1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:15,160 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,320 Speaker 1: and I love all things tech and recently I covered 5 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 1: the video game crash of Night three, and in that 6 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,560 Speaker 1: episode I also talked about an earlier video game market 7 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:34,760 Speaker 1: crash that happened in nine Now I also talked about 8 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: a company called Magnavox and the Magnavox Odyssey console that 9 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:44,080 Speaker 1: ushered in the early era of home video game systems. Well, today, 10 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 1: I thought we would learn more about the company Magnavox, 11 00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:50,880 Speaker 1: where it came from, and how it played an important 12 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: part in the history of electronics, because, as it turns out, 13 00:00:55,200 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: Magnavox has a really interesting history beyond the fact that 14 00:01:00,640 --> 00:01:06,040 Speaker 1: it helped bring about the the age of home video games. 15 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:08,840 Speaker 1: So this is gonna be a deep dive series into 16 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:13,400 Speaker 1: the history of Magnavox. And like most of my history series, 17 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,960 Speaker 1: I like to take opportunities to talk about certain technologies 18 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 1: that played an important role in the company's history and 19 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:23,640 Speaker 1: explain how those technologies work. It's kind of my sneaky 20 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:27,039 Speaker 1: way of talking about how tech works. So there's gonna 21 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: be a lot of that in these episodes because the 22 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 1: founding of Magnavox itself actually comes from a pivotal technology 23 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:37,679 Speaker 1: in the history of radio. So we're gonna be talking 24 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:41,479 Speaker 1: a lot about radio early on in this episode in particular. 25 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:45,400 Speaker 1: So while I'm calling this the history of Magnavox, you're 26 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: getting a ton of extra content on top of that. 27 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: You're welcome. Now, it also means that we're gonna have 28 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:56,520 Speaker 1: to learn about the history of the co founders of Magnavox, 29 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: and we usually say that the founders were uh, Peter 30 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: Jensen from Denmark and Edward Pridom. Now we'll start with 31 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,639 Speaker 1: Pridum because I actually know the least about him. There 32 00:02:10,639 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: are more sources to have at least something to say 33 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: about Jensen. He's he's something of a hero in Denmark, 34 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:20,800 Speaker 1: and I'm not sure what caused the disparity here where 35 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 1: Jensen has way more about him than Pridom does. But 36 00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: I'll give you what I do know about pried Um. 37 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:32,079 Speaker 1: So unfortunate in that there are historians who focused primarily 38 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 1: on hyper local history, like the history of a specific town, 39 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: for example, and I happened to come across one that 40 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:45,080 Speaker 1: incidentally had information about Edwin Priddham. His father, James, was 41 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:49,880 Speaker 1: born in eighteen forty four, so before the Civil War 42 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:52,840 Speaker 1: in the United States, but James was born in Quebec, Canada. 43 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:57,840 Speaker 1: He immigrated to Joaukegan, Illinois, in eighteen seventy one. There 44 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 1: he met a woman named Jeannette Lagrange McClaskey, and the 45 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:05,400 Speaker 1: two fell in love and they got married in eighteen 46 00:03:05,440 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: seventy three. James Priddom's occupation was that of a manufacturing 47 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 1: chemist or a druggist, and he would end up running 48 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:19,799 Speaker 1: a drug store in Woaukegan for several years, and from 49 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:21,560 Speaker 1: what I can tell, he appeared to be a pretty 50 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: successful businessman. He and his wife moved to Maywood, Illinois 51 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy eight, and in eighteen eighty one they 52 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:34,440 Speaker 1: welcomed their son, Edwin S. Priddom, to the world. I 53 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: don't have much other information about Edwin's upbringing. I do 54 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: know he attended Stanford University and he graduated in nineteen 55 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: o nine with a degree in physics. After graduation, he 56 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: joined fellow Stanford graduate Cyril Frank Lwell. Now l Will 57 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:55,480 Speaker 1: had actually graduated a couple of years previously in nineteen 58 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:58,760 Speaker 1: o seven, and l Will was trying to produce a 59 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 1: system that would allow for the wireless transmission of voice 60 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:07,800 Speaker 1: communication aka you know, radio voice transmissions. This was in 61 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 1: Palo Alto, California. And we'll leave Pritam there for now, 62 00:04:12,280 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: and we will rejoin him momentarily. But now, whether Jensen 63 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: so Peter Jensen was born in eighteen eighty six, and uh, 64 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: he was born on the island Foster, which is part 65 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:31,359 Speaker 1: of Denmark. As for where he attended school, by that, 66 00:04:31,480 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: I am somewhat baffled because at least according to Wikipedia, 67 00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: and bear with me, we'll touch on this, but according 68 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: to Wikipedia, he went to Amherst College. Amherst College is 69 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 1: in Massachusetts in the United States, and according to Wikipedia, 70 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,359 Speaker 1: he graduated from this college with a degree in liberal 71 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:55,120 Speaker 1: arts in nineteen o six. Now, immediately, that didn't sound 72 00:04:55,200 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: right to me, and I tried to verify this. And 73 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: because that particular fact in the wiki page had no citation, right, 74 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 1: there was no source connected to this claim, and it 75 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:09,760 Speaker 1: sounded like it was off to me. So I did 76 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: some searches to find out whether or not this was accurate. 77 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: I found a couple of other sources that also mentioned Amherst, 78 00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:20,240 Speaker 1: but every single one of them, including the Wikipedia page, 79 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 1: used the exact same wording, so clearly these are all 80 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:28,479 Speaker 1: copies of each other. I don't know which one is 81 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,280 Speaker 1: the original. Maybe it's the Wikipedia page, maybe it's one 82 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:34,240 Speaker 1: of the others, but they all used exactly the same words, 83 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:38,520 Speaker 1: not like they were rephrasing things. So my guess was 84 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:40,839 Speaker 1: that this was a mistake that happened in one place, 85 00:05:41,279 --> 00:05:44,680 Speaker 1: and then lots of other people copied it. And again, 86 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: the reason I find this all baffling is that, according 87 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:51,520 Speaker 1: to most other sources, the young Jensen found himself apprenticed 88 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:56,520 Speaker 1: to Dutch inventor Valdemar Poulson in nineteen o three, So 89 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: even the Wikipedia article says this that he joined Paulson 90 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,760 Speaker 1: as an apprentice in nineteen o three. Paulson, however, lived 91 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:09,800 Speaker 1: and worked in Denmark, so that raises the question how 92 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:12,720 Speaker 1: the heck would a young Jenson be able to travel 93 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 1: all the way to the United States and attend Amherst 94 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:19,000 Speaker 1: while also working for Paulson, because the two would have 95 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:21,440 Speaker 1: had to happen at the same time. So I'm pretty 96 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,120 Speaker 1: sure that has to be an error and a reminder 97 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: that if you go to Wikipedia, it's a great place 98 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,279 Speaker 1: to look for initial sources. It is not always the 99 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:34,240 Speaker 1: most reliable resource in of itself. I mean it's it's 100 00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:38,000 Speaker 1: not usually this bad, but this is pretty bad. Anyway, 101 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,479 Speaker 1: I'm going to assume that Jensen didn't leave Denmark before 102 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:45,040 Speaker 1: nineteen o nine or so, particularly since at least some 103 