Like all modern developments, the development of radio transmission has been a combined effort and like all modern developments, the name of one man is invariably associated with it as the “inventor” of radio transmission.
Guglielmo Marconi is the one name that has been widely associated with the “radio” as its inventor although the theoretical work for wave transmission was done by James Clerk Maxwell, who himself furthered the work done earlier by Michael Faraday.
Marconi started by transmitting a signal from one part of his house to another part and ended up by transmitting a signal from Cornwall in England to St John’s in Newfoundland.
Although the work done by Marconi was on transmitting telegraph signals and voice transmission came much later, Marconi may be considered the inventor of the radio because he did not spend any time in furthering the studies of wave transmission as propounded by Maxwell and later furthered by Hertz, but in trying to find out better and better ways to use the theoretical work that had been presented by Maxwell and Hertz.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
That voice transmission which came later had become an easy step in the development of radio transmission, was a pointer to how well the developments had been thought out by Marconi. Subsequently, television transmission also followed the same principle to broadcast picture apart from merely sound.
Initially, US President Woodrow Wilson felt that the radio gave an open license to espionage and therefore banned the private use of the radio, thereby keeping broadcasting under strict government control. However, the archaic laws were rescinded fairly quickly so that development of the radio soon pushed ahead.
Marconi had a large number of followers and adherents who together pushed forward many developments. Today, when the different means of communications are being centralised and consolidated, the use of the radio has been paramount in this consolidation.