Who invented the radio?

           The credit of inventing the radio goes to a number of researchers. The names of Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Alexander Popov, Sir Oliver Lodge, Reginald Fessenden, Heinrich Hertz, Amos Dolbear, Mahlon Loomis, Nathan Stubblefield and James Clerk Maxwell can be included.

           The invention of the radio cannot actually be credited to one individual. Rather it was the efforts of a number of different inventors and scientists that made the technology possible. However, by understanding each of the inventors and the contributions that made the radio possible, you can then understand the genius and history behind the radio.

           One of the first names that is identified with the invention of the radio is Nikola Tesla. In 1892, he designed the fundamental blueprint for the radio. Using this fundamental blueprint, a radio controlled robot boat was then patented in 1898.

            The boat itself was controlled by radio waves using an antenna on the boat that received the waves which were sent from a command post. The boat then translated these waves into instructions for how the propellers of the boat should move.

Advancement

             Sir Oliver Lodge facilitated the advancement of the radio because he designed a fundamental part of the radio, the coherer. Although the coherer had been designed by other inventors, Sir Oliver Lodge fixed certain flaws of the design and perfected it. Sir Oliver Lodge is also known in the development of the radio because he was the first human to ever actually transmit a radio signal.

 

Guglielmo Marconi

             However, other inventors realized the applicability of the radio for other uses. Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor who was able to use the radio to show how practical it was for communication. He thus influenced the applicability and what the radio would be used for.

He sent his first radio signal and got confirmation of its reception in 1895. He improved upon this in 1899 when he sent a signal across a greater distance, the English Channel. Then, in 1902, Marconi was able to send a signal the first signal across an ocean. This was the first transatlantic radiotelegraph.

 

Alexander Pope

                 Alexander Pope was fundamental because he constructed his own version of the radio receiver that contained a coherer in 1894. This construction was modified into a lightning detector. This lightning detector was then demonstrated in front of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society in May 7, 1895.

Under Pope's guidance and instruction, a radio station was then built on Hogland Island which made the communication between the Russian naval base and the crew of the battleship General-Admiral Apraksin possible.

Reginald Fessenden

                 Reginald Fessenden was instrumental for showing what the radio could do. Due to his efforts, he oversaw the first audio transmission of a radio in 1900, the first two way transatlantic radio transmission in 1906, and the first radio broadcast of entertainment and music in the year 1906. He was also able to design a more functional spark-gap transmitter and coherer-receiver combination than previous inventors.

 

Nathan Stubblefield

                Another inventor that cannot be forgotten when discussing the invention of the radio is Nathan Stubblefield. Some historians claim that the inventor Nathan Stubblefield invented the radio even before Tesla’s designs.

                 His inventions worked by audio frequency instead of radio frequency that is necessary for radio transmission. Thus, he is usually credited as the inventor of the wireless transmission of the human voice. His designs paved the way for the modern radio.