[Top] [Prev] [Next]  "Look Ma, No Wires": Marconi and the
Invention of Radio"  Historical Background  James Clerk Maxwell
(1831 - 1879)  Maxwell's equations described the fundamental
relationship between electricity, magnetism, and wave
propagation. Underlies all radio and cable communications. Light
and radio waves are the same phenomena. Provides the theoretical
explanation for why radio waves can be focused and reflected
just like light.  "... we have strong reason to conclude that
light itself -- including radiant heat, and other radiations if
any -- is an electromagnetic disturbance in the form of waves
propagated through the electromagnetic field according to
electromagnetic laws." Maxwell, Dynamical Theory of the
Electromagnetic Field, 1864.  The equations state the following:
only in a steady state can a magnetic field exist without
causing an electric field and vice versa. When one is changing,
it automatically brings the other into being for as long as the
change continues. These mutually generating