development of radio.

Guglielmo Marconi's work

Early years

Guglielmo Marconi : Italian-Irish electrical engineer and Nobel laureate known for the development of a practical wireless telegraphy system.

Guglielmo Marconi's proponents say that while he was on vacation in 1894 he read about the experiments that Hertz did in the 1880s, and about Nikola Tesla's work in the just-published book Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla. It was at this time that Marconi began to understand that radio waves could be used for wireless communications. It is impossible, though, that Marconi was unaware of Tesla's work.

Marconi's early apparatus was a development of Hertz’s laboratory apparatus into a system designed for communications purposes. At first Marconi used a transmitter to ring a bell in a receiver in his attic laboratory. He then moved his experiments out-of-doors on the family estate near Bologna, Italy, to communicate further. He replaced Hertz’s vertical dipole with a vertical wire topped by a metal sheet, with an opposing terminal connected to the ground. On the receiver side, Marconi replaced the spark gap with a metal powder coherer, a detector developed by Edouard Branly and other experimenters. Marconi transmitted radio signals for about a mile at the end of 1895.

By 1895, Marconi introduced to the public a device in London, asserting it was his invention. Despite Marconi's statements to the contrary, though, the apparatus resembles Tesla's descriptions in the widely translated articles. Marconi's later practical four-tuned system was pre-dated by N. Tesla, Oliver Lodge, and J. S. Stone. Marconi’s late-1895 transmission of signals was for around a mile.

Marconi's reputation is largely based on these accomplishments in radio communications and commercializing a practical system. His demonstrations of the use of radio for wireless communications, equipping ships with life saving wireless communications, establishing the first transatlantic radio service, and building the first stations for the British short wave service, have marked his place in history. Marconi and his company were not alone in the field; his principal competition came from German scientists whose work would become the basis for the Telefunken company (which Nikola Tesla assisted in building).

Marconi's U.S. patent 586,193 (July 13, 1897) (and the reissued U.S. patent RE11913) disclosed a two-circuit system for the transmission and reception of "Hertzian waves" (though he would later acknowledge that in the early wireless systems the "waves do not propagate in the same manner as free radiation from a classical Hertzian oscillator, but glide along the surface of the Earth"). The transmitter was an antenna circuit, with an aerial plate and a ground plate, and a spark gap. Induced signals in the circuit were caused to discharge through a spark gap, producing oscillations which were radiated. The receiver contained an antenna circuit, an aerial plate and a ground plate, and a coherer. Marconi's apparatus was to be resonant (commonly called by various researcheres at the time syntonic). This was done by the careful determination of the size of the aerial plates.

The Poldhu experiment

In 1901, Marconi claimed to have received daytime transatlantic radio frequency signals at a wavelength of 366 metres (820 kHz). The early spark transmitters may have been broadly tuned and the Poldhu transmitter may have radiated sufficient energy in that part of the spectrum for a transatlantic transmission, if Marconi was using an untuned receiver when he claimed to have received the transatlantic signal at Newfoundland in 1901. When he used a tuned receiver aboard the SS Philadelphia in 1902, he could only receive a daytime signal from Poldhu, a distance of 700 miles, less than half the distance from Poldhu to Newfoundland. At night the signals were reported to have been received several times further, and his successful transatlantic transmissions from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia in 1902 were made at night. Marconi would later found the Marconi Company and would jointly receive the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun.

Marconi’s 1901 Poldhu to Newfoundland transmission claim has been criticized. Critics have claimed that it is more likely that Marconi received stray atmospheric noise from atmospheric electricity in the 1901 experiment. The transmitting station in Poldhu, Cornwall used a spark-gap transmitter that could produce a signal just below the medium frequency and with high power levels (a maximum time-averaged power of 35 kilowatts, but with a peak pulse power of megawatts). The message received was the morse letter 'S' - three dots. Dr Jack Belrose has recently contested this, however, based on theoretical work as well as a reenactment of the experiment; he believes that Marconi heard only random atmospheric noise and mistook it for the signal. There are various science historians who agree with Jack Belrose (in addition to being bolstered by Tesla supporters) that the Atlantic was not bridged in 1901, but other science historians have taken the position that this was the first trans-atlantic radio transmission.

