The early history of radio in Canada is a story rarely told. Too often it gets abbreviated to a short account of Guglielmo Marconi's electrifying, if somewhat equivocal, transoceanic signal reception in St John's, Newfoundland in December 1901. ... The barely audible results of this experiment merely marked the beginning of a long and arduous process of technical refinement and entrepreneurial improvisation that would take three decades to reach fruition. The history of these decades is what Dr. Robert Murray offers us in The Early Development of Radio in Canada, 1901-1930.
By the time of the First World War, marine radio was on a firm footing on Canada's coasts and inland waters. This was based on Marconi's spark gap technology, which proved adequate for the few high powered coastal and shipboard radiotelegraph stations that were using it. Already though, research by the Canadian scientist Reginald Fessenden had demonstrated the limitations of this technology and had point to the future: transmission and reception of voice and code by continuous waves. ...
As the 1920s dawned, the essential pieces for an enormous expansion in the scope and impact of radio were in place. As the phenomenon of broadcast listening emerged out of the esoteric hobby of amateur radio, several companies undertook the manufacture of receiving equipment for this growing market. Some, like the Canadian Independent Telephone Co., W.W. Grant and H.,M. Kipp, have long since disappeared. Others, like Canadian Marconi, Northern Electrics, Rogers Radio and Canadian General Electric still exist, though frequently in altered corporate form. ...
The Early Development of Radio in Canada, 1901-1930 assembles in one volume 14 essays on the early years of Canada's radio industry. ... Previously, only one book with a national scope, Sharon Babaian's Radio Communication in Canada (1992) tackled the subject. Like all good books, The Early Development of Radio in Canada, 1901-1930 will become the starting point for future study.
|
