Sunday, October 14, 2012

Research on a Specific Historical Technology Advancement

I’ve always felt a close attachment to radio communications and I’ve made no mystery of it over the years. In 2003, fresh out of high school, I enlisted in the United States Navy. I had no idea what I was expecting or what would come of my decision, all I knew was that I was ready to explore the world. When I first enlisted I had to choose a job that I felt would be my best fit out of the list of available jobs that they gave me. It was no surprise back then, as I was a nerd (or geek) in every sense of the word, that I choose IT (Information Systems Technician) without thinking about any of the other options available to me. At the time I had big dreams of working on computers doing network administration and troubleshooting, however the reality was much more different than I had ever thought it would be. After my training I was sent to the fleet and stationed aboard the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) where I learned that I would be spending my time working on radio communications, which I had no previous knowledge of. 
It didn’t take long for me to begin falling in love with my new job working on various radio circuits such as HF, SHF, UHF, and VHF. The very idea of sending information and sound across vast distances was amazing to me in and of itself, but working out which band best fit the task and then troubleshooting those circuits was exciting. The most popular circuit we set up ran on a HF frequency and was transmitted through a transmitter called the “Marconi”. This was the first time I ever learned about Guglielmo Marconi.
To imagine that with the pioneering Marconi (and the geek inside me is screaming that I must mention Nikola Tesla also) did in the field of sending wireless signal we would be in a very slow moving world. The speed of communication absolutely had a huge hand in the way we have advanced technologically; there is no doubt about it. Without the ability to communicate long distances some of the greatest minds would never have been able to work together to create what we have today. Imagine four scientists all working on similar theories, but there is no such thing as the internet or even telephones. All four scientists live on different continents and maybe in a decade they might eventually end up reading the results of each other’s theories as they are printed in newspapers; however that’s assuming that all four of these scientists even managed to finish conducting all the necessary experiments required. Now insert into the scenario the ability to communicate over long distances, this changes everything. This scenario in the modern day would have all four scientists in video conference calls on tablets and uploading data in real time to each other.

In his younger years Marconi was always fascinated with the idea of sending signals wirelessly. In the PBS page People and Discoveries that features Guglielmo Marconi it documents Marconi’s rather rapid success starting in 1894 by sending a short wireless transmission, by 1896 he had sent the first wireless transmission 80 miles and over the horizon eventually leading up to the famous 1901 wireless transmission across the Atlantic Ocean. The young Marconi knew that wireless communication was going to be extremely important and would stop at nothing to continue perusing his passion. After his few wireless transmissions Marconi brought it to the attention of the Irish government, but they did not appear to be interested. So he headed to London where he found much success in finding interested parties to fund his research that would change the world. In a review Randy Hoffner did about a book called “Inventing American Broadcasting” by Susan J. Douglas he explains that if you work in radio, television, or even technology you owe it to yourself to understand where your industry came from.

Although over the years there have been a few questions on the legitimacy of Guglielmo Marconi as the true pioneer of wireless technology, there is no doubt about the love and passion he put into it. Some (like Kelly Faircloth in her article for BetaBeat.com entitled “Why Nikola Tesla is Your New Hacker Hero) believe that Nikola Tesla laid a lot of the groundwork for wireless transmission of radio first and that Marconi simply happened to get the fame and fortune first as is the story for much of Tesla’s life. Yet another smaller group of people (such as Laurie Margolis in her article for The Guardian entitled “Faking the Waves”) believe that it’s possible Marconi and Kemp never actually heard the signal transmitted from other side of the Atlantic. Whatever the actual events are that transpired on that day or how Marconi popularized wireless radio; the one thing that is a fact is that Guglielmo Marconi played a huge part in the advancement of the wireless technology that we have all come to use in almost every facet of our lives and the world would be a very different place without him.


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