1
THE HEINRICH HERTZ WIRELESS EXPERIMENTS AT KARLSRUHE
IN THE VIEW OF MODERN COMMUNICATION
D. J. Cichon and W. Wiesbeck
University of Karlsruhe, Germany
ABSTRACT
This paper will highlight the contributions of Heinrich
Hertz by his sensational experiments, carried out in
Karlsruhe, Germany, in the years 1885 to 1889, to the
first radio communication experiments. Heinrich Hertz
developed for the first time a complete pulsed radar, an
indoor communication link and a material test set, all in
one. The basic system components had been the spark
gap oscillator, the dipole antennas for transmit and
receive, a nearly parabolic reflector, a polarisation grid, a
field strength indicator and several propagation obistacles
like wax prism. In the years of 1887-88 his experiments
verified the predicted propagation of electromagnetic
waves and in addition wave polarisation, reflection,
diffraction and refraction.
A look at Heinrich Hertz's experiments, his equipment
and his results will be given. The influence on
Marconi's research will be discussed. A numerical
simulation of the indoor wave propagation, in the
original Heinrich Hertz experiments environment, which
survived the wars, is intended to demonstrate the
problems, but also the real situation this scientist was
confronted with.
BACKGROUND
The roots of today's modern communication reach way
back to J. C. Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz and Guglielmo
Marconi. Maxwell was the early theoretician, predicting
the existence of electromagnetic waves in the free space
with finite velocity. Heinrich Hertz proved experimen-
tally the existence of these waves, without making any
technical advantage out his knowledge. Marconi was
more the engineering type of scientist, who was the first
to make extensive use of the work and the results of the
predecessors.
In I864 James Clerk Maxwell (183 1-1879) published a
thoroughly new way of thinking about electricity and
magnetism [I]. It incorporated almost all prior results
and placed them in a novel context, in the universal lan-
guage of mathematics, in the form of mathematical
equations. A solution to the equations is periodic in
space and in time, hence it is a wave. The velocity of
the wave is given by the product of wavelength times
frequency. A numerical value for the velocity also
comes from the solution, 3x108 d s . It was recognised
that this was very close to the velocity of light, which
had been measured to within a few percent of the value
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accepted today. There 'was a 22-year interval between the
delivery of the paper "On a dynamical theory of the
electromagnetic field" by Maxwell in 1864 [I] and the
start of successful experiments. Public recognition of
Hertz's results started in the middle of 1888 after
publication of his paper with "waves in air" in the title
PI.
Maxwell's theory says that energy can be transported
through dielectric materials, including empty space, at a
finite velocity by electric and magnetic fields travelling
together in space at right angles to each other and both
at right angles to the direction of travel. Maxwell never
proposed an experiment to validate his radical theory,
opposed by most scientists. According to Maxwell what
happened in space far from conductors was a key to this
theory, in direct opposition to the generally accepted
theory of action-at-a-distance with infinite velocity of
propagation. The few scientists who tried to understand
Maxwell had difficulties comprehending what he said,
much less understanding what the equations implied.
THE CAREER OF HEINRICH HERTZ
Hertz, born at February 22nd 1857 in Hamburg, started
out to be an engineer. After graduation from the
Humanistic Gymnasium in 1875 he spent a year with a
civil engineering firm in Frankfurt. In April 1876 he en-
rolled in engineering at the Dresden Technical Institute,
but left on 30th September 1876 for his year of manda-
tory military service. He enrolled in physics in October
187'7 at the University of Munich, and attended some
lectures at the Technical University. In October 1878
Hertz transferred to the University of Berlin and studied
under the famous scientists Hermann von Helmholtz
(1821-1894) and Gustav Kirchhoff (1824-1887). Hertz
was fascinated by the advanced laboratory of Helmholtz,
which was equipped with water, gas, shock mounted
galvanometers and so on. Helmholtz had been trying to
understand Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism and to
