The beginning of May 1895 was marked by an event that became one in the technical field. Russian scientist A.S. Popov presented a report in St. Petersburg on his research in the field of signal transmission using electrical oscillations. In 1896, at a meeting of a scientific society in St. Petersburg, he sent the world's first radio telegram. And already in 1899, under his leadership, the first radio station was constructed. In this article we will look at what year radio was invented, what was the prerequisite for this event, and why there are several pioneers.

Hertz's experiments and Popov's discovery

The creation of a radio receiver became possible thanks to the brilliant German physicist Heinrich Hertz. After conducting numerous experiments using fairly simple equipment, the researcher was able to obtain the most important data on the speed of refraction, reflection and distribution of electromagnetic waves. The device created by the great physicist worked at very short distances; it required improvement. However, the scientist did not have time to carry out his plans, as he died early. He was only 37 years old.

The history of the invention of radio continues in the works of the famous Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov. He was actively interested in electronics while at university. Studying Hertz's experiments, the Russian scientist found a use for them, designing a unique device for the navy. It happened like this:

• On May 7, 1895, the Russian physicist substantiated the possibility of radio communication in his report. This day is considered the date when Popov invented radio;
• throughout 1895 A.S. Popov improved the device, using advanced discoveries in the field of physics and engineering achievements;
• In his device, the scientist used not only an antenna and a bell, but also a coherer, which made it possible to transmit text using certain signals.

By tracing the chronology of events, we can say with absolute certainty in what year Popov invented radio. However, the Russian scientist had to defend his rights as a discoverer.

Marconi's patent and Tesla's invention

In Europe, the Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi is recognized as the creator of radiotelegraphy, who was the first to patent his invention. In fact, the talented Italian can be considered more of a follower of A.S. Popov, but by no means a discoverer. Having familiarized himself with the invention of the Russian scientist, G. Marconi claims a patent for a device associated with the transmission of signals by electrical vibrations. The fact that the device proposed by the Italian completely repeated the previously demonstrated invention of A.S. Popov, remained unnoticed. In 1897, a patent for an ingenious invention was issued to G. Marconi, a young scientist who did not have any serious work in the field of electrical engineering or physics. Subsequently, he showed himself to be a very enterprising figure, becoming a prominent figure in the development of radio.

In the United States of America, the year of radio invention was 1893, and the first person to discover radio communication was Nikola Tesla. The Americans claim that it was their compatriot who first designed a radio transmitter. The American engineer has many works in the field of radio engineering. He created a device that allows you to transmit electrical energy over distances without the help of wires. This area particularly fascinated the scientist, which is why his work in the field of wireless energy transfer is better known. Issues of wireless communication worried him to a much lesser extent, but he conducted many successful experiments with receivers and transmitters of his own invention.

A lot of time has passed since the invention of radio; it took 40 years for the number of listeners to reach 50 million, and disputes about the discoverers still do not subside. There were their own in England, Brazil, and India. Many scientists, although they worked in different parts of the world, performed similar experiments and obtained the same results. However, if you ask a Russian about the year in which radio was invented, he will undoubtedly name 1895, in which the great scientist A.S. Popov gave a report on his device.

At the end of the 19th century, there was an urgent need to improve wireless communications. The idea of ​​inventing and creating the world's first radio receiver belongs to the Russian professor and experimenter Alexander Stepanovich Popov. Later, his invention was used by the Italian Guglielmo Marconi, who, with the help of eminent specialists and major British industrialists, managed to stretch it across the ocean for a distance of 3,500 kilometers.

The invention of radio, like many other outstanding discoveries, has always been determined by current historical needs.

However, the advent of radio communications would not have become a reality if G. Hertz and D.K. Maxwell did not conduct his electromagnetic waves. It was Hertz who in 1888 created a resonator and vibrator for these waves, which were called “Hertz rays”. From the Latin radius - translated as “ray” - the word “radio” subsequently came about, today known to almost all people.

Creation of the first radio

After numerous experiments A.S. Popov equipped the coherer with a wire antenna, an automatic shaking device and a relay signal amplification circuit. The combination of these elements made it possible to make the radio receiver suitable for wireless telegraphic communications. Popov first demonstrated his radio in the spring of 1895 to the Russian Physicochemical Society. His invention was a radio signaling system equipped with a Hertz generator and two metal antenna plates.

It was this system that became the simplest version of the first wireless radio signaling device.

After the appearance of Popov's radio, a period of its improvement began, as well as the development of innovative radio devices. Despite the fact that Alexander Popov was not given a patent, according to Russian law he is considered the inventor of the radio receiver, which at that time was a key and original element of the technical system provided by Popov. The main goal of the inventor was to use radio for wireless transmission of messages over long distances - it should be remembered that Alexander Popov proposed a radio receiver that had the unique ability to register not only natural electromagnetic vibrations, but also various telegraph signals.

For more than a century, there has been controversy over who invented radio. In Russia, it is believed that the inventor of radio was Alexander Stepanovich Popov. However, on June 2, 1896, Guglielmo Marconi applied for a patent for his radio, and from the legal side, the authorship belongs to him.

Alexander Stepanovich Popov

Russian inventor and Alexander Popov is rightfully considered the author of such an invention as radio. At the beginning of 1895, Popov, interested in the experiments of O. Lodge, who, based on a coherer, was able to receive at a distance of 40 meters, tried to refine and create his own modification of the radio receiver based on Lodge’s work.

Popov modernized the radio receiver itself, adding a relay to it, with the help of which he received automatic feedback. And when conducting his experiments, he used Nikola Tesla’s invention - a mast antenna that was grounded.

On April 25, or May 7 according to the new style, Popov demonstrated his invention. He claimed that this device allowed him to record lightning discharges at a distance of about twenty-five miles.

March 24, 1896 - the date of the first radio communication session conducted by Popov, indicated. Popov connected his device to the telegraph and transmitted the radiogram “Heinrich Hertz”. The radiogram was transmitted from the Chemical Institute to St. Petersburg University, the distance between them was three hundred meters. However, according to official documents and the minutes of this meeting, the date of the first radio communication session is December 18, 1897.

Guglielmo Marconi

The Italian entrepreneur and radio engineer Guglielmo Marconi, inspired by the experiments of Nikola Tesla and Heinrich Hertz, began research in 1894 on how to overcome obstacles with magnetic waves.

In 1895, Marconi sent the first radio signal over a distance of three kilometers into a field from his laboratory.

At the same time, Guglielmo Marconi expressed his proposal to the Postal Ministry about the use of wireless communications. For unknown reasons, he was refused.

Marconi used Popov's device as a radio signal receiver in his experiments. However, Marconi made changes to this device that increased its sensitivity and stability.

On June 2, 1896, Marconi applied for a patent, and in July 1897 he received it and in the same month he created his own company. Marconi invited many outstanding engineers and scientists to work in his organization. Already in November 1897 the first stationary radio station was built. And in 1900 Marconi opened the “Wireless Telegraph Factory”

Despite the fact that experiments on creating radio were carried out in parallel by two physicists, it is believed that Popov invented radio. And Marconi was able to put his invention on a commercial basis.

Video on the topic

Almost any Russian person knows that radio was invented by Alexander Popov. But the western part of the European population thinks completely differently. According to them, radio was invented by the Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi.

What is radio

Essentially, radio is the propagation of electromagnetic waves in space. Radio waves surround a person everywhere, but he is not able to notice them until he turns them on. Radio waves tend to oscillate, and their oscillation speed can reach several billion times per second. When the receiver's microphone picks up sound, it converts it into electrical current. The current, in turn, undergoes the same frequency oscillations as sound, and then enters the transmitter. Inside the transmitter, alternating current is superimposed on high-frequency current, after which the mixed signals are converted into radio waves and emitted by the antenna in different directions.

Background to the invention of radio

The definition of the electromagnetic field was introduced into use by the scientist Michael Faraday in 1845. 20 years later, mathematician James Maxwell was able to formulate a theory of the electromagnetic field, in which all the laws of electromagnetism were clarified. Maxwell also proved that electromagnetic radiation easily propagates in the environment at the speed of light. Another 22 years later, Heinrich Hertz proved that electromagnetic waves also exist, the speed of which is not inferior to the speed of light. He did this using a self-assembled device constructed from a generator. As a result, it turned out that Hertz substantiated and proved the theories of Maxwell and Faraday, it turns out that he was the radio. But the fact is that his devices could only work at a distance of several meters.

