Reginald Fessenden's Biography - Essay Example

Reginald Fessenden graduated from Trinity College and advanced his studies in the Bishops’ College where he equally taught before moving to New York in 1866. He worked here, as a tester for the Edison Machine Works on electric power distribution systems for one year when he moved to Thomas Edison as a chief chemist and it is that he developed interest in the new media 'radio' (Riley, 1999).

He later became a professor of electrical engineering at Purdue in 1892 and at the University of Pittsburgh 1893where he taught and did research for seven years. He then moved to the United States Weather Bureau to develop a wireless network for communication with weather stations where he invented the liquid barrater as a wave detector (Riley, 1999). In 1900, he sent the first voice via radio for a distance of 50 feet, and later National Electric Signaling Company (NESCO) developed wireless communication commercially. He then set up a 420 tower for a two-way trans-Atlantic telegraph followed by other radio inventions. In an effort by UNESCO to publicize and market the wireless system, he made the first public voice broadcasts on Christmas 1906 (Riley, 1999). His other inventions include electrolytic detectors, alternator development, heterodyning, sonic depth finder, efficient tuned antenna circuits, and continuous waves (Riley, 1999). Read More