Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

Feature Article The History of Electronics Inventors and their Inventions Over the last four issues, we have described many individuals who made vital contributions to electronics. Their work made modern technology possible. Many significant developments also emerged from universities, companies and other organisations, described in this fifth and penultimate part of the series. Part 5: by Dr David Maddison T his penultimate article covers significant inventions that cannot be attributed to an individual, either because we don’t know their name(s) or because they were part of a team. Unlike the last four parts, which were organised by the date of birth of the inventor, we will list them by the year of the invention or discovery. The final article next month will conclude this list. electric catfish ~2750BCE An Ancient Egyptian mural in the tomb of the architect Ti in Saqqara, Egypt refers to electric catfish, later reputed by Pliny and Plutarch to treat arthritis pain and other maladies. This is one of the earliest discoveries involving electricity. Fig.54: a drawing of the Baghdad Battery. Source: https://w.wiki/7FNe 70 Baghdad Battery Image Source: www.pexels.com/photo/2047905/ ~150BCE – 650CE The Baghdad Battery (see Fig.54) is thought to be a battery cell by some, but it could have had other uses and there is no evidence it was used as a battery. optic fibres 27BCE Romans are known to have drawn glass into long flexible fibres, an idea later used for optical fibres for communications and light transmission. lighthouse, transatlantic cable 1858 The South Foreland Lighthouse near Dover, UK was the first lighthouse with an electric lamp. It used a carbon arc lamp developed by Frederick Hale Holmes and was on trial until 1860. In 1872, it received a permanent electrical installation. The light was powered by a pair of coke-fuelled steam engines driving four magnetos, shared with an adjacent lighthouse. Michael Faraday was then investigating electric lighting for lighthouses, and Holmes demonstrated the lamp to him. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid. It worked for only three weeks and took two minutes to transmit one character, about 10 minutes per word. undersea telegraph cable 1859 An undersea telegraph cable was laid between Victoria and Tasmania in Australia. It was the longest undersea cable at the time and was retired in 1861. US transcontinental telegraph 1861 The US transcontinental telegraph line was completed. transatlantic cable 1866 A more functional transatlantic telegraph cable was laid. Messages could be transmitted at eight words per minute. international telegraph cable 1872 Australia connected to the international telegraph cable between Darwin and Java. AU-NZ telegraph link 1876 The Australia to New Zealand telegraph link was completed. Australian Overland Telegraph 1877 The Australian Overland Telegraph line became operational between Port Augusta, SA and Albany, WA, a distance of 3196km. first international phone call 1881 The first international phone call was made between New Brunswick, Canada and Maine, USA. public power station 1882 The first large public power station, the Holborn Viaduct power station (also Practical Electronics | May | 2025 The History of Electronics, part 5 known as the Edison Electric Light Station) was built in London. It produced 93kW at 110V DC, with the generator driven by a steam engine. It was preceeded by a small waterwheel-­powered generator in Godalming, Surrey that only generated 7.5kW. The Pearl Street Station opened in New York. It had six 100kW dynamos, was powered by steam and its waste heat was also used for local heating. hydroelectric generation system 1883 The Adelaide telephone exchange opened with 48 subscribers, and the Port Adelaide exchange with 21 subscribers. Australia’s first hydroelectric generation system opened at the Mount Bischoff Tin Mine, to power about 50 Swan incandescent lights. Graphophone (phonograph) 1887 At the Volta Laboratory (established by A.G. Bell), Chichester A. Bell and Sumner Tainter improved Edison’s phonograph by using wax rather than tin foil as the recording medium. Along with Alexander Graham Bell, this confirmed wax as the superior recording medium. They established the American Graphophone Company to sell their Graphophone product, which was a commercial success. public electricity supply 1888 Tamworth, NSW was the first town in Australia with a public electricity supply for arc and incandescent lighting (240V DC). three-phase AC power were refined at the International Electrical Congress in Chicago, Illinois, USA. public hydroelectric scheme 1895 Australia’s first public hydroelectric scheme began operating, to power street lights in Launceston, Tas. In 1921, it was converted to three-phase and 2MW, and was used until 1956. international telegraph 1902 Telegraph operations began between Australia and Canada, with connections via