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(More customer reviews)This book is an excellent history of important events associated with the early scientific understanding of electromagnetic radiation and with the technical development of wireless communication. It answers many questions which have been raised concerning the roles of individuals who participated in critical events associated with the transition from electrics to electronics. Activities which occurred over 100 years ago are skillfully recreated based on extensive research involving many unusual references. The book is well written and demonstrates a high level of scholarship. It explains clearly how the rudimentary spark gap transmitter and primitive receiver which Marconi brought to England in 1896 was so effectively transformed that a successful transatlantic transmission of the letter S took place in 1901. The quality of the illustrations, circuit diagrams and figures obtained from laboratory note books and patent applications is excellent. No photographs of Marconi with various social luminaries of the time are included; this only enhances the quality of the book and the judgement of the author.
The author thoroughly documents the technical progression from Edison's monode, to Fleming's diode, to De Forest's triode and characterizes how the development and understanding of these important early hollow-state devices contributed to the ultimate introduction of continuous wave technology.
It has been illegal to communicate with spark gap transmitters since the late 1920's. Today few people know how such devices sound. In honor of the 100th anniversary of Marconi's first transatlantic transmission, VE3BBN was permitted to operate a low-power rotary spark transmitter on the 80 meter amateur band. (...)
Click Here to see more reviews about: Wireless: From Marconi's Black-Box to the Audion (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology)
By 1897 Guglielmo Marconi had transformed James Clerk Maxwell's theory ofelectromagnetic waves into a workable wireless telegraphy system, and by 1907 Lee deForest had invented the audion, a feedback amplifier and oscillator that opened theway to practical radio transmission. Fifteen years after Marconi's invention,wireless had become an essential means of communication, as well as a hobby formany.This book offers a new perspective on the early days of wireless communication.Drawing on previously untapped archival evidence and recent work in the history andsociology of science and technology, it examines the substance and context of bothexperimental and theoretical aspects of engineering and scientific practices in thefirst years of this technology. It offers new insights into the relationship betweenMarconi and his scientific advisor, the physicist John Ambrose Fleming (inventor ofthe vacuum tube). It includes the full story of the infamous 1903 incident in whichMarconi's opponent Nevil Maskelyne interfered with Fleming's public demonstration ofMarconi's syntonic (tuning) system at the Royal Institution by sending derogatorymessages from his own transmitter. The analysis of the Maskelyne affair highlightsthe struggle between Marconi and his opponents, the efficacy of early syntonicdevices, Fleming's role as a public witness to Marconi's private experiments, andthe nature of Marconi's "shows." It also provides a rare case study of how thecredibility of an engineer can be created, consumed, and suddenly destroyed. Thebook concludes with a discussion of de Forest's audion and the shift from wirelesstelegraphy to radio.
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