Empire of the Air: Invention of the Radio

Radio waves were first discovered in 1887, but radio itself was initially invented by Italian Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 (1). His biggest mentioned success was in 1901, when he managed to broadcast the letter “S” across the Atlantic Ocean (1). However, he focused primarily on point-to-point transmissions, not large scale broadcasts from one point (F). As such, three American inventors - Lee De Forest, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and David Sarnoff - took credit for making radio as it is today a success (F). De Forest was born and raised in Alabama and he thought of everything in terms of patents and eventually held more than 300, but many claimed that he simply stole the inventions of others (2). In 1900, he patented a device to enhance weak signals and in 1902, he formed the De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company (1). In the same year. Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian, invented the “electrolytic detector”, which later became the spade detector that brought De Forest so much fame (F). In 1904, John Fleming invented the oscillation valve, which later became De Forest’s audion, and De Forest won the gold medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair for his “spade detector” (F). De Forest gained quite a bit of fame by broadcasting music live from the Eiffel Tower and from the Metropolitan Opera; however, many believed that this was a scam and that he had actually had the device broadcasting the signal only a few blocks away (F). In 1906, he envisioned bringing music and voices to all American households, but as it turns out Canadian inventor Fessenden had already broadcasted a Christmas greeting and music to the crew of a ship off the coast of Canada on Christmas Eve a year earlier (F). In 1912, Armstrong became prominent by inventing regeneration, wh...

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...ry on television as an extension of radio that the TV program does not provide. One of the biggest differences is the side-by-side timeline of radio events and timeline of contemporary events. This definitely helps provide a frame of reference for when the events of radio were happening and how they may have been affected by current events. The site also provides a page of resources for additional information and a glossary of terms used in the timeline and film. The website also expands on the idea that sound attracts and that radio is not dead in today’s society.

Works Cited

1. "Empire of the Air Timeline." PBS. Public Broadcasting Station, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. .

2. "Empire of the Air Biographical Sketches." PBS. Public Broadcasting Station, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. .