In 1873, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell first advanced the idea that there might be electromagnetic waves that were similar to light waves, a startling concept to the scientists of his day. About 13 years later, German physicist Heinrich Hertz demonstrated in his laboratory that electromagnetic radiation did indeed exist. But it was not until after Hertz's death that a young Italian named Guglielmo Marconi got the idea for a practical communications system based on Hertz's work. Marconi was surprised and disappointed that the Italian government was not interested in his newly discovered wireless communications system, and thus he took his equipment to England. From that point on, the wireless became identified with Britain. From these beginnings, wireless radio became the basis of a revolution that has resulted in the satellite communications of today. This history first looks at Marconi's invention and then explores its many applications, including marine radio, cellular telephones, police and military uses, television and radar. Radio collecting is also discussed, and brief biographies are provided for the major figures in the development and use of the wireless.

On March 7, 1876, the U.S. Patent Office issued to a young inventor named Alexander Graham Bell what is arguably the most valuable patent ever: entitled "improvements in telegraphy," in truth it secured for Bell the basic principles involved in a telephone. On the same day that Bell filed his patent application, a caveat (a preliminary patent document) was filed by Elisha Gray. This coincidence sparked the first of many debates over whether Bell was the true inventor of the telephone. In the early 1860s Johann Phillipp Reis developed a version of the instrument, but his claims against Bell were hampered by the bungling of his lawyers in demonstrating his instrument in court. This work is a first look at the many men who developed the telephone and an examination of their claims against Bell's patent. A lay description of the phone is also provided, as well as a history of the development of the telephone system.