Fessenden, Reginald Aubrey (1866-1932), a Canadian-born physicist, is generally credited with making the first public broadcast of human speech by radio. On Christmas Eve in 1906, several radio operators picked up this broadcast, which included Christmas music and a Bible reading. Fessenden sent the broadcast from a transmitting station he designed and built at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Before this broadcast, radio transmissions generally consisted of only Morse code signals.
Early life.
Fessenden was born on Oct. 6, 1866, in East Bolton, Quebec. He studied at Bishop’s College in Lennoxville, Quebec. In 1884, he accepted a position as principal and sole teacher at the Whitney Institute, a secondary school in Bermuda. After teaching for two years, Fessenden took a job at the Edison Machine Works in New York City. He joined Edison as an electrical tester and quickly became chief chemist. In 1890, he took a position as an electrician at a Westinghouse factory in Newark, New Jersey. Fessenden became a professor of electrical engineering at Purdue University in 1892, and at the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) in 1893.
Experiments in wireless communication.
While teaching at the Western University of Pennsylvania, Fessenden began experimenting with wireless communication systems. In 1900, he joined the United States Weather Bureau, which sought to use wireless technology to aid in forecasting the weather. He became interested in voice transmission, and he developed the idea of superimposing a wave pattern representing a sound over a continuous wave pattern—the idea behind AM (amplitude modulation) radio. On Dec. 23, 1900, Fessenden made the first successful test of voice transmission and reception, over a distance of about a mile (1.6 kilometers). In 1902, Fessenden resigned from the Weather Bureau after the bureau made claims on some of his patents. With the help of financial backers, Fessenden started the National Electric Signaling Company, at which he continued his research.
Other inventions.
Fessenden was dismissed from the National Electric Signaling Company in 1911. He went on to do consulting work for a number of other companies and for government organizations. During World War I (1914-1917), Fessenden developed various types of sonar equipment, which use sound waves to detect underwater objects, while doing consulting work for the Submarine Signal Company of Boston. Fessenden also patented such useful items as an early version of microfilm, an electric gyroscope, and insulating electrical tape. He received a total of more than 500 patents.
Fessenden retired to Bermuda in 1928. He died on July 22, 1932.
