Cara Moore

Major Projects:
Research Paper on The Radio (Marconi)

EDTC*628

For many decades the use of technology has largely impacted the way of life of people
around the world both then and now in modern society. From the invention of the cotton gin
patented by Eli Whitney, which in turn revolutionized the production of cotton and greatly sped
up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber to the invention of the light bulb and further
leading to general electric invented and tweaked by Thomas Edison. No matter what the form of
technology, someway society has been impacted either negatively, positively, or both. One of
societies most valuable and used forms of technology includes the radio. Below I am going to
address three main points which include firstly, how the radio has impacted and changed society
at the time the radio was invented, secondly, how the radio continues to change our society today,
and thirdly, which current and or future technologies may further extend and build upon the
historical technology.
First, lets talk about who invented the radio and how it impacted society at the time it
was established. According to Conti, J.P. (2007), Wireless telegraphy, as radio technology was
known as in its early days, was officially born in 1897 when Guglielmo Marconi established the
worlds first radio station on the Isle of Wight, England. So what impact could the radio
possible have on society in 1897? Telegraphy was the only means of rapid long distance
communication in the 1800s. The first person to send and receive a wireless signal was
Guglielmo Marconi. He also sent the first wireless signal between Europe and North America in
1901. Karwatka, D. (1999). In 1897, the term radio eventually came to mean Morse code.
Morse code was very huge in that it was the first form of wireless communication. Morse code
became huge once large ships began to cross the oceans for both trade and transportation. Morse
code gave an emergency way of communicating if something went wrong. The universal term
radio did end up evolving into the transmission of speech which is how most of us know the

Cara Moore

Major Projects:
Research Paper on The Radio (Marconi)

EDTC*628

term radio in modern society. The impact the radio made once it was widely known changed
the way the entire world operated. Not only did small businesses and companies use them, but
our government and military used radios to help broadcast information about war and the
economy. Before the use of radio, society wouldnt have any idea about what was going on in the
large part of things because it took so long to get mail and newspapers out. The radio quickly
became a fast and efficient way to transfer information all over.
With modern society, the use of the radio is closely correlated to the entertainment
industry. Although it is still a means of wireless communication to relay news, traffic control,
and other valuable information, the radio is essentially a tool to entertain our very materialistic
society. Fortunately for modern society, we have more access to listen to the radio and can
affordably purchase one. The radio is absolutely everywhere! Whether you are in your car
listening to classic rock, walking down the lanes of Wal-Mart shopping for groceries, in your
classroom playing Kids sing-a-longs, or waiting to see your family practitioner, the radio is an
endless sound of projected news, voices, and music. Not only looking at entertainment, but think
about the entire universe. Radio has made the universe smaller. We use radio to detect pulsars
and other celestial objects. Spacecrafts still use radio to transmit data back to earth. According to
Springer Science and Business Media B.V., The early days of radio astronomy showed
incredibly diverse experimentation in ways to sample the electromagnetic spectrum at radio
wavelengths. In addition to obtaining adequate sensitivity by building large collection areas, a
primary goal also was to achieve sufficient angular resolution to localize radio sources for multiwavelength identification. This led to many creative designs and the invention of aperture
synthesis and VLBI. (2009). The invention of the radio caused an evolutionary leap in human
communication-the effects of which are still being felt today in this era of apps and the internet
of everything.

Cara Moore

Major Projects:
Research Paper on The Radio (Marconi)

EDTC*628

Over time the radio itself has changed its name from Morse code, wireless telegraphy,
radiotelegraphy, radioteletype, and just plain old radio. The radio as both a current and future
form of technology has extended and built upon itself. The way we use the radio and how it has
evolved into a multipurpose technological tool in society is phenomenal. Not only has the way
we use the radio changed but other forms of technology have grown and extended base on the
radio. The race for modernizing wireless and electrical communication was on once the radio hit
the economy. Not too long after the inventions of the telephone, cable communications,
television, the satellite, fiber optics, the mobile phone, the internet and now wireless internet had
all become 21st century novelties. As a teacher living and teaching in the 21st century, I could not
imagine not having one of the forms of communication and forms of technology above. The uses
of most of these technologies are necessities for me to have a successful and futuristic classroom.
Although the radio seems so small and unfamiliar compared to some of these, for me it was the
initial design for the rest. Think about your own cell phone. Most cell phones now have both
some form of application that includes the radio like Pandora or iTunes. Most mobile phones
have wireless internet which formulated overall from wireless communication. Now mobile
phones have not only radio, applications, and a means of communication with our friends and
family, but the entire world. We are able to read and listen to the news on our phones as if we
were in the 1800s sitting in our living rooms with our family listening to local music.

References
Conti, J. P. (2007). The 10 greatest communications inventions. Communications Engineer, 5(1),
14-21. doi:10.1049/ce:20070101

Cara Moore

Major Projects:
Research Paper on The Radio (Marconi)

EDTC*628

Karwatka, D. (1999). Guglielmo Marconi and Wireless Communication. Tech Directions, 58(8),
14.
Cordes, J. M. (2009). Back to the future: science and technology directions for radio telescopes
of the twenty-first century. Experimental Astronomy, 26(1-3), 79-94. doi:10.1007/s10686-0099167-4