Who was it that first invented the radio?

In the decades leading up to the turn of the 20th century, creative thinkers from all over the world came up with a dizzying array of innovative and groundbreaking new ideas. The scientific investigation of radio technology was also picking up speed. In the competition that would become the race to invent the radio, two scientists, in particular, Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American scientist, and Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian physicist, competed head-to-head against one another. However, after more than a century has passed since the invention of the radio, if you ask any two people who invented it, you are sure to get two different replies. The tale is a complicated one that involves scientific discoveries, legal action, and good ol' fashioned marketing. Let's see if we can get the threads to unravel themselves.

After moving to the United States in 1884, Nikola Tesla came up with the idea for the induction coil, also known as the Tesla coil. This device was crucial to the transmission and reception of radio waves, and the United States Patent Office would later say that Marconi used it in his work [source: Britannica]. However, in 1895, Tesla's laboratory was destroyed by fire just as he was about to send a radio signal around 50 miles (80 kilometers) to West Point, New York [source: PBS]. [citation needed]

During this time, Marconi was working on his research and performing experiments. In 1896, he was able to send and receive radio signals based on the Morse code at distances extending nearly 4 miles (6 kilometers) in England. In the same year, he applied for the world's first patent in wireless telegraphy in England. He successfully approved it [source: Nobel Prize].

In 1897, Tesla made his first patent application in the United States for his work in radio. Additionally, in 1898 he constructed and showed a radio-controlled boat he had made in Madison Square Garden. This is where things start to get complicated.

Tesla was awarded patents 645,576 and 649,621 by the United States Patent Office in 1900. These patents covered the basic design of Tesla coils and were issued on March 20 and May 15, respectively. The radio patents that Tesla held gave him ownership over an essential component required for radio communications. On November 10 that same year, Marconi submitted a patent application for tuned telegraphy under number 7777.

The patent office initially turned down the applications Marconi submitted because his work required the utilization of Tesla coils [source: PBS]. Unfazed, Marconi continued pursuing his radio patents while simultaneously launching a successful business built on his telegraph technology. He did this by using the connections and riches of his father. In 1901, he was responsible for sending the very first telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean.

Marconi submitted his application once more and let it sit for another three years while he sought financial backing from business investors Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison. The United States Patent Office finally and mysteriously changed its mind about its earlier decision in 1904 and awarded the Italian inventor the patent for the radio he had invented.

The competition between Tesla and Marconi was fueled even further in 1909 when Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics [source: Nobel Prize]. Tesla filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the Marconi Company in 1915, but the case was unsuccessful. Marconi had won. Or did he not?

During World War I, Marconi's corporation filed a lawsuit against the United States government in 1943, accusing it of infringing several of its patents. This was an ironic turn of events. However, the matter was never brought before a judge or a jury. Instead, to avoid litigation, the United States Supreme Court confirmed patent number 645,576, which reinstated Tesla as the inventor of the radio even though he had passed away a few months before. Despite this, many individuals continue to believe that Marconi was the first person to invent the radio.

Image source : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/radio-old-radio-raido-antik-retro-4300801/

Article source : https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/inventions/who-invented-the-radio.htm

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