compare it with a theory, based mostly on Newtonian
mechanics. In 1879 Helmholtz called for an
experimental validaticin of Maxwell's theory and had it
published a prize prohlem of the Prussian Academy of
Science (Berlin), often referred to as the "Bcrlin Prize".
Helmholtz thought that one of his students, Heinrich
Hertz, would be the most likely to succeed in experi-
mentation. Hertz reflected on the problem and considered
 what results might be expected under favourable
conditions. The conclusion at which he arrived was
certainly not what he had wished for and he gave up the
idea of working at the problem. Hertz started to do an
analytical thesis on the inducedl icurrents in a rotating
metal sphere in a magnetic field [3] and obtained his
doctorate in 1880 with summa cum laude at the age of
23; this was unusual at this time, as Hertz had studied
only 4 semesters in physics, 2 in Munich, 2 in Berlin.
Kirchhoff and Helmholtz wlere members of the
graduation commission.
Fig.1: Heinrich Hertz 1891, 34 years old
Numerous entries in his diary h o w that he did in fact
give a great deal of thought to electromagnetics in the
intervening years to 1886. After graduation in 1880,
Hertz stayed on as an assistant to !Helmholtz for two and
a half years, then went to the Iiriiversity of Kiel as an
instructor in theoretical physics. At Kiel, Hertz had no
laboratory, and was very impatient working only in the-
oretical physics. In 1884, at Kiel, Hertz published a sig-
nificant paper, "On the relations biatween Maxwell's fun-
damental electromagnetic equatilons and the fundamental
equations of the opposing electromagnetics." It led him
to believe more strongly in ILIaxwell's theory, and
gained recognition from his s,uperiors. In this 1884
Gaper he concluded that if he had io make a choice, he
would choose Maxwell's theory. The paper helped him
get his next and most important appointment, at
Karlsruhe in 1885.
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On 29th March 1885 Hertz moved to Karlsruhe as a full
professor in Experimental Physics at the Technische
Hochschule. Here his life changed. He had his own
department, including a laboratory, shop, and some
staff. On 31st July 1886 he married Elizabeth Doll, the
daughter of a faculty colleague, and started successful
electromagnetic experiments later that year.
With his success offers from Universities of Graz
(Austria), Worcester (MA, USA), Berlin and Bonn
arrived; Hertz decided for Bonn. He left Karlsruhe in
April 1889. In the following years he received honours
and prices from throughout the world. He gave presenta-
tions at numerous places; a very famous one is 'On the
relation between light and electricity. In the following
semesters he worked in a new area in mechanics. In the
summer 1892 he became ill because of an infection in
mouth and ears. He had several surgeries, suffered a lot
and died finally on January I st 1 894 because of a septi-
caemia at the age of 36. In his last letter to his parents
on 9th December 1893 he wrote: 'If anything should
really befall me, you are not to mourn; rather you must
he proud a little and consider that I am among the
especially elect destined to live f o r only a short while
and yet to live enough ...I
HERTZ'S EXPERIMENTS AT KARLSRUHE
The daily work of Hertz in Karlsruhe is well documented
in his diary, letters to his parents and Helmholtz [4],
papers and in his books 'Electric Waves' [2] and
'Miscellaneous Papers'. His experiments were the first
knowledgeable and purposeful use of the radio frequency
spectrum. For the experiments he had in mind, other
than nowadays, he had to invent the equipment for the
experimental set-up as well as the measurement instru-
ments. He first had to learn how to generate and detect
electric waves. His progress led him to use distributed
circuits, at 50 MHz, 100 MHz, and later 500 MHz.
The items of apparatus designed by Hertz and built by
his assistant, Julius Amman, and himself are notably
elegant in their simplicity and functional capability. For
the most part they were built of inexpensive materials:
metal sheet and wire, wood, glass, string, and sealing
wax. He often associated his new ideas with his
thorough knowledge of conducted RF waves and with
optics.
The British physicist Lord Kelvin had theoretically
proven in 1853 that the resonant frequency of a circuit is
a function of its inductance and its capacitance. Hertz's
first oscillator makes use of a distributed resonant circuit
consisting of a balanced half-wavelength dipole, capaci-