Fiji and Norfolk Island. Morse Code transmission 1906 The Marconi Company made the first official Morse Code transmission in Australia from Queenscliff, Vic to Devonport, Tas. Some claim Morse radio transmissions were made in 1897 by Professor William Henry Bragg of Adelaide University alone, or with G. W. Selby of Melbourne. By 1906, Australia had 46 electric power stations with an aggregate capacity of 36MW. production of tungsten-filament bulbs 1907 1948). By 1912, he was making scheduled news and music broadcasts (see Fig.55). Many others at the time were only broadcasting Morse Code. He received a commercial license in 1921. The station still exists today as KCBS. amateur radio frequencies 1912 The US Government passed the Radio Act of 1912, limiting radio amateurs to frequencies above 1.5MHz, as those frequencies were considered useless. This led radio amateurs to discover HF radio propagation via the ionosphere. In 1921, a one-way transmission was made across the Atlantic; then, in 1923, two-way transmission (see https://pemag.au/link/abnv). transcontinental phone call 1915 The first transcontinental phone call was made in the USA, over 5794km, facilitated by the newly-­invented vacuum tube amplifier. rotary dial telephones 1919 Bell System, USA made the first rotary dial telephones. commercial radio 1920 Tokyo Electric Co (predecessor to Toshiba) started small-scale production of tungsten-filament bulbs, reaching full production in 1910. The world’s first commercial licensed radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA started broadcasting. radio broadcasting double-coiled tungsten filament 1909 Radio station KQW started broadcasting in California for experimental, promotional and training purposes by engineer Charles David Herrold (1875- 1921 At Tokyo Electric Co, Junichi Miura made the first double-coiled tungsten filament light globe using the technique developed by Benbow (1917). 1889 Young, NSW got three-phase AC power for street lighting, shops, offices and homes. AC hyroelectric power plant 1891 The first German three-phase AC power plant started operating in Lauffen am Neckar. 15kV was generated and transmitted 175km to the International Electro-Technical Exhibition in Frankfurt. Possibly the first commercial AC hydroelectric power plant became operational in Ames, Colorado, USA. It had a capacity of 3.75MW at 3kV, 133Hz, single-phase. That location is still producing electricity but not with the original equipment, although a powerhouse dating from 1905 is still in operation, with a 1904 General Electric generator producing 2.4kV at 1082A (2.6MW). standards for electrical units 1893 Standards and definitions for electrical units of ohms, amps and volts Practical Electronics | May | 2025 Fig.55: Charles Herrold’s San Jose, California radio laboratory, circa 1912. He transmitted from this location as radio KQW. Herrold is standing in the doorway. Source: https://w.wiki/7EFw 71 Feature Article It entered small-scale production in 1930 and mass production in 1936. “mobile phone” 1922 Early experiments were conducted with a “mobile phone”. The phone was a portable two-way radio that used an umbrella antenna with a fire hydrant for its Earth. Music was transmitted from a base station to the radio. See the YouTube video titled “World’s First Mobile Phone (1922)” – https://youtu. be/ILiLaRXHUr0 transatlantic telephone call 1926 The first transatlantic telephone call was made. car radio, Phonovision 1927 The first mass-produced car radio was made, the Philco Transitone. Before that, radios were adapted for car use. The exact year is subject to some dispute. John Logie Baird made the first “videodisc” player as a proof-of-concept called the Phonovision. The output of mechanical television scanning from a Nipkow disc was recorded to a gramophone record. It only had a 30-line resolution at 5FPS. Some recordings were found, and in 1982-87, software was made to recover the images. See the website at https://pemag.au/ link/abnw and the video titled “30-line TV video recordings news feature”, plus other videos below: https://youtu.be/J2mb4R9W9TI https://pemag.au/link/abnx https://youtu.be/G3CFkK5OORw blind aircraft take-off and landing LP records 1931 RCA introduced the first commercial LP (long play) records. They were 12 inches or 30cm in diameter, ran at 33⅓RPM and contained up to 11 minutes of audio per side (the same time as a standard 1000ft/305m movie reel). They were a commercial failure due to the expense of playback equipment and the Great Depression. Magnetophon K1 tape recorder 1935 German company AEG introduced the Magnetophon K1, the first practical tape recorder (see Fig.56). It used iron-oxide-coated non-metallic magnetic tape. The tape was originally based on Fritz Pfleumer’s idea (see his entry on p58 of the March issue), with further development by Friedrich Matthias. A non-­damaging head was designed by Eduard Schüller, who also built the prototype machines. The audio quality was poor until Walter Weber (1907-1944) discovered the AC biasing technique (by accident!), dramatically improving audio quality. These recorders had all the basic features that were incorporated into later analog tape recorders. You can see a video on the similar Magnetophon FT4 at https://youtu.be/ cLjD0B6QoaM high-definition television 1939 German company Fernseh AG demonstrated high-definition 1029-line 1929 72 1941 Commercial FM broadcasting formally began in the USA, although there were experimental transmissions before that. It was on the 42-50MHz band, split into 40 channels. In 1945, it was reassigned to 88-106MHz band with 80 channels, then extended to 108MHz and 100 channels. The monochrome NTSC television standard was released. “Colossus” digital computer 1943 The first programmable digital computer was built, the British “Colossus”. “ENIAC” digital computer 1945 The US “ENIAC” computer was built, the world’s first general-purpose programmable digital computer. The electronic Merrill Wheel-­ Balancing System for cars was also invented. FM broadcasting in Australia 1947 Experimental FM broadcasting in Australia took place from 1947 to 1961 but with an extremely limited audience (the receivers were costly). It was discontinued to clear the TV band and eventually reintroduced on a band that no one else in the world used. Fortunately, in 1975 it was reintroduced on the widely used 88MHz108MHz. 1948 Columbia Records used PVC to make vinyl records, which are more durable than previous shellac compounds. They could be made with much finer grooves called “microgrooves”. These allowed for a playback time of about 22 minutes on a 12in/30cm disc (there was also a 10in/25cm disc). Peter Carl Goldmark (1906-1977) developed the format. 45RPM records 1930 Yogoro Kato and Takeshi Takei at the Tokyo Institute of Technology first synthesised ferrite compounds. These materials are used in inductors, transformers and electromagnets, electrical noise control, early computer memories, magnetic tapes, radar absorbing materials, loudspeakers and magnets. TDK incorporated the first ferrite cores in radios in 1937, making them smaller and lighter. TDK was the only company that could supply ferrite cores until the end of WW2. commercial FM broadcasting, NTSC vinyl records The first blind aircraft take-off and landing was made by Lt James Doolittle in a Consolidated NY-2 biplane. It was instrumented with a Kollsman altimeter, Sperry directional gyroscope and an artificial horizon, with a radio range and marker beacon by the National Bureau of Standards and a special radio receiver with a vibrating reed display by Radio Frequency Laboratories. synthesis of ferrite compounds TV for displaying military maps. This system required 15MHz of bandwidth, which is why HDTV wasn’t widely introduced until the advent of digital broadcasting in the 1990s. Fig.56: the AEG Magnetophon K1 tape recorder being delivered to the Berlin Radio Show in 1935. Source: https:// museumofmagneticsoundrecording. org/ManufacturersAEGMagnetophon. html 1949 Columbia competitor RCA introduced the 45RPM record with a 7in/18cm diameter, intended as a replacement format for 78RPM records, with a similar duration of about five minutes per side. Eventually, “quality music” was distributed on 33⅓RPM records, with “popular music” on 45RPM records. Both formats are still around today. permanent magnets, PCBs 1950 Philips accidentally discovered barium hexaferrite, which became a popular permanent magnet material. Practical Electronics | May | 2025 The History of Electronics, part 5 Fig.57 (above): an image from the 1956 US Army patent 2,756,485 for PCB manufacturing. Fig.59 (above): the Regency TR-1, the first commercial portable transistor radio. Fig.58 (right): an advertisement for the first practical solar cell by Bell from the 25th of April, 1954. It had a 6% efficiency. Source: www.onthisday. com/photos/1st-solar-battery The US Army applied for US patent 2,756,485, granted in 1956, titled “Process of Assembling Electrical Circuits” (see Fig.57). This led to the mass production of printed circuit boards. nuclear power, colour TV etc 1951 Sony released the H-1 magnetic audio tape recorder for consumer use. It was the first tape recorder designed for domestic use and weighed 13kg. The first nuclear power reactor (EBR1) became operational in Arco, Idaho, USA. It could power four 200W light globes. CBS in the USA demonstrated colour TV broadcast using the electromechanical field-sequential system (FSC) standard. There were very few appropriate receivers. That standard was withdrawn and the NTSC standard was subsequently used instead. speech recognition system, video game 1952 The first speech recognition system was demonstrated, which could recognise one speaker saying the digits zero to nine with 90% accuracy. It was called Audrey (Automatic Digit Recognition machine) and was produced by H.K. Davis at Bell Laboratories. The first computer game was created by Alexander Shafto Douglas (19212010) at the University of Cambridge in England. It was called “OXO” and was a version of noughts and crosses (also known as tic-tac-toe). maser, nuclear submarine, NTSC low-noise amplifiers for microwave frequencies. They can also generate electromagnetic waves at microwave and other frequencies. The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched. The NTSC colour TV standard was released. photovoltaic cell, transistor computer 1954 The first practical photovoltaic cell was developed at Bell Laboratories (see Fig.58) by Calvin Souther Fuller (19021994), Daryl Chapin (1906-1995) and Gerald Pearson (1905-1987). The world’s first commercial colour television broadcast (NTSC) began in the USA. However, most programming remained in monochrome for some time due to the high cost of sets and lack of colour source material. TRADIC (for TRAnsistor DIgital Computer or TRansistorized Airborne DIgital Computer) was the world’s first fully-transistorised computer, built by Bell Labs for the US Air Force. It included 684 Bell 1734 Type A point contact cartridge transistors and 10,358 germanium diodes. The first transistorised portable radio went on sale, the Regency TR-1. It used four Texas Instruments NPN transistors, a 22.5V battery and cost US$49.95, equivalent to about $850 today (about what collectors pay!). It is shown in Fig.59 and was described in S ilicon C hip magazine, April 2013 (https://siliconchip.au/ Article/3761). programmable music synthesiser etc 1955 The RCA Mark I Synthesiser was the first programmable music synthesiser. There is an interesting article about how it works at https://pemag. au/link/abny The first wireless TV remote control was introduced, the Zenith Flashmatic. It used visible light and had to be directed at one of four photocells in each corner of the screen to perform various functions (on/off, mute or change channel). IBM 350 drive, VRX-1000 recorder etc 1956 The first commercial disk drive, the IBM 350 (Fig.60), went on sale. It stored 3.75MB and weighed about one tonne. Fig.60: two IBM 350 disk drives at the US Army Red River Arsenal. Source: https://w.wiki/7EFy 1953 The first maser (microwave laser; microwave amplification by stimlated emission of radiation) was built by Charles H. Townes, James P. Gordon, and Herbert J. Zeiger at Columbia University. Masers are used as highly-­stable frequency references and extremely Practical Electronics | May | 2025 73 Feature Article Fig.61: CBS engineer John Radis operating an Ampex VRX1000 videotape recorder on the 30th of November, 1956. It was the first time this machine was used on a broadcast program. Source: www.quadvideotapegroup.com/2015/12/ The first commercial video tape recorder, the monochrome VRX-1000, was introduced by Ampex for studio use (see Fig.61). It used two-inch (5.08cm) wide tape in the Quadruplex format. It cost US$50,000, equivalent to about $840,000 today. The machine’s major innovation was transverse recording, where the video image was written across the tape rather than linearly, allowing for a reasonable tape speed of 38cm per second. Before its introduction, the only way to record TV programs was with film. Silicon Chip published a detailed article on Quadruplex recording in its March 2021 issue (https://siliconchip. au/Article/14782). The first transatlantic telephone cable was laid, TAT-1 (Transatlantic No. 1). It could carry 35 simultaneous telephone calls with a 36th channel that carried 22 telegraph circuits. R-7 ICBM, Sputnik 1 satellite etc the reactor transmutes non-fissile fuel into fissile fuel at the same time as producing power. It remained in operation until 1982. The first ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile), the Soviet R-7 Semyorka, was introduced. ICBMs were later reused by multiple nations as rockets for launching satellites and other space missions. The FORTRAN computer language was commercially released. It is still used by mathematicians, scientists and engineers. The Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, using an R-7 Semyorka rocket. Silicon Chip had a detailed article on Sputnik’s radio transmitters in its November & December 2023 issues (https://siliconchip.au/ Series/407). 1957 The RCA Mark II synthesiser (Fig.62) was a successor to the Mark I and much easier to program. It had two punch paper terminals for playing compositions. These stored data for playback; the machine’s output was recorded on lacquer-coated record­like discs. See: https://youtu.be/rgN_VzEIZ1I https://pemag.au/link/abnz The world’s first large-scale civilian nuclear power plant began operation in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, USA. Its primary purpose was to produce electricity, but it was also a proof-ofconcept of the breeder reactor, where 74 Fig.62: the RCA Mark II synthesiser. Note the punch paper terminals. Source: https://electronicmusic.fandom.com/ wiki/RCA_Synthesizer (CC-BY-SA). colour videotape, modems, pacemaker Veroboard, Mosfet, planar process etc Fig.63: the Bell 101 modem, released by AT&T in 1958. Source: https:// history-computer.com/modemcomplete-history-of-the-modem/ 1958 The first US satellite, Explorer 1, was launched in 1958 on a Juno I rocket booster. The Ampex VR-1000B commercial colour videotape recorder was released. It supported multiple international video standards. You can see the product brochure at https://pemag. au/link/abp0 Telephone-line modems (modulators/ demodulators) were mass-­produced for the military in the USA as the Bell 101 modem in 1958 (Fig.63), used for the SAGE air defence system. The technology was made available to the public in 1959, with a 110bit/s speed. They were a development of the teleprinter multiplexers used by news services and the like in the 1920s. The first implantable cardiac pacemaker was released. The second ever computer game was created by William Higinbotham (1910-1994) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, USA. It was called Tennis for Two and was similar to Pong. 1959 The first American ICBM, the SM-65 Atlas, went into operation. It was also used to launch Project Mercury astronauts. What was to become Veroboard for electronics prototyping and one-off circuits was invented. The first commercial plain-paper photocopier, the Xerox 914, was introduced. See the video at https://youtu. be/9xZYcWsh8t0 Practical Electronics | May | 2025 The History of Electronics, part 5 Fig.64: the ECHO 2 satellite undergoing testing and inspection, dwarfing the people around it. The first transmission using ECHO was from California to New Jersey in 1960. Source: NASA. Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Laboratories invented the Mosfet (metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor). This was described in an article in Silicon Chip magazine, May 2022, on the development of transistors (https://siliconchip.au/ Article/15305). The semiconductor planar process for fabricating integrated circuits was invented by Jean Amédée Hoerni (19241997). Silicon Chip published a series on the history of ICs in June-August 2022 (https://siliconchip.au/Series/382). NASA’s Project Echo, SMT parts 1960 NASA started Project Echo. Echo 1 and Echo 2 (launched 1964) were experimental passive reflector communications satellites (Fig.64), 30m diameter inflated balloons with some electronics onboard. They provided valuable data about atmospheric drag and other information. IBM first demonstrated surface-­ mounting component technology (SMT) in a small computer. It was later applied to the Launch Vehicle Digital Computer in the Saturn IB and Saturn V in the 1960s. ANITA electronic calculators, LEDs Fig.65: the Anita Mk VII & VIII (pictured) were launched simultaneously in 1961. VII was the first model because they had used the previous numbers for their mechanical calculators Source: https://w.wiki/7EFz (GNU FDL). Josephson junction, Telstar 1 etc 1962 The Telstar 1 communications satellite was launched into an elliptical orbit (not geostationary). Telstar 2 was launched in 1963. Both satellites were experimental; neither are still in use but are in orbit. Telstar 1 carried the first transatlantic TV transmission via satellite that same year; data was also transmitted between two IBM 1401 computers via Telstar 1. The third computer game was invented by Steve Russell (1937~) and played on a Digital PDP-1 mainframe computer. It was called Spacewar! – see Fig.66 and the video titled “Spacewar! (1961) - First digital computer game”: https://youtu.be/CwZAKJ8Y6YU The Josephson effect was observed in this year but was not recognised for what it was at the time. It eventually led to a superconducting circuit called the Josephson junction, with applications in quantum computers, voltage standards and digital signal processing, among others. It was named after Brian David Josephson (1940~). The IBM Shoebox speech recognition system could recognise 16 spoken words (numerals and arithmetic operators). It was a voice-operated printing calculator (see Fig.67). Conclusion next month Fig.66: Spacewar! Running on a PDP-1 computer. Source: https://w. wiki/7EF$ (CC-BY-2.0). Fig.67: an IBM ‘Shoebox’ voice recognition system/calculator. Source: IBM. In the next issue, we will pick up this list of discoveries by companies and organisations in 1963. That will be the final instalment in this sixpart series on the history of early electronics. The developments covered in that last article will include undersea data cables, electronic calculators, fax machines, video casette recorders, computers, mobile phones and more. PE 1961 The first electronic calculators were the ANITA Mark VII and Mark VIII, released in 1961, using vacuum tubes and cold cathode tubes (see Fig.65). The first solid-state electronic calculator was the Friden EC-130, released in 1963. J. W. Allen and R. J. Cherry invented the first visible light LEDs at SERL in Baldock, UK. Practical Electronics | May | 2025 75