20th century patents

Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the US Patent Office reawarded Marconi a patent for radio. The U.S. patent RE11913 was granted on June 4, 1901. Marconi's U.S. patent 676,332 was awarded on June 11, 1901, also. This system was more advanced than his previous works.

Individual "inventors of radio"

Tesla and Marconi

Name	Pro	Con	Earliest transmission
Tesla	Tesla developed means to reliably produce radio frequency currents. In 1891 and afterwards, lectured about high-frequency devices and demonstrated devices using power without the use of wires. Referring to a demonstration of his wireless equipment in 1893 the IEE said "the apparatus that he employed contained all the elements of spark and continuous wave that were incorporated into radio transmitters before the advent of the vacuum tube". By 1895, stated that he had the ability to transmit signals under 50 miles. In 1897, Tesla applied for patent protection for the radio arts. In 1900 Tesla was granted U.S. patent 645,576 and U.S. patent 649,621. In 1898, demonstrated a radio controlled boat in Madison Square Garden that allowed secure communication between transmitter and receiver. After 1915, assisted the Telefunken engineers in constructing the Telefunken Wireless Station (the "Arco-Slaby system") in Sayville, Long Island.	Primarily because of financial difficulties, Tesla never completed his "worldwide wireless system". The Wardenclyffe Tower transceiver that he began at Shoreham on Long Island, New York was eventually torn down.	1891
Marconi	In summer 1895, Marconi sent signals 1.5 km. In 1896, applied for British patent protection for a radio system. In 1900, he was granted British patent No. 12,039. Transmission over 6 km in March and May 1897. Transatlantic transmission on 12 December 1901. Transmission over 3,378 km in February 1902. Transatlantic message on 17 December 1902. In 1897 Marconi founded "Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company" and exploited the "Marconi System" of radio commercially.	His 1901 transatlantic transmission is disputed. Most of Marconi's system components were developed by others. Oliver Lodge claimed British patent of 1900 to contain his own ideas which he failed to patent. Marconi's more advanced U.S. patent 676,332 was filed after contributions made by other investigators.	1895

Other inventors and researchers

Name	Pro	Con	Earliest transmission
Bose	Researched coherers. Transmitted microwaves over distance of 75 feet in 1895. Had transmitted microwaves nearly a mile by 1896.	Did not pursue commercialization.	1895
Deforest	The triode amplifier and the Audion tube.	Late date upon beginning research into space telegraphy.	n/a
Henry	Henry detected electromagnetic effects at a distance of two hundred feet.	He was focused on wired telegraphy and researched self-inductance.	1829
Hertz	By 1888, Hertz had studied and understood the work of Maxwell and, by design, produced the first clear and undisputed experimental evidence for the transmission and reception of radio waves.	Hertz took this work no further, did not exploit it commercially, and famously did not consider it useful.	1888
Hughes	In 1879, Hughes began research into radio waves. He noticed electrical interference in an induction balance he was working with. The observed effect was due to radio waves and he discovered and improved the coherer.	Hughes was not trying to design equipment for wireless communication. His discovery was taken no further.	1879
Loomis	In 1872, received a patent for a "wireless telegraph". Patent utilizes atmospheric electricity to eliminate the overhead wire used by the existing telegraph systems.	His patent U.S. patent 129,971 was for the purpose of receiving and imparting atmospheric electricity.	None (n/a)
Lodge	On 14 August 1894 Lodge sent a radio message in Morse code.	Did not pursue further.	1894
Maxwell	By 1864 Maxwell had become the first person to demonstrate theoretically the existence of radio (electromagnetic) waves, which are used by all radio equipment.	Maxwell did not generate or receive radio waves.	None (n/a)
Popov	Confirmed laboratory demonstration of radio on 17 May 1895. In March 1896 publicly demonstrated the sending of a signal 550 m between two campus buildings. By 1900 he had reliable communications over 25 miles.	Was not the first to send signals significant distances.	1895
Ward	Ward was the first person to be granted a US patent relating to wireless telegraphy.	His patent U.S. patent 126,356 was for the purpose of receiving and imparting natural electricity.	None (n/a)

