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Science by its nature is a collaborative enterprise
where new pioneers build on the discoveries of those
who came before them. The "brilliant flashes of
inspiration" are highly celebrated, but they are
also quite rare. Most developments are evolutionary;
When discontinuous results occur they are more often
the result of accident than the creation of a truly
new idea. That said, there are certainly brilliant
strokes of insight throughout the pages of
electrical and radio history. Franklin's
"single-fluid" positive/negative concept of
electricity, or Maxwell's mathematical prediction of
electromagnetic waves are but two examples.
Despite the thousands of contributions, discoveries,
developments and improvements, there is a handful
that can be singled out as the most significant -
The major milestones of thinking or discovery.
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody
has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought."
--Albert Szent-Gyorgi (in The
Scientist Speculates ed. by Good)
Below are the publications from my collection that I believe represent
the major contributions toward the development of
electricity and radio. Click the book
title for
additional information including images from the
book.
(A complete list of all of my books and
periodicals is available by clicking
here)
A
Literary
Timeline
of
Radio and Electricity
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