Invention Of Radio

Radio waves are not in themselves an invention, being a naturally occurring phenomenon but the development of apparatus for transmitting and receiving intelligible radio waves was an invention of Nobel Prize-winning importance.

Guglielmo Marconi (Italy) is hailed almost universally as the father of radio, but there are other claimants, including Nikola Tesla (Croatia-USA) and Oliver Lodge (England), who both filed earlier patents relating to wireless telegraphy, and Alexander Stepanovitch Popov (Russia), who made an intelligible radio transmission earlier that Marconi, but did not patent his invention. Whatever the claims of these and others, there is no doubt that it was Marconi who had the vision and drive to transform radio waves into a commercially viable form of communication.
Popov, Lodge and Marconi were all working to improve on a device called a Branly tube (later named a "coherer" by Lodge), which had first been used to detect radio waves, in 1890, by Edouard Branly (France). The first step towards making the transmitter-coherer into a practical device for communication was to increase its range, which Popov and Marconi both achieved, independently, in 1895 with the invention of the radio antenna. The following year Popov succeeded in transmitting the name "Heinrich Hertz" (the man who provided the existence of radio waves) in Morse Code - the first intelligible radio transmission.

Meanwhile, Marconi was determined to develop his technology and, having met with a total lack of interest from the Italian government, traveled to England, where he patented his radio apparatus in 1896. The patent described "a system of telegraphy using Hertzian waves" by which "electrical actions or manifestations are transmitted through the air, earth or water by means of electrical oscillation at high frequency". Inventions improving radio followed thick and fast, including several patented by Marconi in 1900. Between them, Lee De Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong (both USA) invented a number of valves and circuits that advanced radio technology beyond all recognition, and the medium took another huge leap forward in 1947 with the invention of the transistor.

Source - The Book Of Inventions by Ian Harrison