00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:49,359 Speaker 1: sources suggest it would be his future business partner Pritum 104 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: who would help Jensen learn English. Surely, if he had 105 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: attended Amherst in the United States and received a Liberal 106 00:06:57,320 --> 00:06:59,880 Speaker 1: Arts degree of all things, he would have to have 107 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: been pretty fluent in English before leaving in nineteen o nine, 108 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:11,400 Speaker 1: But will let that sit for now. Baltimore Poulson, Jensen's mentor, 109 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: was an inventor who made significant contributions to fields like 110 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:20,680 Speaker 1: radio communication and magnetic recording. If you've listened to other 111 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:23,560 Speaker 1: Tech Stuff episodes, you've heard me talk about that kind 112 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: of stuff before. We will touch on a few things 113 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: throughout this episode in order to understand their significance as 114 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:32,760 Speaker 1: well as you know how they actually worked. Anyway, Jensen 115 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,560 Speaker 1: worked with Poulson, gaining valuable experience and knowledge in the 116 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,680 Speaker 1: field of radio physics and electronics. One invention in particular 117 00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:44,240 Speaker 1: would become instrumental for our stories beginning, and that would 118 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:48,280 Speaker 1: be the arc radio transmitter. But all of this requires 119 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:51,960 Speaker 1: multiple explanations so that we can understand why it's important. 120 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: So in the very early days of radio transmissions, engineers 121 00:07:56,560 --> 00:08:01,200 Speaker 1: worked with something called spark transmitters, and this stuff ends 122 00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: up being really important because it does lead eventually to 123 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: Jansen and print a meeting. So we're gonna take a 124 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: trip down this rabbit hole to learn about the early 125 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:12,280 Speaker 1: days of radio. And by early I mean when folks 126 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 1: first started discovering that this was a thing that we 127 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: could create and detect radio waves. So in order to 128 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:22,840 Speaker 1: get that basic understanding, like this just becomes an onion, 129 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: I get it, but you know, we have to have 130 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,240 Speaker 1: this basis of understanding. We're gonna start with James Clerk Maxwell. Now, 131 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: you could technically go back earlier, but I'm not going 132 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:35,079 Speaker 1: to do that. So in the mid nineteenth century, Maxwell 133 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: was looking at the work done by folks like Charles 134 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:45,120 Speaker 1: Augustine de Colombe, Michael Faraday, Andre Marie Empire, Franz Ernst Neuman, 135 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: and Emile Lens. So see, like you could go further 136 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: back but that would be an entire episode by itself. 137 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 1: Maybe one day I will to just talk about the 138 00:08:54,559 --> 00:08:58,840 Speaker 1: steps that led to us understanding and then leveraging things 139 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:01,960 Speaker 1: like radio waves. Any Maxwell was trying to suss out 140 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:06,200 Speaker 1: the math that would help explain the various observations that 141 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:09,720 Speaker 1: had been made by these earlier scientists, and most of 142 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:13,880 Speaker 1: those observations dealt with our growing understanding of electricity and 143 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 1: magnetism and how those two things relate to one another, 144 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: in other words, electromagnetism. So Maxwell developed a series of 145 00:09:21,640 --> 00:09:26,400 Speaker 1: equations to describe the relationships between electricity and magnetism, and 146 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:29,840 Speaker 1: this became the foundation for our understanding of electromagnetism, and 147 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:34,600 Speaker 1: it also ended up creating certain predictions that Maxwell himself 148 00:09:34,640 --> 00:09:38,600 Speaker 1: had no way of testing. There are entire college courses 149 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:41,840 Speaker 1: dedicated to Maxwell's equations, and there's no way I could 150 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:45,040 Speaker 1: do that subject matter justice in this episode. So what's 151 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: important for us to realize is that another smarty pants 152 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:51,400 Speaker 1: by the name of Heinrich Hurtz. I'm sure that last 153 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: name sounds familiar. He was able to create scientific experiments 154 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,840 Speaker 1: to look for something that Maxwell's equations had predicted. So 155 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:04,080 Speaker 1: he was actually putting these predictions to the test. Maxwell 156 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:09,280 Speaker 1: predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves. But that you know, 157 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:11,280 Speaker 1: that's a great prediction, But how would you know if 158 00:10:11,320 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: you if you were around them. I mean, they are 159 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 1: invisible apart from light, which is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. 160 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:21,240 Speaker 1: But people weren't fully didn't didn't fully understand all this 161 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:25,319 Speaker 1: at this point, So they are effectively invisible to us, 162 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:28,080 Speaker 1: and we have no real way of interacting with them 163 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: naturally on our own. But the Hurts came up with 164 00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:34,960 Speaker 1: an experiment. He built an apparatus that included a spark gap. 165 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:38,800 Speaker 1: That is, it incorporated a pair of electrode terminals that 166 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,200 Speaker 1: are separated by a small gap of empty space just 167 00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 1: air between the two. But if you create a sufficient voltage, 168 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: which remember an electrical circuit, voltage is equivalent to pressure, 169 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,120 Speaker 1: how much UNP is behind the current, if you had 170 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: a sufficient voltage applied across the two terminals, so, in 171 00:10:56,480 --> 00:11:00,000 Speaker 1: other words, the the difference between negative and positive charge 172 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:03,760 Speaker 1: just so great it allows for an electric discharge to 173 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: pass between the terminals and essentially kind of equalize the pressure, 174 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: so you get a spark. In other words, this is 175 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,640 Speaker 1: the basic principle for stuff like spark plugs in internal 176 00:11:13,679 --> 00:11:18,040 Speaker 1: combustion engine vehicles. Anyway, Hurts created a device that had 177 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:20,840 Speaker 1: a spark gap in it. He could generate sparks with 178 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,439 Speaker 1: this device, but he also had a loop of wire, 179 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:28,480 Speaker 1: and the loop of wire ended with a little gap 180 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:33,559 Speaker 1: between two effectively terminals another spark gap. In other words, 181 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:35,760 Speaker 1: this one was not connected to a power source, however, 182 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:40,280 Speaker 1: and he discovered that when he generated a spark with 183 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:44,720 Speaker 1: his first device, this loop of wire would also have 184 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:49,920 Speaker 1: a spark get generated between its two ends as long 185 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: as it was within a few meters of the first one. So, 186 00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:56,479 Speaker 1: in other words, spark gap number one acted like a transmitter, 187 00:11:56,559 --> 00:11:59,640 Speaker 1: and spark gap number two, this loop of wire was 188 00:11:59,679 --> 00:12:01,840 Speaker 1: acting like a receiver. Now, I'm not going to go 189 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:04,600 Speaker 1: into all the actual physics of this, because that would 190 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:09,000 Speaker 1: require even more discussion of stuff like resonance, capacitance and 191 00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:13,319 Speaker 1: inductance um and and that would just be like this, 192 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,560 Speaker 1: this series would be forty episodes long. I will say 193 00:12:16,559 --> 00:12:20,120 Speaker 1: that it isn't as simple as saying electricity happens over here, 194 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:23,200 Speaker 1: so it's also happening over here. That would be just 195 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:25,440 Speaker 1: playing wrong. Now, if you do want me to go 196 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: into a more detailed explanation of how Hurts generated radio 197 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:33,360 Speaker 1: signals with this, even though he wasn't fully aware of 198 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: exactly what it was he did. I'll do that in 199 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:39,360 Speaker 1: a future series, but for now we'll just leave it 200 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,800 Speaker 1: as Hurts created a device that generated radio waves and 201 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:46,040 Speaker 1: discovered a way to detect those waves using a loop 202 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:48,400 Speaker 1: of wire. But it Hurts didn't think there was any 203 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:51,839 Speaker 1: real practical use for this. He just saw it as 204 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:58,360 Speaker 1: a scientific experiment that validated Maxwell's hypothesis regarding electro magnetic radiation. 