Reginald Fessenden: What If Sound Waves Were Continuous Like Ripples on a Lake?

Following up on the last post, “Mozart: The Musician & Man,” today’s LinkedIn newsletter features pioneer of wireless radio and telephony Reginald Fessenden. On December 23, 1900, he became the first to transmit human speech over radio waves and is best known for discovering AM radio.

"By his genius, distant lands converse and men sail unafraid upon the deep."

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Considered the “Father of Voice Radio,” Reginald Fessenden was born on October 6, 1866 in East Bolton, Quebec to a family of British loyalists. The eldest of four, he is best known for discovering amplitude modulation (AM) radio and explaining its scientific principles.

Fessenden performed pioneering radio experiments and applied them in ways that are still in use today, at a time when many inventors were studying Henrich Hertz's theories in the hope of improving on the Morse Telegraph System by developing a wireless version.

He became fascinated with the idea of wireless telegraphy at 10 years old after seeing Alexander Graham Bell demonstrate his telephone. Fessenden wondered from that point on if he could transmit voice without using wires.

His interest subsequently led him to work with Thomas Edison and to help George Westinghouse light the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Fessenden became chief chemist for Edison at his main plant in New Jersey, then considered to be the finest experimental laboratory in the world. He worked on Hertz’s theories of electromagnetic waves and discovered they could travel through walls.

In 1896, Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted a radio signal and reception over a distance of about 2km from Salisbury Plains in the UK.

Discouraged because Marconi seemed to be leading the race, Fessenden took off for a long holiday near Peterborough, Ontario.

Similar to Philo Taylor Farnsworth, who conceived the idea of an electronic television while plowing the fields… while daydreaming beside a lake, the ripples spreading out from a stone made Fessenden wonder; what if sound waves travelling out from the center were continuous like the ripples on the lake?

On December 23, 1900, he became the first to transmit human speech over radio waves. Fessenden said into his microphone, "One, two, three, four. Is It snowing where you are Mr. Thiessen? If so telegraph back and let me know." His assistant, Thiessen, replied by telegraph in Morse code that it was indeed snowing.

On December 12, 1901 Marconi made radio history by successfully transmitting the letter "s" in Morse code from Cornwall, England across the Atlantic Ocean to St. John's, Newfoundland.

By March of 1902, Fessenden successfully transmitted and received the human voice with devices he created, sending a 127-word voice message from a transmitter tower at Cape Hatteras to a receiving tower on Roanoke Island.

On July 20, 1906, Fessenden formed a Canadian company called the Fessenden Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada. He was learning a little about the effect of weather conditions on radio broadcasts.

He held a contract with the United Fruit Company which had installed wireless systems on the boats to control the harvesting and marketing of bananas in Puerto Rico, and decided to give a Christmas present to his customers on the dozen or so ships.

On December 24, 1906, at 9 P.M. eastern standard time, Reginald Fessenden transmitted human voices from Brant Rock near Boston, Massachusetts. The broadcast included Fessenden playing "O Holy Night" on the violin and reading a passage from the Bible.

He had invented radio telephony or what radio listeners would call "real" radio as opposed to Marconi's Morse code broadcasting.

His life was a constant struggle for recognition for his inventions and compensation from partners who had sold his patents to large American companies. Fessenden returned to Canada at times, but he never settled there again.

He died in Bermuda on July 22, 1932. Unlike Marconi, Fessenden remained a lone wolf experimenter. He held over 500 patents, including a version of microfilm and an early form of sonar.

A controversy that surrounds his life is a proposed racist theory about the genetic origins of inventiveness that favored ethnic factors, such as being Anglo-Saxon.

He won the Scientific American's Gold Medal in 1929 for the fathometer, which could determine the depth of water under a ship's hull.

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About the Author: Lawrence Jean-Louis is the founder and creative behind beYOUteous, an eCommerce store offering a line of handcrafted beaded jewelry which aims to spread the message for embracing individuality, feminine strength, and empowerment. Her latest book, She Sells Seashells by the Seashore: Biographies of 12 Entrepreneurial Women is available for pre-order.