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How X-rays Were Discovered by Wilhelm Roentgen
On November 8th of 1895, a shy and diligent scientist named Wilhelm Roentgen saw a flicker on a fluorescent screen and changed our world with his discovery of what he called (and we still call) “x-rays”. But who was Roentgen, how did a dirty picture almost derail his life, and why did he discover x-rays?…
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How the X-ray Machine was Discovered and Works
On November 8th of 1895, a man named Wilhelm Roentgen turned on a covered vacuum tube and accidentally discovered the x-ray and changed our world. This is not that story. Instead, this video is about how (and why) Roentgen had an x-ray machine in the first place. The x-ray machine was not made to create…
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The Origin of the Cathode Ray Tube: Physics of the Geissler tube to the Crookes tube
Let’s start in early 1857 in a laboratory in Bonn, Germany. That is where a physics professor named Julius Plücker was working with an instrument maker named Heinrich Geissler to create odd glass tubes that were, according to Plücker, “incomparably beautiful[i].” Geissler and Plücker didn’t know it, but these Geissler tubes would change the world. …
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Howard Armstrong and Frequency Modulation
Frequency modulation or FM radio transformed how we communicate. It was, as Armstrong’s nemesis David Sarnoff said, “a revolution”. There are videos, books, and articles about this history but they seem to skim over the science. In fact, I haven’t seen any videos or articles that simply and accurately describe how Armstrong’s original system actually…
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The Trials of Howard Armstrong
Wait, how can a good invention lead to the inventor’s destruction? Table of Contents Armstrong’s Struggle The Frequency Modulation Sarnoff’s Mistake Armstrong’s Rise The Law Suit Armstrong’s Death References Armstrong’s Struggle However, at the same time Armstrong was dealing with several lawsuits. The longest of which was with Lee de Forest. De Forest had invented…
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Howard Armstrong, David Sarnoff And the Influential Superheterodyne Receiver
The superheterodyne method is where two signals are mixed to make a lower frequency signal that is easier to deal with, and, according to Wikipedia, “virtually all modern radio receivers use the superheterodyne principle.” But where did it come from and how does it work and why (and how) did it usher radio broadcasting into…
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How Howard Armstrong Invented Positive Feedback
Positive feedback in electronics, or when a small change is feed into a loop to magnify itself is a vital part of electrical engineering. But where did it come from and how does it work? I actually know the answer to that: it was created by a 20-year-old college student named Howard Armstrong in his…
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Positive Feedback (Regeneration) How a College Student Invented it in 1912!
Table of Contents Edwin Howard Armstrong The Start of Armstrong’s Invention References Edwin Howard Armstrong It all started with an extremely smart and tragically stubborn college student named Edwin Howard Armstrong. Howard (he went by his middle name) grew up in Manhattan when it was just a relaxed suburb of New York to middle class…
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Triode Vacuum Tube: How it Was Invented & How it Works
Before the invention of the transistor the most important electronic equipment was the vacuum triode. All radios were driven by them, televisions used them, heck, even early computers had rooms full of these jacked up light bulbs. But how do they work, and how (and why) were they invented? This is the story of a…
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Lee de Forest: The Con Man Who Invented Radio
Lee de Forest routinely called himself the “Father of Radio” (it was even the title of his autobiography) and in a way he was right. He invented the idea of wireless broadcasting, conducted many of the first entertainment radio broadcasts and even invented the most important device in radio, the vacuum triode or the vacuum…