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Wireless Communication in the 1830s
Transmission of wireless communication was ran through the ground, water, and train tracks. -
Electromagnetic Waves
James Clerk Maxwell discovered that electromagnetic waves could travel through free space. -
First International Transmission
The first international transmission of electric magnetic waves was performed in an experiment by David Edward Hughes. -
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
In 1888 Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was able to conclusively prove transmitted airborne electromagnetic waves in an experiment confirming Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. -
Wireless Telegraphy
Over several years starting in 1894 the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built the first complete, commercially successful wireless telegraphy system based on airborne Hertzian waves (radio transmission). Marconi demonstrated application of radio in military and marine communications and started a company for the development and propagation of radio communication services and equipment. -
First Radio Station
In 1896, Marconi was awarded British patent and in 1897 he established a radio station in England. Marconi would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 and be more successful than any other inventor in his ability to commercialize radio and its associated equipment into a global business. At this time is was still only morse code that could be transmitted wirelessly. -
The name "Radio"
After the discovery of these "Hertzian waves" (it would take almost 20 years for the term "radio" to be universally adopted for this type of electromagnetic radiation) many scientists and inventors experimented with wireless transmission and trying to develop a system of communication. The meaning and usage of the word "radio" has developed in parallel with developments within the field of communications. -
More Distance for Electromagnetic Waves
In 1900, Brazilian priest Roberto Landell de Moura transmitted the human voice wirelessly for a distance of approximately a half mile. One year after that experiment, he received his first patent from the Brazilian government. -
Synchronous Rotary-Spark Transmitter
On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden used a synchronous rotary-spark transmitter for the first radio program broadcast, from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, Massachusetts. -
Purpose-built Radio Factory
In June 1912 Marconi opened the world's first purpose-built radio factory at New Street Works in Chelmsford, England. -
First College Radio Station
The first radio news program was broadcast August 31, 1920 by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan, which survives today as all-news format station WWJ under ownership of the CBS network. The first college radio station began broadcasting on October 14, 1920 from Union College, Schenectady, New York under the personal call letters of Wendell King, an African-American student at the school. -
Radio in South America
At 9 pm on August 27, 1920, Sociedad Radio Argentina aired a live performance of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal from the Coliseo Theater in downtown Buenos Aires. Only about twenty homes in the city had receivers to tune in this radio program. -
Sports Broadcasting
Sports broadcasting began at this time as well, including the college football on radio broadcast of a 1921 West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh football game. -
Marconi Research Centre
Meanwhile, regular entertainment broadcasts commenced in 1922 from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle, England. -
Frequency Modulation
In the early 1930s, single sideband and frequency modulation were invented by amateur radio operators. By the end of the decade, they were established commercial modes. Radio was used to transmit pictures visible as television as early as the 1920s. -
Television
Commercial television transmissions started in North America and Europe in the 1940s. -
AT&T
In 1947 AT&T commercialized the Mobile Telephone Service. From its start in St. Louis in 1946, AT&T then introduced Mobile Telephone Service to one hundred towns and highway corridors by 1948. -
Advanced Mobile Phone System
The Advanced Mobile Phone System analog mobile cell phone system, developed by Bell Labs, was introduced in the Americas in 1978. -
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Primary Analog Mobile Phone System
It was the primary analog mobile phone system in North America (and other locales) through the 1980s and into the 2000s. -
Telephone
Mobile Telephone Service was expensive, costing 15 USD per month, plus 0.30 to 0.40 USD per local call, equivalent to about 176 USD per month and 3.50 to 4.75 per call in 2012 USD.
