WHERE DID IT ALL START?
A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF RADIO
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Page 5
of 7 -
SS Republic To the ARRL |
1911
Ships Require Wireless. As
a result of the Republic
episode, the U.S. Congress passed an act (signed June 24th
1910) which made it unlawful for any ship, whether foreign or American,
plying United States ports at least 200 miles (320 kilometres) apart to
leave these ports without wireless equipment in good working order. Such
apparatus was also required for all American ships clearing for foreign
ports. 1912
Titanic Disaster. When
this great liner struck an iceberg in mid-Atlantic on its maiden voyage,
its wireless calls for help (first use of the “SOS” distress signal)
were received by the Carpathia
which managed to arrive in time to pick up many survivors. An unfortunate
incident was brought out later, when it was discovered that one ship had
been much nearer, and could have saved many more people – if it had not
been that only one wireless operator was employed on the ship and that he
was “off-watch” at the time. It resulted to an amendment to the United
States Radio Act of 1910, requiring that two operators be employed on a
ship, so that constant watch could be maintained. Also, out of this story
emerges a new figure in the world of radio – David Sarnoff, to become,
in 1930, president of the Radio
1912
ARMSTRONG and Regeneration.
Edwin H. Armstrong, at the time was a 22 year old New York undergraduate
engineer and amateur radio operator. He conceived the idea of using a De
Forest audion to amplify the incoming signal not only once by a few
hundred percent, but to use it over and over by “feeding back” to the
input a portion of the 1912
- 1913
LANGMUIR and ARNOLD’s research results in huge improvements to
vacuum tube performance. Working for the G. E. Laboratories Irving
Langmuir, and (almost simultaneously) Harold Arnold, working for Western
Electric Company, introduced “high vacuum” to radio valves. Up until
this time, because operation of the vacuum tube was not fully understood,
it had been thought that some gas presence in a valve was a necessary part
of its operating mechanism. Langmuir and Arnold recognised this not to be
the case and went further in fully identifying the valve’s operation.
They also developed methods by which the tube could be fully evacuated and
adapted these to mass production techniques.
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The 1920’s brought many refinements in valve circuit technique, for example Rinartz’s superior regenerative receiver, Armstrong’s superegenerative and superhetrodyne receivers as well as the neutrodyne receiver. By opening up low power trans-Atlantic communication, the amateurs, through the ARRL and Paul Godley (using Armstrong’s superhet receiver), (PDF file with the full story of Godley's achievements from a February 1922 QST Magazine article) (PDF file giving the full story of Armstrong's Station 1BCG's achievements from a February 1922 QST Magazine article) proved how useful the “useless” shortwave bands were. |
Next Page - Alexanderson, RCA and Paul Godley |
Other
Web Articles by the same author EARLY
YAESU MUSEN EQUIPMENT IN AUSTRALIA |
History Of Radio HOME PAGE |
Links to other pages in this article | |
Page 1 | In The Beginning - Static Electricity - 600 BC |
Page 2 | The Leyden Jar to Magnetism |
Page 3 | Samuel Morse To Heinrich Hertz |
Page 4 | Edourad Branly To Lee De Forest |
Page 5 | SS Republic to ARRL - PDF Article "Greatest Of All Amateurs - Marconi" by Hiram P Maxim - ARRL from Sept. 1922 QST article |
Page 6 | Alexanderson, RCA and Paul Godley - PDF Article "Story Of Godley's Achievements" from Feb 1922 1922 QST article |
Page 7 | Australian Radio Pioneer - Ernest Fisk |
Any comments on this article should be directed to the author, Greg Whiter at: GregWhiter@portablemasts.com.au
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