205 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:01,040 Speaker 1: He was just saying, this experiment, it proves that Maxwell 206 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:04,280 Speaker 1: was right, But I can't see any use for this 207 00:13:04,679 --> 00:13:07,600 Speaker 1: apart from that. Now, as it would turn out, this 208 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:11,440 Speaker 1: would become the basis for early radio communication. Oh and 209 00:13:11,480 --> 00:13:14,960 Speaker 1: by the way, this type of radio communication uh has 210 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 1: been illegal in the United States since nineteen nine. The 211 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: spark gap transmitter approach against the law in the United States. 212 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:28,079 Speaker 1: And you might wonder why why is that against the law? Well, 213 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:31,439 Speaker 1: the signals you generate with a spark gap radio transmitter 214 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:35,839 Speaker 1: have a very broad frequency range. So if you were, 215 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:39,720 Speaker 1: you know, close to a spark gap radio transmitter, like 216 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:41,839 Speaker 1: you're not part of this experiment, right, there's just one 217 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:45,200 Speaker 1: that's operating somewhere in your area. Well, you might find 218 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: that the transmissions coming from that transmitter are overpowering other ones, 219 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:54,360 Speaker 1: like broadcast radio signals or you know, maybe later on 220 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 1: television signals. It all depends on what frequency range it's 221 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:01,680 Speaker 1: broadcasting in, and radio interference, by definition makes it really 222 00:14:01,720 --> 00:14:04,680 Speaker 1: hard to send and receive signals. So the US federal 223 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:08,640 Speaker 1: government told amateur radio enthusiasts, hey, there's no way you 224 00:14:08,679 --> 00:14:11,760 Speaker 1: can guarantee your setup is not gonna mess with important systems, 225 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:15,080 Speaker 1: so please don't use spark gap transmitters. It's it's like 226 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: firing off a blunderbus in a random direction. Not not great. 227 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:23,240 Speaker 1: It's not precise, so you can't like tune into a 228 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:27,640 Speaker 1: specific radio frequency. It's more like across this broad range 229 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:32,880 Speaker 1: of frequencies, that transmission is gonna criss cross all of them. 230 00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:38,360 Speaker 1: So it's not a precise approach to transmission. So later 231 00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:42,160 Speaker 1: engineers would build spark gap systems to transmit information wirelessly. 232 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: But the spark gap method really only allows transmission of 233 00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:50,080 Speaker 1: radio waves over that broad and somewhat random spectrum of frequencies, 234 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:54,240 Speaker 1: so suitable for sending like a coded message like those 235 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: that are sent by Morse code, because you could just 236 00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 1: send little bursts of radio pulses. But it wasn't a 237 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:04,440 Speaker 1: good fit for other types of information like audio information. 238 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,600 Speaker 1: There was no way to send voice communications using spark 239 00:15:07,680 --> 00:15:11,040 Speaker 1: gap technology, at least not effectively. And this is where 240 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:14,760 Speaker 1: Poulson comes in. So you know, you remember Paulson. We 241 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:16,800 Speaker 1: kind of left off on him a while ago. But 242 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:20,360 Speaker 1: Poulson developed something called an arc transmitter. And you might 243 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:23,320 Speaker 1: have heard me talk about transistors and how those would 244 00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 1: end up replacing for the most part, older vacuum tube technology. Well, 245 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:32,440 Speaker 1: vacuum tubes would end up replacing arc transmitters. So we're 246 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:34,920 Speaker 1: gonna take a step back from vacuum tubes were right 247 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:39,320 Speaker 1: in between, uh, you know, the spark transmitters and vacuum tubes. 248 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:41,760 Speaker 1: At this point, the arc lamp had been around for 249 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,240 Speaker 1: nearly a century. But I'll talk more about how we 250 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:48,760 Speaker 1: went from an arc lamp to an arc transmitter after 251 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 1: we come back from this quick break. So our lamps 252 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:02,280 Speaker 1: had been around for almost a hundred years when Poulson 253 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,280 Speaker 1: starts taking a look at them for the potential of 254 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:10,440 Speaker 1: using them as a form of a radio transmitter. Let's 255 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:12,680 Speaker 1: start by defining what an arc lamp is in the 256 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:14,560 Speaker 1: first place. And I talked about these a bit in 257 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: my episodes about stage lighting. Uh, they have something in 258 00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: common with spark gaps. So in our lamp typically has 259 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:24,560 Speaker 1: a pair of carbon rods. Doesn't always have to be carbon, 260 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:28,120 Speaker 1: but that's how the early ones were. And you create 261 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:33,080 Speaker 1: a high voltage between these carbon rods um and you're 262 00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:37,120 Speaker 1: essentially feeding a high voltage current into rod number one 263 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: and it's separated by a gap from rod number two, 264 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:45,720 Speaker 1: and the carbon in the first rod begins to vaporize. 265 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:48,400 Speaker 1: Because the carbon rod is gonna heat up due to 266 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:52,560 Speaker 1: its electrical resistance as this high voltage is pushing current 267 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:56,040 Speaker 1: through it, so heats up. Some of the carbon atoms 268 00:16:56,080 --> 00:16:59,760 Speaker 1: begin to vaporize, and this allows electricity to flow in 269 00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:03,560 Speaker 1: an arc from rod number one to rod number two. 270 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:08,399 Speaker 1: The carbon vapor effectively is completing a circuit. Now, this 271 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:12,119 Speaker 1: means that rod number one is slowly losing mass because 272 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,440 Speaker 1: particles are vaporizing off of the rod, and Rod number 273 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:19,000 Speaker 1: two is slowly gaining mass because those vaporized particles are 274 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:22,880 Speaker 1: forming deposits on the rod. And the length of that 275 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,760 Speaker 1: gap ends up being really important for carbon arc lamps. 276 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:29,639 Speaker 1: If it's too wide of a gap, well, then you're 277 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:32,960 Speaker 1: gonna get these little starts and stops as the arc forms, 278 00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:38,000 Speaker 1: because the vapor between the two rods will get interrupted. 279 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:40,240 Speaker 1: So if the gap is too large, you just get 280 00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:44,040 Speaker 1: kind of a sputtering lamp. If it's too close, well 281 00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:46,280 Speaker 1: you'll get an arc that forms, but you'll have a 282 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:48,399 Speaker 1: limit to how much light is being produced and won't 283 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:51,479 Speaker 1: be very effective. All right, So that was the basic 284 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:56,080 Speaker 1: carbon arc lamp. Well, then a brilliant woman named Hertha Arton, 285 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:00,359 Speaker 1: who married a mathematician named William Martin Um had come 286 00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:03,439 Speaker 1: up with more ideas. So William Martin he had started 287 00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:06,520 Speaker 1: to look into the physics and peculiarities of arc lamps. 288 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,240 Speaker 1: You know, they were already a thing by the time 289 00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:11,199 Speaker 1: he was looking into them. He didn't invent them. He 290 00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,120 Speaker 1: was just curious about them because there were certain things 291 00:18:14,119 --> 00:18:18,920 Speaker 1: about them that were interesting and not fully understood. However, 292 00:18:18,960 --> 00:18:23,199 Speaker 1: he became discouraged after his research burned up because arc 293 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,880 Speaker 1: lamps are also dangerous and there was a fire. But 294 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 1: Hertha took up the torch, so to speak. She was 295 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 1: a keen student of mathematematics, herself and she continued her 296 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:38,679 Speaker 1: husband's research on her own. She noted that when she 297 00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 1: generated certain types of arcs at certain voltages, the current 298 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:48,880 Speaker 1: in the arc would decrease as she increased the voltage. 