tively loaded at the ends by rather large spheres with
30 cm diameter made of zinc sheets. The frequency was
about 50 MHz, half-wavelength 3 meters. The basic
new idea of Hertz was to devide the dipole in the centre
by two small spheres with a gap in between. The
current had to jump in sparks over this gap, thus
 generating RF oscillations. These sparks were excited
by a low frequency AC current from a Ruhmkorff
inductor. The overall length is about 2 m, with the
shortening from 3 m to 2 m accounted Tor by spheres
in the centre.
Hertz's first receiver for use with the 6 m transmitter
makes use of a resonant circuit consisting of a rectangu-
lar loop of wire with a small gap. At resonance the loop
is electrically one-half wavelength long, and the voltage
across the ends of the loop is maximum. For a detector,
Hertz fitted a tiny, micrometer adjustable spark gap
across the ends of the loop to act as a voltmeter to detect
the presence and indicate the magnitude of electro-
magnetic fields. For measurements the gap was #onlya
few micrometers wide. The sparks could be better heard
than seen. A photograph cjf the transmitter and two
coupled circuits acting as receivers is shown in !Fig. 2.
This photo was taken by Hertz himself.
Fig.2: Hertz's spark gap oscillator with two coupled
receiver circuits on a table in the physics rcjorn.
Keeping the signal source configuration constant, thus
fixing the frequency, Hertz tuned khe receiver over a wide
range in wavelength by changing the overall length of
the detector loop. He rracasured the maximum delector
gap spacing that would just break down, a measure of
the radio frequency voltage across the gap. The shape of
the curve is likely somewhat distorted due to frequency
pulling of the source as the receiver was tuned.
It was in spring-siimmer 1657 that l-leinrich Hertz
changed his mind and believed in the theory of elcctro-
magnetics. In autumn 1887 hc was able to prove RF
currents i n dielectric materials. For the experimmts he
had bought 800 kg asphalt, 450 kg tar and 100 kg SUI-
phur. By this experiments he solved the problem slated
1819 by the Prussian Academy of Science.
Next he proved the finitc velocity of the electrodynamic
induction. Most scientists still believed in an in:stanta-
neous inductive force. For this experiment he super-
imposed the RF current in a wire with the induction
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directly through the air. After several disappointments
he finally found between December 23 and 26 1887 that
the interference pattern was somewhat longer than a
standing wave pattern on a wire. He began to recognise
the wave nature of his: transmissions. On December 29
he made the surprising cxperience that these air waves
were :shielded and ref1:ected by metallic plates. But the
final experiments, the breakthrough was still ahead.
Discovery of Elecl romagnetic Waves
During spring and summer 1888 Heinrich Hertz carried
out lhis crucial experiments to verify the existence of
electromagnetic waves. It was his idea to generate stand-
ing electromagnetic wdves in air analogue to his experi-
ments with standing waves on wires. The physics
lecture room (see Fig. 3) in which these experiments
were carried out is about 15 m long, 14 m broad, and
6 in high. Parallel to the two longer walls there are two
rows of iron pillars, each of which behaves much like a
solicl wall towards the electromagnetic action, so that
the parts of thc room ,which lie outside these cannot be
taken into consideration.
Fig.3: Ground map of the Heinrich Hertz building at
Karlsruhe with, the experimental physics room.
Thus only the central space, 15 m long, 8.5 m broad,
and 5 m high, remained for the purpose of experiment.
This was the main difficulty since the wavelength was
about 6 m. In the Hertz's experiment the vertically
polarised transmitter was 2.5 m above the floor. A
sheet of metal was used as a reflector. Waves reflected
back toward the transmitter interfere with incident waves
and create standing waves. The front wall of the room,
from .which the reflection was to take place, was a solid
sand.slione wall with two doorways. In order to give the
wall more of the nature of a conduction surface a sheet
of zinc 4 m high and Z! m broad was fastened onto it.
'The verification of electromagnetic waves in air was
based on the identification of the locations of minima
and maxima activities of spark gaps. For visual
detcction purpose the room was quite dark. Hertz
identified waves with a wavelength of 9.6 m.

