The History of RCA
Within 50 years Elihu Thomson, one of America's most prolific inventors, was granted 696 U.S. patents on inventions anywhere from arc lights, generators, electric welding machines, to x-ray tubes. But out of all of his inventions, it was the recording wattmeter, an instrument used to measure the amount of electricity used by a home or business, that brought fame and opportunity.(RCA Online 1)
Thomson built one of the leading electrical companies of the eighteen hundreds along with fellow high school science professor Edwin Houston. In fact, he was lighting the streets in Kansas City Missouri with his system six months before Thomas Edison opened his first power station in New York. Eventually the two stations and others would be brought together under the same name, General Electric, after the merging of the Thomson-Houston and Edison General electric companies. Much progress was made with the electric companies and there were even some General Electrics in Europe and South America. (RCA Online 1)
Although Thomson set up the first electric system, it was Edison who invented the phonograph in eighteen seventy-seven. Editors at Scientific American, who were some of the first to experience Edison's newest creation, were startled. "The machine began by politely inquiring as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night." (RCA Online 2)
Edison got his idea for the recorder when he worked as a telegraph operator at the Western Union office in Indianapolis. He figured out that during a night shift he could couple together two old Morse registers to capture incoming codes for later retrieval. He could sleep during his shift and catch up on messages later. (RCA Online 2)
RCA, the Radio Corporation of America was formed during World War I because the Assistant Navy Secretary, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was convinced that radio patents should be under American patent when he learned that the British Marconi Company was about to buy-out part of General Electric. So when Roosevelt intervened General Electric not only purchased American Marconi, but also took control of the organization of the American radio control in October of 1919. They were later also merged with Westinghouse out of convenience and thus RCA was created. (MZTV Online 1)
RCA's revenues came over $50 million just six years later.
One way that radio communications changed American society was the way people obtained the news. In 1933, 16 million people became unemployed and were left to stay at home. Many could not provide for their families but that did not stop them from buying a radio. Sales burst in the United States and expanded all throughout other parts of the world such as Australia, Cuba, and Russia. About one in every three homes in the United States owned radios—the easiest and most entertaining way to listen to the news and advertisement. Newspaper publications were declining and some companies were obsolete due to the development of radio stations. Obvious hostility was evident between newspaper publishers and radio broadcasters. The owner of one of the most comprehensive press empires, William Randolph Hearst, was forced to sell stocks and contribute part of his own wealth to save his company. Although the advancement of ...
One of the most well known technological innovator and manufacturer was Thomas Alva Edison. He invented many devices which are still being used today, with some modifications. He even built a vote-recording device before he was twenty-one. Some inventions were the phonograph, incandescent light bulb, and the kinetoscope, which was much like a motion picture camera. In total, he has patented 1,093 inventions. He earned the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park”.
In the 1880s, there was a war going on in the United States. Backstabbing, secrecy, and death were common. However, this war had no weapons. It was a dual between two geniuses. These two men are the fathers of modern technology. The War of Currents was a battle between the famous inventor Thomas Edison, and the mysterious genius Nikola Tesla. Tesla and Edison engaged in an epic competition to create the most efficient, cheap, usable form of electricity. Everyone knows who Thomas Edison was, but not many people know of Nikola Tesla. Tesla was an unappreciated mastermind who changed the world with his inventions, performed many strange experiments, and practically invented usable electricity.
Samuel Morse contributed many things to American society. In 1832 when returning from Europe from a period of art study on the ship Sully, Samuel overheard a conversation about the newly discovered electromagnets and came up with the idea of an electric telegraph. By 1835 he had his first telegraph model working in the New York University building. In 1837, he acquired two partners to help him develop his telegraph. Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail were the two men that he chose. They applied for a patent in 1837 for the telegraph, which included the dot and dash code.
The telephone was said to be invented by Alexander Graham Bell, some critics believe that the real inventor was a man named Elisha Gray. After many debates people commonly now believe that Alexander Graham Bell invented the first telephone. Inspired by his deaf parents he wanted to invent something that people could use easily and was easy to access. So he worked on his invention day and night for many days. Eventually He got the perfect thing that he had been looking for. He had finally invented a device that you could hear human voices through technology. On March 7, 1876 after all of Alexander G. Bell’s hard work he patented his great invention...