Invention of the radio receiver

Guglielmo Marconi and Alexander Popov improved Hertz's instruments by adding an antenna, ground, and coherer to improve signal clarity. From a technical point of view, they did the same thing separately. The whole problem lies in the timing of how scientists design their inventions. On May 7, 1895, Popov, at a meeting of the Physicochemical Society of Russia, demonstrated a lightning detector. On March 24, 1896, he was able to transmit a radio signal from two voices. At the same time, similar experiments were successfully implemented by Marconi. But the patent was received by the Italian only on July 2, 1897. Simply put, Marconi used the Popov receiver, but modified it slightly by adding batteries. There are records in the archives, according to which the conclusion follows that if you compare the radio circuits of Marconi and Popov, then the Italian’s circuits are technically 2 years behind.

Video on the topic

Radio communication is something without which people cannot imagine a successful existence for decades. It plays important key roles in the life of society: telephone messages, telegrams, radio and television programs, as well as digital information are transmitted using radio communications. The history of the emergence of radio communications is no less meaningful.

Instructions

In 1866, the American Mahlon Loomis announced his own discovery of wireless communications. In this case, communication could be carried out using two electrical wires, which were raised using two kites. One of them was with a radio antenna breaker, and the second was a radio antenna without a breaker. Four years later, this man received the world's first patent for wireless communications.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Nikola Tesla publicly described the principles of transmitting information over long distances. In 1893, he managed to invent a mast antenna, with which he transmitted radio signals over a distance of 30 miles.

In August 1894, a public demonstration of experiments in wireless telegraphy took place. It was conducted by Alexander Merkhedov and Oliver Lodge. In this demonstration, a signal was sent over a distance of 40 km. This was done using a radio receiver invented by Lodge, which was equipped with a radio conductor.

In 1895, Russian scientist A.S. Popov exhibited to the public the invented device, which was generally similar to Lodge’s device. Popov made some changes to this device, which helped improve it. According to Popov’s contemporaries, it was this device that eventually began to be used for wireless telegraphy.

In November 1897, Marconi begins construction of the first permanent radio station. It was completed eight months later. The company was named: “Wireless Telegraph and Signaling Company.” In the same year, Eugene Ducrete built an experimental wireless telegraphy receiver based on Popov’s drawings.

Over the next two decades, it was successfully used for sea rescue operations, and a radio station was built on the island of Gogland. In 1906, they learned to transmit human speech over the air. The apogee of the twentieth century is considered to be the creation in 1903 of the first “radio station on the Internet” by Carl Malamud.

The creators of the radio are Alexander Stepanovich Popov and Guglielmo Marconi. The first inventor lived in Russia, the other in Italy. But even a few years before them, some scientists and engineers were literally obsessed with ideas about wireless transmission.

James Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz

In 1864, scientist James Maxwell developed the theory of electrodynamics. He argued that there are waves in space whose speed can be compared with the speed of light. Later, his theory became one of the fundamental ones in modern physics.

Heinrich Hertz, inspired by the work of his colleague, created a device that could receive and send such waves. In 1886, he published the results of some of his research, which proved the accuracy of Maxwell's theory.

Gradually the device was improved and modernized. And the idea that waves could be used to transmit information over a distance was literally in the air. All that remained was to understand it and bring it to mind.

Popov and Marconi

Alexander Stepanovich Popov was the son of a village priest and was going to follow in his father’s footsteps. But his interests changed with age, after which he graduated from the Department of Mathematics of St. Petersburg University with honors. Later he developed an interest in electrical engineering. Having studied new discoveries in this area, Popov became an instructor at the Moscow School, which was located in Kronstadt.

There he learned about Hertz's work. Alexander Stepanovich repeated his experiments and in 1896 demonstrated his experiments before the physical society of the Northern capital. Using Morse code, he transmitted messages within the university. The Russian physicist then began collaborating with the Navy. Over time, the distance over which the waves propagated reached 50 km.

At the same time, at the other end of Europe, the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi was working on the creation of such a device. At the Livorno Technical School, he became acquainted with Hertz's experiments and repeated them. The distance over which he was able to transmit the waves was 2 km.

But the scientist was unable to find support at home and in 1984 he moved to London. There he continued his research and increased the distance to 10 km. After this, he received a patent for his invention and founded the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company. This launched the mass production of radio.

Thus, the inventor of radio in the usual sense is Marconi. Popov invented a device that was capable of transmitting signals. But this development was non-commercial and military in nature, so the Russian scientist had no opportunity to obtain a patent.

After graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University (1882), he was left at the university to prepare for a professorship.

In 1883, A.S. Popov began teaching at the Mine School and the Mine Officer Class in Kronstadt.

The well-equipped laboratories of the Mine School, which was one of the first electrical engineering educational institutions in Russia, provided favorable conditions for the scientific work of A. S. Popov. The scientist lived in Kronstadt for 18 years, and all the major inventions and work on equipping the Russian fleet with radio communications are associated with this period of his life.

The activities of A. S. Popov, which preceded the discovery of radio, included extensive tireless research in the field of electrical engineering, magnetism and electromagnetic waves. Deep and persistent work in this area led Popov to the conclusion that electromagnetic waves can be used for wireless communication. He expressed this idea in public reports and speeches back in 1889.

	The first radio receiver of A. S. Popov

On May 7, 1895, at a meeting of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society, A. S. Popov made a report and demonstrated the world’s first radio receiver that he had created. Popov ended his message with the following words: “In conclusion, I can express the hope that my device, with further improvement, can be used to transmit signals over a distance using fast electrical oscillations, as soon as a source of such oscillations with sufficient energy is found.”

This day went down in the history of world science and technology as the birthday of radio. Ten months later, on March 24, 1896, A.S. Popov, at a meeting of the same Russian Physicochemical Society, transmitted the world’s first radiogram over a distance of 250 m. In the summer of the following year, the wireless communication range was increased to 5 km.

A. S. Popov made another discovery, the significance of which is difficult to overestimate. During radio communications experiments on warships of the Baltic Fleet in the summer of 1897, it was found that electromagnetic waves were reflected from ships. A. S. Popov concluded about the possibility of practical use of this phenomenon and, long before the advent of radar and radio navigation, formulated the starting ideas for the creation and development of these areas of technology.

In 1899, he designed a receiver for receiving signals by ear using a telephone receiver. This made it possible to simplify the reception circuit and increase the radio communication range.

In 1900, A.S. Popov established communications in the Baltic Sea at a distance of over 45 km between the islands of Gogland and Kutsalo, near the city of Kotka. This world's first practical wireless communication line served the rescue expedition to remove the battleship Admiral General Apraksin, which had landed on the rocks off the southern coast of Gogland.

The first radiogram transmitted by A.S. Popov to the island of Gogland on February 6, 1900, contained an order for the icebreaker Ermak to go to the aid of fishermen carried out to sea on an ice floe. The icebreaker complied with the order and 27 fishermen were rescued. The world's first practical line, which began its work by rescuing people carried away at sea, has clearly proven the advantages of this type of communication with its subsequent regular work.

The successful use of this line was the impetus for “the introduction of wireless telegraphy on combat ships as the main means of communication,” as stated the corresponding order from the Ministry of the Navy. Work on the introduction of radio communications in the Russian Navy was carried out with the participation of the inventor of radio himself and his colleague and assistant P. N. Rybkin. Popov did not leave this work even after his appointment as professor of physics at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute (autumn 1901).

In October 1905, A.S. Popov was elected the first elected director of the Electrotechnical Institute, but three months later, on January 13, 1906, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 46.

A. S. Popov scientifically generalized and developed individual isolated discoveries in science and technology made before him (see article by O. V. Golovin and N. I. Chistyakov), found ways to transmit messages over a distance using electromagnetic waves and practically applied his opening. A. S. Popov not only invented the world's first radio receiver and carried out the world's first radio broadcast (see Calendar of Events), but also formulated the most important principles of radio communications. He developed the idea of ​​amplifying weak signals using relays and invented the receiving antenna and grounding.

A. S. Popov established the world's first radio communication line at sea, created the first military and civilian radio stations, and successfully carried out work that proved the possibility of using radio in the ground forces and in aeronautics.

The creation of Kronstadt workshops for the production of devices for telegraphy without wires, which later turned into a well-known NPO named after. Comintern (now JSC MART, St. Petersburg), A. S. Popov laid the foundation for the domestic radio industry and communications industry (PSS).

The invention of radio in our country was not an accident. It was a consequence of the successes of Russian physics and electrical engineering. A.S. Popov himself was one of the most educated people of his time, an outstanding physicist and a leading electrical engineer. He was awarded the title of Honorary Electrical Engineer.