299 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:51,680 Speaker 1: And that seemed weird, right, Like she would increase the 300 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:56,280 Speaker 1: voltage or pressure, but the current, the amount of electricity 301 00:18:56,280 --> 00:19:00,439 Speaker 1: flowing through the arc would decrease. What could is that 302 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:07,639 Speaker 1: to happen? Well, William, her husband, hypothesized that for you know, 303 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:10,439 Speaker 1: when he was seeing the current changing, there must be 304 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 1: some sort of negative resistance, negative electrical resistance in the arc. 305 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:17,600 Speaker 1: This was not something that was accepted by the science 306 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:20,760 Speaker 1: community at large, to put it lightly, but one of 307 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 1: his students, a guy named William Duddell, began studying arc 308 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:27,399 Speaker 1: lamps and he found something really weird. And he was 309 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:30,360 Speaker 1: looking at what happened if you changed the current flowing 310 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,520 Speaker 1: to an arc lamp, you know, at at different speeds, 311 00:19:33,520 --> 00:19:37,600 Speaker 1: like if you're changing the current frequently or less frequently, Like, 312 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:40,840 Speaker 1: how does that affect the arc lamp? And this was 313 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:44,600 Speaker 1: direct current, right, That's the kind of current that always 314 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:47,359 Speaker 1: flows in the same direction. It's the type that you 315 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,280 Speaker 1: get if you are drawing electricity from a battery, because 316 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 1: a battery has a negative terminal and a positive terminal, 317 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,320 Speaker 1: and that's that the electrons flow from the negative toward 318 00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:59,359 Speaker 1: the positive and they're not going to change directions in 319 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:03,399 Speaker 1: a normal like circuit. But Duddle hooked up his arc 320 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:07,760 Speaker 1: lamp to a circuit that had a capacitor in it. Now, 321 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:11,679 Speaker 1: a capacitor consists of two conductive plates that have an 322 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:15,679 Speaker 1: insulator substance called a dielectric separating the two plates. So 323 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:17,639 Speaker 1: in the middle, kind of like a sandwich, you have 324 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:20,920 Speaker 1: conductive plate number one, you get your insulating material, then 325 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,520 Speaker 1: you have conductive plate number two. Now, this allows you 326 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:26,119 Speaker 1: to build up charges on either side of the plates. 327 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:28,719 Speaker 1: You can build up a very big negative charge on 328 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: one side and a positive charge on the other, and 329 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:35,040 Speaker 1: they will hold that charge and opposite charges attract right 330 00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,520 Speaker 1: the negative once quote unquote to get over with the 331 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,160 Speaker 1: positive and the positive ones to get over with the negative. 332 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 1: So if you create a pathway so that the charge 333 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:49,000 Speaker 1: can actually move from either side and equalize, it will 334 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:50,919 Speaker 1: do so, and it will do it all at once. 335 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:55,160 Speaker 1: It will completely dump that charge as soon as there 336 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: is a viable path to do so. So here's a 337 00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:02,240 Speaker 1: simple version of a circuit with a capacitor. Let's say 338 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:04,880 Speaker 1: you got a battery and you connect a wire from 339 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,439 Speaker 1: the negative terminal of the battery to a light bulb. 340 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,080 Speaker 1: You connect the light bulb to a capacitor, and you 341 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:14,440 Speaker 1: connect the other side of the capacitor back to the battery. 342 00:21:14,480 --> 00:21:17,920 Speaker 1: So what happens when you have completed this circuit, Well, 343 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 1: electricity flows from the batteries negative terminal to the light bulb. 344 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: Light bulb lights up, it continues on to the capacitor. 345 00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:29,800 Speaker 1: Now electrons start to accumulate in that plate of the capacitor. 346 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:34,199 Speaker 1: That capacitor builds up a negative charge. Meanwhile, electrons on 347 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:37,600 Speaker 1: the opposite plate, the one on the other side of 348 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:40,840 Speaker 1: the circuit, they start to give up electrons that go 349 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,840 Speaker 1: back to the battery and it builds up a positive charge. 350 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:45,960 Speaker 1: So you have a positive charge on one side and 351 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,679 Speaker 1: then you have a negative charge on the other. The 352 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:51,000 Speaker 1: capacitor can actually charge all the way up to the 353 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:55,320 Speaker 1: same amount of voltage that the battery provides. So if 354 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:58,080 Speaker 1: it's a one and a half volt battery, the capacitor 355 00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:01,119 Speaker 1: will charge up to one a half volts between the 356 00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:05,040 Speaker 1: two plates, and as it charges up, the light bulb 357 00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:07,840 Speaker 1: will gradually start to dim, and once the capascitor is 358 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:11,919 Speaker 1: fully charged, the light will just go out. Because the 359 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,840 Speaker 1: current no longer is flowing from the battery, the circuits 360 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: kind of at a standstill. You have equal amounts of pressure, 361 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:22,560 Speaker 1: so everything just kind of holds. But let's say then 362 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:24,639 Speaker 1: you remove the battery. So you take the battery out 363 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,280 Speaker 1: of the circuit, the capacitor will still hold on to 364 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:31,960 Speaker 1: its charge. It still has that that voltage there. And 365 00:22:32,359 --> 00:22:34,840 Speaker 1: if you were to actually put a wire in the 366 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,640 Speaker 1: place of where the battery had been, well, now you've 367 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:42,000 Speaker 1: completed a pathway so that the electricity can actually flow 368 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:45,639 Speaker 1: through the circuit, and the electrons on the negatively charged 369 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:49,360 Speaker 1: plate are gonna rush all at once back through this circuit. 370 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:51,679 Speaker 1: That means you're going to go back through the lightbulb 371 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:55,240 Speaker 1: and make the light bulb flash very quickly, and then 372 00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:57,800 Speaker 1: the charge reaches equilibrium and the light bulb goes off 373 00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:00,160 Speaker 1: and everything goes back to normal. The flash bulb, as 374 00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:04,000 Speaker 1: we use in film cameras use capacitors in exactly this 375 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,280 Speaker 1: way to activate that light quickly so that you can 376 00:23:07,359 --> 00:23:12,879 Speaker 1: take a flash picture. Okay, well, Dundal found something really 377 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: weird when he attached his capacitor to his arc lamp. 378 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:19,360 Speaker 1: He had a loop of wire connected in this circuit 379 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:22,040 Speaker 1: where he had his capacitor in his arc lamp, and 380 00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: he found that this setup creates something really bizarre. First 381 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:30,440 Speaker 1: of all, it would start humming at a weird musical note, 382 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,800 Speaker 1: like it was a musical kind of hum and also 383 00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:38,840 Speaker 1: it appeared that it was creating alternating current. There was 384 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,680 Speaker 1: an oscillation going on in the flow of current. So 385 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:47,000 Speaker 1: Dundle discovered if he straightened the loop of wire, the 386 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 1: humming noise stopped and the arc lamp reverted to plain 387 00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:53,920 Speaker 1: old direct current. So he figured something wild was happening, 388 00:23:53,920 --> 00:23:57,560 Speaker 1: and he learned that the coil and capacitor were creating 389 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 1: an oscillating signals. So let's go back to that that 390 00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,439 Speaker 1: simple capacitor example we just made. You've built up a 391 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,679 Speaker 1: charge between two plates, and you connect the two plates 392 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: together using a coiled wire so that you can have 393 00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:14,040 Speaker 1: an