Where Did They Go Wrong?

American Wireless Inventors of the Nineteenth Century

by Robert H. Lochte, Ph.D.
Director, MSU TV-11
Associate Professor
Department of Journalism and Mass Communications
Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky 42071
Phone: 502 762 4663
FAX: 502 762 6335
e-mail: bob.lochte@murraystate.edu

Abstract

In the 19th century, Americans, including Morse, Edison, and Bell, pursued wireless electric communication. But none of their inventions worked efficiently.

Meanwhile, in Europe, a progression of science culminating with Marconi resulted in the development of wireless by electromagnetic waves -- radio.

But most European electricians fared no better than their American counterparts. Marconi's success was based on an obsession with wireless, his contacts in Great Britain, and a diffusion process put in place by Sir William Preece.

By contrast, the Americans most likely to succeed were preoccupied with mainstream but inefficient technology and lacked a primary interest in wireless.

Where Did They Go Wrong?
American Wireless Inventors of the Nineteenth Century

School boys and mechanics now could perform what Marconi did in 1900. But before then wizards had tried and failed. The search was at the pinnacle of electrical knowledge. At such an altitude, to work at all with success is to qualify for genius, if that is important.

-Justice Wiley Rutledge

Sad! Sad! was the old time wizard
His life must have been one continual blizzard.

-Nathan B. Stubblefield

Despite considerable effort by American inventors, scientists, and electricians during the 19th century, the major breakthroughs in wireless technology which led to radio occurred in Europe. Many useful chronologies of these efforts exist (Dunlap, 1944; Fahie, 1899; Gluckman, 1993; McElroy, 1994; Shiers, 1977; Sivowitch,1971), but none discusses the process of innovation nor attempts to answer the question: "Why did the Europeans succeed while the Americans failed?" This query and its possible solutions are the subject matter of this study.

It is useful at this point to define some terms that will appear frequently. In the context of the 19th century, an electrician is anyone involved with electrical inventions and experiments, or who evidences an understanding of electricity. Today, such a person would probably be called an electrical engineer.

Conduction is the capability of matter to allow electrical current to flow through it. If the voltage is high enough, any matter will conduct electricity. Metal wire is generally a good conductor. Induction is a principle which involves the relationship between electricity and magnetism, two manifestations of the same force. In a typical inductive circuit, there are two coils of wire. A current passes through the primary, or active coil, and creates a magnetic field around it. If the secondary, or passive, coil is nearby, the magnetic field induces a current in this coil which will vary in voltage with the current in the primary coil. But the coils must be close because the strength of the magnetic field diminishes rapidly with distance.

Electromagnetic waves are electrical currents which radiate out through the air (or ether in 19th century terminology) from an origination point, in periodic oscillations at the speed of light. Such waves are detectable at great distances from the transmission point, and the oscillations are variable so that multiple signals may exist which do not interfere with each other.

At the beginning of the 19th century, there was little difference between an electrician and a magician. A typical "experiment" involved suspending a boy from silk ropes above a table. The perpetrator would then rub a glass tube with cat's fur and touch it to the boy's feet. Thus electrified, the boy could then attract small bits of tin foil from the table to his hands (Benjamin, 1898, 470-478, 516-519). The next hundred years, however, would see a rapid evolution in the study of electricity from parlor tricks to pure science. In the process, the electrician became elevated to a position of expert and, in some cases, folk hero (Meyer, 1971, 33). During this period and under these conditions, electricians devised wireless means to communicate intelligence.

While this is not a chronological study per se, it is nevertheless important to look at invention and innovation in the context of time, place, and personalities involved. What follows below is a brief interpretive history of major developments in wireless during the 19th century in both America and Europe, summarized in Figure 1 (below).

Figure 1

CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS

AMERICA

EUROPE

Morse transmits and receives a coded message across a canal 80 feet wide, using the water as a conductor. Later, his assistants Vail and Rogers send a message across the Susquehanna River, nearly one mile.

Henry demonstrates "induction at a distance," deflecting a galvanometer needle 220 feet away.

1840

Steinhill transmits a signal using ground conduction, deflecting a galvanometer 50 feet away.

1850

Lindsay patents a ground conduction wireless telegraph. With the help of Preece, he conducts tests across 1300 yards of water.

Loomis demonstrates his "Aerial Telegraph," deflecting a galvanometer needle 14 miles away, in the mountains near Leesburg, Virginia.

1860

Maxwell begins experiments leading to the publication of Electricity and Magnetism in which he predicts the existence of electromagnetic waves, based on mathematical reasoning and equations.

Ward patents his "Improvement in Collecting Electricity in Telegraphing."

Loomis patents his aerial telegraph and receives the endorsement of, but not an appropriation from Congress.

Edison and Bell begin experiments in wireless telegraphy and telephony.

1870

Bourbouze devises a water conduction wireless telegraph to communicate from Paris during the German siege, but the war ends before he can test it.

Preece begins practical experiments to establish wireless telephone and telegraph service to offshore islands.

Bell patents the Photophone, the first wireless telephone, which modulates a voice signal around a beam of light. He tests it at distances up to a mile and a half.

Trowbridge begins a decade of experiments in conduction and induction wireless telephony.

Following Trowbridge's lead, Bell tests a conduction wireless telephone from a boat in the Potomac River and receives a weak voice signal.

Dolbear perfects his induction wireless telephone, demonstrates it in the United States and Europe, and receives a patent.

Edison perfects the "grasshopper telegraph" to communicate with moving trains. It is a technical marvel, but a commercial failure.

Phelps and Woods independently patent similar induction wireless telegraphs to communicate with trains.

1880

Preece successfully transmits telegraph messages to the Isle of Wight, then elsewhere with distances up to five and a half miles, using a combination of conduction and induction.

Smith perfects and patents a conduction wireless telegraph to communicate with lighthouses.

Based on his experimental proof of Maxwell's equations, Hertz demonstrates the existence of electromagnetic waves.

Trowbridge abandons both conduction and induction experiments calling the results inefficient and impractical.

Stubblefield transmits a voice signal 500 yards with an induction coil wrapped around trees in his apple orchard near Murray, Kentucky. He later uses both ground and water conduction to broadcast signals to multiple receivers.

Tesla generates electromagnetic waves and illuminates a fluorescent tube 30 feet away.

1890

Branly invents and patents the coherer.

Righi improves the Hertz oscillator.

Preece ends his conduction and induction experiments with the conclusion that the technologies are inefficient for general use.

Using Hertz's design, Righi's oscillator, and Branly's coherer as a detector, Lodge transmits a wireless message. Popoff and Marconi achieve similar results, but Marconi is first able to promote a commercially viable wireless device utilizing electromagnetic waves.

With Preece's support, Marconi brings his invention to Great Britain.