Canadian Inventions – Radio

During his lifetime, Reginald Fessenden was granted over 500 patents. He contributed to technologies as diverse as sonar, microfilm, reflection seismology (used for oil and gas exploration), television, x-ray and ship propulsion drives. However, he is most often remembered for his early work with radio transmission. Fessenden was born in 1866 in Quebec. He was the eldest child of an Anglican minister and his family frequently relocated during his childhood as his father was appointed to various parishes around Ontario. At the age of 10, Fessenden learnt of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone demonstrations in nearby Brantford, Ontario. He was captivated by electricity and news of the telephone fascinated him. Fessenden received a classical education with little scientific training. He was an exceptional student and was awarded a teaching position at the Whitney Institute in Bermuda after a short period at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville Quebec (despite never being awarded a formal degree). In 1886, Fessenden left Bermuda for New York with the intention of working for Thomas Edison and learning about electricity. He eventually received a position with the Edison Machine Works testing underground cables. By the end of the nineteenth century Fessenden had occupied a research post at Edison’s New Jersey laboratory and received several patents for improvements to the light bulb, electric motor and transformer, all the while working for Westinghouse. He had also been appointed the chair of electrical engineering at two universities, Purdue and the University of Pittsburgh. It was at the University of Pittsburgh that Fessenden became obsessed with the wireless transmission of speech. While experimenting with a spark-gap transmitter (a device Marconi had recently used to transmit Morse code), Fessenden observed that the wailing noise produced by a jammed telegraphy key was transmitted clearly to the remote receiver. He reasoned that it would be possible to transmit speech if the primitive spark-gap transmitter was operated at a frequency above the voice band. It didn’t take long for him to prove his theory. In 1900 Fessenden left the University of Pittsburgh and began working with the US Weather Bureau to create a coastal radio network. In December that year Fessenden became the first person to successfully transmit intelligible speech by radio. Using a modified high-frequency, spark-gap transmitter, Fessenden’s voice was transmitted over the 1.5km gap between experimental transmitting and receiving stations. The received transmission was accompanied by loud background noise that was attributed to the spark-gap transmitter. Fessenden soon realised that continuous electromagnetic waves (unlike the discrete pulse produced by the spark-gap transmitter) were needed to improve the transmission quality of radio. However, other radio pioneers did not accept his reasoning and he was ridiculed by his contemporises, including Marconi, for this belief. Fessenden resigned from the Weather Bureau soon after the successful transmission, following a dispute with his superiors. His resignation led to the formation of the National Electric Signalling Company (NESCO), which Fessenden formed with the financial backing of two Pittsburgh businessmen. NESCO allowed Fessenden the freedom to pursue his continuous wave transmission theory, and he soon commissioned General Electric to make a high-frequency alternator transmitter. In September 1906, after two years of development, GE delivered an inoperable alternator transmitter. Fessenden instantly set about rebuilding the machine, and within a couple of months was ready to begin testing. Fessenden’s alternator transmitter worked. He was able to transmit intelligible speech over 12 miles between his experimental radio stations, and to his surprise, the transmission was also heard across the Atlantic at a receiving station in Scotland. On Christmas Eve 1906, Fessenden presented the world’s first radio broadcast, which was received by ships as far away as the West Indies that were equipped with Fessenden’s radio receivers. The broadcast included a rendition of Handel’s Largo, played by Fessenden on the violin, and several readings from the Bible. The quality of the broadcast was unrivalled, with none of the distortion or background noise that plagued spark-gap transmitters. Despite the unquestionable superiority of Fessenden’s continuous wave transmitter, it was many years before his radio system was accepted by his contemporaries. Unlike Marconi, Fessenden was not an accomplished businessman and he was often unable to commercialise the technologies he developed. By the time Fessenden’s radio system was adopted, he had fallen out with his financial backers and the only profit he received was won in a lengthy court battle. He was also unable to implement his radio system in his native Canada, as the federal government had granted Marconi the exclusive right to build wireless stations. Fessenden’s genius remains largely unacknowledged, primarily because of his inability to adequately promote his achievements. Summary by: Richard Murphy