instantaneous discharge, and electrons flow from the negatively charged 394 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:17,679 Speaker 1: plate and they go through the coiled wire towards the 395 00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:22,639 Speaker 1: positive one. Well, as electrons go through a coiled conductor, 396 00:24:23,040 --> 00:24:26,560 Speaker 1: it generates a magnetic field. That magnetic field actually encourages 397 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:30,399 Speaker 1: more charged to flow and it will reverse the charges 398 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:32,960 Speaker 1: that we had in the capacitor. So, in one instance, 399 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,359 Speaker 1: we had a positive plate and a negative plate. We 400 00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:40,560 Speaker 1: connect them with this coil. The negative ends up becoming 401 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:45,840 Speaker 1: positively charged, the positive becomes negatively charged. They switch charges. Well, 402 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: they're still connected by that coil of wire. So now 403 00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:50,920 Speaker 1: that flow of electricity is going to reverse again. It's 404 00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:54,359 Speaker 1: going to go back the other way, and because again 405 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:58,000 Speaker 1: through that process it creates a magnetic field, it reverses 406 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:02,680 Speaker 1: the charges again. So you have this oscillating effect. The 407 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:06,280 Speaker 1: electricity flows in one direction until the capacitor charges up 408 00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:10,800 Speaker 1: flows the other direction, et cetera. Now y'all probably know 409 00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 1: there ain't no such thing as perpetual motion. That's also 410 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:18,639 Speaker 1: true in electrical systems as well. So you could connect 411 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:21,760 Speaker 1: a charged capacitor in a very simple circuit with a 412 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,520 Speaker 1: coil of wire and create alternating current. But the strength 413 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,640 Speaker 1: of that current decreases over time, and this is due 414 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,560 Speaker 1: to electrical resistance, which is essentially the friction in the 415 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:36,880 Speaker 1: world of electronics. So eventually that current does die down. 416 00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,920 Speaker 1: You can't just have a perpetual electrical machine by connecting 417 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:43,919 Speaker 1: a coil of wire to a battery. People would have 418 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,919 Speaker 1: figured that out long ago if it were possible, But 419 00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:51,080 Speaker 1: when connected to an arc lamp, things are end up 420 00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:53,840 Speaker 1: being a little different. So the battery would start to 421 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 1: charge up the capacitor. In the meantime, we would also 422 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,520 Speaker 1: charge up the arc, and the arc would eventually fire. Now, 423 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:03,960 Speaker 1: the firing of the arc wouldn't turn cause the capacitor 424 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:07,760 Speaker 1: to discharge, and that would start off this oscillating effect, 425 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:12,520 Speaker 1: and the arc would essentially amplify that discharge, taking energy 426 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,000 Speaker 1: from the battery and the process. So the arc was 427 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:18,879 Speaker 1: kind of like if you imagine someone on a swing 428 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:22,000 Speaker 1: set and they're they're not pumping their legs or their 429 00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,639 Speaker 1: arms or anything. They're just they started a point they 430 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:28,240 Speaker 1: start swinging. Well, we know that if you start at 431 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:32,040 Speaker 1: a certain height and you swing down and you swing back, 432 00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:34,520 Speaker 1: you're not gonna go back up to the same height 433 00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:36,920 Speaker 1: you started at, right, Friction is gonna slow you down 434 00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,040 Speaker 1: a little bit, You're not gonna go quite as high. 435 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:41,399 Speaker 1: So in this case, the arc was acting kind of 436 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,320 Speaker 1: like someone standing behind you and giving you just enough 437 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 1: of a push so that you're maintaining the same height 438 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,359 Speaker 1: each time you swing. Back. That's essentially what the arc 439 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:53,640 Speaker 1: was doing, and Doubtal figured it out. He figured out 440 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:57,680 Speaker 1: that the arc was not just instigating this oscillating effect, 441 00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:02,280 Speaker 1: but perpetuating it, amplifying it. So Duddle finds that this 442 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:06,720 Speaker 1: is what was generating that musical note when he turned 443 00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:09,720 Speaker 1: on the art generator. And he also found that if 444 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,240 Speaker 1: he changed the size of the capacitor, or if he 445 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:15,199 Speaker 1: changed the length of the coil, it would make the 446 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,159 Speaker 1: note change. He could play a different pitch. So of 447 00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:22,600 Speaker 1: course he created a very primitive electric musical instrument. And 448 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: by changing the coil he was able to play out 449 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,439 Speaker 1: a wicked version of God's Save the Queen. Uh that 450 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: that would be the God Save the Queen that sounds 451 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,440 Speaker 1: like my Country tis of the not God Save the Queen, 452 00:27:34,480 --> 00:27:37,800 Speaker 1: as recorded by the punk rock band The Sex Pistols. 453 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,639 Speaker 1: But Duddle was only able to create oscillations of up 454 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,320 Speaker 1: to ten killer hurts or ten thousand cycles per second. 455 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,680 Speaker 1: That's way too low for radio waves. Radio waves we're 456 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:53,280 Speaker 1: talking about the hundreds of killer hurts, and Duddle was 457 00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:57,119 Speaker 1: maxing out at ten killer hurts. So why does this 458 00:27:57,160 --> 00:27:59,800 Speaker 1: have to do with Pulson? And moreover, how does it 459 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,440 Speaker 1: lay into the founding of magnavox. Well, Paulson heard about 460 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:08,680 Speaker 1: Duddle's work and he began to experiment with arc reactors himself, 461 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:13,359 Speaker 1: arc reactors that's like Marvel arc generators. He knew that 462 00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,639 Speaker 1: Hertha had previously described the arc lamps tended to hiss 463 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 1: in the presence of oxygen. He wanted to get that 464 00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:22,199 Speaker 1: hiss out, so one thing he wanted to do was 465 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,680 Speaker 1: to cut down on the oxygen in the area of 466 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: the arc itself. He did this pretty effectively by setting 467 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,679 Speaker 1: down what was called a vapor lamp um using hydrogen 468 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,119 Speaker 1: and going into that would be a whole thing. So 469 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,199 Speaker 1: I'm just gonna cut to the chase and just explain 470 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:41,680 Speaker 1: that this effectively consumed the oxygen that existed within the 471 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,920 Speaker 1: space of the arc, that in turn cut back on 472 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:50,160 Speaker 1: the hissing. Paulson also experimented by introducing magnetic fields around 473 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: the arc, essentially just saying like, is there something that 474 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:57,400 Speaker 1: magnetic fields do that could be useful here? And eventually 475 00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:01,000 Speaker 1: he discovered that in a specific or intation, he could 476 00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 1: use electro magnets to create a magnetic field that would 477 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,520 Speaker 1: allow his arc lamp to generate higher frequencies of oscillation 478 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:15,120 Speaker 1: high enough to create radio waves. The magnetic field would 479 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:19,360 Speaker 1: allow the alternating current to flow to the carbon rods, 480 00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:23,040 Speaker 1: but effectively would block the direct current, so it removed 481 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,080 Speaker 1: some interference that would otherwise prevent him from making a 482 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,560 Speaker 1: stable radio frequency. And that was the final goal, was 483 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,800 Speaker 1: finding a device that would allow you to create a 484 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:37,400 Speaker 1: specific radio frequency or really more like a narrow band 485 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:41,680 Speaker 1: of radio frequencies, as opposed to the spark gap version, 486 00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:47,800 Speaker 1: which was that broad uh random series of frequencies. This 487 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,160 Speaker 1: meant that instead of a shotgun blast, you had a 488 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:54,960 Speaker 1: more dialed in, targeted approach, and