The Invention of Radio

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2013

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the invention of radio. In the early 1860s the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell derived four equations which together describe the behaviour of electricity and magnetism. They predicted the existence of a previously unknown phenomenon: electromagnetic waves. These waves were first observed in the early 1880s, and over the next two decades a succession of scientists and engineers built increasingly elaborate devices to produce and detect them. Eventually this gave birth to a new technology: radio. The Italian Guglielmo Marconi is commonly described as the father of radio - but many other figures were involved in its development, and it was not him but a Canadian, Reginald Fessenden, who first succeeded in transmitting speech over the airwaves. With: Simon Schaffer Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge Elizabeth Bruton Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Leeds John Liffen Curator of Communications at the Science Museum, London Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about in our time, and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, on the 2nd of July 1897 a young Italian living in Bayswater was awarded a patent for a new device.
0:17.0	The official document explains that,
0:20.0	according to this invention, electrical actions or manifestations are transmitted through the air,
0:25.4	earth or water by means of electric oscillations of high frequency.
0:30.3	The inventor's name was Marconi and he was 23.
0:33.0	Today we'd call these electric oscillations radio waves
0:37.0	and Marconi had devised a means of sending telegraphic signals
0:40.0	great distances by using them.
0:42.0	His invention led eventually to the development of modern
0:44.8	radio communication. But although Markerney is often described today as the father of radio,
0:49.8	the story of the technology began several decades earlier and involved a number of other celebrated scientists and engineers who paved the way.
0:57.0	With me to discuss the invention of radio R Simon Schaefer, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge, John Liffin,
1:04.9	Curator of Communications at the Science Museum in London, and Elizabeth Bruton, a postdoctoral
1:09.8	researcher at the University of Leeds.
1:12.1	Simon Schaffer, the story really begins as I understand it in the first half of the
1:16.6	90th century with the work of two scientists, Faraday and Orsted, who investigated the nature
1:21.6	of electricity. Can you tell us about them and where they took us?
1:25.0	Yes, for a very long time in human history,
1:28.0	almost all information was communicated at the same speed as humans could travel.
1:32.0	And it's in the early 19th century. at the same speed as humans could travel.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.