Short History of The Radio

Short history of the radio.
In 1878, David E. Hughes noticed that sparks could be heard in a telephone receiver when
experimenting with his carbon microphone.
In 1887, Heinrich Hertz made observations of the photoelectric effect and of the production and
reception of electromagnetic (EM) waves, published in the journal Annalen der Physik. His receiver
consisted of a coil with a spark gap, whereupon a spark would be seen upon detection of EM waves.
In 1893, in St. Louis, Missouri, Nikola Tesla made devices for his experiments with electricity.
A demonstration of wireless telegraphy took place in the lecture theater of the Oxford University
Museum of Natural History on August 14, 1894, carried out by Professor Oliver Lodge and Alexander
Muirhead.
In 1895 Alexander Stepanovich Popov built his first radio receiver, which contained a coherer. Further
refined as a lightning detector, it was presented to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May
7, 1895.
Radio in the UK
In 1896, Marconi was awarded the British patent 12039, Improvements in transmitting electrical
impulses and signals and in apparatus therefor, for radio. In 1897 he established a radio station on the
Isle of Wight, England. Marconi opened his "wireless" factory in Hall Street, Chelmsford, England in
1898, employing around 50 people.
The BBC
In Britain prior to 1922, the GPO retained exclusive rights given to it by government, to manage and
control all means of mass communication with the exception of the printed word. Licenses to
commence test wireless broadcasts had to be obtained from the GPO. GPO controlled all broadcasting
in th UK. Even viewers and listeners.
The BBC was the world's first national broadcasting organisation[5] and was founded on 18 October
1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. The original Company was founded in 1922 by a group
of six telecommunications companies—Marconi, Radio Communication Company, Metropolitan
Vickers, General Electric, Western Electric, and British ThomsonHouston
[6]
—to broadcast
experimental radio services. The first transmission was on 14 November of that year, from station 2LO,
located at Marconi House, London.
The British Broadcasting Company Ltd., did not sell air time for commercials but its license did allow
for it to carry sponsored programming, and eight such sponsored broadcasts were aired in 1925.
However, the main source of its income was from the sale of radio receiving sets and transmitters
manufactured by its shareholding member companies as well as from a portion of the government
(GPO) license fee that had to be purchased by BBC listeners.
Television
By the late 1920s, however, those employing only optical and electronic technologies were being
explored.
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving silhouette images in
London in 1925, and of moving, monochromatic images in 1926. Baird's scanning disk produced an
image of 30 lines resolution, just enough to discern a human face, from a double spiral of lenses.
[citation needed]. Remarkably, in 1927 Baird also invented the world's first video recording system,
"Phonovision" — by modulating the output signal of his TV camera down to the audio range he was
able to capture the signal on a 10inch wax audio disc using conventional audio recording technology. A
handful of Baird's 'Phonovision' recordings survive and these were finally decoded and rendered into
viewable images in the 1990s using modern digital signalprocessing technology[4].
Experimental television broadcasts were started in 1932 using an electromechanical 30 line system
developed by John Logie Baird. Limited regular broadcasts using this system began in 1934, and an
expanded service (now named the BBC Television Service) started in 1936, alternating between an
improved Baird mechanical 240 line system and the all electronic 405 line MarconiEMI system. The
superiority of the electronic system saw the mechanical system dropped early the following year.[9]
Television broadcasting was suspended from 1 September 1939 to 7 June 1946 during the Second
World War. A widely reported urban myth is that, upon resumption of service, announcer Leslie
Mitchell started by saying, "As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted ..." In fact, the first
person to appear when transmission resumed was Jasmine Bligh and the words said were "Good
afternoon, everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh ...?"[10]
Television in Great Britain today
BBC
The BBC is the world's oldest and biggest broadcaster, and is the country's first and largest public
service broadcaster. The BBC is funded by a government grant; it does not carry advertising. The grant
is financed by the payment of a television licence fee that all households with a television must pay.
However, the funds do not go directly to the BBC but to the Treasury instead, via a government body
known as TV Licensing. The government has no legal duty to hand all or any of this revenue to the
BBC but traditionally has done.
ITV
Originally founded in 1955 to provide competition to the BBC. ITV was the country's first commercial
television provider funded by advertisements, and has been the most popular commercial channel
through most of its existence.
Channel 4
Launched in 1982, Channel 4 is a stateowned national broadcaster which is funded by its commercial
activities (including advertising). Channel 4 was the first British channel not to carry regional
variations for programming, however it does have 6 set advertising regions.
Range of television types: analogue, digital, cable, satellite, IP television, mobile, Internet.
Genres: news, sport, British sitcom, soap opera, light entertainment.
Sitcom – Jeeves and Wooster.
It starred Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster, a jovial but emptyheaded young gentleman, and Stephen Fry
as Jeeves, his improbably wellinformed and talented valet. The stories are set in England and the
United States in the preSecondWorldWar 20th century (there are aspects of the Edwardian era, 1920s,
and 1930s).
Wooster is a welltodo bachelor, a minor aristocrat and member of the idle rich. He and his friends,
who are mainly members of The Drones Club, are aided in all manner of societal adventures by the
indispensable "gentleman's personal gentleman," Jeeves.

Short History of The Radio

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Short History of The Radio

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Short History of The Radio

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Short history of the radio.

You might also like