Signor Marconi's Magic Box

Signor Marconi's Magic Box PDF Author: Gavin Weightman
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786748540
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
The world at the turn of the twentieth century was in the throes of "Marconi-mania"-brought on by an incredible invention that no one could quite explain, and by a dapper and eccentric figure (who would one day win the newly minted Nobel Prize) at the center of it all. At a time when the telephone, telegraph, and electricity made the whole world wonder just what science would think of next, the startling answer had come in 1896 in the form of two mysterious wooden boxes containing a device one Guglielmo Marconi had rigged up to transmit messages "through the ether." It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in Europe or America, not even Marconi himself, could at first explain how it worked -- it just did. And no one knew how far these radio waves could travel, until 1903, when a message from President Theodore Roosevelt to the king of England flashed from Cape Cod to Cornwall clear across the Atlantic.Here is a rich portrait of the man and his era-and a captivating tale of science and scientists, business and businessmen. There are stories of British blowhards, American con artists-and Marconi himself: a character par excellence, who eventually winds up a virtual prisoner of his worldwide fame and fortune.

Signor Marconi's Magic Box

Signor Marconi's Magic Box PDF Author: Gavin Weightman
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786748540
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Get Book Here

Book Description
The world at the turn of the twentieth century was in the throes of "Marconi-mania"-brought on by an incredible invention that no one could quite explain, and by a dapper and eccentric figure (who would one day win the newly minted Nobel Prize) at the center of it all. At a time when the telephone, telegraph, and electricity made the whole world wonder just what science would think of next, the startling answer had come in 1896 in the form of two mysterious wooden boxes containing a device one Guglielmo Marconi had rigged up to transmit messages "through the ether." It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in Europe or America, not even Marconi himself, could at first explain how it worked -- it just did. And no one knew how far these radio waves could travel, until 1903, when a message from President Theodore Roosevelt to the king of England flashed from Cape Cod to Cornwall clear across the Atlantic.Here is a rich portrait of the man and his era-and a captivating tale of science and scientists, business and businessmen. There are stories of British blowhards, American con artists-and Marconi himself: a character par excellence, who eventually winds up a virtual prisoner of his worldwide fame and fortune.

Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The invention that sparked the radio revolution (Text Only)

Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The invention that sparked the radio revolution (Text Only) PDF Author: Gavin Weightman
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007402252
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The intriguing story of how wireless was invented by Guglielmo Marconi – and how it amused Queen Victoria, saved the lives of the Titanic survivors, tracked down criminals and began the radio revolution.

Signor Marconi's Magic Box

Signor Marconi's Magic Box PDF Author: Gavin Weightman
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Gavin Weightman tells the story of how Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless - and how it amused Queen Victoria, saved the lives of the Titanic survivors, tracked down criminals and began the radio revolution.

Marconi's Wireless and the Rhetoric of a New Technology

Marconi's Wireless and the Rhetoric of a New Technology PDF Author: Aaron A. Toscano
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400739761
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
This book examines the discourse surrounding the wireless, created by the Anglo-Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. The wireless excited early twentieth-century audiences before it even became a viable black box technology. The wireless adhered to modernist values—speed, efficiency, militarization, and progress. Language surrounding the wireless is a form of technical communication, overlooked by today’s practitioners. This book establishes a broader definition for technical communication by examining a selection of the discourse surrounding Marconi's wireless. The book’s main themes are the following: 1) technical communication is all discourse surrounding technology, 2) the field of technical communication (or technical writing) should incorporate analyses of discourse surrounding technologies into its epistemology, 3) the wireless is a product of the society from which it comes (early twentieth-century Western civilization), and 4) the discourse surrounding the wireless is infused with tropes of progress—speed, efficiency, evolution, and ahistoricity.

Radio in Context

Radio in Context PDF Author: Guy Starkey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137302240
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Now firmly established as one of the leading textbooks in the increasingly popular field of radio studies, Radio in Context provides students with a practical, critical and comprehensive understanding of the main principles and techniques used in radio programming. Organized around the most commonly studied radio genres and setting production within a range of different contexts – professional, institutional and historical - the text offers an ideal blend of theory and practical guidance. Readers of this fully updated new edition will continue to benefit from this core text, as it reflects important technological, regulatory and institutional changes since its initial publication in 2004 and expands on key areas such as digital radio, broadcasting over the internet, and the interplay between radio and social media. Supported by a full glossary, tips on getting into radio and exercises to develop practical and critical skills, Radio in Context is the ideal companion for anyone studying radio, the media, communications and/or journalism, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as short courses in radio or audio production techniques. Now firmly established as one of the leading textbooks in the increasingly popular field of radio studies, Radio in Context provides students with a practical, critical and comprehensive understanding of the main principles and techniques used in radio programming. Organized around the most commonly studied radio genres and setting production within a range of different contexts – professional, institutional and historical - the text offers an ideal blend of theory and practical guidance. Readers of this fully updated new edition will continue to benefit from this core text, as it reflects important technological, regulatory and institutional changes since its initial publication in 2004 and expands on key areas such as digital radio, broadcasting over the internet, and the interplay between radio and social media. Supported by a full glossary, tips on getting into radio and exercises to develop practical and critical skills, Radio in Context is the ideal companion for anyone studying radio, the media, communications and/or journalism, at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as short courses in radio or audio production techniques.

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife PDF Author: Mary Roach
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393069206
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk trains her considerable wit and curiosity on the human soul. "What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that—the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die.

