Whose Invention Was the Radio?

The invention of radio was a cumulative effort. Heinrich Hertz first demonstrated the existence of radio waves in 1887. Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi both developed wireless telegraphy systems in the 1890s, and the question of priority remains debated. Marconi, however, was the first to successfully commercialise the technology: he demonstrated ship-to-shore communication, founded the Marconi Company, and on 12 December 1901, received the first transatlantic wireless signal (the letter "S" in Morse code) at Signal Hill, Newfoundland, transmitted from Poldhu, Cornwall — a distance of about 3,500 km. Marconi shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun.