A brief chronology of the origin and developments of wireless communication and supporting electronics

This paper presents a brief chronology of the developments of wireless communication and supporting electronics up to 1912. The name wireless indicates communication without the use of wires. Various mechanisms have been used for such purpose: electrostatic coupling, conduction, magnetic induction and electromagnetic radiation. The first three, while indeed wireless were extremely limited in the distance they were capable of covering. The breakthrough in wireless communication was the successful use of the fourth one which allowed long distance transmission. The term radio was coined as a short name for electromagnetic radiation. Hence it is possible to speak of some wireless systems as not being radio systems. However, because all the other types of wireless mechanisms were abandoned, nowadays the word wireless is synonymous of radio. Also, because the earliest radio communications used Morse´s code for transmitting information, it should be distinguished between this early form of radio communication and radio transmission of information in a readily understandable audio (and/or visual) form. Finally, it must be pointed out that when speaking about the history of wireless communication one can focus on three different types of discoveries: those that made it possible, those that made it realistic, and those that provided quality. Because of all these issues, it is not easy to objectively state who the Father of Radio was.