~.
, j'
. requires adaptive radio channel models. Path loss
Fig.4: Hertz's drawings of the fiield orientation within
the physics room of the University Karlsruhe.
Due to these results Hertz accepted Maxwell's theory as
the most simple one to explain his experimental results.
The measured orientation of the field strength vector is
shown in Fig. 4, where the original drawings of Hertz
are presented.
Summary of Heinrich Hertz,'s Research
It is rather difficult to list all the achievements of Hein-
rich Hertz. In a small booklet 'The Beginning ofMicro-
waves' by John H. Bryant, publislhed on the occasion of
the Heinrich Hertz Centennial Celebrations the 'hard-
ware' and the experiments are rigorously collected and
analysed [7]. Among others Heinrich Hertz built the
first transmitter and receiver. He proved Maxwell's equa-
tions and the nature of electromagnetic waves. He expe-
rienced reflection, diffraction, refraction and polarisation
of electromagnetic waves.
PROPAGATION MODELLING AT
KARLSRUHE
Today, 100 years later the situation has completely
changed. Wireless communication via electromagnetic
waves experiences a dramatic growth. The tasks for the
next years are to optimise the spectral, temporal and
spatial efficiency of the use of eleictromagnetic waves. A
strong group of scientists is againi working in Karlsruhe
in wave propagation for broadcast and communications.
In the following this current research work in wave
propagation modelling will be shown to demonstrate the
long way we went from Hertz and Marconi.
Reliable propagation simulations are absolutely neces-
sary for an efficient usage of the frequency spectrum.
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Ray optical propagation models for rural macro, urban
micro, urban pic0 and indoor cells have been developed
at the University of Karlsruhe [SI, [ 6 ] .Modern radio
systems, like Digital Mobile Radio, PCN, DECT,
Radio LANs, etc., are established in the UHF up to
EHF bands. The implementation of these systems
prediction as well as radio channel characterisation in a
reasonable computation time are demanded. Since the
wavelength is small with respect to the details of the
physical environment, which has to be taken into
account, ray optical propagation modelling is justified.
In order to connect to Heinrich Hertz a part of this new
and comprehensive ray tracing and ray launching models
for UHF up to EHF deterministic outdoor and indoor
propagation i n versatile environments, the 3 D -
URBAN-PIC0 model is presented here. A verification
of the indoor model in a multi-floored office building is
presented at 850 MHz. An excellent coincidence
between measurements and predictions is obtained.
Urban Pico-Cell and Indoor Model
For indoor modelling the 3D wave propagation has to
be taken into account. The reflections from floor,
ceiling and from the walls including the metallic posts,
caused Heinrich Hertz a lot of trouble. A proper 3D ray
launching approach is introduced in the following, an
illustration of the 3D ray launching concept is shown in
Fig. 5.
A
Fig.5: 3D ray launching method
The transmit antenna is treated as a point source radiat-
ing in all directions under consideration of the radiation
pattern. The radiated energy is represented by rays.
Thereby the rays have to be equally distributed over the
sphere with the point source located in the centre of the
sphere [ 6 ] .Each ray is traced until an intersection with a
wall etc. is detected. There the ray is split into a
reflected and a wall penetrating ray; both rays are traced
further on to their next intersection, and so on.
 5