it also meant you 489 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,320 Speaker 1: could create a receiver with a tuner that could be 490 00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: attuned to that spe cific frequency band. By the way, 491 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,920 Speaker 1: this also means that you could have multiple transmitters, and 492 00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,760 Speaker 1: you could have each transmitter setting transmitting out at a 493 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: different frequency band, and the transmitters would not interfere with 494 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,600 Speaker 1: one another. So one person could be transmitting it, say 495 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:20,320 Speaker 1: five forty killer hurts, and someone else could be transmitting 496 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:24,120 Speaker 1: at six eight, and those two transmissions don't interfere with 497 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,400 Speaker 1: each other. They're in separate frequency bands, so a person 498 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:29,760 Speaker 1: on the other end would just need to tune into 499 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:33,200 Speaker 1: the proper frequency either five forty to hear person number 500 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,400 Speaker 1: one or six eighty to hear person number two, But 501 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:39,160 Speaker 1: you wouldn't hear both at the same time because you're 502 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: you're refining it, you're tuning into that band. And now 503 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,840 Speaker 1: I mentioned those frequencies specifically because those are in the 504 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:48,720 Speaker 1: A M frequency range here in the US. However, I 505 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:52,560 Speaker 1: should also add Poulson's arc was capable of generating radio 506 00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:57,480 Speaker 1: signals that around two hurts, so much lower frequencies than 507 00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:00,280 Speaker 1: what we would typically talk about with commercial radio, but 508 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:03,120 Speaker 1: it still was radio waves. Well, if you were to 509 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:07,520 Speaker 1: use spark gap technology, you would overwhelm all other transmitters 510 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:11,400 Speaker 1: and receivers, right. That's that's why the FCC, or really 511 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: the predecessor to the FCC, said don't use spark gap 512 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:22,520 Speaker 1: transmitters in the United States after nine. In fact, early 513 00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:27,400 Speaker 1: on in in radio transmission, spark gap transmitters created some 514 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:32,200 Speaker 1: pretty massive problems, including uh, during the tragedy of the 515 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:36,000 Speaker 1: sinking of the Titanic. But that's another episode all by itself. 516 00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:38,600 Speaker 1: Let's get back to Poulson. So, by the time Paulson 517 00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: was figuring out ways to demonstrate his art, transmitter. He 518 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:45,480 Speaker 1: had already you know, discovered that it worked, and he 519 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:49,280 Speaker 1: had built a model based finding different ways to try 520 00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,920 Speaker 1: and get investors interested in it so it could become, 521 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:55,040 Speaker 1: you know, a fully fully fledged business. He brought on 522 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,840 Speaker 1: Jensen as his apprentice. You remember Jensen. I thought about 523 00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 1: him at the beginning of the episode. Anyway, Paulson was 524 00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,360 Speaker 1: finding it challenging to get into the radio market because 525 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:08,040 Speaker 1: there was this other guy, Marconi, who was pretty dang 526 00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:12,760 Speaker 1: ruthless when it came to trying to monopolize radio technology. Yeah, 527 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:16,440 Speaker 1: marconi story, uh is one that a lot of people 528 00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:22,560 Speaker 1: find irritating because of how Marconi helped squelch innovation. And also, 529 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:27,840 Speaker 1: Marconi and Tesla had a famous, uh let's call it 530 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:33,120 Speaker 1: disagreement as to who invented radio transmitting technology. So yeah, 531 00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:35,920 Speaker 1: Marconi's kind of a He often can be presented as 532 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 1: sort of a villain in these narratives. But Marconi had 533 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,160 Speaker 1: patents on stuff like spark gap transmitters and his entire 534 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:47,640 Speaker 1: business was flourishing on those, So he was not super 535 00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,960 Speaker 1: keen on adopting a technology, even if it was a 536 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:55,440 Speaker 1: superior technology, if that technology didn't have his name on 537 00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,640 Speaker 1: the patents. So Marconi did a pretty bang up job 538 00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:03,320 Speaker 1: kind of keeping Pulson pushed to the sidelines. But then 539 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:07,320 Speaker 1: across the pond all the way in California, we get 540 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:12,560 Speaker 1: back to Cyril Lwell and he read about Poulson's discovery. 541 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:17,760 Speaker 1: L Well wanted to establish wireless communication systems in California, 542 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: both as a way of sending wireless telegrams, but also 543 00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:25,840 Speaker 1: primarily as a way of enabling ship to shore communication 544 00:33:26,160 --> 00:33:28,440 Speaker 1: with the various boats that were off the West coast. 545 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: So he purchased the patent rights to Poulson's invention for 546 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:36,920 Speaker 1: a cool half million, an enormous sum back in those days. 547 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: I mean, it's a lot. Now you offered me a 548 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,080 Speaker 1: half million, my eyes would probably roll back in my head. 549 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:45,000 Speaker 1: But back in those days it was a true fortune. 550 00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:48,760 Speaker 1: And he formed a new company called the Pulson Wireless 551 00:33:48,800 --> 00:33:52,640 Speaker 1: Telephone and Telegraph Company, and Baltimore Poulson would actually have 552 00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:56,240 Speaker 1: a ten percent stake in this new business. Now, to 553 00:33:56,280 --> 00:34:02,000 Speaker 1: help set everything up, Poulson sent young Jensen off to America. 554 00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:04,480 Speaker 1: And now we finally get to the point where Jensen 555 00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:08,279 Speaker 1: and Pridham met. The two engineers meet each other, they 556 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:12,560 Speaker 1: start to understand each other's work, they become friends. Apparently 557 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,080 Speaker 1: Printam was actually helping Jensen learn English, at least according 558 00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:18,920 Speaker 1: to most of the sources that came across that weren't 559 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:23,520 Speaker 1: claiming that Jansen had mysteriously attended Amherst somehow. And Jansen 560 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: brought with him the equipment needed to establish the communications 561 00:34:27,320 --> 00:34:31,600 Speaker 1: systems in California, and he and pried Um effectively we're 562 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:36,399 Speaker 1: constructing these systems together. They were assembling things in California. 563 00:34:36,920 --> 00:34:39,879 Speaker 1: In nine nine, the company would reorganize and it would 564 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,439 Speaker 1: become the Federal Telegraph Company or f TC. This one 565 00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:47,920 Speaker 1: would become an important company for another emerging technology, that 566 00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:52,320 Speaker 1: of the vacuum tube. But that's a different podcast. More importantly, 567 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,600 Speaker 1: for our story, that change meant that Prinum and Jansen 568 00:34:55,840 --> 00:35:00,800 Speaker 1: weren't really necessary for this new version of the company, 569 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:05,640 Speaker 1: and the two would resign. We'll learn about what happened 570 00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:16,239 Speaker 1: next when we come back after this short break. So 571 00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,440 Speaker 1: where do Yensen and prin Him go once they have 572 00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:25,040 Speaker 1: left FTC. Well, they kind of hoped they could continue 573 00:35:25,040 --> 00:35:28,280 Speaker 1: to work with Poulson back in Denmark, and they wanted 574 00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:32,680 Speaker 1: to establish some wireless communication systems in Canada. And Ireland, 575 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: but Paulson had already made an agreement with a British 576 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,760 Speaker 1: company to work with Ireland and he wasn't really interested 577 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:43,600 Speaker 1: in expanding into Canada, so that became a non starter. 578 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,960 Speaker 1: They went all the way to Copenhagen to try and 579 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:48,720 Speaker 1: convince them, and that didn't work out, so they decided 580 00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:51,520 Speaker 1: to return to California. Jensen had kind of fallen in 581 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,719 Speaker 1: love with the United States and to say that that 582 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,840 Speaker 1: was where he was going to pursue his his career. 