| Title |
Primary Class |
Description |
Inventor |
Assignee |
Issue Date |
Patent No. |
| Improvement in collecting electricity for telegraphing |
307/149 |
This patent hasn't any practical or scientific meaning. An electrical layer in the atmosphere that could carry signals like a telegraph wire between grounded towers that must be in constant contact with this layer that surrounds the earth (similar to Mahlon Loomis patent No. 129971). |
William H. Ward |
___ |
April 30, 1872 |
US126356 |
| Mode of electric communication |
370/499 |
This device relied on conduction in the ground. Phones were grounded by metal rods poked into the earth. Transmission range was half a mile. The Dolbear patent prevented the Marconi Company from operating in the United States primarily because it was similar to the 1896 model of Guglielmo Marconi. In the end, Marconi had to purchase Dolbear's patent. |
Amos Emerson Dolbear |
Dolbear Electric Telephone Company, New Jersy |
October 5, 1886 |
US350299 |
| Method of operating arc lamps |
315/246 |
An alternator that produced radio high-frequency current of around 10,000 hertz. Tesla suppressed the disagreeable sound of power-frequency harmonics produced by arc lamps operating on frequencies within the range of human hearing. The produced pulsations were in the longwave broadcasting range (LF) and very low frequency band (VLF). |
Nikola Tesla |
___ |
March 10, 1891 |
US447920 |
| System of electric lighting |
454,622 |
A high-frequency coupled oscillator circuit with an air-cored transformer (early disruptive "Tesla" coil) which converts low-frequency currents into "current of very high frequency and very high potential", which then supplies single-terminal lamps. |
Nikola Tesla |
___ |
June 23, 1891 |
US454622 |
| Means for transmitting signals electrically |
178/43 |
An electromagnetic induction system Edison called "grasshopper telegraphy", which allowed telegraphic signals to jump the short distance between a running train and telegraph wires running parallel to the tracks. This system was successful technically but not economically, as there turned out to be little interest by train travelers in an on-board telegraph service. |
Thomas Alva Edison |
___ |
December 29, 1891 |
US465971 |
| Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefor. |
-- |
This Marconi patent is the first description in print of a wireless telegraphy device (US586193; RE11913). |
Guglielmo Marconi |
___ |
July 2, 1897 |
GB12039 |
| Transmitting electrical signals |
178/116 |
RE11913; GB12039 |
Guglielmo Marconi |
___ |
July 13, 1897 |
US586193 |
| Electrical transformer |
307/149 |
An early Tesla coil, developed currents of high potential and was composed of a primary and secondary coil where the secondary being inside of, and surrounded by, the convolutions of the primary coil. The apparatus was also connected to ground when the coil was in use. |
Nikola Tesla |
___ |
November 2, 1897 |
US593138 |
| Electric telegraphy |
178/116 |
By the making of the antenna coil or inductance variable, Lodge introduced the important concept of tuning in order to select a desired station (the "syntonic" tuning concept). In 1912 Lodge sold the patent to Marconi, and it was upheld in the 1943 Supreme Court decision. |
Oliver Joseph Lodge |
___ |
August 16, 1898 |
US609154 |
| Method of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vessels of vehicles |
318/16 |
Wireless remote control of boats. Employed the first logic gate and rotating coherers, allowed secure communication between transmitter and receiver. |
Nikola Tesla |
___ |
November 8, 1898 |
US613809 |
| System of transmission of electrical energy |
375/259 |
An early Tesla transmitter consisting of a flat-spiral quarter-wave resonator and an elevated terminal. It was upheld in the 1943 Supreme Court decision. |
Nikola Tesla |
___ |
March 20, 1900 |
US645576 |
| Apparatus for transmission of electrical energy |
455/39 |
Fundamental means for transmitting and receiving radio waves and energy. Build from a signal generator, primary and secondary coils at the transmitting and receiving stations. |
Nikola Tesla |
___ |
May 15, 1900 |
US649621 |
| Improvements in the Method of and Means for Transmitting and Receiving Electric Waves for the Production of Signals and for Imparting Motion to Machines or Apparatus. |
-- |
Basic wireless system |
Julio Cervera Baviera |
___ |
July 21, 1900 |
GB20084 |
| Improvements in Apparatus for Wireless Telegraphy. |
-- |
US patent No. 763,772, see below. |
Guglielmo Marconi; Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company, London. |
___ |
April 13, 1901 |
GB7777 |
| Transmitting electrical impulses and signals and apparatus therefor |
178/116 |
A primitive spark gap transmitter and receiving station with no tuning at all, would operate only over very short distances. The transmitter used a Ruhmkorff coil, Morse key, rotary spark gap; receivers used a coherer detector. It used various earlier techniques and instruments of various other experimenters, primarily Tesla and also Popov. Later claimed by Oliver Lodge to contain his own ideas which he failed to patent. Invalidated by the Court of Claims decision from 1935. (Original No. 586193; GB12039). |
Guglielmo Marconi |
Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company, London. |
June 4, 1901 |
RE11913 |
| Apparatus for wireless telegraphy |
178/116 |
This system was more advanced than Marconi's previous works by enabling tuning capabilities by the inclusion in the aerial circuits, at both the transmission and receiving stations, variable induction coils. |
