-
Radio waves - the start
Radio waves were first predicted by mathematical work done in 1867 by Scottish mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell. -
Discovery of the Radio waves
In 1887, Heinrich Hertz demonstrated the reality of Maxwell's electromagnetic waves by experimentally generating radio waves in his laboratory, showing that they exhibited the same wave properties as light -
First use of the radio waves
Radio waves, originally called "Hertzian waves",were first used for communication in the mid 1890s by Guglielmo Marconi, who developed the first practical radio transmitters and receivers. -
The Radio
An August 1894 lecture by the British physicist Oliver Lodge, where he transmitted and received "Hertzian waves" at distances up to 50 meters, was followed up the same year with experiments by Indian physicist Jagadish Chandra Bose in extremely high frequency radio microwave optics and a year later with the construction of a radio based lightning detector by Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov. -
The Radio - a few months later
Starting in late 1894, Guglielmo Marconi began pursuing the idea of building a wireless telegraphy system based on Hertzian waves (radio). Marconi gained a patent on the system in 1896 and developed it into a commercial communication system over the next few years.