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When Was the Radio Invented?
When Was the Radio Invented?
By: Josh Briggs | Updated: Sep 25, 2023
Inventors worldwide were churning out new and exciting inventions left and right in the years leading up to the 20th century. Scientific work in radio technology was heating up, too. Two men in particular — Serbian American scientist Nikola Tesla and Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi — went head-to-head in the race to invent the radio.
But more than 100 years later, ask any two people who created the radio, and you'll likely get two different answers. So, when was the radio invented, and who who invented radio?
The First Radio Patents
At first the patent office denied Marconi's applications on the grounds that his work relied on the use of Tesla coils [source: PBS]. Unfazed, Marconi used his father's connections and wealth to spearhead a profitable business based on his telegraph technology while continuing to pursue his radio patents. In 1901, he transmitted the first transatlantic telegraph.
Marconi reapplied for three years while he gained financial support from company investors Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison. Finally in 1904, the U.S. Patent Office inexplicably reversed its earlier decision and gave the Italian the patent for invention of the radio.
Radio Broadcasting
The wireless telegraph developed by Marconi, Tesla and others was a far cry from the radio broadcasts we tune into today. So what happened between when the first radio signal was sent out to the proliferation of radio stations we have today?
To transmit signals more complicated than morse code (like a human voice), early radio broadcasting used amplitude modulated (AM) radio. The first AM radio broadcasts were government messages sent out in the early 1900s.
The invention of vacuum tubes brought radio into ordinary people's homes in the 1920s. AM radio waves can travel long distances but are more likely to sound distorted.
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