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I've discovered this wonderful website of early radio history. It contains a fascinating collection of early magazine articles and papers chronicling the early history of the development of wireless communication in the U.S. And it also highlights the development of the amateur radio service in this country. The site is the work of a Mr. Thomas H. White, who otherwise goes unidentified.
Radio captured the imagination of thousands of ordinary persons who wanted to experiment with this amazing new technology. Until late 1912 there was no licencing or regulation of radio transmitters in the United States, so amateurs -- known informally as "hams" -- were free to set up stations wherever they wished. But with the adoption of licencing, amateur operators faced a crisis, as most were now restricted to transmitting on a wavelength of 200 meters (1500 kilohertz), which had a limited sending range. They successfully organized to overcome this limitation, only to face a second hurdle in April, 1917, when the U.S. government shut down all amateur stations, as the country entered World War One.
There are many hours worth of interesting reading here. Something we so much take for granted today was the result of years of work by both professional and amateur scientists and engineers. For example:
Electrical Review, June 29, 1901, page 820:
Syntonic Wireless Telegraphy. [Ayrton prediction]
After the reading of Mr. Marconi's paper, which was published in full in the ELECTRICAL REVIEW for June 15 and 22, before the Society of Arts, in London, Professor W. E. Ayrton being in the chair, the following discussion took place...
The chairman: Although still far away, he thought they were gradually coming within thinkable distance of the realization of a prophecy he had ventured to make four years before, of a time when if a person wanted to call to a friend he knew not where, he would call in a loud, electromagnetic voice, heard by him who had the electromagnetic ear, silent to him who had it not. "Where are you?" he would say. A small reply would come, "I am at the bottom of a coal mine, or crossing the Andes, or in the middle of the Pacific." Or, perhaps, in spite of all the calling, no reply would come, and the person would then know that his friend was dead. Let them think of what that meant, of the calling which went on every day from room to room of a house, and then think of that calling extending from pole to pole; not a noisy babble, but a call audible to him who wanted to hear and absolutely silent to him who did not, it was almost like dreamland and ghostland, not the ghostland of the heated imagination cultivated by the Psychical Society, but a real communication from a distance based on true physical laws. On seeing the young faces of so many present he was filled with green envy that they, and not he, might very likely live to see the fulfillment of his prophecy.
And, from 1901:
Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1901, page 6.
THE WIRELESS AGE.
Commenting upon the experiments recently made with the Armstrong and Orling systems of wireless telegraphy, a correspondent of the London Spectator waxes prophetic, and forecasts all sorts of wonderful things to come to pass in the future. He says:
"Some day men and women will carry wireless telephones as today we carry a card case or camera. We shall switch ourselves on to the underground radiations through the medium of our walking sticks or boots, and then tune up our receiver to say tone No. 39,451, and tone No. 39,451 will go about his business undisturbed by other tones. For military purposes it soon will be no longer necessary to carry cumbrous coils of wire, which are always at the mercy of an enemy. The staff officer and the scout each will drive a wireless apparatus into the ground and await the magic touch of the sympathetic tone. Thanks to the Morse code, it will not even be necessary to await perfection in the conveyance of the human voice. A kindred apparatus will magnify the telephonic sound, and some day the mouse for which we shall set a telephonic trap, will be able to roar like a bull. A ship will proclaim her name loudly through the fog and Calais and Dover, in hazy weather, will announce themselves to approaching packets. Wireless torpedoes, probably, will provide the best solution of the difficulties of coast defense, and when a force of watchful and highly-expert electricians is sufficient to supply the torpedoes with guiding machines, how many expensive fortifications might not we do without?"
Perhaps all this may come about "some day." But the achievements of wireless telegraphy, thus far, though they are indeed wonderful, have been considerably more prolific in promises than in fulfillment. Still, it will not do, in this age of strenuousness and progress, to say that anything is impossible. "For we are ancients of the earth, and in the morning of the times."