Two days before his sudden death, A.S. Popov was elected chairman of the physics department of the Russian Physicochemical Society. With this election, Russian scientists emphasized the enormous merits of A. S. Popov to Russian science.

A. S. Popov is an example of a patriotic scientist who devoted all his strength and knowledge to serving the Motherland and deeply believed in his people. Despite the difficult conditions in which he had to work in Tsarist Russia, A. S. Popov asserted: “I am a Russian person and I have the right to give all my knowledge, all my work, all my achievements only to my homeland. I am proud that "I was born Russian. And if not my contemporaries, then perhaps our descendants will understand how great my devotion to our Motherland is and how happy I am that a new means of communication has been discovered not abroad, but in Russia."

The Fatherland appreciated the services of the brilliant inventor and patriotic scientist to the Motherland. In 1945, the 50th anniversary of the invention of radio was widely celebrated in our country. The anniversary was celebrated on May 7, the day when A. S. Popov publicly demonstrated his invention for the first time. In this regard, the government established the annual Radio Day on May 7, which later became an official holiday for workers in all communications sectors.

In the same year, the All-Union Scientific and Technical Society of Radio Engineering and Communications was founded. A. S. Popov (now RNTORES) and the Regulations on the industry award - the sign "Honorary Radio Operator" - were approved. Since 1945, every 10 years under the auspices of the NTO named after. Popov published an anniversary radio engineering collection. The books “50 Years of Radio”, “60 Years of Radio”, “70 Years of Radio”, “80 Years of Radio”, “90 Years of Radio” and “100 Years of Radio” have already been published and have become a bibliographic rarity.

In order to perpetuate the memory of A. S. Popov, a gold medal named after A. S. Popov was established, awarded annually for outstanding work and inventions in the field of radio. Among the laureates awarded this medal are such scientists as Valentin Petrovich Vologdin, Boris Alekseevich Vvedensky, Alexander Lvovich Mints, Aksel Ivanovich Berg.

Petr Chachin

Russia and the West have different opinions on this matter

The wireless transmission of the first telegraph signals at the end of the 19th century marked the beginning of a process that, 20 years later, resulted in the appearance of radio and radio stations. If we turn to the background of what resulted in this invention of epoch-making significance, it will hardly be surprising that the right to be called its author is given to two scientists - the Italian Guglielmo Marconi and Aleksandr Stepanovich Popov. At the end of the 19th century, there was a belief that physics was a science about which everything was already known, and that there was no point in looking for something fundamentally new in it. Therefore, gifted school graduates were discouraged from studying physics. Since at that time there was no sign of the revolution that quantum theory and the theory of relativity were to bring with them at the beginning of the new century, researchers concentrated their efforts on the further development of fundamental physics on an already existing basis.

Heinrich Hertz as a pioneer

This was a time when scientists were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm caused by James Maxwell's theory of electrodynamics, developed in 1864. Maxwell theoretically proved that there must be waves in space that travel at the speed of light, and he predicted many of their properties. Maxwell's theory soon became one of the foundations of physics. Professor from Karlsruhe Heinrich Hertz invented equipment to send and receive such waves, which confirmed the correctness of Maxwell's predictions regarding their properties.

It is clear that physicists working at the most famous universities in the world reacted with great interest to the results that Hertz published in 1886, and his experiments were an important topic of conversation among colleagues. It also goes without saying that fellow specialists from physical institutes repeated Hertz’s experiments and then improved the equipment. And the idea that the waves produced in this way could be used as a message carrier was inevitable. The great economic importance which both the telegraph and the telephone had already acquired led to the conclusion, which lay almost on the surface, that the wireless transmission of messages could be of great benefit. The discovery, so to speak, was in the air.

The son of a village priest, Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859-1906), initially intended to become a priest. But he soon developed other interests; he entered St. Petersburg University, where he graduated with honors in the department of mathematics. After this he intended to pursue an academic career. One day, he soon developed an interest in electrical engineering, in which new discoveries were constantly appearing. In this regard, he visited the Naval School in Kronstadt (located in the vicinity of St. Petersburg), where he became an instructor in the care of electrical equipment of warships.

In the school library, he found the works of Heinrich Hertz, which interested him greatly. He repeated Hertz's experiments and soon tried to transmit the waves thus obtained over long distances. In 1986, he demonstrated his experiments to the St. Petersburg Physical Society, transmitting signals using Morse code inside the university building. However, he did not continue research in this direction, but turned to research on X-rays recently discovered in Germany. However, in September 1896, he learned from the newspapers that Marconi had received a patent. In this regard, he was forced to return again to Hertzian waves. In cooperation with the Russian navy, he managed to transmit a signal 10 kilometers, and a year later - 50 kilometers.

Belated recognition of Popov's discovery

Popov received surprisingly little recognition for his pioneering work. Only half a century later, when the Soviet Union had a heightened sense of self-esteem thanks to its victory over Nazi Germany, did they begin to emphasize the fact that the real inventor of radio was Alexander Popov. That he conducted his main research in St. Petersburg. On May 7, 1945, a celebration took place at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow to mark the 50th anniversary of the invention of radio. It was attended by the most senior leaders of the party and army, as well as Popova’s daughter. A special postage stamp was issued with his portrait and the inscription: “Popov, inventor of radio.” It was decided to celebrate May 7th as “Radio Day” in the future. But this decision was soon forgotten again.

Almost at the same time, Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was working on the same problem in Italy. He studied physics at the Technical School in Livorno, where he learned about the results obtained by Heinrich Hertz. In 1984, he repeated Hertz's experiments in the laboratory. He soon realized the possibility of sending messages, and in the same year he managed to transmit a message over a distance of two kilometers. Since in Italy there was little interest in his research, and primarily from the military, he left for London in 1986, where he continued his work. Already in the same year he managed to transmit a message over a distance of 10 kilometers. He received patents for his various inventions and founded the Marconi Wireless and Telegraph Company.

Marconi makes the possible out of the impossible

In December 1901, that is, 100 years ago, he began his main experiment and succeeded in transmitting a signal across the Atlantic. At the same time, there was a transmitter in Cornville, at the westernmost point of England, and a receiving station in Newfoundland. The result of the experiment was perceived in all industrial countries as a sensation of the highest standard. Scientists, primarily Poincare, the lord of French physics, in particular, convincingly proved that waves can circle the globe only under external influence, and therefore their propagation range cannot exceed several hundred kilometers. The fact that the Earth is surrounded by an ionosphere, which can reflect waves, was not yet known.

The Russian Popov, unlike Marconi, was unable to continue his developments. Since Popov’s invention did not receive commercial application, it ended up in a completely different economic plane. At the turn of the century, industry developed extremely dynamically in Western Europe. The supply of electrical energy acquired new proportions, the railway network expanded, enterprising entrepreneurs everywhere hunted for inventions that could bring in money, and there was an abundance of capital to invest in risky projects. Since all this did not exist in Russia, Popov soon turned to other things.

Another question is why radio was noticed and appreciated commercially in Europe and not in the United States. Finding the answer is not easy. It is always difficult to determine why this or that was not done. One reason could be that technological renewal in the United States took place under the exclusive influence of the ideological wealth of Thomas Edison. He occupied a special position among the inventors of his time. He gave the world more important inventions than anyone else. Of course, Edison knew about the work of Heinrich Hertz. However, it seems that Edison did not consider as a priority those areas of physics that later became the foundation of electronics. Who is the true inventor of radio? Sources indicate that Popov demonstrated the wireless transmission of understandable signals in March 1986 and that Marconi did the same a few months earlier, albeit in the absence of the public and specialists. What conclusion can be drawn from this? In principle, the fact that someone else, without knowing it, at the same time in another place invented the same thing, does not detract from the significance of the creative achievement of the inventor. Therefore, Popov’s achievement deserves absolute recognition. The question of priority in terms of obtaining a patent for an invention does not arise, since Popov did not file any applications for its receipt. However, for subsequent generations, the decisive thing is who put the idea into practice, and this merit, without a doubt, belongs to Guglielmo Marconi, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

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• 10:53 17.08.2010 | 4

  Merkulov

  THE TRUTH ABOUT G. MARCONI IS HIDING IN SWITZERLAND
  Academicians, professors, associate professors, directors of research institutes, engineers, state laureates were active in praising Marconi (1874-1937) around the world and in Russia. awards, journalists and historical writers. They tried! In addition to publications in magazines and newspapers, their erudition and right-wing views on the authorship of the invention of radio were carried into encyclopedias and even into educational curricula. The farce and comedy of the situation lies, however, in the fact that the scientists who opened the ideological company did not see or get acquainted with the own works of the alien star. Reading the works of Russian “new” cosmopolitans shows that their actual knowledge about the idol consists of the phrase: “Oh, Marconi is the head!” - similar to the expression of the provincial “pique vests” in the famous novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov “The Golden Calf” �.

