A History of Wireless Telegraphy
Including Some Bare-Wire Proposals for Subaqueous Telegraphs

In this 1901 book, the telegraph engineer John Joseph Fahie explained the newly invented and rapidly developing technology of radio.

John Joseph Fahie (Author)

9781108026864, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 May 2011

378 pages, 56 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.1 cm, 0.48 kg

John Joseph Fahie (1846–1934) was an engineer for the Electric and International Telegraph Company before being posted overseas in the Indo-European Government Telegraph Department. He was also a respected historian whose History of Wireless Telegraphy (1899) sold out two impressions in little over a year. In this second edition (1901), he traces the development of wireless communication during the nineteenth century, drawing extensively from the correspondence and technical illustrations of inventors themselves. This edition was fully updated to take account of the latest advances in radio technology, including Marconi's latest public demonstrations. As a practising telegraph engineer, Fahie was in the perfect position not only to understand the significance of these developments, but to explain them to a non-specialist audience. Contemporary reviews indicate he did this with great success. His book gives an eyewitness account of the rise of radio technology that still fascinates scholars and enthusiasts today.

Preface to second edition
Preface to first edition
First Period – the Possible: 1. Professor C. A. Steinheil, 1838
2. Edward Davy, 1838
3. Professor Morse, 1842
4. James Bowman Lindsay, 1843
5. J. W. Wilkins, 1845
6. Dr. O'Shaughnessy, 1849
7. E. and H. Highton, 1852–1872
8. G. E. Dering, 1853
9. John Haworth, 1862
10. J. H. Mower, 1868
11. M. Bourbouze, 1870
12. Mahlon Loomis, 1872
Second Period – the Practicable: 1. Preliminary. Notice of the telephone in relation to wireless telegraphy
2. Professor John Trowbridge, 1880
3. Professor Graham Bell, 1882
4. Professor A. E. Dolbear, 1882
5. T. A. Edison, 1885
6. W. F. Melhuish, 1890
7. Charles A. Stevenson, 1892
8. Professor Erich Rathenau, 1894
Third Period – the Practical: Systems in actual use
1. Sir W. H. Preece's method
2. Willoughby Smith's method
3. G. Marconi's method
Appendix A. The relation between electricity and light, before and after Hertz
Appendix B. Prof. Henry on high tension electricity being confined to the surface of conducting bodies, with special reference to the proper construction of lightning-rods. On modern views with respect to the nature of electric currents
Appendix C. Variations of conductivity under electrical influence
Appendix D. Researches of Prof. D. E. Hughes, F. R. S., in electric waves and their application to wireless telegraphy, 1879–1886
Appendix E. Reprint of G. Marconi's patent
Index.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX]