Radio Inventor From Murray, Kentucky? March 20, 2009

Let's All Gather Around the Radio!

 

Marconi Stole Kentuckian's Thunder?

On This Date in History:

 

 

  Guglielmo Marconi is often the first name that comes to mind when one ponders who invented the radio.  But, like many inventions, Marconi was just the one who made it better or more feasible.  No, the true inventor of radio was a man long forgotten when he was found in his shack in Murray, Kentucky in 1928.  He had starved to death and was buried in an unmarked grave.

The Real Father of Radio

Marconi was stiill a teenager in 1890 and it is about that time that Nathan B. Stubblefield is thought to have first demonstrated his wireless telephone for some friends on his farm.  He didn’t file a patent.  He just continued to play with his new toy.  A few weeks after Marconi transmitted the letter “s” in morse code across the Atlantic, on New Year’s Day 1902 Stubblefield finally got around to making his first public demonstration.  With about 1000 friends and neighbors in attendance, the low-key man from rural Kentucky spoke softly into a box measuring two square feet and he was heard from 6 listening posts around town.  The observers were amazed.  His 14-year-old son Bernard got into the act by whistling and then playing the harmonica.  Bernard was the first musician to perform on the radio and now we get Britney Spears.  Later that year, Stubblefield went big time with a more publicized and elaborate demostration from a steam launch in the middle of the Potomac River near Washington, DC. 

Stubblefield's Workshop Before the House Burned Down

Now, most industrious inventors would have taken the next logical step which was to exploit his own ingenuity.  He went so far as to patent his wireless telephone and created a company.  But, all he did was sell stock in the company and nothing much else because the New York investors were more interested in perpetrating a fraud than building a company.  Marconi is the one who pioneered wireless telegraphy and is thought of as the father of radio.  But, it was Stubblefield who first projected voices and music over radio waves.  In 1908, he even presented a patent that would put radios into horseless carriages.  He also came up with a battery for portable radios.  Be that as it may and how ahead of his time he was, Stubblefield wasn’t much of a businessman and didn’t really get much help so he made almost no money at all from his inventions and also missed out on the notoriety. 

Stubblefield's Invention?

Stubblefield's Invention Up in Smoke?

Things didn’t go much better for Nate of Murray.  Not long after he came up with the car radio, his marriage went up in smoke and his house burned to the ground.  His spirit was broken and he withered on the vine, though he did continue to work on new inventions…but…shortly before his death he destroyed all of his inventions and burned the plans.  Maybe he had invented the cell phone.  That is a wireless telephone, right? …or…  Who knows…maybe Nathan Stubblefield invented Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott’s transporter.  Maybe Gene Roddenbery got some of his ideas for Star Trek from Stubblefield?  I mean, today’s cell phone looks a whole lot like the communicator that Captain Kirk used.  If that’s the case, then we can blame Stubblefield for all of those people who cause traffic problems by driving and talking on their cell phones.    In any case, Nathan Stubblefield was a true pioneer in telecommunications but he had no business sense or sense of public relations.  And that’s too bad.   Squeaky wheel gets the grease, I guess.

Big Event In Plains Monday?

Weather Bottom Line: Forecast remains on track.  Friday morning near freezing then to the 50′s.  Close to 60 or so for the weekend with some clouds.  Few light showers not totally out of the question but also not to menacing late Saturday.  We will push toward 70 or perhaps higher by Tuesday.  At that time, the storm system out in the west that will probably cause an outbreak of severe weather in the plains will have reached maturity and will lose some of it’s dynamic support.  So, when it comes through here midweek, we may see some decent storms but at this point it’s too soon to tell if there will be enough elements in place and if timing issues will be resolved to provide an opportunity for something exciting.  It doesn’t appear that the air is all that cold behind the system as it’s origins are from the west and southwest so we should be cooler but still pretty mild for the latter part of the week.

 
   DAY 4-8 CONVECTIVE OUTLOOK 
   NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
   0358 AM CDT THU MAR 19 2009
  
   VALID 221200Z – 271200Z
  
   …DISCUSSION…
   A SEVERE EVENT REMAINS APPARENT FOR MON. MAR. 23 /DAY 5/…WITH
   MEDIUM-RANGE MODELS CONTINUING TO FORECAST A MID-LEVEL LOW SHIFTING
   EWD OUT OF THE ROCKIES AND ACROSS THE CENTRAL HIGH PLAINS THROUGH
   THE AFTERNOON.  WITH A FAIRLY BROAD/RELATIVELY MOIST BOUNDARY LAYER
   FORECAST TO BE IN PLACE AHEAD OF A SURFACE CYCLONE LIKELY CENTERED
   OVER THE CENTRAL HIGH PLAINS DURING THE AFTERNOON…SETUP APPEARS TO
   FAVOR WIDESPREAD THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT.
  
   WHILE SOMEWHAT MERIDIONAL — PARTICULARLY OVER THE CENTRAL
   PLAINS…WIND FIELD WILL BE PLENTY STRONG TO SUPPORT
   SEVERE/SUPERCELL STORMS — AND THUS ATTM IT CONTINUES TO APPEAR THAT
   A FAIRLY WIDESPREAD SEVERE EVENT IS LIKELY. 
  
   BEYOND DAY 5 — AND PARTICULARLY BEYOND DAY 6…MODELS BEGIN TO
   DIVERGE IN POSITION OF THE MAIN FEATURES…WHICH CASTS UNCERTAINTY
   INTO THE SEVERE FORECAST.  HOWEVER…EVEN GIVEN MODEL
   DIFFERENCES…IT APPEARS ATTM THAT THE PRIMARY SEVERE THREAT WOULD
   OCCUR DAY 5…WITH DECREASING POTENTIAL FARTHER E INTO THE MID MO
   VALLEY REGION FOR DAY 6.
  
   ..GOSS.. 03/19/2009

Hillary Gets Paycut Before Starting; Marconi Myth? December 12, 2008

GFS Trying to Be Interesting Tuesday Morning

 

Weather Bottom Line: Basically, we have a little front that will be moving through on Friday morning. That will reinforce the cold air for awhile.  The boundary sorta gets hung up in our area so that may provide sufficient lift for precipitation.  Maybe some nuisance snow but that  should be it.  What is more interesting and something that you should be aware of is for Monday night or early Tuesday morning.  The 12Z Thurs GFS is advertising .45 inches  of liquid precipitation at 114 hours and 120 hours.  That means from about 1AM to 7 AM Tuesday.   If that comes true, and it may not, then we’d get perhaps sleet that may turn to snow to finish.  I don’t really see a freezing rain sounding from my quick look but I suppose that could quite possibly unfold…just because I don’t see it now, doesn’t mean that it won’t show up in the end. Either way, right now, I’d say enjoy the milder conditions for the second half of the weekend and then be prepared for a mess on Monday night.

Sen. Clinton May Not Be Happy With New Pay Scale

Secretary of State To Take a Pay Cut:  When Senator Clinton takes over as the new Secretary of State, she will get a little less money than the current Secretary, Condoleezza Rice.  It’s not that Ms. Clinton wants to do her part to reduce the deficit, its more of a Constitutional issue.  I wondered a week or so ago how they were going to get around this issue.  I had thought that it would be left to bloggers to scream about but that it would simply be ignored, as the Constitution has been ignored by previous Presidents; most notably perhaps, President Jefferson and President Lincoln.  It’s known as the emolument clause and was probably designed to keep elected officials from cashing in on Presidential appointments….perhaps a payback for support…or for voting for a pay raise for an office before you get the job.  Governor Blogadevich wouldn’t like this clause.  It says that if you have been elected to a term in office, you cannot accept an appointment to another government post during your term of your elected office if that new appointment has had an increase in salary during your term.  It has also been interpreted to mean that you can’t take a job that pays more than your current elected position but that seems to not be the case.  Now, there was a recent $4700 a year raise in the Secretary of State salary.  So, to get around the former interpretation, Senator Clinton will now receive $184,600, which is still a $12,600 pay increase for Ms. Clinton over next year’s Senate salary of $174,000. 

emolument n [ME, fr. L emolumentum, lit., miller's fee, fr emolere to grind up] : the product (as salary or fees) of an employment

U.S. Constitution – Article 1 Section 6

Article 1 – The Legislative Branch
Section 6 – Compensation

(The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.) (The preceding words in parentheses were modified by the 27th Amendment.) They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Marconi In Newfoundland Dec 1901

On This Date in History: Radio waves had been discovered but not completely understood at the turn of the

Marconi Transmitter at Poldhu, Cornwall

century.  It was thought by many that the curvature of the earth would make transmission and reception of radio over long distances impossible.  But, Guglielmo Marconi thought that radio waves would simply follow the curvature of the earth.  Turns out both were sorta right.

Marconi had studied physics and got into the experiments of Heinrich Hertz.  In 1894, his own experiments resulted in a transmission of 1.5 miles.  But, no one in Italy seemed interested.  So, he went to England and in 1896, his company regularly sent messages over the air for distances often farther than 10 miles.  In 1899,  he successfully transmitted across the English Channel…some 30 miles at its shortest, I believe.  In a great public relations move, he boarded a ship, the SS Ponce, and set offshore Sandy Hook, NJ where the America Cup Yacht Race  took place that year.  He transmitted the results directly to New York.  That got him some notice that resulted in financial support from many places, not the least of which was the Big Apple.

Putting Up Kite-Like Receivers At Newfoundland

However, his company still struggled as he set up a transmitting station in Poldhu, Cornwall in England and a reception site at St. Johns, Newfoundland.  The transmitter was powerful and the reception site had a whole bunch of giant, kite-like, antennae to try to capture the waves.  The story told was that on December 12, 1901 Marconi received radio messages from England while he sat and listened in Newfoundland.  The distance was about 2200 miles or about 2120 miles more than the previous record.  Talk about shattering a record. So, how did it work?  Well, as it turns out, the experts were right…radio waves do head out into space…that is unless you have an ionosphere, which the earth does.  That layer of the atmosphere will reflect waves of certain frequency and legnth back to the earth, making it possible to transmit over long distances.  So, Marconi was kinda right also.  Trouble is, analysis of the experiment raised and continues to raise questions. 

Later Transmitting Site at Poldhu

First off, Marconi knew what to listen for.   He was simply looking for a “click click” which is the morse code for the letter “S.”  Now, he had to have gotten all sorts of static.  How he was able to decipher two clicks amidst all of that fuzz is a legitimate question.  There apparently were no witnesses either.  If you go out and about with an AM radio today, you will find that you can pick up a strong AM signal, like WHAS radio, much farther away at night than during the day.  When I drive to North Carolina, I lose WHAS somewhere south of Lexington near the Kentucky/Tennessee border during the day.  But, I’ve picked it up near Charlotte, NC at night.  There is no sun to provide all sorts of radiation “noise.”  Marconi did his feat three times with the first just after noon and the receptions were a few hours later.  Some say his wavelength also was improperly long…that shorter waves would be necessary.  So, explanations arise anywhere from Marconi having a vivid imagination, he psychologically talked himself into believing he heard what he wanted and was expecting to hear or he was really transmitting on a shorter wave length than he thought.

Marconi was forced to stand up to his critics and he set up a demonstration on board a ship, the SS Philadelphia,

Later Site at Poldhu Destroyed by Atlantic Storms

which took him west from England. He successfully transmitted messages about 1600 miles…but he did so at night. During the day the signals only went about half as far.  But, that was better than a carrier pigeon.  And he got some more good PR from a disaster.  Marconi had set up wireless transmitters and receivers on either side of the Atlantic to send messages to ships who could relay messages to others.  Most of the time, it was done at night.  When the Titanic went down, Marconi’s machine was credited with saving the survivors as it signaled the nearby Carpathia to come to the rescue.  It is said that the radio operator in the United States that first received the message of the Titanic disaster was a young David Sarnoff, who later became the founder and president of RCA….Radio Corporation of America.

All That Remains of Poldhu Transmitting Station

There are all sorts of arguments about Marconi.  There is the argument that Marconi didn’t discover anything that Nikola Tesla had already discovered in 1893.  Then there is the other arguments that what he claimed to have done was impossible.  Some of that may have come about due to Marconi’s allegiance to the Facist regime rising in Italy, which of course recognized his greatness.  Mussolini made him President of the Royal Academy of Italy,which made him part of the Facist Grand Council.  His politics and patent disputes with other notable physicists like Tesla and Hertz, may have tarnished the historical reputation of Marconi.  And while there are many questions that may never get answered, it was his perserverence and bold agressiveness at developing the radio field that perhaps should be most appreciated…even though he hooked up with the wrong team in Italy.