Guglielmo Marconi |
Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, London |
June 11, 1901 |
US676332 |
| Telautomotor |
114/21.2 |
Wireless remote control of boats and other moving objects |
Harry Shoemaker |
Gustave P. Gehring; Marie V. Gehring |
October 21, 1902 |
US711743 |
| Method of selective electric signaling. |
370/339 |
An adjustable tuneable antenna circuit design (LC) for removing parasitic oscillations in the transmitter. Upheld in the 1943 Supreme Court decision against Marconi's patent 763772. |
John Stone Stone |
Louis E. Whicher; Alexander P. Browne; Brainerd T. Judkins |
December 2, 1902 |
US714756 |
| Wireless telegraph repeater |
375/211 |
A wireless telegraph repeater which object is to make it possible to signal between stations more widely separated that before by inserting between such stations a repeating station which receives radiant energy from the transmitting station, and providing means for entirely insulating the wave responsive device at the repeating station before the transmitted energy is produced. |
Harry Shoemaker |
Marie V. Gehring; The Consolidated Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Company, Philadelphia. |
January 13, 1903 |
US718535 |
| Detector for electrical disturbances |
257/41 |
Coherer detector and the earliest photovoltaic cell. The first patent awarded for a semiconductor device even if “semiconductor” wasn’t termed yet. Basically a pair of point contacts of galena connected in series with a voltage source. |
Jagadis Chunder Bose |
Jagadis Chunder Bose; Sara Chapman Bull |
March 29, 1904 |
US755840 |
| Method of communicating intelligence by wireless telegraphy |
178/116 |
Telegraph tone system which diminished the time needed to deliver a signal - the use of two signals of different frequencies for the "dot" and the "comma" of the Morse code. |
Joseph Murgas |
___ |
May 10, 1904 |
US759826 |
| Apparatus for wireless telegraphy |
178/116 |
A four-circuit design, which featured two tuned-circuits at both the transmitting and receiving antennas in order to prevent the restriction of the number of spark-gap radio transmitters which could operate simultaneously in a geographical area without causing mutually disruptive interference. Found to be invalid in the 1943 Supreme Court decision. (GB7777). |
Guglielmo Marconi |
Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company, London |
June 28, 1904 |
US763772 |
| Method of increasing the effective radiation of electromagnetic waves |
343/849 |
Transmission of signals by electromagnetic waves from an elevated conductor (antenna). |
John Stone Stone |
William W. Swan |
August 16, 1904 |
US767973 |
| Instrument for converting alternate electric currents into continuous currents |
329/370 |
Rectifying vacuum tube diode (GB24,805). |
John Ambrose Fleming |
Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company |
November 7, 1905 |
US803684 |
| Wireless transmitting and receiving mechanism for electric waves |
178/117 |
Wireless remote control system that prevents disturbances from other electromagnetic resources. |
Christian Hulsmeyer |
___ |
January 16, 1906 |
US810150 |
| Wireless telephony |
178/116 |
A system of wireless telephony using an electric arc light that enables high voltage and amperage without to damage the transmitter. |
Archie Frederick Collins |
___ |
March 13, 1906 |
US814942 |
| Wireless telegraph system |
455/137 |
To reduce false signals received by employing a few distinct receiving devices working in parallel. |
Harry Shoemaker |
Marie V. Gehring; International Wireless Telegraph Company, New Jersy. |
June 26, 1906 |
US824676 |
| Means for receiving intelligence communicated by electric waves |
423/348 |
A silicon crystal point-contact radio detector - a fine pointed wire (cat's whisker) in delicate contact with the silicon crystal. |
Greenleaf Whittier Pickard |
___ |
November 20, 1906 |
US836531 |
| Space telegraphy |
329/368 |
Vacuum tube (valve) triode. |
Lee De Forest |
De Forest Radio Telephone Co., New York |
February 18, 1908 |
US879532 |
| Wireless telephone |
178/43 |
Means for electrically transmitting signals for securing telephonic communication between moving vehicles and way stations. |
Nathan B. Stubblefield |
Conn Linn; R. Downs; B. F. Schroader; George C. Mclarin; John P. McElrath; Jeff D. Roulette; Samuel E. Bynum |
May 12, 1908 |
US887357 |
| High frequency alternator |
310/169 |
The Alexanderson mechanical alternator: a high-frequency generator, up to 100 kHz, for longwave transmissions, which made modulated (voice) radio broadcasts practical. |
Ernst F. W. Alexanderson |
General Electric Company, New York |
November 14, 1911 |
US1008577 |
| Wireless receiving system |
375/339 |
The regenerative circuit. |
Edwin H. Armstrong |
___ |
October 6, 1914 |
US1113149 |
| Selective tuning system |
455/291 |
Tunning and frequency selection by a push-pull configuration. |
Ernst F. W. Alexanderson |
General Electric Company, New York |
February 22, 1916 |
US1173079 |
| Method of receiving high-frequency oscillations |
455/315 |
Superheterodyne receiver |
Edwin H. Armstrong |
___ |
June 8, 1920 |
US1342885 |
| Radio signaling system |
455/205 |
Frequency Modulation (FM) receiver. |
Edwin H. Armstrong |
___ |
December 26, 1933 |
US1941066 |
| Transistor radio apparatus |
455/334 |
Transistor Radio |
Richard C. Koch |
I. D. E. A., Incorporated, Indianapolis |
June 30, 1959 |
US2892931 |