Tesla vs. Marconi

United States Patent Dispute

Marconi v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 9-12, 1943 Decided June 21, 1943
Full case name	Marconi Wireless Telegraph co. of America v. United States, United States v. Marconi Wireless Telegraph co. of America
Citations	320 U.S. 1 (more)
Holding
The broad claims of the Marconi Patent No. 763,772, for improvements in apparatus for wireless telegraphy — briefly, for a structure and arrangement of four high-frequency circuits with means of independently adjusting each so that all four may be brought into electrical resonance with one another — held invalid because anticipated. P. 320 U. S. 38.
Court membership
Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone Associate Justices Owen Roberts · Hugo Black Stanley F. Reed · Felix Frankfurter William O. Douglas · Frank Murphy Robert H. Jackson · Wiley B. Rutledge
Case opinions
Majority	Stone, joined by Roberts, Black, Reed, Douglas, Jackson, Rutledge
Dissent	Rutledge
Dissent	Frankfurter

Radio patent decision

In 1943 a lawsuit regarding Marconi's radio patents was resolved by the United States Supreme Court, who overturned most of these. The Marconi Company brought this suit in the Court of Claims to recover damages for infringement of four United States patents. Two, U.S. patent 763,772 and U.S. patent RE11913, were issued to Marconi, a third, U.S. patent 609,154, to Lodge, and a fourth, U.S. patent 803,684, to Fleming. The court held that the Marconi reissue patent was not infringed. The court found Marconi showed no invention over Stone (U.S. patent 714,756) by making the tuning of his antenna circuit adjustable, or by using Lodge's variable inductance for that purpose. At the time, the United States Army was involved in a patent infringement lawsuit with Marconi's company regarding radio, leading various observers to posit that the government nullified Marconi's other patents in order to moot any claims for compensation (as, it is speculated, the government's initial reversal to grant Marconi the patent right in order to nullify any claims Tesla had for compensation).

The court decision was based on the proven prior work conducted by others, such as by Tesla, Oliver Lodge, and John Stone Stone, from which some of Marconi patents stemmed. The U. S. Supreme Court stated that,

"The Tesla patent No. 645,576, applied for September 2, 1897 and allowed March 20, 1900, disclosed a four-circuit system, having two circuits each at transmitter and receiver, and recommended that all four circuits be tuned to the same frequency. [... He] recognized that his apparatus could, without change, be used for wireless communication, which is dependent upon the transmission of electrical energy."

In making their decision, the court noted,

"Marconi's reputation as the man who first achieved successful radio transmission rests on his original patent, which became reissue No. 11,913, and which is not here [320 U.S. 1, 38] in question. That reputation, however well-deserved, does not entitle him to a patent for every later improvement which he claims in the radio field. Patent cases, like others, must be decided not by weighing the reputations of the litigations, but by careful study of the merits of their respective contentions and proofs."

The court also stated that,

"It is well established that as between two inventors priority of invention will be awarded to the one who by satisfying proof can show that he first conceived of the invention."

Priority of Patents

Priority of Marconi and Tesla US Patents

Timeline

Main article: Timeline of radio

The identity of the original inventor of radio, at the time called wireless telegraphy, is contentious. The key invention for the beginning of "wireless transmission of data using the entire frequency spectrum" has been attributed to various inventors and researchers. Below is a selection of pertinent events and individuals related to the development of radio.

References and citation

General Information

Offline

• Anderson, L.I., "Priority in the Invention of Radio: Tesla vs. Marconi", Antique Wireless Association Monograph No. 4, March, 1980.
• Anderson, L.I., "John Stone Stone on Nikola Tesla's Priority in Radio and Continuous-Wave Radiofrequency Apparatus", The A.W.A. (Antique Wireless Association) Review, Vol. 1, 1986, pp. 18-41.

