Whenever thinking of radio, we usually think of one man: Guglielmo Marconi. However, radio, as a technology, resulted from the work of many men. The following is a list of some of the many men involved in the development of radio.
Robert Adler
Ernest F. W. Alexanderson
Edwin H. Armstrong
Jones J. Berzelius
Edouard Branly
George Campbell
John Carson
Arthur A. Collins
Frank Conrad
William Crookes
Jacques and Pierre Curie
Amos E. Dolebear
R. L. Drake
William D. Duddel
H. H. Dunwoody
Thomas A. Edison
Albert Einstein
Robley Evans
Michael Faraday
Reginald A. Fessenden
John A. Fleming
Lee De Forest
Ben Franklin
L. Alan Hazeltine
Oliver Heaviside
Heinrich R. Hertz
Christian Huygens
Karl Jansky
Arthur E. Kennelly
Irving Langmuir
Oliver J. Lodge
James C. Maxwell
G. M. Mindlin
Samuel F. B. Morse
Greenleaf W. Pickard
Alexander Popov
William H. Preece
Theodore Roosevelt
David Sarnoff
Nikola Tesla
Jules Verne
T. L. Wadley
Clemens Winkler
And also the many dedicated ham radio operators around the world.
Fig. 1. Communications pioneers--a group of distinguished scientists
visiting RCA's experimental Transoceanic Communications Station at New
Brunswick, New Jersey in 1921. From left to right: (starting fourth from
left) David Sarnoff, Thomas J. Hayden, Dr. E.J. Berg, S. Benedict, Prof.
Albert Einstein, John Carson, Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, Dr. Alfred N.
Goldsmith, A. Malsin, Dr. Irving Langmuir, Dr. Anthony W. Hull, E.B.
Pillsbury, Dr. Saul Dushman, R.H. Ranger, and Dr. G.A. Campbell (courtesy
of RCA).
Some of these men were science fiction dreamers. Their contribution to this invention was that of stimulating the other's imaginations. Still others were scientists and mathematicians. Their role was to pave the road for future developments. Some were politicians and businessmen, and some were inventors and technical practitioners, or what we usually refer to as engineers. See Fig. 1.