DX RXThe Doctor of DX prescribes the |  |
DX RXThe Doctor of DX prescribes the | |
Professor Popov was a typically thorough theoretical scientist. His original motivation in his work was to detect the approach of thunderstorms. By generating large electrical arcs to "simulate" lightning to test his "detecting" devices, he accidentally stumbled onto the root principal of radio communications. These experiments were conducted in the Spring of 1895 and while giving a lecture to the Russian Physicist Society of St. Petersburg on May 7th of that year, he announced his 600-yard transmission and reception of radio signals. However, much of Popov's work remained shrouded in secrecy, or was obscured by Popov's desire to concentrate on fundamental research. Slowly, as the Russian military came to the realization of what radio might do for them, Popov's later works were kept "under wraps". It was not until the 1960's, in a U.S. Government publication, "History of Communications - Electronics in the United States Navy" (Bureau of Ships and Office of Naval History, 1963) that Popov received credit for having been one of the inventors of radio. It is ironic that this report was published at the height of the Cold War.
In the meantime, quite separate in his approach and without knowledge of what Popov was doing in Russia, Guglielmo Marconi, a far more practical-minded scientist and entrepreneur with a keen sense of business savvy, was conducting his own experiments. Marconi's parents were very financially secure. His father was a successful and wealthy Italian businessman, and his mother was descended from an Irish distilling family and had considerable money of her own, with connections in the British Isles which would later prove to be most useful. Marconi had shown at an early age a very serious curiosity about and interest in electrical physics, and his mother wisely tutored him. Later she arranged for him to audit classes taught by Professor Vincenzo Rosa at the University of Balogna. Professor Rosa was highly knowledgeable in the mathematics of Maxwell and the electromagnetic experiments of Heinrich Hertz and other contemporary scientists of the day, and taught the young Marconi all he knew.
The young scientist put this knowledge to good use, and began improving upon the inventions of Faraday (induction coil), Hertz (wave emitter), Rhigi (spark gap), Branly (coherer) and Morse (telegraph key) to make a device with which he could communicate over a short distance without the use of wires. As he continued his experiments, he relocated his equipment outdoors in order to work over greater distances. Marconi, with his fertile mind and visionary acumen, had long since realized what these discoveries could mean to the world in general, and to electrical communications in particular. But he also just as wisely understood that, in order for his discoveries to have serious impact, he had to enhance the distance over which radio signals would travel.
He soon learned that by connecting the output of his device to an "antenna" and that, by grounding both transmitter and receiver, he could dramatically increase the distance over which he communicated. By the close of 1895 he was communicating with his brother Alphonso over a distance greater than one mile. At first, they used flags waved in the air to indicate successful reception. Soon, however, they had to rely on a shotgun blast into the air to signal success. Marconi was ready to go public with his invention, but at first no one in Italy appreciated his work, except for his mother.
When Marconi applied for financial assistance from the Italian Government to continue his experiments, the Italian Minister of Communications dismissed his "wireless", stating that "Our telegraph works. Why do we need a wireless telegraph?" Undaunted, Marconi's mother gave him the names of contacts in England and in 1896 he relocated to England. Thinking that his equipment was a bomb, the British Customs agents smashed it. After Marconi convinced them otherwise, he was allowed to keep his "contraption" and reassembled it. At about the same time, he applied for and received the first of many patents for his discoveries.
By 1897 he was using his wireless system to report on yacht races eight to ten miles at sea, and to send reports back to Queen Victoria on the health of her son, the Prince of Wales, who had sustained an injury earlier on. Under the laws of England, he incorporated and registered his Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited, and set out to sell his equipment to shipping companies. In 1898 he traveled to the United States to report on the America's Cup race, and also demonstrated his wireless equipment to U.S. Navy brass. He set up his equipment aboard the cruiser USS New York and battleship USS Massachusetts, and successfully communicated over a distance of 35 miles. This feat, in and of itself, debunked the widely held theory of the day that radio waves traveled only in straight lines and that communications were impossible over the curvature of the earth, distances greater than "line of sight" - about 15 - 20 miles, depending on the height of the antennas. While it was not yet understood why these radio waves were "following" the curvature of the earth, there was absolutely no doubt that the phenomena was occurring.
One major stumbling block lay in the way of acceptance of the wireless system by the U.S. Navy. The radiated wave was broadbanded in the extreme, and if two or more transmitters were operating simultaneously, a receiver would pick up both signals which obviously interfered with each other. This was unacceptable to the Navy. Marconi, being the shrewd businessman that he was, basically told a little fib by stating that he had solved the problem, but had left the equipment back in England. After establishing an American company and immediately upon his return to the UK, he hired John A. Fleming (of Fleming Valve fame) to assist him with solving this dilemma. The result was that in 1900 he filed for, and on April 26, 1900, he received patent # 7777 (a coincidence but nonetheless a very significant omen) for "Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless Telegraphy". As described, the device, called an "Oscillating Sintonic Circuit with Inductance and Capacity", was used to "control the actions so as to cause intelligible communication to be established with one or more stations only out of a group of several receiving stations". The improvements were the first use of "tuned circuits", circuits which were designed to transmit and/or receive radio signals within a selected narrow range of frequencies.
It was also soon apparent that even more significant benefits were derived from the use of these circuits. First, radio energy was now being confined to a narrower band of frequencies, thus effectively increasing the output power of the radiated wave. Secondly, the receiver was now only amplifying a narrow range of frequencies, thus dramatically improving the signal-to- noise ratio of the received signal. These two elements combined to drastically increase the distances over which Marconi and his rapidly growing team of scientists and engineers were able to communicate with their equipment. Business was booming! And the stage had been set for one of the singularly important events of the 20th Century - bridging the Atlantic by radio.
So the question still lingers, "Who was the Father of Radio"? While completely incorrect in its use of the term "inventor" as it applies to Marconi (Patent #7777 is only one of a vast string of patents he holds), and is to some degree uncharitable in its choice of words, the previously cited BUSHIPS document gets to the root of the argument:
"Marconi can scarcely be called an inventor. His contribution was more in the fields of applied research and engineering development. He possessed a very practical business acumen, and he was not hampered by the same driving urge to do fundamental research which had caused Lodge and [Popov] to procrastinate in the development of a commercial system."
And so what does that mean? The Wright Brothers are credited with inventing the airplane, and yet they didn't do the theoretical research which led to its creation. Ditto for Fulton and the steam engine. They applied known physics, improved on what was already there, devised new ideas along the way, and changed the world in the process. While Marconi may have been more of a practical realist and research engineer, innovator and entrepreneur than he was a theoretical scientist, does that make him any less the inventor of radio as we know it? Absolutely not! And in the eyes of countless millions of radio enthusiasts worldwide, past, present and future, Guglielmo Marconi was, is and will remain the "Father of Radio".
Next month - "The Father of DX". While some may argue for or against the idea that Guglielmo Marconi was the Father of Radio, there can be absolutely no doubt but that he totally reshaped the thinking of his day about how radio waves behave. He then went on to put his reputation, skills and money on the line to prove it, much to the chagrin of leading scientists, Alexander Graham Bell included. Until then……….