  In his youth, Marconi dreamed of becoming a sailor-captain. But he couldn’t cope with his studies at school. Started studying at home. Still, he failed the entrance exams to the Italian Naval Academy. The next year he failed to enter the civilian University of Bologna. That's where I finished my education.

  Thanks to private physics classes with his neighbor, the famous Italian scientist A. Rigi (1850 - 1921), Marconi became interested in experiments on the wireless transmission of electrical signals. Due to his lack of education and lack of experience working with equipment, he was unlikely to be able to come up with anything in physics with his own head and do it with his hands. In his memoirs, Marconi recalls that in the summer of 1895, the first receiving and transmitting installation on his parents’ estate (like a toy) was assembled by three civil engineers from Bologna under the methodological guidance of A. Riga, using his father’s money. Subsequently, none of them confirmed the success of the young technology enthusiast in transmitting high-frequency electromagnetic oscillations. In his autobiographies, Marconi does not report his appeals to scientific and technical journals and the Italian Patent Office with proposals to publish the contents of his work, or to register primacy in their implementation.

  Marconi went to London, England to escape conscription into the army. On March 31, 1896, he was introduced to an aristocrat of blue blood and the head of the British telegraph department, V. Preece (1834 - 1913). There is a version that Preece, after familiarizing himself with Marconi’s fantasies, sketches and components, asked the technical service of the British Navy to examine and test the brought instruments. There, under the leadership of Captain G. Jackson (1855-1929) from the Mine Officer School, a future famous admiral, equipment for significant demonstrations was installed. Marconi showed the public the first working transmitter in July 1896 with a range of 400 m. The receiver was a device copied from the laboratory models of the Frenchman E. Branly (1844 - 1940) and the Englishman O. Lodge (1851 - 1940).

  Preece, Jackson and Marconi, being familiar with the configuration of the device of A.S. Popov (1859 - 1906), at first did not understand its significance. Only in the spring of 1897 did they “realize” that it was planned to receive meaningful telegraph messages by air using the scheme of a Russian engineer. They tested a receiving-transmitting system (RTS) based on Popov's device in May 1897 on the English Bristol Channel. Success in the tests turned Pris's head. On June 4, 1897 (Friday evening), Preece made a report at an extraordinary meeting of the British Royal Institute (analogous to the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences) convened by him, outlining the results achieved. The British magazine The Electrician published the text of the report and the PPP diagram on June 11, 1897.

  G. Marconi subsequently proved himself to be a successful manager, organizer of experiments and mass production of radio equipment. However, his level of knowledge in physics remained low. Already in adulthood, he did not distinguish diffraction from refraction; at the age of 50 (1924), he argued that short waves travel around the world 100 times faster than long waves (www.radio.ru/archive/1924/01).

  A relatively successful assessment of Marconi was given by the English science fiction engineer and writer A. Clark (1917 - 2008): “He was not in the full sense an inventor. The idea was in the air. Even before it, test transmissions of messages over short distances took place. But it was Marconi who played a huge role in the spread of radio, as he was the first to realize its importance. He founded a commercial organization to introduce radio and made the first transatlantic transmission (1902), which many scientists considered impossible due to the curvature of the earth's surface.

• 11:05 17.08.2010 | 3

  Merkulov

• 11:06 17.08.2010 | 3

  Merkulov

  WHAT RADIO DID MARCONI INVENT? (JUDGE FOR YOURSELF!)
  The first patent of G. Marconi No. 12039 dated 07/02/1897 “Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals and in Apparatus therefor” was hidden for more than 100 years .

  A tangle of ideas vegetated like Elusive Joe. Many people heard about him and sighed. But no one really wanted to explore (“catch”) him. For all that, he is revered as the “highest intimate” among the “generals” from the world and Russian history of the science of radio communications. In laudatory publications and reports on Marconi's affairs, thousands of authors expressed admiration and endless affection for the title of the document. If these delights could be converted into energy without loss, it would be enough to power radio stations around the world. However, to the “ear” of a practicing engineer, the name “sounds” ordinary, moreover, without indicating the “transmission” technology - wired or wireless.

  According to the text of the document (see on the Web), “improvements” are understood as the author’s exotic intentions to distribute electromagnetic waves not only through the air, but also through land and water; under “equipment for this” – devices that implement the idea, with their diagrams and descriptions. There are other outlandish “lyrical sketches”:

  – “when transmissions (EMW) go through earth or water, I connect one end of the tube or contact (detector) to the ground, and the other ends to preferably similar conductors or plates in the air, insulated from the earth”;

  - “this (reception of electromagnetic waves) can be achieved by connecting the ends of the sensitive tube (detector) to two ground electrodes located at some distance from each other along the line of arrival of the oscillations. These connections cannot be sufficiently conductive, therefore they must contain a capacitor of suitable capacity with a plate area of ​​0.83 sq.m (with a dielectric in the form of paraffin paper)";

  - “with modifications of the above devices it is possible to transmit signals not only through relatively small obstacles, such as brick walls, trees, etc., but also across or through masses of metal, or hills, or mountains, which may be located between the transmitting and receiving instruments.”

  The descriptive part of patent No. 12039 is placed on many pages. The capabilities of the forum do not allow us to fully examine the physical absurdities of the document of protection. For example, the need to install selection structural elements in the receiving part of the PPS in the absence of such in the transmitting part, and many others. The basic scheme of the PPS with reflective antennas for over-the-air communications given in the patent did not go into practice.

  Marconi's pseudoscientific attempts to supplement science with new “discoveries” indicate serious gaps in his knowledge of physics and electrical engineering. At the time of filing the patent application (12039), the applicant for the invention of radio had not carried out experimental work. If he carried them out, he would quickly become convinced that high-frequency electrical vibrations do not pass through earth and water, but when propagating through the air they are reflected from metal masses (plates).

  P.S.: After 2004, the text and illustrations of document 12039 by G. Marconi were published. However, no one in the world has yet managed to obtain a certified copy of the patent materials with the BBP seal.

• 11:10 17.08.2010 | 2

  Merkulov

  OBVIOUS - INCREDIBLE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY RADIO MARCONI IN 1901
  By glorifying Marconi, foreign and Russian “scholars” raise doubts about their own qualifications. For example! On December 12, 1901, at 12.30 pm, Marconi climbed to the highest point of Signal Hill near St. John's on Newfoundland Island in Canada. Here he tried, through the earpiece of a simple detector receiver, to make out three telegraph points of the letter “S”, transmitted to him on a wave of 366 m from England (Poldew). I heard atmospheric discharges. But he told everyone that he heard the dots. In the absence of witnesses! In his memoirs he wrote that in the USA, A. Bell (1847-1922) and N. Tesla (1856-1943) expressed support for his experiment. In fact, Bell said, "I doubt Marconi did it. It's impossible." Tesla even considered Marconi to be a narrow-minded swindler and a charlatan, who also stole 17 patents from him; He also said that he himself conducts sessions of biological communication with Mars. In Europe, famous scientists also did not believe in the event, among them the Englishmen O. Lodge, W. Preece - former chief. British telegraph engineer and mentor (“father”) Marconi and others. They suggested that in Canada, rather, Marconi heard “dots” of thunderstorm lightning discharges.

  The failure sobered Marconi, and he began to do what he should have done right away - listening to signals of electromagnetic oscillations as he slowly moved across the sea from the transmitter at Poldew. Two months later, in February 1902, while sailing from England to America on the ship Philadelphia, Marconi was already testing communications and learned that during the day EMWs do not travel even a third of the way between continents (3500 km), but at night they are transported over long distances . Marconi did not abandon his initial statement about transoceanic signal reception. He insisted on it in his Nobel report in 1909.

