In 1987, the German physicist Heinrich Hertz discovered radio waves.

While the first practical use of this discovery was communication,

there were also some who realized that radio waves could serve another purpose.

It was possible to use these radio waves could serve another purpose. It was possible to use these

radio waves to detect objects at a distance. It was something that

revolutionized warfare and weather forecasting and might yet revolutionize

consumer technology.

Learn more about radar, how it works,

and how it was developed on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The story of radar starts with the discovery of radio waves.

In 1864, the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell developed a series of equations that predicted there existed

electromagnetic waves and that light was an example of such a wave. The problem

was is that no one could find proof of anything beyond visible light.

This was eventually solved by the German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1887, who discovered

longer wavelengths of electromagnetic waves than light.

These became known as radio waves. In the

process of doing his research he discovered something else. Certain wavelengths of

radio waves were reflected by metal. The initial use case for radio waves was communication.

Gulliamo Marconi developed a workable radio transmitter and receiver just seven years

after Hertz's discovery. However, Hertz's observation that some radio waves were reflected

by metals still lingered. The first person who attempted to take advantage of this effect was the

German inventor Christian Holzmeyer.

Holzmeyer believed that this property of radio waves could be used to detect ships at sea

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