The Net Delusion

The Net Delusion PDF Author: Evgeny Morozov
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 9781586488758
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Publisher's description: “The revolution will be Twittered!” declared journalist Andrew Sullivan after protests erupted in Iran. Yet for all the talk about the liberalizing force of the internet, regimes in Iran and China are as stable and repressive as ever. In fact, authoritarian regimes are effectively using the internet to suppress free speech and democracy. What's more, the latest research shows that greater access to information pacifies a population as much as it incites it to revolution. If we in the West are to promote liberal ideals, we'll have to do more than fund Facebook. In this book, blogger and social commentator Evgeny Morozov tackles these issues with relentless energy and analytical savvy. Marshalling a compelling set of case studies, he shows why we must stop thinking of the internet and social media as instant cures for repression, and how, in some cases, they can even threaten democracy.

History of Wireless

History of Wireless PDF Author: T. K. Sarkar
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0471783013
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 683

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Book Description
Important new insights into how various components and systems evolved Premised on the idea that one cannot know a science without knowing its history, History of Wireless offers a lively new treatment that introduces previously unacknowledged pioneers and developments, setting a new standard for understanding the evolution of this important technology. Starting with the background-magnetism, electricity, light, and Maxwell's Electromagnetic Theory-this book offers new insights into the initial theory and experimental exploration of wireless. In addition to the well-known contributions of Maxwell, Hertz, and Marconi, it examines work done by Heaviside, Tesla, and passionate amateurs such as the Kentucky melon farmer Nathan Stubblefield and the unsung hero Antonio Meucci. Looking at the story from mathematical, physics, technical, and other perspectives, the clearly written text describes the development of wireless within a vivid scientific milieu. History of Wireless also goes into other key areas, including: The work of J. C. Bose and J. A. Fleming German, Japanese, and Soviet contributions to physics and applications of electromagnetic oscillations and waves Wireless telegraphic and telephonic development and attempts to achieve transatlantic wireless communications Wireless telegraphy in South Africa in the early twentieth century Antenna development in Japan: past and present Soviet quasi-optics at near-mm and sub-mm wavelengths The evolution of electromagnetic waveguides The history of phased array antennas Augmenting the typical, Marconi-centered approach, History of Wireless fills in the conventionally accepted story with attention to more specific, less-known discoveries and individuals, and challenges traditional assumptions about the origins and growth of wireless. This allows for a more comprehensive understanding of how various components and systems evolved. Written in a clear tone with a broad scientific audience in mind, this exciting and thorough treatment is sure to become a classic in the field.

Savage Peace

Savage Peace PDF Author: Ann Hagedorn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416539719
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
Written with the sweep of an epic novel and grounded in extensive research into contemporary documents, Savage Peace is a striking portrait of American democracy under stress. It is the surprising story of America in the year 1919. In the aftermath of an unprecedented worldwide war and a flu pandemic, Americans began the year full of hope, expecting to reap the benefits of peace. But instead, the fear of terrorism filled their days. Bolshevism was the new menace, and the federal government, utilizing a vast network of domestic spies, began to watch anyone deemed suspicious. A young lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover headed a brand-new intelligence division of the Bureau of Investigation (later to become the FBI). Bombs exploded on the doorstep of the attorney general's home in Washington, D.C., and thirty-six parcels containing bombs were discovered at post offices across the country. Poet and journalist Carl Sandburg, recently returned from abroad with a trunk full of Bolshevik literature, was detained in New York, his trunk seized. A twenty-one-year-old Russian girl living in New York was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for protesting U.S. intervention in Arctic Russia, where thousands of American soldiers remained after the Armistice, ostensibly to guard supplies but in reality to join a British force meant to be a warning to the new Bolshevik government. In 1919, wartime legislation intended to curb criticism of the government was extended and even strengthened. Labor strife was a daily occurrence. And decorated African-American soldiers, returning home to claim the democracy for which they had risked their lives, were badly disappointed. Lynchings continued, race riots would erupt in twenty-six cities before the year ended, and secret agents from the government's "Negro Subversion" unit routinely shadowed outspoken African-Americans. Adding a vivid human drama to the greater historical narrative, Savage Peace brings 1919 alive through the people who played a major role in making the year so remarkable. Among them are William Monroe Trotter, who tried to put democracy for African-Americans on the agenda at the Paris peace talks; Supreme Court associate justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who struggled to find a balance between free speech and legitimate government restrictions for reasons of national security, producing a memorable decision for the future of free speech in America; and journalist Ray Stannard Baker, confidant of President Woodrow Wilson, who watched carefully as Wilson's idealism crumbled and wrote the best accounts we have of the president's frustration and disappointment. Weaving together the stories of a panoramic cast of characters, from Albert Einstein to Helen Keller, Ann Hagedorn brilliantly illuminates America at a pivotal moment.

Conquering the Electron

Conquering the Electron PDF Author: Derek Cheung
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493049933
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
Conquering the Electron offers readers a true and engaging history of the world of electronics, beginning with the discoveries of static electricity and magnetism and ending with the creation of the smartphone and the iPad. This book shows the interconnection of each advance to the next on the long journey to our modern-day technologies. Exploring the combination of genius, infighting, and luck that powered the creation of today's electronic age, Conquering the Electron debunks the hero worship so often plaguing the stories of great advances. Want to know how AT&T’s Bell Labs developed semiconductor technology—and how its leading scientists almost came to blows in the process? Want to understand how radio and television work—and why RCA drove their inventors to financial ruin and early graves? Conquering the Electron offers these stories and more, presenting each revolutionary technological advance right alongside blow-by-blow personal battles that all too often took place.