  Later, scientists studied that the phenomenon of long-range propagation of electromagnetic waves is explained by their reflections from the electrical layers of the ionosphere in the dark. In 1941, a shepherd in the famous film “The Pig Farmer and the Shepherd” sang to the pig farmer: “The radio waves will rush in at night!” According to the laws of physics, the event of December 12, 1901 could not have happened. Apart from Marconi's oral statements, there is no corroboration of the case. His promoters, the “fathers of radio,” are filled with adoration for the hero—in 2001, the 100th anniversary of the unique adventure of the 20th century was celebrated everywhere. in the history of science. After 18 months The British BBC in Poldew opened "The New Marconi Centre" - a museum in memory of the play of imagination (and the stock exchange) of G. Marconi.

  This is how Marconi himself described the events of December 1901 in his memoirs: the first points of the letter “S” from a 25 kW transmitter from England arrived in Canada on December 12. at 12.30 (at 17.30 – UK time); he received signals “by ear” from a receiver with an insensitive mercury detector, not equipped with printing on paper tape; the next day at noon I heard the dots again, but with less consistency; 14 Dec. It was not possible to work because a strong wind blew away the inflatable balloon that was lifting the antenna wire; by the evening of December 15. he had a letter from the Anglo-American Telegraph Company (AATC), where the legal adviser said that Marconi would be prosecuted for violating the company's exclusive rights to transoceanic telegraph messages; on the same day, Marconi notified the press of his success in one-way transmission of a semantic signal from England to Canada. None of the curious engineers and journalists managed to hear the “hello” sent from England. Marconi did not agree to ignore the AATC ban. Let us recall that since biblical times it has been customary to consider any case factual if there are documents or testimony of at least three witnesses.

  It is obvious that Marconi arrived in Canada not in order to receive a letter “S” from England, but in anticipation of receiving a more serious, rather congratulatory text, etc. However, communication did not work out. Like an experienced gambler in a bad game, he put on a “good face” and bluffed. He stated that he heard telegraph points. In English according to S. Morse code, one dot means the letter “E”, two dots - “I”, three dots - “S”. To make people more credible, he announced that he had heard sets of dots of the letter "S". It was difficult to refute this formally in 1901. Atmospheric interference in the form of many dots is quite often heard in the receiver's earphone.

  Marconi did not return to repeat the experiment of 1901. By mid-1902 he increased the transmitter power. He achieved success in establishing wireless communications between Europe and America at the end of 1907 at a wavelength of 3660 m and in the dark. The technology was borrowed from the American engineer R. Fessenden, who in 1906 immediately implemented two-way communication between continents (at night) (www.ieee.ca/millennium/radio/differences.htm).

  In the middle of the day (12.30) and now in Canada, even modern receivers with amplification cannot be tuned to receive broadcasts from powerful broadcasting centers in England. And vice versa. In Moscow during the day on medium wave you will also not be able to hear less distant stations from near and far abroad.

• 11:13 17.08.2010 | 2

  Merkulov

  A.S. POPOV WAS RECOGNIZED AS THE INVENTOR OF RADIO IN THE USA
  The president of AT&T (American Wireless Telephone and Telegraph Co), Dr. G. Goering, wrote on August 30, 1901 in the newspaper “The North American” in an address to A.S. Popov: “ We, without a doubt, recognize your rights to be considered the real inventor of the first wireless device presented to the whole world, and Marconi with his claims is presented to the whole world as an imitator of the creative train of thought of the genius of Professor Popov." On December 30, 1901, in the same place, Goering told A.S. Popov: “We are trying to place you in the ranks of those people to whom you belong, and soon the whole country (USA) will work under your name as the discoverer of practical modern wireless telegraphy.”

  During the Second World War in 1943, the magazine "Wireless World" in its August issue published an article "Pioneers of Radio Communications" (author - Field D.A.), where he wrote: "In the spring of 1890 A.S. .Popov introduced marine specialists to the work of Hertz and demonstrated to listeners through several experiments the possibility of transmitting signals using the “Hertz beam.” This happened before Huber, Crookes, Tesla, Righi and Marconi made similar proposals.” “It would be quite correct to say that Popov, without anyone’s help (except Hertz), discovered and published ways and means of using electromagnetic waves for communication.”

  By the way, in April 1947, the Australian Journal of Science published an article “About the inventor of radio communications.” It noted: “We have examined the circumstances at our disposal that allow us to come to a correct judgment on the issue of Popov’s priority over Marconi. These facts inevitably lead to the conclusion that Marconi was not the inventor of radio communications.”

  In the American (USA) version of the British magazine “Radio World”, published with funds from the Marconi Co company, in June 1947 there was a generalization: “There are no documents confirming that Marconi demonstrated telegraphy without wires earlier, than Popov."

  During the escalating years of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR, military historians of the US Navy were asked the topic: “Who invented radio?” To study the issue, we used publicly published documents and information received from anonymous sources. In an official report released in 1963 and recently declassified (fecha.org/popov.htm), the Americans responded: “Radio was invented by the Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov.” A.S. Popov was the son of a priest, so historians considered the discovery of wireless communication to be the intervention of “God’s power,” and the first connected electrical device he created in 1895 as an ingenious invention. They called it an “Act of God” allowing A.S. Popov to “detect and register remote lightning strikes and receive telegraphic messages over the air in a similar way.” Hundreds of sailors and officers who suffered the accident of the warship General-Admiral Count Apraksin in the Baltic at the end of 1899 did not expect a quick return home and resigned themselves to the impending long captivity in the ice. The icebreaker "Ermak" that came out of the fog to help seemed to them a mirage; they later called the man who brought them salvation (A.S. Popov - Auth.) an angel. A.S. Popov did not count on making a profit from scientific affairs. According to Navy historians, “the self-proclaimed contender for the invention of wireless communications, the Italian G. Marconi, had no ideas in wireless telegraphy. He was only an enthusiastic entrepreneur of profitable sales of new equipment around the world.”

  Impressed by the widespread interest in the topic of the invention of radio, in Hollywood (USA), an episode with a crossword puzzle was deliberately inserted into the beginning of the 2007 film “The Bucket List,” which has nothing to do with the history of radio communications. The scene explains that the five-letter crossword puzzle string “inventor of radio” matches the answer “Tesla”, but “Marconi” does not. The hero of the film (J. Nicholson) was wrong. The correct answer is “Popov”! The American electrical engineer N. Tesla in the USA has his famous patent No. 613809 for “Remote control of a motor boat or torpedo,” i.e. he formalized the wireless transmission of informative signals via electromagnetic waves (without presenting samples of equipment for examination) in 1898, more than three years later than the famous speech of A.S. Popov on May 7, 1895 at a meeting of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society in St. St. Petersburg (with a demonstration of technical devices in action).

• 13:21 10.09.2010 | 0

  Merkulov

  THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF G. MARCONI SHOULD BE CELEBRATED IN 1949.
  In 1949, an invitation was received from Italy to the USSR for Soviet scientists to come there for the anniversary associated with the invention of radio. The Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences refused to participate in the celebrations on the occasion of Marconi’s 75th birthday. And one of the leading employees of the Institute of Philosophy innocently told on February 25, 1949 at an institute party meeting that “the Italian Academy of Sciences invited Marconi, the inventor of radio, to honor him, and everyone knows that radio was invented by our scientist Popov!” This outstanding employee was absolutely right! Because G. Marconi does not fit into the category of inventors, since he was poorly versed in physics (like a hedgehog in algebra, a girl said on one of the forums). But he was a successful entrepreneur in organizing experiments, manufacturing and distributing radio equipment. And also a prominent party leader.

  G. Marconi began his political career in 1914, becoming a senator in Italy. Initially accepted the ideology of fascism. In 1922 he joined the Italian National Fascist Party and became the best friend of its leader and “father” of fascism B. Mussolini (1883 - 1945). Subsequently, G. Marconi became a member of the Grand Council (Politburo) of the party. In 1926 he changed his religion (from Protestant to Catholic). In 1930, he became the elected President of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Italy, where he allegedly secretly prevented its recruitment by scientists of Jewish origin. G. Marconi supported all the political repressions of B. Mussolini, in 1935 he was a supporter of the seizure of Ethiopia (while traveling around the world he defended the position of Italy).

  G. Marconi died on July 20, 1937 at 03.45 at night from another attack of tonsillitis with heart complications (he smoked a lot). At 08.30 in the morning, B. Mussolini was the first official to show sadness on the occasion of his death. G. Marconi was placed in the coffin in the uniform of the President of the Academy of Sciences with the insignia of a Nazi member of the Grand Council. By order of B. Mussolini, G. Marconi was buried in a large mausoleum-bunker with fascist symbols in Sasso (17 km from Bologna), Italy, where he still rests surrounded by Nazi heroes of the Second World War (1939 - 1945 ) and associates of B. Mussolini.

