Wireless History

This paper presents a chronology of the origin and development of wireless (or radio) communications. It follows the fo llowing pattern. It gives credit to some of the scientists who provided the initial observations and understanding of electric and magnetic phenomena. It then mentions the experiments and inventions carried out toward the evolution of scientific and engineering models. Finally, it focuses on the implementation of practical wireless systems. The chronology leads us to conclude that the invention and development of wireless/radio systems can neither be credited to one individual nor to one specific country. The chronology strongly indicates an overlapping of human thinking in time in many countries. This compelled us to not make a definitive choice of an individual (or country) for the well-deserved credit. We leave it up to the reader to make her or his own choice!

“Going wireless” involves not only the elimination of wires but also the production of electromagnetic waves, a realization that had far-reaching implications for the cultural logics of German modernity. As a media archaeology of wirelessness, this dissertation situates the “discovery” of electromagnetic radiation and the “invention” of wireless transmission in a richer field of scientific, experimental, and aesthetic relations during the early and pre-history of national broadcasting. Before wireless transmission came to be synonymous with the mass distribution medium of radio or even the long-distance communication medium of wireless telegraphy, it was at the center of speculation about a variety of possible wireless futures. Understanding the rhetoric of the new media of radio and wireless telegraphy in the first chapter opens onto questions of continuity and change in the longue durée of the second chapter. The insights gained from this comparison of pre-modern cultural techniques and modern electronic technologies are crucial for understanding the “discovery” of electromagnetic radiation and the “invention” of wireless telegraphy examined in the third and fourth chapters with a focus on the immediate pre-history of national broadcasting in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The significance of this pre-historical period and the contingency of national broadcasting in the mid-twentieth century arguably only became apparent with the revival of wireless transmission at the turn of the twenty-first century, as the fifth chapter makes evident. As a contribution to the early and pre-history of national broadcasting, this dissertation suggests a new way of thinking about the order of wirelessness, from “wireless” as synonymous with the communication medium of telegraphy or the distribution medium of radio, to “wireless” as electromagnetic radiation and a medium of experimentation.

On the History of Wireless, 600BC-1901
The roots of wireless go back more than 2600 years to Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus.  Yet it took more
than 1600 years from his discoveries of static electricity and magnetic rocks to begin developing the technology
necessary for today's wireless.  Along the way there were other forms of near-real-time communications, for
example, drums, smoke signals, semaphores, flashing lights, even carrier pigeons.  But it was only in the eight
decades or so after the Industrial Revolution that modern wireless found its footing and blossomed into what
arguably is mankind's most significant technological development to date, possibly ever.  Guglielmo Marconi
was the principal player in creating the modern wireless industry, which began in earnest in 1901 when he
demonstrated communication from Poldhu, England, to Saint Johns, Newfoundland.  This talk examines
wireless history from the time of Thales through Marconi's seminal Atlantic crossing.

This paper presents a critique of the origin of semiconductors and pre 1900 developments in semiconductor research and device applications. Although the history of semiconductors stretches back to a time as far as 1833, semiconductors made debut in engineering field by dint of Bose's research in the 1890s. Selenium photoelectric cell, Braun's discovery of rectification at metal semiconductor interface and Bose's introductory applications of semiconductors for wireless engineering can be considered the milestones of the 19 th century in this regard. The author puts forward a suggestion to identify Bose's pioneering research with semiconductor, which led to the development of semiconductor detectors of wireless signals and which is otherwise less pronounced, as an IEEE Milestone.