But... Do you know how the radio appeared in our life to connect us?
A lot of genius developed theories and invents until the radio appeared as we know it nowadays. Here you can see a simple summary about these first years:
Firstly, in 1867 James Clerk Maxwell developed the Electromagnetic Theory in which, he predicted the possibility of creating electromagnetic waves and propagating them through space. And it was Heinrich Hertz, 20 years later, when certificated it and showed that building suitable transmitting and receiving devices, it was possible to transmit messages by radio waves instead of wires.
Also Edouard Brandly invented “the coherer”, an apparatus capable of detecting electromagnetic waves and Alexander Popov developed the first antenna,1895. The next year, along with Oliver Lodge transmitted by radio the first Morse signals.
However, Guglielmo Marconi (Italiy) in 1896 was considered the inventor of the radio. He joined all the devices that had been invented before and managed to build the first complete wireless telegraphy system and emitted the first transmission in 1894. After two years he patented it, but it was the 12th December 1901 when he did the first communication transoceanic 3500 km far.
Nevertheless, some people said that Nicola Tesla is the main inventor of the radio because in the same years he did some experiments and were successful, so is not definite clearly that fact, although the official inventor for the history is Marconi.
In 1906, Ernst Alexanderson developed the first alternator to make transmission of speech. In the same year, Reginald Fessenden made the first long range transmission of voice from Brant Rock, Massachusetts
What is more, Lee DeForest is another inventor who is considered the “father of American radio” because with his invention the “Audion” (1907), he could send music from his laboratory to anyone.
The first radio station with a regular programme started in 1921 in the the city of Pittsburgh la KDKA. And for 1950 had appeared the transistor, created by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and Wiliam Shockley.
As you can read and investigate, there were a lot of collaborators in the invention of the radio and maybe is not very clear the history of that. However, we can be very thankful to have and enjoy it; to turn it on an listen the song that you were waiting for or maybe the song that bring to your mind some old memories; or to hear the daily internationals or local news, but always it makes you feel well informed even if you don’t have time; or just to enjoy the programs that help you to understand a bit more the world in which we are; and overall, to feel accompanied.
Moreover, through the history of the radio we can find lots of curiosity and funny facts as the followings:
Do you know that ...?
-The first message in 1886 was an energy transfer in form of spark.
-The first sound signal reached up to 250 meters away.
-In 1899, the ship's crew, R. F. Mathews was saved after reporting on the radio that they had hit a lighthouse.
-The first radio phonic transmission was a Christmas greeting and the song “O Holy Night” played by the same Fessenden with his violin and read a passage from the Biblie. And all it was with an antenna of 128 m.
-In 1920 the British company Marconi Wireless emitted a concert of classic music.
-In 1921 the Torre Effiel was used as antenna for the TSF radio in París, and some people said that The Eiffel Tower was supposed to be scrapped but survived because the military started using it as a radio tower.
-The first portable radio weighted 10 kg and it cost 180$.
-In 1922 a guy from Philadelphia used it in his car and for 1927 was famously the “Philo Transitore” as the radio for the cars.
-Until 1921 the radio station didn’t exist, so who had a radio needed one antenna of 10 m in his garden.
-The Armed Forces of Colombia commissioned a pop song that included a Morse code message to kidnapped military personnel, “19 people rescued, you’re next. Don’t lose hope”, because the kidnappers would let their captives listen to the radio.
Sources:
-https://www.hiru.eus/es/medios-de-comunicacion/historia-de-la-radio
-https://www.curiosfera.com/historia-de-la-radio/
-https://965thebull.iheart.com/content/2018-08-20-fun-facts-about-radio-for-national-radio-day/
-https://www.kickassfacts.com/radio-facts
-https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portada
Raquel Colas Gorricho