  During the war, G. Marconi's favorite yacht Elettra fought on the side of the fascist coalition forces. Paradoxically, the yacht Eletra was crashed by an English bomber in the Mediterranean Sea in 1944. The Italians did not intend to restore the yacht after the war. For the 103rd anniversary of the birth of G. Marconi (1977), the remains of the ship's hull were cut into pieces for museums and sales.

  Of course, Russian academics could not afford to attend the celebrations in Italy in April 1949. It would have been more correct to send there figures similar to G. Marconi in organizational abilities, who also had no training in physics. For example, Beria L.P. (1899 - 1953) – curator of the “Atomic Project” in the USSR, Kaganovich L.M. (1893 - 1991) – organizer of the construction of the metro, Likhachev I.A. (1896 - 1956) - the initiator of the automobile industry, and many others. True, unlike G. Marconi, authoritative personalities of the Soviet era did not declare themselves “inventors” and “fathers” of the scientific and technical areas that they led.

  To what extent is the recollection of the anniversary of G. Marconi in 1949 in the Russian media relevant to the discussion of the issue of priority in the invention of radio. The answer is none!

• 13:29 10.09.2010 | 1

  Merkulov

  A.S. POPOV DID NOT MET WITH G. MARCONI.
  In some Russian media, the film "Alexander Popov" (1949) has been harshly criticized, especially the scene of the meeting between radio inventor A.S. Popov (1859 - 1906) and Italian entrepreneur G. Marconi (1874 - 1937) on board a warship. It is difficult to explain why the authors of a work of fiction needed to include this episode in it. But overall the film turned out to be interesting and educational. Now excerpts from the film with subtitles in English. "scroll" on American YouTube (with a large number of views). The film was created in the year of A.S. Popov’s 90th birthday. In Europe and the USA they did not make a similar picture for the 75th anniversary of G. Marconi.

  After decades, the authors of articles and television programs with aplomb and confidence initiate an analysis of the dialogues and behavior of the characters in the film in the specified scene. Let us note that A.S. Popov, in a conversation with G. Marconi, rightly tells him, pointing to the device he uses: “This device... exactly repeats what I described in detail back in 1895... You shamelessly appropriated someone else’s invention. .! Science is not a screen for trade deals! "

  After failure to transmit a useful signal (the letter "S") across the Atlantic Ocean in December 1901, G. Marconi decided to first test the propagation of radio waves in the Atlantic (on the ship "Philadelphia" in February 1902), and then in Europe. In June 1902, he was allowed to install receiving and transmitting equipment on the cruiser "Carlo Alberto", which was cruising around Europe on the occasion of the coronation of the King of Italy. G. Marconi planned to receive signals from the modernized transmission center in Poldew (England). Due to the use of a new, but unreliable magnetic detector, long-range signal reception did not occur while the cruiser was in the Gulf of Finland and moored near the city of Kronstadt from July 12 to July 21. G. Marconi also failed to transmit semantic texts and greetings from the cruiser to Russian warships equipped with on-board equipment for receiving telegraph signals.

  In two autobiographies (“The story of my life” and “Wireless telegraphy, 1895 - 1919”) G. Marconi reports that when the Russian Emperor Nicholas II (1868 - 1918) visited the ship with his retinue, G. Marconi was able to demonstrate the transmission of dispatches from only one end of the cruiser to the other. The Emperor spoke with G. Marconi in English. The daughter of one of the admirals of the retinue asked why G. Marconi was in civilian clothes, while everyone around him was in military clothes and what was he doing here. G. Marconi does not report A.S. Popov’s visit to a warship. Trustworthy foreign biographers of G. Marconi do not write about this either. The domestic authors of the article write that the meeting between the radio inventor and the Italian businessman was invented by L. Solari: “A.S. Popov did not meet with G. Marconi and did not give him gifts” (see on the Web).

  Potentially, A.S. Popov and G. Marconi had the opportunity to communicate in Berlin at the “First World Conference on Wireless Telegraphy” held in 1903, at which they both attended and sat in the same meeting room. However, they did not meet or talk in person there either. At this meeting of advanced scientists and engineers, the Secretary of State (Minister) of the Postal Administration of Kaiser Germany, R. Kretke, spoke and said: “In 1895, Popov invented the reception of telegraph signals using Hertz waves. We must thank him for the first radiographic apparatus!”

For more than a century now, debates about the national and personal priority of the invention of radio have either subsided or flared up with renewed vigor.

This is understandable, since every time the disputing parties declare a noble intention to get to the bottom of the truth, but they speak different languages ​​and, in a patriotic (and often false-patriotic) impulse, invariably slide back to their previous biases and, forgetting about the truth, or simply throwing it away, try to do everything assert your opinion by hook or by crook. At the same time, the Russian side refers to “scientific priority” or “historical truth”, determined by the date of the demonstration A. S. Popov its radio receiver, and the Italian one - on an official document: English patent No. 12039, received Marconi to the same receiver on July 2, 1897.

Theoretical and practical foundations of radio engineering

The invention of radio is one of the greatest achievements of human culture of the late nineteenth century. The emergence of this new branch of technology was not an accident. It was prepared by the previous development of science and met the requirements of the era.

As a rule, the first steps in newly emerging fields of technology are inevitably connected with previous scientific and technical achievements, sometimes relating to various sections of human knowledge and practice. However, in every new technical field one can always find a certain physical basis. The electromagnetic field served as such a physical basis for the possibility of the emergence of radio technology.

It is necessary to mention those who directly laid the theoretical and practical foundations of radio engineering and radio.

Andre Marie Ampere(1775-1836) created the first theory of magnetism, in which he reduced the phenomena of magnetism to electricity.

Michael Faraday(1791-1867), developing the ideas of Ampere, discovered in 1831. electromagnetic induction, proved the identity of different types of electricity, introduced the concept of electric and magnetic fields, expressed the idea of ​​​​the existence of electromagnetic waves and explored the role of the medium in electromagnetic interactions.

In 1867, the English physicist Maxwell drew from his purely theoretical works the conclusion about the existence in nature of electromagnetic waves propagating at the speed of light. He argued that visible light waves are only a special case of electromagnetic waves, known because these waves can be detected and artificially created by humans. Maxwell's theory was met with great distrust, but with its depth and theoretical completeness it attracted the attention of many physicists.

The search began for ways to experimentally prove Maxwell's theory. The Berlin Academy of Sciences even declared this proof a competitive task in 1879. It was solved by the young German physicist Heinrich Hertz, who in 1888 established that when a capacitor is discharged through a spark gap, the electromagnetic waves predicted by Maxwell, invisible, but having many of the properties of light rays, are actually excited.

Two years later, the French scientist E. Branly noticed that in the sphere of action of Hertz waves, metal powders change electrical conductivity and restore it only after shaking. The Englishman Oliver Lodge in 1894 used Branly's device, which he called a coherer, to detect electromagnetic waves and equipped it with a shaker.

Hertz sought to obtain electromagnetic waves using a spark gap, possibly closer to visible light waves, and he managed to obtain waves with a length of 60 cm . Hertz's followers, using electrical methods of exciting oscillations, followed the path of increasing the wavelength, while many Russian and foreign physicists ( P. N. Lebedev, A. Rigi, G. Rubens, A. A. Glagoleva-Arkadyeva, M. A. Levitskaya and others.) in their works they went from light waves to merging with radio waves.

Gradually, radio technology mastered the entire vast spectrum of radio waves. It turned out that the properties of radio waves are completely different in different parts of the spectrum, and in addition, depend on the season, time of day and solar cycles.

Invention of a telegraphy system without wires by A.S. Popov

Alexander Stepanovich Popov,
1903 (1859-1906)

On May 7, 1895, an event occurred in the scientific circles of St. Petersburg that did not immediately attract much attention, but was practically the beginning of one of the world's greatest technical discoveries. This event was the report of A. S. Popov, a physics teacher at the Mine Officer Class in Kronstadt, “On the relationship of metal powders to electrical vibrations.” Concluding the report, Alexander Stepanovich said: “ In conclusion, I can express the hope that my device, with further improvement, can be applied to the transmission of signals over distances using fast electrical oscillations, as soon as a source of such oscillations with sufficient energy is found».

A. S. Popov’s first correspondent in his experiments in radio communication was nature itself - lightning discharges. A. S. Popov’s first radio receiver, as well as the “lightning detector” he made in the summer of 1895, could detect very distant thunderstorms. This circumstance led A.S. Popov to the idea that electromagnetic waves can be detected at any distance from the source of their excitation, if the source has sufficient power. This conclusion gave Popov the right to talk about transmitting signals over long distances without wires.

