EBU Technical Review : No. 263 (Spring 1995)
"All changed, changed utterly: a terrible beauty is born." (W.B. Yeats, Under Saturn)
There are moments in history when great happenings, discoveries or inventions mark the beginning of new trends which alter for evermore the environment in which mankind develops.
Such great moments occurred when George Stephenson created the first locomotive in 1814, when Henry Ford introduced his T-model automobile in 1908 and when Orville and Wilbur Wright first took flight in 1903. These innovations represent the fundamental developments which have resulted in the complex but efficient transport systems of today.
On 28 December 1895, in the cellar of a Paris restaurant, the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, first demonstrated the phenomenon of the moving picture. The Lumières, from their background in the family photographic factory in Lyon, had devised a system to project pictures on to a screen which they called Cinématographe.
A sequence of pictures recorded on a band of film was projected in quick succession at the rate of 16 pictures per second so as to produce the illusion of movement. The demonstration, in monochrome of course, presented a very unstable and flickery spectacle but nevertheless astounded the invited audience.
Although, since that significant day, the projection rate has increased and the projection apparatus has improved, the principle has remained the same and is the one on which our thriving Motion Picture Industry is based.
That December day in 1895, just one hundred years ago, surely marked a milestone in the formation of modern lifestyles.
Important events such as these are almost always associated with the names of people of pioneering spirit; people of insight and vision who overcame many obstacles, not the least of which was incredulity, in pursuance of their ideals.
In the world of wireless communication, such great names as Edison, Faraday Maxwell, Hertz, Lodge and many more come to mind.
In the summer of 1895 - the same year that the Lumière brothers demonstrated the first moving pictures – a young Guglielmo Marconi had his first success in the transmission of electromagnetic signals over a distance of a few metres, while experimenting at his father's villa in Bologna, Italy. Marconi's apparatus was crude, consisting of an induction coil, metal plates, a battery and a Morse key. His efforts during the next few months resulted in distances of the order of 2-3 km being spanned.
Around about the same time but quite independently, Aleksandr Popov, a Russian mathematician and physicist, while building on the work of Heinrich Hertz and Sir Oliver Lodge, demonstrated an apparatus which was capable of transmitting signals over a distance of, we are told, 60 metres. Popov's apparatus was very similar to that of Marconi.
The Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Vol. XXVIII, of 1899 carries the first official scientific article on Wireless Telegraphy presented by Mr. Guglielmo Marconi. Mr. Marconi said "Wireless Telegraphy or telegraphy through space without connecting wires, is a subject which has attracted considerable attention since the first experiments I carried out in this country became known".
Popov also published the results of his work in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society during 1895 and 1896, and equipment manufactured to his design was awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris, in 1900.
In an article titled "Who Invented Radio" published in 1966, Professor Michael C. Sexton deals with the controversy surrounding the claims of both Popov and Marconi. Despite many years of study, discussion and argument, the matter has never been settled and probably never will be.
This controversy is of little consequence, however, because in recognising the birth of wireless communication, we should acknowledge the achievements of all the great scientists, mathematicians, engineers, inventors and entrepreneurs who, in their own individual ways, contributed to its conception.
The two technological breakthroughs in 1895 – the projection of moving pictures and the transmission of electromagnetic signals – were later to converge into what we now call television. This medium has probably had a more profound effect on the development of lifestyles than any other innovation in living memory.
We now stand on the threshold of a new era – an era which will be dominated by digital technology – and convergence will, once again, play an important part in our future systems. This time it will be the convergence of computer, telecommunication and broadcasting technologies. Although far more complex, but perhaps not quite as exciting as the first moving pictures in Paris or the first reception of electromagnetic signals in Bologna and St. Petersburg just one hundred years ago, the new technologies will condition the development of our broadcasting systems well into the 21st century.
George T. Waters
Director
EBU Technical Department
European Broadcasting Union
