SSC
Who is known as the 'Father of Radio'?
Answer (Detailed Solution Below)View answer ▾Hide ▴
Answer: Option B — Guglielmo Marconi
Detailed Solution
Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer. He is known as the "Father of Radio" because he developed the first practical system of long-distance wireless telegraphy, sending messages through the air using radio waves without connecting wires.
Marconi began experimenting with radio waves in the 1890s, building on the work of Heinrich Hertz, who had shown in 1887 that electromagnetic waves existed. In 1895, he succeeded in sending wireless signals over a distance of about 2 kilometres in Italy. In 1896, he moved to England, where he received the world's first patent for a system of wireless telegraphy. In 1897, he founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company (later the Marconi Company).
His most famous achievement came on 12 December 1901, when he received the first transatlantic wireless signal, the letter "S" in Morse code, sent from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland (now in Canada), a distance of about 3,500 kilometres. This proved that radio waves could follow the curvature of the Earth (by reflecting from the ionosphere).
Marconi shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 with Karl Ferdinand Braun of Germany "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy". Wireless radio soon became important for ships at sea; in 1912, wireless messages from the sinking Titanic helped rescue survivors.
Other scientists made important contributions to radio:
Jagadish Chandra Bose, the Indian physicist, demonstrated the transmission of microwaves in Calcutta in 1895, before Marconi's demonstrations, and invented the mercury coherer, a detector of radio waves. The IEEE recognised his work as a milestone in 2012.
Nikola Tesla also developed radio technology, and in 1943 the US Supreme Court upheld some of his patents over Marconi's.
Reginald Fessenden made the first radio broadcast of voice and music in 1906.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Nikola Tesla invented the alternating current (AC) induction motor and contributed to radio.
- ✗Jagadish Chandra Bose pioneered microwave research and invented the crescograph.
- ✗Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone (1876).
Quick tip
Remember: Father of radio = Marconi (first transatlantic signal 1901, Nobel 1909 with Braun); J.C. Bose = microwaves (1895) and crescograph; Bell = telephone (1876).
💬 Discussions on this question
Ask a doubt ›Still stuck on this question? Ask our faculty and fellow students — answers appear here.
Ask a doubtMore Scientists, Inventions & Discoveries Questions
View all ›- Q1.The wave nature of matter (matter waves) was proposed by:
- Q2.The photoelectric effect was discovered in 1887 by:
- Q3.Who is known as the 'Father of India's Space Programme'?
- Q4.Georg Simon Ohm formulated the relation V = IR (Ohm's law) in the year:
- Q5.What is the name of the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, which made headlines in 2023?
More General Knowledge Questions
- Q1.The techniques of Rasa and Bhava used in Indian classical dance trace their origin to which ancient text?Indian Dance Forms
- Q2.Lavani, Powada, Koli, Waghya Murali and Dhangari Gaja are folk dances of which state?Indian Dance Forms
- Q3.The one-act play associated with the Sattriya tradition of Assam is called:Indian Dance Forms
- Q4.Which dance form of Goa is known as the 'Warrior Dance'?Indian Dance Forms
- Q5.Manipuri dance is based on the Rasleela themes of:Indian Dance Forms
Scientists, Inventions & Discoveries — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Scientists, Inventions & Discoveries, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers famous scientists and their contributions, major inventions and their inventors, important discoveries in physics, chemistry and biology, Indian scientists and their work, and Nobel Prizes in science. Questions commonly match an invention with its inventor (the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell, and the World Wide Web with Tim Berners-Lee), a discovery with its scientist (penicillin with Alexander Fleming), or an Indian scientist with their work, such as C. V. Raman and the Raman effect, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. Practise the scientists, inventions and discoveries questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.