The world's first radio receiver, which A.S. Popov demonstrated
at a meeting of the physical department of the Russian Federal Chemical Society on April 25 (May 7), 1895.

As a source of oscillations in his experiments, A.S. Popov used a Hertzian vibrator, adapting a long-known physical instrument, the Ruhmkorff coil, to excite it. Being a remarkable experimenter, making all the necessary equipment with his own hands, Popov improved the instruments of his predecessors. However, what was decisive was that Popov connected a vertical wire to these devices - the world's first antenna - and thus completely developed the basic idea and equipment for radiotelegraph communication. This is how communication without wires using electromagnetic waves arose, and modern radio technology was born in the invention of A.S. Popov.

It is possible that if Popov had only been a physicist, then the matter would have stopped there, but Alexander Stepanovich was, in addition, a practical engineer and met the needs of the navy. Back in January 1896, in an article by A. S. Popov, published in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, diagrams and a detailed description of the operating principle of the world's first radio receiver were given. And in March, the inventor demonstrated the transmission of signals wirelessly over a distance of 250 m , transmitting the world's first two-word radiogram "Heinrich Hertz". In the same year, in experiments on ships, a radio communication range was initially achieved at a distance of about 640 m , and soon to 5 km .

A.S.Popov’s own sketch of the receiving device,
which he demonstrated during the report on March 12 (24), 1896.

In 1898, A. S. Popov already achieved radio communication over 11 km and, having interested the Naval Ministry with his experiments, he even organized a small production of his instruments in the workshops of Lieutenant Kolbasiev and the Parisian mechanic Ducrete, who later became the main supplier of his instruments.

When the battleship Admiral General Apraksin ran aground near the island of Gogland in November 1899, on behalf of the Naval Ministry Popov organized the world's first practical radio communication. Between Kotka and the battleship at a distance of about 50 km Over the course of three months, over 400 radiograms were transmitted.

After the successful operation of the Gogland-Kotka radio line, the Naval Ministry was the first in the world to decide to arm all ships of the Russian Navy with radiotelegraph as a means of permanent armament. Under the leadership of Popov, the production of radio equipment for arming ships began. At the same time, A.S. Popov created the first army field radio stations and conducted experiments in radio communications in the Caspian Infantry Regiment. In the workshop of the Kronstadt port, organized by A. S. Popov in 1900, radio stations were manufactured for arming ships (the cruiser Ponik, the battleship Peresvet, etc.) sent to the Far East to strengthen the 1st Pacific Squadron.

Placing a radio room on the cruiser "Aurora" with a hand-held
signed by A.S. Popov: “Selection of location, placement and dimensions
I consider the cuttings to be quite satisfactory. A. Popov, April 17, 1905"

The Russian fleet received radiotelegraph equipment earlier than the British fleet. The British Admiralty ordered the first 32 stations only in February 1901, and decided on the issue of mass radio armament of ships only in 1903.

The technical capabilities of the small workshop in Kronstadt and the Paris workshop of Ducretet were weak in order to hastily arm the second Russian squadron leaving for the Far East. Therefore, a large order for the production of radio equipment for the ships of the squadron was transferred to the German company Telefunken. The equipment manufactured by this company in bad faith often failed to work. A. S. Popov, sent to Germany to monitor the progress of equipment delivery, wrote on June 26, 1904: “The devices were not handed over to anyone and no one was trained in how to use them. Not a single ship has a diagram of receiving instruments.”

It is known that the merits of A. S. Popov, thanks to the insistence of the public, were highly appreciated. In 1898, he was awarded the prize of the Russian Technical Society, awarded every three years for particularly outstanding achievements. The following year, Alexander Stepanovich received an honorary diploma as an electrical engineer. The Russian Technical Society elected him as an honorary member. When, in 1901, Popov was offered a professorship at the Electrotechnical Institute, the Naval Department agreed to this only on the condition that he continued to serve in the Marine Technical Committee.

The works of A. S. Popov were of great importance for the subsequent development of radio engineering. Studying the results of experiments in the Baltic in 1897 to stop communication between the ships “Europe” and “Africa” when the cruiser “Lieutenant Ilyin” passed between them, Popov came to the conclusion about the possibility of detecting metallic masses using radio waves, that is, the idea of ​​modern radar .

Popov paid great attention to the use of semiconductors in radio engineering, persistently studying the role of the conductivity of oxides in coherers. In 1900, he developed a detector with a carbon-steel pair.

In 1902, A. S. Popov told his student V. I. Kovalenkov: “ We are on the eve of the practical implementation of radiotelephony as the most important branch of radio", and recommended that he start developing an exciter of undamped oscillations. A year later (in 1903-1904), radiotelephony experiments were already carried out in Popov’s laboratory, which were demonstrated in February 1904 at the III All-Russian Electrotechnical Congress.

Popov worked in the Mine officer class for about 18 years and left service there only in 1901, when he was invited to take the chair of physics at the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute. In October 1905, he was elected director of this institute.

However, by this time, Alexander Stepanovich’s health was already undermined.

Popov had a hard time with the Tsushima disaster, in which many of his employees and students died. In addition, the working conditions of the first elected director of the Electrotechnical Institute were very difficult. All this together led to the fact that after a major explanation with the Minister of Internal Affairs Durnovo, Alexander Stepanovich Popov on December 31, 1905 (January 13, 1906 according to the new style) at 5 o'clock in the evening died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage.

G. Marconi. Priority fight

Uglielmo Marconi,
1920 (1874-1937)

At a time when in Russia A.S. Popov successfully completed the first experiments on creating a telegraphy system without wires, and their results were published in eleven publications, in Italy, as it became known much later, Guglielmo Marconi (1874) showed interest in similar issues –1937) who later became a well-known figure in the field of radio engineering.

The improvements in signal transmission made by G. Marconi during this period do not have precisely recorded dates. They never left the walls of his home workshop and remained his personal property. His proposal to introduce a wireless telegraphy system in his homeland was rejected by the Italian Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and in February 1896, twenty-two-year-old Marconi went to England, his mother's homeland, to try to obtain a patent there. After a four-month stay in London, he filed an application for his invention, thereby creating the first documentary source that gives the most accurate idea of ​​the initial stage of his activity.

After submitting a provisional application for an invention, nine months of the young inventor's life were filled with intense experimental work, surrounded by qualified assistants from the British Post Office. Consequently, he improved the subject of his invention. By the end of this work, on March 2, 1897, G. Marconi sent a complete description of the invention to the patent office, attaching 14 diagrams (it’s appropriate to say that A.S. Popov carried out his invention on his own. Only his assistant P.N helped him in testing .Rybkin).

The first four months of G. Marconi's stay in England were apparently associated with the refinement of the subject of his invention. For the first time, the world press started talking about the works of G. Marconi related to telegraphy without wires only in the summer of 1896, but without discussing any technical details. These publications were related to the fact that, having arrived in England, the Italian demonstrated the transmission of signals without wires to employees of the British Telegraph Office, as well as representatives of the Admiralty and the Army, and the equipment he used was kept secret, and its structure was not shown to those present. Signals were transmitted between the buildings of the London Post Office. Information about this transfer appeared in the press as a sensation.

That same year, in September 1896, Marconi made radio communications in the Salisbury area over a distance of 3/4 of a mile (about a kilometer). In October 1896, in the same area, the radio communication range reached 7 km, in March 1897 - 14 km.

A detailed report on the work of G. Marconi was made by the chief engineer of the British Telegraph Office, V. Preece (1834–1913), who assisted him in his work in England. The report by V. G. Preece was made on July 4, 1897 at the Royal Institution and was titled: “Transmission of signals over a distance without wires.”

From what Preece said in the report, it is clear that the transmitter of G. Marconi was the transmitter of his teacher A. Riga, and the receiver was the receiver of A.S. Popov. Apparently, this is why V. Preece, in his report on G. Marconi’s invention, was forced to point out what he had already said earlier: G. Marconi did not do anything new. He did not discover any new rays; its transmitter is relatively new; its receiver is based on the Branly coherer.

