Nexus - 0702 - New Times Magazine-pages

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THE INVENTION OF WIRELESS RADIO COMMUNICATION WIRELESS THE INVENTION COMMUNICATION RADIO Contrary to popular thinking, it was not Marconi or even Tesla who invented the wireless transmission of radio waves, but an American dentist, Mahlon Loomis. Harry Callahan, a renowned photographer who won the National Medal of the Arts in 1997, died Monday in Atlanta at eighty-six. Like Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz, Callahan was considered a master of his art, but, unlike them, he wasn't a household name. He was known for his expansive eye, imaginative techniques, passionate work ethic and for being as creative in his 80s as he was in his 30s. — Gainesville Sun, Florida, USA, March 18, 1999 n World War IL, I was an invisible radioman, operating by myself in Ireland. My brother fought in the unknown (invisible) 17th Airborne Division. Harry Callahan is the invisible photographer. In today's journalistic-driven society, many photogra- phers have attained great fame. I am a photographer myself, and in my early days I worked as a freelance photojournalist; however, I do not recall ever seeing a single photo by that renowned photographer. Callahan, however, comes off better than the invisible inventor of radio communica- tion, Mahlon Loomis. The US Federal Government not only never awarded Loomis a medal, but did in fact 'steal' his invention, assuring that Marconi received all credit for radio systems. I suppose, in reality, if we go back far enough we could credit Ben Franklin with dis- covering radio—although he did not know it at the time. Everyone knows all about Ben Franklin's rather dangerous experiment with kite and string. A Russian scientist (whose name I no longer remember) was electrocuted while trying to repeat the experiment. That is an indication that perhaps the experiment was not very smart—a fact no one wishes to attach to Ben's name. A much safer and, indeed, more brilliant kite experiment was per- formed by the dentist Mahlon Loomis. Mahlon Loomis was born in Oppenheim, New York, on July 21, 1826, the son of an English immigrant father from Essex. He became a dentist, and early in his career prac- tised in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the true father and inventor of radio communications and also of the radio antenna—and not Nikola Tesla, whom I so admire, or Marconi, who was an entrepreneur. Although Tesla did not invent radio, he did invent the tuned circuit which controls radio. Tesla's invention would be analogous to the Wright brothers, who did not invent gliding but invented the control of gliding with wing flaps and a propeller. There is no question at all that in 1866 Loomis gave the first demonstration of "telegraphing through the air", i.e., without wire connections. This undeniable fact is recorded in the Saturday Review of March 7, 1964 in an article, "The Real Beginning of Radio", by Otis B. Young (pp. 48-50). Also in 1964, Electronic Illustrated printed an article by Robert Hayes, titled "Who Really Invented Radio" (pp. 83-85). The decade of the 1960s seems filled with articles about Loomis, but few have been written since. That deluge of papers was probably due to a drive by Otis B. Young of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. His elegant discussion of Mahlon Loomis's experiment appeared in the Transactions of Illinois Academy of Science (vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 3-8, 1967). It is best to quote Young, who gives the notebook description of Loomis's innovative experiment word for word (my emphasis is in italics): 2016 NW 27th Street Gainesville, Florida 32605 USA October 1966 is the centennial month of the first public exhibition of two-way aer- ial wireless communication of radio. Mahlon Loomis (1826-1886), ingenious dentist of Washington, DC, performed and demonstrated this experiment between NEXUS - 55 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2000