Indoor propagation is three-dimensional in single
rooms, floors, multi-floored buildings or in partially
open buildings. A multi-floored building is described by
floor plans containing the location (i.e. Cartesian coordi-
nates) and parameters of walls, windows, doors, etc. The
accurate knowledge of the material parameters is the
most critical part of the modelling, since the reflection
and transmission coefficients are very sensitive with
respect to variations of i.he complex permittivity. In lit-
erature, materials are given by either the complex per-
mittivity or the tan5 10s:; factor and the real part of per-
mittivity Er’. Further on the thicknesses of walls and
the posiltion of windows and doors have to be known
fairly accurate. Pis an example the office building of
Nokial NMP&NCS is illlustrated in Fig. 6

= concrete 112 cm - height = 1 m

= no metal

Fig.6: Multi-floored building test environment for the verification of the 3D-URBAN-PIG0 model. On the right
the map of the 2nd floor, with indicated transmitter location (IBS), is shown.

path loss (dB)

20 40 60 80 100

Fig.7: Path loss prediction in the 2nd and 3rd floor of the building shown in Fig. 6; transmitter (BS) is in the 2nd
floor; frequency: 856.5 MHz; computational resolution: 10 am.

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 The path loss prediction in the 2nd and 3rd floor at a
height of 1.5 m above floor level with the 3D-
URBAN-PIC0 model is shown in Fig. 7. The corre-
sponding material parameters used for the propagation
simulations are given in Tab. 1,
:I:
thickness qf
concrete 301 12 9.0
window 6.0
door 2.5
plaster board 1.3 6.0
8.0
Tab.1: Applied material parameter and wall thickness.
In the simulation the rays have been restricted to max
10 wall penetration and 5 reflection processes. The ray
launching discretisation in elevation is 1 degree. Due to
the ray optical modelling the effects of different wall
types with certain material parameters and wall thick-
nesses are evident.
Propagation measurements were performed by the VTT
(Finland) throughout the complete building, whereas
the receiver locations in the 2nd (numbers 1 - 9) and
3rd (numbers 10 - 18) floor are marked in Fig. 7 [6].
A comparison of the 3D indoor simulation with
measurements at 856.5 MHz is given in Fig, 8. A
quite good agreement between prediction and measure-
ment is obtained.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 11 12 13 1 4 1 5 1 s 17 18
measurement location
Fig.8: Comparison of measurements and 3 D
U R B A N - P I C 0 path loss predictions in the
2nd and 3rd floor of the building; 856.5 MHz.
In the oral presentation the explerience from this work
will be used to model the environment of the experi-
ments of Heinrich Hertz. Results of propagation
simulations within the - nowadays called - Hertz-
Lecture room will be shown. .4brief introduction to
the 3D-URBAN-MICRO model, also developed at
the University of Karlsruhe, will also be given inclu-
ding some applications to GSM network planning.
CONCLUSIONS
Numerous papers on Heinrich Hertz have been written,
but we try still to fully understand his ingenious exper-
iments and research results [7] [8]. Electromagnetic
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waves have changed our lives through communication.
Today we know, they always had been there, but since
Heinrich Hertz, Guglielmo Marconi and Alexander
Stepanowitch Popov we know how to make positive
use out of them. Electromagnetic waves have, so to
say, been tamed by scientists and engineers. Results
tan6 shown here in this context and verified by measure-
0,l ments, let us anticipate that we shall be able to handle
0.0083 the tasks of the future. But we have also to recognise
0.012
that people fear electromagnetic waves may be harmful.
0.1
0.04 This lays an additional burden of responsibility on the
shoulders of scientists.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to Dr. John H. Bryant,
Radiation Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, USA, for providing useful !iterature and private
communications.
REFERENCES
J.C. Maxwell, "A dynamical theory of the electro-
magnetic field," Phil. Trans. R ~ y a Soc.
l (L,ondon),
vol. 155, pp. 459-512, 1865
H, Hertz, "On electromagnetic waves in air and
their reflection," Electric Waves, Chap. 8, D. E.
Jones translation, London, Macmillan and Co.
(1893), and New York, Dover, (1962)
H Hertz, "On induction in rotating spheres"
(18801, Chapter 2, Miscellaneous Papers, D.E.
Jones and G.A. Schott translation, London,
Macmillan and CO,(1896)
Mathilde Hertz and Charles SiiOkind, (Eds), Hein-
rich Hertz: Erinnerungen, Briefe, Tagebiicher,
Physik-Verlag, Weinheim 1977, ISBN 3-87664-
033-4
- T. Kurner, D.J. Cichon, W. Wiesbeck, "Concepts
and results for 3D digital terrain based wave propa-
gation models - an overview," IEEE JSAC,
vol, 11, no. 7, pp. 1002-1012, September 1993
D.J. Cichon, T. Zwick, J. Eahteenmaki, "Ray op-
tical indoor modeling in multi-floored buildings:
Simulations and measurements," Proc. IEEE
Intern, Anten, and Prop. Symp. AP-S'95, Newport
Beach, California, USA, June 18-23, 1995
J.H. Bryant, Heinrich Hertz: The beginning of mi-
crowaves, IEEEMTT-S Hertz Centennial Cele-
bration, IEEE Catalog No. 88TH0221-2, ISBN 0-
87942-710-8, 1988
C.T. Tai, J, H. Bryant, "New insights into Hertz's
theory of electromagnetism," Radio Science,
vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 685-690, July-August 1994