I want my radio patent

For a person under the age of 30, a radio is the device you use to play music while you drive or ride in a car. Some people don’t even use the radio in their cars anymore. They use streaming apps like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. The Radio used to be a much bigger deal in everyday life. In the early 1900s, they used the radio for entertainment and to hear news updates. Franklin Roosevelt gave fireside chats to U.S. listeners via the Radio in the 1930s. Even after the invention of television, the radio still played a prominent part in people’s life. New music was first heard on the radio and people had radio systems inside their homes to listen to music, sporting events, and the news. The radio played while they cleaned, cooked, or just had a big social gathering. 

With the invention of the internet, YouTube and music apps, the radio has become less prevalent in most peoples live. The radio has been an important invention in human society. Who invented the radio? That is a tricky question.

Nikola Tesla invented the Tesla oscillator. The coils could transmit and receive powerful radio signals. In 1895, Tesla was ready to test sending a radio signal 50 miles to West Point, New York. Much to Tesla’s luck, a building fire consumed his lab. It destroyed all his work and stopped the test from being conducted.

At the same time in England, Guglielmo Marconi has been working on a device that conducted wireless telegraphy. Marconi took out the world’s first wireless telegraphy patent in England in 1896. Marconi set up a long distance test that used a Tesla oscillator to transmit signals across the English Channel.

Tesla filed a patent for the radio in the U.S. in 1897, they granted the patent in 1900. Marconi filed for a patent for his radio in the U.S. in 1900. His patent was rejected, because of Tesla filing his patent first. Marconi tried to fight the rejection, but was repeatedly rebuffed on the matter. The patent office found it absurd that Marconi claimed ignorance of what a Tesla oscillator does when the item was a major component of Marconi’s radio prototype.

Marconi moved ahead with his English patent, and the company became a success. Marconi’s family had vast connections with the English aristocracy and this contributed to the company’s success. The Marconi company stock rose from $3 a share to $22 a share. The young Italian Marconi became internationally acclaimed. Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie invested in Marconi. On December 12, 1901, Marconi transmitted and received radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean.

Word of Marconi’s success got back to Tesla. Otis Pond, an engineer who worked for Tesla, said, “Looks as if Marconi got the jump on you.” Tesla replied, “Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using 17 of my patents.”

In 1904, the U.S. Patent Office reversed course and gave Marconi a patent for the invention of the radio. There was no reason ever given for this reversal. There is a lot of speculation that the powerful financial backing of Marconi, including Edison and Carnegie, had a lot to do with the reversal.

Marconi won the Nobel Prize for the invention of the radio in 1909. Tesla was naturally furious about Marconi winning the award over him. He sued the Marconi company for patent infringement in 1915. The Marconi company had become a big corporation and Tesla was not in the financial situation to fight a legal battle against them.

In 1943, Tesla passed away, and the issue was still not resolved. A few months after Tesla’s death, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tesla on the matter. To be clear, the Court just ruled that Tesla’s patent was first, and they did not answer the question of who invented the radio. Though it seems the Court just did the right thing, other factors were at play in the Court’s decision.

The Marconi Company sued the U.S. Government for use of its patents in World War I. By the Court ruling the way it did, it dismissed the lawsuit and also gave justice to Tesla, sadly after his death.

So who invented the radio? Marconi sent the first radio transmission, using Tesla’s inventions. One can say they both invented the radio. All that matters is the device helped, changed and benefitted humanity.