Morse was a very friendly guy. Being a natural leader, he was a founder and the first president of the National Academy of Design, but was lost his campaigns to become mayor of New York or a Congressman. In 1832, while returning on the ship from another period of studying art in Europe, Morse heard a conversation about the newly discovered electromagnet and got the idea of an electric telegraph. He mistakenly thought that the idea of such a telegraph was new, helping to give him the go ahead and push the idea forward. By 1835 he probably had his first telegraph model working in the New York University building where he taught art. Being poor, Morse used materials like an old artist's canvas stretcher to hold his invention, a home-made battery and an old clock-work to move the paper on which dots and dashes were to be recorded.
Thomas Edison has to be credited with starting the recording industry, because without his invention of the phonograph, there might not be music on the radio, or on tapes and CD’s today(Biagi 143). In 1887, a man by the name Emile Berliner replaced Edison’s phonograph with the gramophone and in 1947 Goldmark introduced the LP, or Long-playing record(143-4).
The year 1887 was a busy one for Nikola Tesla, in the months of November and December alone he filed for seven patents for AC motors and power transmissions. These ideas caught the attention of George Westinghouse who bought them from him seeing their potential. One of his most important inventions Westinghouse bought was the transformer. With a transformer, an AC distribution system can allow a large amount of power to be transmitted at high voltages over long ...
After he was done with his telegraph job, on October 11th, 1868 he got his first patented invention for an electrical vote recorder. To Edison's surprise it wasn't popular enough among the people. After this incident, Edison became more determined towards making certain there was a strong public demand for anything he was going to invent. He improved the original stock ticker and invented the Universal Stock Ticker and the Unison Device. I...
From this invention Edison started the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company in 1878. Edison had received $10,000 for the sales and manufacturing rights plus 20% of the profits from this company. The machine had a variety of uses including dictation, creating listening books, a sort of a “family record” which had precious recorded memories of the family like last words, teaching elocution, adn other uses as well
The Electric Franklin. "Benjamin Franklin's Inventions." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, 4 July 1995. Web. 23 May 2014.
Edison is most famous for the development of the first electric light bulb. Like I said Edison was born into a time where America wasn’t very developed. He was born, and electricity had not been developed. But thanks to Edison when he had passed away on October 18, 1931 whole cities were lit up in electricity. For electricity, much of the credit goes to Edison.
The history of engineering goes back into the 19th century when Alexander Volta (1745-1827) made a remarkable discover regarding the nature of electricity (Cosgrove 749). He discovered that electrical current could be controlled and could flow from one point to another. By the time the mid-19th century came about the rules for electricity were being established. During this time electromagnetic induction was discovered by Michael Faraday who lived from 1791 to 1867 (749). Also during this time Samuel Morris invented the telegraph in 1837 which relies on the principles of electromagnetic induction (749). Alexander Graham Bell, who lived from 1847 to 1922, created the telephone which also uses electricity in order to operate (749). Through the success of the telephone, Bell Telephone Company was established. In 1878, the light bulb was finally invented by Thomas Edison who lived from 1847 to 1931 (749). Off the principles of Faraday’s electric motor from 1821, Nicholas Tesla invented a more efficient and powerful electric motor in 1888 (749). To make these inventions be more significant, effort was expended to make better motors and transformers and to enhance the power needed to make them function. Through these inventions during the middle 19th century, it led to the capability of lighting homes and cities through the use of electricity, and it also led to the creation of the telephone communication system (750).
Thomas Edison is widely regarded as one of the most influential inventors and innovators of the Twentieth Century. Edison’s efforts ushered in a new era of technology; a world in which electricity would be harnessed and made to bow before man’s will. Walter Lippman wrote, “It is impossible to measure the importance of Edison by adding up the specific inventions with which his name is associated” (qtd. in Baldwin 409). Edison’s decades long career was a synergistic melding of his success as an inventor and his prowess as a promoter and businessman. He exemplified the ideals of intelligence married to hard work and perseverance. He forever changed the landscape of American invention and the limits of technological change (Baldwin 409).
Nikola Tesla is regarded as one of the most brilliant inventors in history. His work provided the basis for the modern alternating current power system, as well as having developed both radio and the fluorescent light bulb. He worked with Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, among others. He was also widely misunderstood by his peers and the public at large.