583 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:02,279 Speaker 1: So they went back to the States, and when they 584 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,120 Speaker 1: returned to California, they encountered one of the most important 585 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:10,640 Speaker 1: components for any tech company ever, whether we're talking historical 586 00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:17,520 Speaker 1: or startups of today. They met the money. So yeah, 587 00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 1: for a tech company to succeed, typically you need several 588 00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:23,000 Speaker 1: things to be in place. For one thing, you need 589 00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,880 Speaker 1: the tech. If the tech doesn't work, that makes it 590 00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:29,520 Speaker 1: harder to succeed. Not impossible. I mean, we have seen 591 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,000 Speaker 1: a lot of scams out there and a lot of 592 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:36,239 Speaker 1: lousy products that get to the point of success. But 593 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,400 Speaker 1: that does make it, you know, harder on occasion. You 594 00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,480 Speaker 1: also need good leadership, you need vision, and you need 595 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,360 Speaker 1: the cold, hard cash baby, you gotta have money to 596 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 1: get things rolling. So the money in this case came 597 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:52,080 Speaker 1: from soap and candles. Seriously, there's this guy named Richard 598 00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:54,719 Speaker 1: O'Connor and he had made a small fortune in San 599 00:36:54,719 --> 00:36:58,680 Speaker 1: Francisco selling soaps and candles, and he was also an 600 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:02,320 Speaker 1: influential citizen in California. He had close ties to political 601 00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:05,080 Speaker 1: leaders in the state. So a Connor met with the 602 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:07,799 Speaker 1: Incident and pried Um and the three hit it off. Now, 603 00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:10,319 Speaker 1: O'Connor had previously been part of a group that had 604 00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:15,680 Speaker 1: attempted to secure worldwide rights to Pulson's ar transmitter technologies, 605 00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:19,839 Speaker 1: but that didn't work out for him that he still 606 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:23,360 Speaker 1: had high hopes to get invested into the fledgling field 607 00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,920 Speaker 1: of radio communications. So a connor really wanted to get 608 00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:30,120 Speaker 1: into radio, and to that end, he put Priedom and 609 00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: Ensign in charge of a new company called the Commercial 610 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:38,520 Speaker 1: Wireless and Development Company or c w d C. Now, 611 00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:42,000 Speaker 1: the Incident PRIAM would mainly serve as the research and 612 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,200 Speaker 1: development arm of this business. So when I say in charge, 613 00:37:45,200 --> 00:37:48,640 Speaker 1: I meant they were really in charge of doing laboratory 614 00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:52,320 Speaker 1: kind of experimentation. So their main job requirement was to 615 00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,680 Speaker 1: research radio physics and to patent anything that they might 616 00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,360 Speaker 1: invent as a result of their research, and thus they 617 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,440 Speaker 1: would contribute to the company's success by filing patents, because 618 00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,319 Speaker 1: one way to make money is you make you make 619 00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:09,920 Speaker 1: these patents and then you license them out to other companies. 620 00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:14,560 Speaker 1: If you yourself cannot create your invention, you know, maybe 621 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:17,959 Speaker 1: you just don't have the manufacturing capacity, but some other 622 00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,680 Speaker 1: company can, then you can license your patent to that company. 623 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:25,040 Speaker 1: They can make the stuff you you have designed at 624 00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:27,680 Speaker 1: scale and it becomes a real thing. So that's kind 625 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,920 Speaker 1: of what their job was, to research and patent stuff. 626 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:34,360 Speaker 1: So in the winter of nineteen eleven, O'Connor chose a 627 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:39,160 Speaker 1: bungalow in Napa, California to serve as company headquarters. The 628 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,560 Speaker 1: location was pretty remote, which would mean there'll be less 629 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:46,160 Speaker 1: chance for radio interference, and Jansen would also meet a 630 00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,719 Speaker 1: woman named Vivian Steve's in Napa. The two would fall 631 00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,120 Speaker 1: in love and get married and they started a family. 632 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:58,000 Speaker 1: So Prittam and Jansen almost invented an improved telephone receiver. 633 00:38:58,640 --> 00:39:02,319 Speaker 1: Now I say almost invented because as it turned out, 634 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:07,360 Speaker 1: their idea actually followed similar ideas that others had already patented, 635 00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:10,839 Speaker 1: but the possibility of them inventing something new would be 636 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,840 Speaker 1: what would drive them to create the company Magnavox. Alright, 637 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:19,920 Speaker 1: So incon and Brittam had observed that an invention Poulson 638 00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 1: had created one which had a thin wire that would 639 00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:25,839 Speaker 1: move very quickly due to magnetic attraction. So let's say 640 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:29,160 Speaker 1: you've got an electro magnet's got two poles. You would 641 00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:32,880 Speaker 1: be able to attract this wire in the direction of 642 00:39:32,920 --> 00:39:36,359 Speaker 1: the different poles. They figured they could adapt that so 643 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:39,120 Speaker 1: that they can have a wire that would drive a 644 00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:43,279 Speaker 1: diaphragm and generate sound waves. You know, push a diaphragm 645 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:46,680 Speaker 1: at the same frequency as incoming sound waves and you 646 00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:50,080 Speaker 1: would create outgoing sound waves. In other words, they thought 647 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:52,240 Speaker 1: up a way to make what they called an electro 648 00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:56,040 Speaker 1: dynamic speaker. See the way it works is that first 649 00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:59,680 Speaker 1: you have a microphone and you speak into a microphone. This, 650 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:02,359 Speaker 1: you know, the air waves that you create, the air 651 00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:07,240 Speaker 1: fluctuations end up causing a diaphragm inside the microphone to vibrate. 652 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:11,560 Speaker 1: This vibration causes movement between a permanent magnet or an 653 00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,520 Speaker 1: electro magnet and a loop of conductive wire. Now, because 654 00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:20,080 Speaker 1: of the effects of electro magnetism and induction. That movement 655 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:24,000 Speaker 1: induces current to flow through the wire as it moves 656 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:29,200 Speaker 1: through this magnetic field. This current essentially is a transformation 657 00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:33,680 Speaker 1: of those original sound vibrations. You have transduced them. There's 658 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:37,880 Speaker 1: transducer you know, is part of a microphone, so you 659 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:43,160 Speaker 1: have created essentially a signal that represents sound. This signal 660 00:40:43,239 --> 00:40:47,000 Speaker 1: can then go to a setup that's identical, but it's 661 00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:50,400 Speaker 1: in reverse. So you fee this current to a device 662 00:40:50,960 --> 00:40:55,080 Speaker 1: that then translates the electric current into physical movement again 663 00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:58,520 Speaker 1: through the use of a conductive coil and a magnet 664 00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:02,360 Speaker 1: which could be either eminent or electro magnet. And now 665 00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:05,920 Speaker 1: the current going through the coil generates a magnetic field, 666 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,239 Speaker 1: and that magnetic field interacts with the permanent magnet and 667 00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:12,520 Speaker 1: you get this attraction and repulsion and that creates the motion. 668 00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,960 Speaker 1: The physical motion that transfers to the diaphragm, and the 669 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:20,319 Speaker 1: vibrating diaphragm then recreates whatever the original sound was. So 670 00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:25,560 Speaker 1: it's this fascinating process where you are taking energy, converting 671 00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:27,919 Speaker 1: it into a different type, and then converting it back 672 00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:31,280 Speaker 1: into the original type. Typically, you also have to boost 673 00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,040 Speaker 1: the electric signal through this process, because it usually is 674 00:41:35,120 --> 00:41:39,080 Speaker 1: too weak to drive a diaphragm by itself. But you know, 675 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:42,000 Speaker 1: the basic idea was pretty solid, and it was also, 676 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:45,040 Speaker 1: as I mentioned, an idea that other folks had kind 677 00:41:45,040 --> 00:41:48,040 Speaker 1: of already come up with. So Jansen and pried Um they, 678 00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:51,040 Speaker 1: you know, they thought that maybe they had come onto 679 00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:54,640 Speaker 1: something new. They used a wire connected to a match stick, 680 00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:57,840 Speaker 1: and the match stick, in turn was connected to a diaphragm, 681 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:03,040 Speaker 1: and they use that to create sound coming from a microphone. 