Happy 155th birthday to the pioneer that made radio and telly what it is today.
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was born in Germany on the 22nd of February 1857, and dedicated much of his (short) life, to pioneering work on electromagnetic waves. He was the first person to prove the existence of the radio waves that are all around us, and to prove that electromagnetic radiation has the same velocity, reflection and refraction properties as light. His work paved the way for groundbreaking work by Edison and Marconi to bring us wireless radio, followed by radio with pictures.
Hertz died aged just 36, and left us the legacy that is the measurement used for radio frequencies, Hertz or Hz. When you listen to FM radio, or watch TV, your receiver is tuned to a frequency measured in Megahertz (MHz) representing the number of cycles per second. You’ll also see his legacy in computing, with your computer, mobile phone or portable device having a processing speed that’s measured in Gigahertz (GHz).
So, why are we here at Radio and Telly choosing to mention that Hertz was born 155 years ago? Well, Google has chosen to honour the pioneering physicist through the use of a Google Doodle – and if you go to www.google.com today, you will see that the traditional Google lettering has been replaced by an animated waveform in the Google colouring. Here’s a screen grab of today’s tribute from Google:
While you’re here
This year also marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most famous early uses of radio – The transmission of SOS and CQD morse messages from the RMS Titanic in April 1912 using the Marconi wireless system.
Happy Birthday Heinrich Hertz…
he died at just 36 that’t so sad, i must do a google search and read
more about him