Milestones in the development of radio and television

R = radio ; T = television; V =video; A = audio

Invention  Inventor  Nationality  Year  R  T  V  A  
 radio transmitter Guglielmo Marconi  Italian  1894  X       Sent radio message, made bell ring
 triode valve Lee De Forest  American  1907  X        Amplified radio signals
 scanning system  John Logie Baird  Scottish  1925    X      Transmitted 1st pictures human face
 transistor radio  Sony Corporation  Japanese  1952  X        Small enough to carry in pocket
 video recorder  Ampex Corporation  American  1958      X    TV pictures recorded on magnetic tape
 rotating playback head  Alexander Pontioff  American  1958      X    More information could be kept on a video tape
 frequency modulation (FM)  Edwin Armstrong  American  1933  X        Improved radio reception

 video home system

(VHS)

 JVC Company  Japanese  1970      X   Most successful home video cassette recording system.
 satellite broadcasting  Sky TV  English  1989      X    1st commercial satellite broadcasting
 phonograph  Thomas A. Edison  American  1877        X 1st machine to record and play back sound on wax cylinders
 gramophone  Emile Berliner  German  1888        X Played flat gramophone records at 78 RPM
 long playing records Columbia Record Company  American  1946        X  Sound recordings rotated at 33 1/2 RPM
walkman  Sony Corporation  Japanese  1979        X Small, portable tape and later CD players
 digital audio discs (CD's)  Philips Company  Dutch  1982        X  Long playing records replaced by CDSounds stored in digital code on small compact discs.
 cassette recorder  Philips Company  Dutch  1963        X  Recorded sound on a cassette and played back in a compact machine

 

stereo records

 Audio Fidelity Co.  American  1958        X Sound recorded on two channels. Recording, needed 2 speakers for playback. At first speakers were very large.

 

Radio station

 KDKA  American  1921  X       1st radio station in the world to broadcast to the public.
                 
                 
R = radio ; T = television; V =video; A = audio

To find out about how radio works, go to http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio.htm
To find out about how television works, go to http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/tv.htm

If you use any part of this in your own work, acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Thomas, R. & Sydenham, S. Milestones in the development of radio and television [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2000)

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Updated May 2013 ©kidcyber