682 00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:05,759 Speaker 1: So as electricity moved through the wire, it would be 683 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:08,840 Speaker 1: attracted or repelled by some permanent magnets. And they found 684 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:13,200 Speaker 1: that it worked. They presented a transmission of human speech 685 00:42:13,239 --> 00:42:17,840 Speaker 1: that was quote with exceptional strength and clarity end quote. 686 00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:21,880 Speaker 1: They then refined that approach. They created a coil of 687 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,400 Speaker 1: copper wire and they used stronger electro magnets to create 688 00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:29,120 Speaker 1: a speaker set in a soundbox to you know, help 689 00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:32,640 Speaker 1: amplify the sound and direct the sound. And they still 690 00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:35,319 Speaker 1: intended to use this as a telephone receiver, even though 691 00:42:35,360 --> 00:42:38,280 Speaker 1: it was pretty big and clunky. But in the process 692 00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:41,480 Speaker 1: of developing the invention, they were discouraged to receive a 693 00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:44,200 Speaker 1: rejection from the Patent Office, and that's when they found 694 00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:47,319 Speaker 1: out that their invention was similar to other patents that 695 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:51,560 Speaker 1: already existed to cover this particular approach. They were able 696 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,480 Speaker 1: to patent the voice coil version of their idea, but 697 00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:58,400 Speaker 1: that was about it. They figured they had totally busted 698 00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:02,120 Speaker 1: on this deal. They couldn't that this would be really 699 00:43:02,120 --> 00:43:05,040 Speaker 1: that valuable because other people had patents that were too similar, 700 00:43:05,080 --> 00:43:07,440 Speaker 1: so it would be really easy to create a different 701 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,640 Speaker 1: variation of the same invention. They just thought, oh, well, 702 00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:13,680 Speaker 1: we we worked, we gave it our best shot, but 703 00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:16,360 Speaker 1: we will we will not be able to get worldwide 704 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:19,359 Speaker 1: rights to this general invention, so there's no way this 705 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:22,560 Speaker 1: is going to become our fortune. And they almost dissolved 706 00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:25,280 Speaker 1: the company at that point. Some of the investors were 707 00:43:25,320 --> 00:43:28,960 Speaker 1: reportedly ready to call it quits too, but O'Connor, you know, 708 00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:31,640 Speaker 1: the soap and candle guy who must have been fed 709 00:43:31,719 --> 00:43:34,600 Speaker 1: up with wax, didn't want to pull the plug just yet. 710 00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:37,640 Speaker 1: And then Jensen and Prinham happened to meet just the 711 00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:41,040 Speaker 1: right person at just the right time. That person was 712 00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:48,040 Speaker 1: Jensen's wife's uncle, so Vivian's uncle, Ray Gal breath Um. 713 00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:51,760 Speaker 1: So I guess technically Jansen's uncle in law. Anyway, Galbreath 714 00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:55,000 Speaker 1: said if the two adapted their invention that it could 715 00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:58,719 Speaker 1: produce even louder noises, it might come in useful. And 716 00:43:58,800 --> 00:44:01,960 Speaker 1: Galbreath liked to go to baseball games. The games he 717 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:03,719 Speaker 1: went to, there was this one feller there who would 718 00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:06,360 Speaker 1: use a megaphone to make public announcements. But the megaphone, 719 00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:08,640 Speaker 1: which was you know, just a you know, a horn 720 00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:12,440 Speaker 1: that would naturally amplify your volume a little bit, it 721 00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:15,160 Speaker 1: wasn't ideal because if you weren't sitting in front of 722 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:17,120 Speaker 1: the guy, like if you were off to the side 723 00:44:17,120 --> 00:44:19,239 Speaker 1: at all, you really couldn't hear what he was saying 724 00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:21,360 Speaker 1: very well, which meant he would have to move and 725 00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:24,480 Speaker 1: say the same thing many times. And he said, you 726 00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,400 Speaker 1: know what if you guys changed your invention so that 727 00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:30,680 Speaker 1: someone like this feller could talk to a microphone instead 728 00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:34,319 Speaker 1: of megaphone, and then the signal could transmit to sound 729 00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:36,880 Speaker 1: boxes that played back the sound but at a much 730 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:41,120 Speaker 1: higher volume, making it easier to hear and understand, well 731 00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,440 Speaker 1: you incident. Prinim thought that such an invention would have 732 00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,640 Speaker 1: a fairly limited application. They could see it being used 733 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:51,240 Speaker 1: in things like railroad you know, stations to announce on 734 00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:54,120 Speaker 1: oncoming trains and things like that. But they couldn't see 735 00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:56,440 Speaker 1: themselves getting rich from it. But they were also at 736 00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:59,359 Speaker 1: a loss over what to do next, So they got 737 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:03,839 Speaker 1: to work create being an electro dynamic loud speaker. They 738 00:45:03,840 --> 00:45:06,400 Speaker 1: took their receiver and they paired it with a Gooseneck 739 00:45:06,480 --> 00:45:09,439 Speaker 1: horn from an Edison phonograph, you know, like the kind 740 00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:12,960 Speaker 1: has the old gramophones in it, you know, the horns 741 00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,719 Speaker 1: that came up from the what looked like an old turntable. 742 00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:20,439 Speaker 1: They incorporated a transformer to amplify the signal coming from 743 00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:24,840 Speaker 1: the transmitter, and they ultimately made a speaker capable of 744 00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:28,040 Speaker 1: transmitting with a potential output of around twenty five what's 745 00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:31,719 Speaker 1: they didn't know at the time, but they had just 746 00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:36,360 Speaker 1: made the most powerful speaker in the world up to 747 00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:39,640 Speaker 1: that point. That I think is where we're going to 748 00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:42,880 Speaker 1: have to finish this particular episode, except I will say this. 749 00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:45,600 Speaker 1: I will say that that powerful speaker because it was 750 00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:49,400 Speaker 1: so powerful, they thought of it as having a great voice, 751 00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:52,920 Speaker 1: great as in like Oz the great and powerful great. 752 00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:58,960 Speaker 1: So they decided they would name it uh Great Voice, 753 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:03,520 Speaker 1: but using Latin words which means they called it Magna Vox. 754 00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:05,840 Speaker 1: I figured I had to get the name of the 755 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:07,440 Speaker 1: company in here by the end or else it was 756 00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:09,640 Speaker 1: really gonna be a heck of a first episode in 757 00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:13,200 Speaker 1: this series, right, So in our next episode, we're going 758 00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:16,280 Speaker 1: to learn more about this loud speaker, about the early 759 00:46:16,440 --> 00:46:19,840 Speaker 1: tests and how that was able to propel the company forward, 760 00:46:20,320 --> 00:46:24,520 Speaker 1: and how Jensen and Printam would refine their designs. We'll 761 00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:27,680 Speaker 1: learn about the company actually taking on the name Magna Vox, 762 00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:30,400 Speaker 1: and we'll learn about what happened in the company in 763 00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:34,200 Speaker 1: the following years and what other contributions were made in 764 00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:37,400 Speaker 1: the in the world of electronics. But this was just 765 00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:39,840 Speaker 1: the first episode in that series, so I hope you 766 00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:42,600 Speaker 1: enjoyed this one. Stick with us because we're gonna cover 767 00:46:42,719 --> 00:46:46,040 Speaker 1: more about Magna Vox in the upcoming episodes, and if 768 00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:48,200 Speaker 1: you have suggestions for topics I should cover in future 769 00:46:48,200 --> 00:46:50,560 Speaker 1: episodes of tech Stuff, as always, reach out to me 770 00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:54,000 Speaker 1: on Twitter. The handle we use is text stuff h 771 00:46:54,360 --> 00:46:58,799 Speaker 1: s W and I'll talk to you again release soon. 772 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:06,439 Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more 773 00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,920 Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, 774 00:47:10,040 --> 00:47:13,200 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,