The story of how Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi faced off in a race to invent the radio will have readers at the edge of their seats!

Radio was as much the culmination of the work of a series of scientists in the 19th Century, starting with Faraday, as it was an invention by Marconi. This book aims to illustrate the contributions made by these scientists and show how each was dependent upon the work and ideas of his predecessors; Faraday, Henry, Maxwell, Hughes, Fitzgerald, Hertz, Lodge and Marconi.

Guglielmo Marconi is one of the most important inventors of the modern age. Prior to Marconi's work, telegraph signals had to be transmitted through electric wires, but in 1895, Marconi successfully sent the first telegraph signals through the air. In 1901, Marconi transmitted the first wireless communication across the Atlantic Ocean. For his groundbreaking work with wireless transmissions, Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909. In addition to the development of radio, Marconi would also do pioneering work with short waves and microwaves. Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy. As a child, Marconi demonstrated a strong interest in science. Although he failed the University of Bologna entrance exam, he decided to continue pursuing scientific studies on his own. In addition to the Nobel Prize he later earned, Marconi also won many other honors for his revolutionary work in electronic communication. Book jacket.

Still broadcasting today, the world's first radio station was invented by Charles Herrold in 1909 in San Jose, California. His accomplishment was first documented in a notarized statement written by him and published in the Electro-Importing Company's 1910 catalog: "We have given wireless phone concerts to amateur wireless men throughout the Santa Clara Valley." Being the first to "broadcast" radio entertainment and information to a mass audience puts him at the forefront of modern day mass communication. This biography of Charles Herrold focuses on how he used primitive technology to get on the air. Today it is a 50,000-watt station (KCBS, in San Francisco). The authors describe Herrold's story as one of early triumph and final failure, the story of an "everyman," an individual who was an innovator but never received recognition for his work and, as a result, died penniless. His most important work was done between 1912 and 1917, and following World War I, he received a license and operated station KQW for several years before running out of money. Herrold then worked as a radio time salesman, an audiovisual technician for a high school, and a janitor at a local naval facility, still telling anyone who would listen to him that he was the father of radio. The authors also consider some other early inventors, and the directions that their work took.

A little over a century ago, the world went wireless. Cables and all their limiting inefficiencies gave way to a revolutionary means of transmitting news and information almost everywhere, instantaneously. By means of "Hertzian waves," as radio waves were initially known, ships could now make contact with other ships (saving lives, such as on the doomed S.S. Titanic); financial markets could coordinate with other financial markets, establishing the price of commodities and fixing exchange rates; military commanders could connect with the front lines, positioning artillery and directing troop movements. Suddenly and irrevocably, time and space telescoped beyond what had been thought imaginable. Someone had not only imagined this networked world but realized it: Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy shows us in this enthralling and comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure in modern communications. Born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he was in many ways stateless, working his cosmopolitanism to advantage. Through a combination of skill, tenacity, luck, vision, and timing, Marconi popularized--and, more critically, patented--the use of radio waves. Soon after he burst into public view at the age of 22 with a demonstration of his wireless apparatus in London, 1896, he established his Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company and seemed unstoppable. He was decorated by the Czar of Russia, named an Italian Senator, knighted by King George V of England, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics--all before the age of 40. Until his death in 1937, Marconi was at the heart of every major innovation in electronic communication, courted by powerful scientific, political, and financial interests. He established stations and transmitters in every corner of the globe, from Newfoundland to Buenos Aires, Hawaii to Saint Petersburg. Based on original research and unpublished archival materials in four countries and several languages, Raboy's book is the first to connect significant parts of Marconi's story, from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments, to his protean role in world affairs. Raboy also explores Marconi's relationshps with his wives, mistresses, and children, and examines in unsparing detail the last ten years of the inventor's life, when he returned to Italy and became a pillar of Benito Mussolini's fascist regime. Raboy's engrossing biography, which will stand as the authoritative work of its subject, proves that we still live in the world Marconi created.

Important new insights into how various components and systems evolved Premised on the idea that one cannot know a science without knowing its history, History of Wireless offers a lively new treatment that introduces previously unacknowledged pioneers and developments, setting a new standard for understanding the evolution of this important technology. Starting with the background-magnetism, electricity, light, and Maxwell's Electromagnetic Theory-this book offers new insights into the initial theory and experimental exploration of wireless. In addition to the well-known contributions of Maxwell, Hertz, and Marconi, it examines work done by Heaviside, Tesla, and passionate amateurs such as the Kentucky melon farmer Nathan Stubblefield and the unsung hero Antonio Meucci. Looking at the story from mathematical, physics, technical, and other perspectives, the clearly written text describes the development of wireless within a vivid scientific milieu. History of Wireless also goes into other key areas, including: The work of J. C. Bose and J. A. Fleming German, Japanese, and Soviet contributions to physics and applications of electromagnetic oscillations and waves Wireless telegraphic and telephonic development and attempts to achieve transatlantic wireless communications Wireless telegraphy in South Africa in the early twentieth century Antenna development in Japan: past and present Soviet quasi-optics at near-mm and sub-mm wavelengths The evolution of electromagnetic waveguides The history of phased array antennas Augmenting the typical, Marconi-centered approach, History of Wireless fills in the conventionally accepted story with attention to more specific, less-known discoveries and individuals, and challenges traditional assumptions about the origins and growth of wireless. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of how various components and systems evolved. Written in a clear tone with a broad scientific audience in mind, this exciting and thorough treatment is sure to become a classic in the field.

In this “informative and delightful” (American Scientist) biography, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of Nikola Tesla, one of the twentieth century’s greatest scientists and inventors. In Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties. From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. Tesla: Man Out of Time is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.