The Origin and Development of Radiotelephony

Upon this, the Silver Anniversary of the Institute of Radio Engineers, it is appropriate to recall how there came into being the art of radiotelephony and, in turn, such services as overseas telephony and broadcasting. The Institute has seen the entire evolution within its relatively short life, with radiotelephony an unsolved problem in 1912 and today an accomplished fact of world-wide application. The pages of the Institute Proceedings testify to much of the building of the art, but nowhere has there been given a unified account of the structure as a whole and the relation of its technical substance to electric communications generally. To do this objectively and while the development is still fresh in mind is the purpose of the present paper. Naturally, the story is limited by space and by the information available to the writer. † Most of the account pertains to America. If the contributions of other countries are not adequately presented, it is because the limitations of time, space, and language have not yet been entirely overcome.