A.S. Popov, immediately after the publication of V. Preece’s report on G. Marconi’s invention, sent an article to the English magazine “The Electrician”, in which he briefly highlighted his work on creating a radio communication system and noted that Marconi’s receiver is no different from his lightning detector and receiver of the wireless telegraphy system created in May 1895

Drawing from the book Blake G. History of Radiotelegraphy & Telephony. – London, 1928, p. 65

The St. Petersburg newspaper “Novoe Vremya” accused A.S. Popov of “inappropriate modesty”, because he wrote little about his invention. We know the reason for this: the scientist was bound by an oath to keep secret the wireless telegraphy system he was creating for the Russian Navy. In a response letter to the editor, A.S. Popov wrote: “The credit for the discovery of the phenomena that served Marconi belongs to Hertz and Branly, then there is a whole series of applications started by Minchin, Lodge and many after them, including me, and Marconi was the first to have courage to take a practical approach and achieved great distances in his experiments by improving existing instruments.” G. Marconi in July 1897 founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signaling Company, which already in 1898 supplied several radio stations to the British army. Let us recall that in the same 1898, the French engineer-entrepreneur E. Ducrete began producing radio stations of the A.S. Popov system for the Russian fleet.

V. Pris assisted G. Marconi in his work to improve the equipment. G. Marconi himself filed his first patent application on July 2, 1896. Then he clarified it on March 2, 1897. English patent No. 12039 was issued to G. Marconi only on July 2, 1897, and only for “improvements in the transmission of electrical impulses and signals and in equipment for this." The patent protected G. Marconi's copyright for the invention only in the UK and did not have worldwide status.

G. Marconi in 1898 decided to obtain a patent for his invention in Russia. But he received a refusal with a detailed explanation that “the transmission of signals using electrical impulses is not news for the Russian maritime department, that work in this direction has been carried out since 1895. All sources of electrical vibrations listed in G. Marconi’s specification are essentially known and included in the courses of special educational institutions of the maritime department.” The issuance of patents for G. Marconi's invention was refused in France and Germany with reference to the publications of A.S. Popov.

Marconi's attempt to patent his radio communication system in the United States also failed. Later, he tried through court to recover $6 million from American industrialists for the use of his invention. The trial lasted 19 years, from 1916 to 1935. The claim was satisfied only for an amount 5 times less - for some improvements to the wireless telegraphy system.

Moreover, the court, among other things, made the following determination, interesting for the history of radio engineering: “Guglielmo Marconi is sometimes called the father of wireless telegraphy, but he was not the first to discover that electrical communication can be carried out without wires,” i.e. the court protected the priority of A.S. Popov in the invention of the radio communication system.

Priority fight in our time

During the life of A.S. Popov, his priority in the invention of radio was not questioned. In our time, the priority struggle has been revived - radio has acquired too much importance in the history of mankind. It transformed the world, connecting all its dots. And some countries began to take measures to revise the priority of A.S. Popov in the invention of radio.

In 1947, Italian government organizations made an attempt to declare G. Marconi the inventor of radio. This attempt met with objections from our scientists. The Izvestia newspaper dated October 11, 1947 published an article entitled “The invention of radio belongs to Russia.”

In 1962, an extensive article by researcher Ch. Zyuskind entitled “Popov and the Origin of Radio Engineering” appeared in the American journal “Proceedings of the IRE”. In it, the author tried to prove that A.S. Popov invented only a lightning detector, and G. Marconi invented a wireless telegraphy system. Ch. Suskind also questioned the existence of the transmission of the world's first radiogram with the text “Heinrich Hertz” in March 1896.

Professor I.V. Brenev (1901–1982) carefully studied the article by Charles Suskind and in his article “Why Mr. Charles Suskind is Wrong” he documented the priority of A.S. Popov in the invention of radio, proving that the lightning detector was the second invention of A. S. Popov, created on the basis of his radio receiver. In conclusion, I.V. Brenev noted: “As for Ch. Zyuskind’s article, despite its apparent solidity, it is not research. The development of the question posed indicates Ch. Suskind’s poor knowledge of Russian, Soviet and foreign materials related to the topic, his tendentious use of a number of documents brought into consideration, and his use of polemical techniques that are unacceptable in serious discussions. The conclusions he obtained under these conditions are not correct and cannot in any way influence the change in the opinion that the real inventor of the radio communication system was A.S. Popov." Unfortunately, the article was published in an abbreviated form; its full text was deposited in the A.S. Popov Memorial Museum.

In connection with the article by Ch. Zyuskind, on March 18, 1964, by the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Scientific and Technical Society of the Russian Academy of Economics named after. A.S. Popov formed a Historical Commission under the chairmanship of Marshal of the Signal Corps I.T. Peresypkin (1904–1978), who was later replaced by I.V. Brenev. Currently, the commission is headed by Academician V.V. Migulin. The task of the commission was and remains the fight against distortion of the history of the creation and development of radio communications, documented protection of the priority of A.S. Popov and other domestic scientists.

There is enough work in the commission, because... and followers of Ch. Suskind appeared in our country.

On May 29, 1989, a joint meeting of the section of the history of radio engineering and computer science of the National Association of Historians of Natural Science and Technology under the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Historical Commission of the Central Center of the All-Russian Scientific and Technical Technologies of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after. A.S. Popov on the history of the creation of radio communications. Report by Prof. S.M.Gerasimov (1911–1994) corresponded to the text about the work of A.S.Popov, set out in the third edition of the TSB. However, his opponent was Ph.D. D.L. Charlet in his report stated without evidence that A.S. Popov did not invent a radio, but only a lightning detector, while, in his opinion, G. Marconi improved the radio transmitter and created the first radio communication device. He and Professor N.I. Chistyakov put forward a strange proposal not to use the term radio in its current “everyday” understanding, meaning radio broadcasting, radio communication, loudspeaker, etc., but to attribute this term to categories such as gravity, which cannot be invented.

The meeting participants did not accept this argument; nevertheless, N.I. Chistyakov and D.L. Charlet in 1990 and later spoke in the media with an anti-patriotic and, in fact, anti-scientific position, arguing that in Popov’s first experiments “ there was no transmitter at all,” so he was recording thunderstorms.

But, as noted by the author of the information theory of communication, Professor L.I. Khromov, the significance of the invention and experiments of A.S. Popov in 1895 lies in the fact that two types of radio communication were created almost simultaneously: person-to-person and natural object-to-person. This testifies to the great intuition and deep insight of the Russian scientist. Some of his compatriots still cannot understand that the signals transmitted by Hertzian waves, whether from a natural object or from another person, are equally valid in the transmission process. Over the past 100 years, radio communication systems of the person-to-person type (radiotelephone, radiotelegraph) and object-to-person type (television, radar) have become equal, moreover, the television system is generally recognized as dominant. Indeed, during a communication session, for example, with a spacecraft approaching the Moon, the cosmonaut’s oral history and a photograph of the lunar landscape reach the Earth. And if the “ancestor” of radio reception can be considered A.S. Popov’s radio communication system, then the “ancestor” of receiving a picture of the cosmic landscape is his lightning detector.

In recent years, attempts have become more frequent to reconcile polar points of view on priority in the invention of radio. They write that “the merits of A.S. Popov and G. Marconi are equal, that both of them almost simultaneously identified the problem and solved it. But Marconi filed a preliminary application for his invention in June 1896, more than a year after Popov’s public demonstration of the radio communication system! And the dates of their printed publications differ by even a year and a half. Remember that the inventor of the telephone, A. Bell, was not a year and a half, but an hour and a half ahead of his rival E. Gray in filing an application. However, this was enough for A. Bell to be recognized as the inventor of the telephone, and his priority was not disputed by anyone. Academician L.I. Mandelstam clearly said that there are no two persons in the invention of radio in the preface to his book “From the Prehistory of Radio”: there is one inventor of radio, A.S. Popov, who “was the first in the world to use electric waves for communication turned into a practical radio communication system."

Some people in our country wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of radio without the name of A.S. Popov. Despite them, a remarkable decree of the Council of Ministers-Government of the Russian Federation was issued on May 11, 1993, No. 434 “On the preparation and celebration of the 100th anniversary of the invention of radio.” The resolution notes “the outstanding significance of this event for modern civilization and the priority of Russia in the invention of radio.”

On May 5–7, 1995, an anniversary international conference was held in Moscow under the auspices of UNESCO. The President of RNTO RES named after A. made a report at it. A.S.Popova Academician Yu.V.Gulyaev. In his report, he convincingly outlined the history of the invention of radio, noting the role of A.S. Popov’s predecessors (M. Faraday, J. Maxwell, G. Hertz, E. Branly, O. Lodge), his followers, the most famous of whom was G. Marconi, and emphasizing the key role of A.S. Popov himself. Radiophysics and radio engineering owe everything to them.