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Written
Communication
Sec: 102
Assignment
7
How Wireless
Came To Be
Mohammed Jawwad Ahmed
201200013
HOW WIRELESS CAME TO BE
Transferring intelligent data across a space without physically
covering that distance can be called wireless communication. Broadening
the definition with respect to the times, as I see it, we can also say that
the transmission of binary signals from one system to another is known
as wireless communication. In this essay we will see how wireless
communication came to be, who the main contributors were and how the
ideas of a few revolutionists conflicted with the ideas of the masses.
Wireless Technology has been under development for the past 200
years. It all started with Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment which
proved that electricity could be transferred or transmitted through air.
With the discovery of the relationship between electricity and magnetism
by Hans Christian Oersted, that a magnetic element would react in the
presence of an electric field, came the unified theory combining both
electricity and magnetism known as electromagnetism. This theory was
elaborated by Michael Faraday and Scottish scientist Maxwell. With
Maxwell’s treatise on electricity travelling in the form of waves and at the
speed of light we got the Maxwell’s equations, which gave way to the next
critical inventions. Heinrich Hertz, with the help of Maxwell’s work, proved
the existence of electromagnetic waves. His experiments were what
triggered the development of radios etc.
Moving away from the technicalities, we can even say that wireless
communication has been amidst us since ancient times. Blowing a horn to
warn of an approaching army, sending smoke signals in the air, and the
very recent and popular Morse code are all examples of communicating
wirelessly. The very first wireless device was the photo phone developed
by Alexander Graham Bell and Charles Sumner Tainter in 1880. Although
it was not a very efficient tool for communicating, as it required a lot of
natural factors to coincide, it opened a gateway to many future
possibilities. It was Nikola Tesla, often known as the “mad scientist”
during his life, who, with his demonstration of a radio-controlled boat,
first presented the idea of wireless communication to the public
successfully. His demonstration was met with cynicism, some calling it
magic and others referring to it being piloted by a monkey.
The invention of the radio by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 opened a
flood gate for new inventions. Marconi is the person responsible for
familiarizing the common man with the word radio. Edwin Armstrong is
the person accredited with the invention of F.M. radio. This was another
step towards the massive market that wireless technology provided.
Other notable inventors of that time period include Lee De Forest
(electron tube), Andrew Viterbi (digital decoding and C.D.M.A.). Philo
Farnsworth in 1921, at the tender age of 14, invented the television. He is
accredited for the development of the image dissector device, a device
used till date in all commercial line television sets. He is undisputedly
known as one of the fathers of the modern day television. Coming down
the timeline even further, the duo responsible for inventing the first ever
computer were a Professor Walter Atanasoff and his student Clifford Berry
at the Iowa University, between the years 1939 and 1942. It weighed 700
pounds and contained a mile of wire.
The most common word with reference to wireless today is Wi-Fi.
One could not have said so a decade before as it was still the developing
stage for mobile phones. It will be very difficult to predict what the future
holds for us as it only takes one revolutionary, one out of the box thinker
to change the entire game. It is possible to say that there will come a
time soon when, instead of typing a paper, we would just be projecting
our thoughts to the screen and our commands would be followed. So let’s
wait for that future to transpire so that a paper would not take a week
long to materialize but instead a couple of minutes.