The Race for Wireless : How Radio Was Invented (or Discovered?)

The book is not only a history of development of wireless communication, or the radio, as it was later named. It also presents portraits of fascinating visionaries, experimenters and scientists and the stories of their successes and failures. The history begins as a race between inventors, but later becames a race chiefly between corporations. Even today, there are a great number of contradictory opinions and common beliefs regarding the fatherhood of the wireless. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, the exchange of information was slow and unreliable. Many talented individuals worked concurrently in different parts of the world, trying to develop the same wireless apparatus and not knowing that they already had competitors. Sometimes, inflated egos undermined their success. Some of the inventors lacked integrity. Legal battles ensued. So, who was the first at the finish line? To determine who was the winner of the race for wireless, or who can be named the "father of the wireless", substantial amounts of historical and political background as well as a thorough analysis of inventions are included in this book. The story is based on published memoirs and papers, encyclopedias, and countless historical and technical materials in the public domain. In many cases it was necessary to filter out the emotional biases (of traditional or national origin) of the source material and to seek the correct chronology of discoveries. The author uses published patents - their dates of issue, technical claims and drawings - as the ultimate source of judgment. In the appendix, "The Vacuum Tube Sound", the author compares the quality of sound amplified by a vacuum tube amplifier with the quality of sound amplified by modern semiconductor amplifiers. What are the differences, if any? The answer may surprise you.