In 1860s, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell predicted the existence of radio waves. In 1886, a German physicist Hienrich Rudolf Hertz demonstrated that rapid variations in air current could be transported into space just like light and heat. An American dentist, Mahlon Gloomis successfully demonstrated wireless telegraphy and received a patent in 1872. Some time later, an Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi proved the feasibility of radio communication. He sent and received his first radio signal in Italy in 1895. In 1899, he sent the first wireless signal across the English Channel.

Two years later, he received the letter "S", telegraphed from England to Newfoundland, thereby marking the first successful transatlantic radiotelegraph message, in 1902. Besides Marconi, Nikola Tesla took out patent for wireless radio transmitters and even became the first person to patent radio technology, as the Supreme Court turned down Marconis patent in his favor, in 1943. What ...more

Down