Remote Control Cars Radio Controlled Hobbies: A Technological History
Remote Control Cars Radio Controlled Hobbies: A Technological History Remote control technology has not changed too much…you push the level on the control and the plane turns to the left. It seems as if the whole thing is magic. It does seem like radio control is a magical invention of the current era. Yet, it has an exceptionally long and interesting history.
Research shows that the origin of the word radio suggests it was from the prefix radio that seemed cornered with radiation. This word was born before Hertz’s discovery of electromagnetic radiation.
What was once radiotelephony and radiotelegraphy eventually just got called radio. Dee Forest was one of the initial people to modernize the term. Who is Dee Forest? Forest was an American pioneer in the wireless transmission field.
“In 1893, Tesla showed what wireless telegraphy was like, eight years after Hertz discovered electromagnetic waves.” (“Radio Controlled Hobbies: A Technological History”) Jagdish Chandra Bose exploited electromagnetic waves to set off gun powder. Due to this, the dawn of wireless/radio communications and all the applications of science occurred. The year was 1894.
However, in 1896, wireless signals were transmitted up to thirty miles in distance. Tesla patented the first four tuned circuit wireless system. It was seen as the original equipment in wireless transmission. Marconi used this technology and spanned the English Channel with Tesla’s circuit system.
With the dawning of the new century, it was also the beginning of other things regarding technology. However, Marconi was able to perform the first-ever trans-Atlantic radio signal on Dec. 12, 1901. J.C. Bose patented crystal sets which were used to detect and receive radio signals.
It has been argued and disputed numerous times who exactly produced the idea of wireless transmission. Was it Tesla or Marcon? “Despite financial troubles that he suffered, Tesla was the original pioneer.” (“Radio Controlled Hobbies: A Technological History”) It seemed that one more also played a part…but Popov was said to be a pioneer.
This is not really that important. However, the truth is that wireless transmission lines were the best and finest inventions the science history. Between 1900-1909, many experimenters and entrepreneurs were working with wireless radio. However, it was close to the end of this first decade that hobby interests began to spark. Radio signals were once noisy and inefficient. This changed with the alternator-transmitter and arc-transmitter came along.
Radio transmissions and receivers were revolutionized by the vacuum-tube diodes and triodes inventions. With the triode amplifier generators, audio was made possible. It then started the era of audio radio. Oddly enough, vacuum tubes were vital parts until the introduction of the transistor. It made the equipment much more concise, precise, and mobile.
Another advancement in radio-controlled hobbies came when AT&T used vacuum tubes to broadcast voice over the phone lines which lead to experiments with long distance speeches. Commercialization was thought about from the very beginning but there was no way to curb transmissions to paid users. Broadcasting continued to remain commercial free.
AT&T then incorporated advertising to finance their programming. To this day, it is still being used.
However, there are always improvements in the field of radio broadcasting. The latest being Internet radio. While radio is never going to go out of date, it will forever be taking on new formats.
It does not matter who wanted to in the beginning, only that what they did created what people see today. From the first lines of transmissions to Internet radio, the invention has come a long way.
Best Wishes, Coyalita
See Tomorrow: “6 Channel Remote Control Helicopters: Does It Get Any Better?”
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