Weblinks

• "Marconi Wireless Tel. Co. v. United States, 320 U.S. 1 (U.S. 1943)", 320 U.S. 1, 63 S. Ct. 1393, 87 L. Ed. 1731 Argued April 9,12, 1943. Decided June 21, 1943.
• Howeth, Captian H.S. History of Communications – Electronics in the United States Navy, published 1963, GPO, 657 pages. Free online public domain US government published book.
• Wunsch, A.D., "Misreading the Supreme Court,” Antenna, Volume 11 No. 1, November 1998, Society for the History of Technology
• Brand, W.E., "Rereading the Supreme Court: Tesla's Invention of Radio", Antenna, Volume 11 No. 2, May 1998, Society for the History of Technology
• "Wireless telegraphy", The Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1922). London: Encyclopaedia Britannica.
• Mazzotto, D., & Bottone, S. R. (1906). Wireless telegraphy and telephony. London: Whittaker & Co.
• Fleming, J. A. (1908). The principles of electric wave telegraphy. London: New York and Co.
• Murray, J. E. (1907). A handbook of wireless telegraphy. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co.; [etc.].
• Twining, H. L. V., & Dubilier, W. (1909). Wireless telegraphy and high frequency electricity; a manual containing detailed information for the construction of transformers, wireless telegraph and high frequency apparatus, with chapters on their theory and operation. Los Angeles, Cal: The author.
• Massie, W. W., & Underhill, C. R. (1911). Wireless telegraphy and telephony popularly explained. New York: D. Van Nostrand.
• Sewall, C. H. (1904). Wireless telegraphy: its origins, development, inventions, and apparatus. New York: D. Van Nostrand.
• Collins, A. F. (1905). Wireless telegraphy; its history, theory and practice. New York: McGraw Pub.
• Fahie, J. J. (1900). A history of wireless telegraphy, 1838-1899: including some bare-wire proposals for subaqueous telegraphs. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and Sons.
• Colby, F. M., Williams, T., & Wade, H. T. (1930). "Wireless Telegraphy", The New international encyclopaedia. New York: Dodd, Mead and Co.
• Trevert, E. (1904). The A.B.C. of wireless telegraphy; a plain treatise on Hertzian wave signaling; embracing theory, methods of operation, and how to build various pieces of the apparatus employed. Lynn, Mass: Bubier Pub.
• Stanley, R. (1919). Text-book on wireless telegraphy. London: Longmans, Green.
• Thompson, S. P. (1915). Elementary lessons in electricity and magnetism. New York: Macmillan
• Telegraphing across space, Electric wave method. The Electrical engineer. (1884). London: Biggs & Co.
• Simmons, H. H. (1908). "Wireless telegraphy", Outlines of electrical engineering. London: Cassell and Co.
• Bottone, S. R. (1910). Wireless telegraphy and Hertzian waves. London: Whittaker & Co.
• Erskine-Murray, J. (1909). A handbook of wireless telegraphy: its theory and practice, for the use of electrical engineers, students, and operators. New York: Van Nostrand.
• American Institute of Electrical Engineers. (1884). "Wireless Telephony — By R. A. Fessenden (Illustrated.)", Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. New York: American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
• The New Physics and Its Evolution. Chapter VII : A Chapter in the History of Science: Wireless telegraphy by Lucien Poincare, eBook #15207, released February 28, 2005.
• Stanley, R. (1914). Text book on wireless telegraphy. London: Longmans, Green.
• Comparative Study of the Hertz, Marconi and Tesla Low-Frequency Wireless Systems
• Timeline: First Thirty Years of Radio, 1895-1925

The album, The Great Radio Controversy, is titled after the controversy about the identity of the inventor of radio. It is posed that Serbian engineer Nikola Tesla (whom the band is named after) is the true inventor of radio, while the Italian Guglielmo Marconi took the credit and is widely regarded as having the title. The album's inner sleeve recounts this story.

See also

People

Edwin Howard Armstrong, John Stone Stone, Ernst Alexanderson, Reginald Fessenden, Oliver Lodge,

Radio

[[[Radio communication system]], Timeline of radio, Oldest radio station, Birth of public radio broadcasting

Categories

Radio People, Radio Pioneers, Discovery and invention controversies

Other

Radiotelegraph and Spark-Gap Transmitters, The Great Radio Controversy, Induction coil, Ruhmkorff coil, Poldhu, Alexanderson alternator, De Forest tube