1860 to 1900 : Maxwell, Marconi and Moura

It all started more than a hundred years ago, with the electromagnetic waves theory, deduced by Scottish James Maxwell in 1863, and laboratory proved by German Heinrich Hertz (1887).

After these discoveries, Guglielmo Marconi, born in Italy in 1874, created the first wireless telegraphy transmission system, in 1897..

Presenting his system in England, he founded his company, Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited (1899). In December 1901, he proved that wave propagation was not affected by the roundness of the Earth when he transmitted telegraphic signs through the Atlantic Ocean, between England and Canada. Not to mention several inventions, Marconi’s greatest achievement was proving the hertz waves or radio waves transmission and receiving through continents.


Guglielmo Marconi

Marconi`s communication systems saved 700 lives when Titanic sunk, in 1912. The incident turned Marconi into an international celebrity.

In the year of 1909, he got the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 1931, he transmitted from Rome, by radio, the signal that turned on Cristo Redentor illumination system, in Rio de Janeiro. 

When Marconi died (1937), radio stations all over the world observed a moment of silence.

Nikola Tesla, born in Croatia, in 1856, developed coils and the alternating current, showing the principles of long distance signal transmission.  In the United States, he worked for Thomas Edison and, in 1897, Tesla presented his invention records, leading to a judicial fight against Marconi`s patents.

In 1943, USA Supreme Court granted Tesla patent, recognizing him as the radio preceptor, a few months after his death! There is a belief that this decision had financial reasons, as it exempted North American government to pay Marconi rights for the use of his patent during First World War.

Russian Alexander Popov also showed radio waves practical application, although he hasn’t patented his discoveries.  In March, 1896, he transmitted radio waves through Saint Petersburg buildings.

Brazilian scientist priest Roberto Landell de Moura, born in Porto Alegre, in January, 21, 1861, was the pioneer in human voice wireless transmission. Between 1893 and 1894, Landell de Moura performed his first demonstrations. The event was watched by the authorities and the press, in June 1900, in an eight kilometer distance, in the city of São Paulo. Until then, there were only wired telephone (Graham Bell) and wireless telegraphy (Marconi).

In Brazil, Landell de Moura patented a "device to distance phonetic transmission, wired or wireless, through space, ground and liquids”, in March 1901.

Landell de Moura, once in United States, patented a wireless Wave Transmitter, a Telephone and a Telegraphy.   


Landell de Moura and your first transmitter

The great Brazilian researched and photographed the luminous energy which surround bodies, what a long time after was called Kirlian Efect. He also created a device to transmit sound through luminous wave, currently known as optic fiber.

His pioneer behavior did not succeeded just because he did not take part on the contemporary scientific community, United States and Europe. Roberto Landell de Moura died in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul in June, 30, 1928.

Therefore radio paternity is diffuse. Despite the fact than Marconi is world wide considered the “father of the radio”, this condition, as stated, isn’t peaceful. In the beginning of the 20th century, everyone was fighting to register his/her inventions. Marconi against Tesla, Edison against Westinghouse and Lee De Forest versus Armstrong… Some of these fights just ended on court decades afterwards.




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