Origin of the Word “Radio”

By David Bart

In response to an inquiry made to the Radio Club of America, I have researched the origin of the word “radio” and share the following with our members… The word radio, as currently and most often used, is a synonym for a form of “electromagnetic radiation”. It first came into use before Heinrich Hertz’s proof of the existence of radio waves. After the discovery of Hertzian waves, it would take almost 20 years for the term “radio” to be universally adopted.

SPARKS AND IDEAS

The concept of electrical discharge and detection dates back at least to the 1780s, with George Adams’ discovery of sparks discharging between conductors in Leyden jars and Luigi Galvani’s famous experiments with frog legs. By the mid-19th century, Joseph Henry, Samuel Varley, Thomas Edison, David Hughes, George Gabriel Stokes and others were all interested in electromagnetic induction and the propagation of electrical sparks and possible applications. James Clerk Maxwell published his famous theoretical basis for the propagation of electromagnetic waves in his 1871 paper to the Royal Society, “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field”. No shortage of famous researchers and inventors, and their supporters, would start to use the word “radio”; and many have debated who discovered various aspects of radio first, making claims about the use of “waves” to transmit and receive energy. Indeed, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Eduard Branly, Oliver Lodge, Guglielmo Marconi, Alexander Stepanovich Popov, and Nikola Tesla are just a few (in alphabetic order). But what about the actual word “radio”? Where does it first show up?

EARLIEST USES

The word “radio” is derived from the Latin word “radius”, meaning “spoke of a wheel, beam of light, ray”. It was first applied to communications in 1881 when at the suggestion of French scientist Ernest Mercadier, Alexander Graham Bell adopted “radiophone” (meaning “radiated sound”) as an alternate name for his photophone optical transmission system. However, this invention would not be widely adopted. Following Heinrich Hertz’s discovery of the existence of radio waves in 1886, a variety of terms were initially used for this radiation, including “Hertzian waves”, “electric waves”, and “ether waves”. The first practical radio communications systems, developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894 - 1895, transmitted telegraph signals by radio waves, so radio communication was first called “wireless telegraphy”. Up until about 1910, the term “wireless telegraphy” also included a variety of other experimental systems for transmitting telegraph signals without wires, including electrostatic induction, electromagnetic induction and aquatic and earth conduction, so there was a need for a more precise term referring exclusively to electromagnetic radiation. By this time, the idea of “radio” as distinct from “wireless” was taking hold, and various new organizations were forming around “radio” as a new field of study.

(L-R) Heinrich Hertz, Eduard Branly, Ernest Jules Pierre Mercadier, Alexander Graham Bell. (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Originally, “radio” was a general prefix meaning “radiant” or “radiation” — hence “radio-activity” for the alpha, beta, and gamma rays emitted by decaying atoms. In Europe, some of the persons investigating Hertz’s discovery began to employ the “radio-” prefix to describe the new phenomenon. For example, in 1890, Edouard Branly, writing in his native French, called his coherer-receiver a “radio-conducteur”. This usage spread to other languages. Thus, a December 29, 1897 Electrical Review report on “Hertzian Telegraphy in France” noted that “Mr. Branly... calls these receivers ‘radioconducting tubes’.” Other compound usages soon followed. A letter in the January 21, 1898 issue of The Electrician (London) suggested that the term “radio-telegraphy” might be preferable to “wireless telegraphy”, and the October 24, 1902 issue included an article titled “The Radio-telegraphic Expedition of the H.I.M.S. ‘Carlo Alberto’”, while “The Wireless Telegraph Conference”, in the November 20, 1903 issue of the same magazine, included numerous references to “radiotelegrams”, “radiograms”, “radiographic stations” and “radio-telegraphy”. A report about Belgian marine applications in the November 19, 1904 Electrical Review noted that “radio-telegraphy has entered into the domain of current practice”. The 1906 Berlin Radiotelegraphic Convention helped spread use of this new term to the United States, and the November 10, 1906 issue of Electrical Review reported this conference had dealt with “the growing use of wireless telegraphy -- or rather, radio-telegraphy -- as we suppose we should say now, since this new designation was adopted by the conference”. There was some skepticism about the change. In the preface to the 1910 edition of his book Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony, William Maver, Jr. wrote: “This author is aware that the authorized designation of wireless telegraphy and telephony is radio-telegraphy and radio-telephony, but for present has adhered to the earlier appellations.” Eventually, compound terms such as “radio-telegraphy” and “radio-telephony” were shortened to just “radio”, with perhaps the first example in English being the British Post Office’s December 30, 1904 “Post Office Circular”, which included instructions for transmitting telegrams that specified that “The word ‘Radio’... is sent in the Service Instructions”. This practice was adopted internationally two years later in 1906 by the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Convention, which specified that “Radiotelegrams shall show in the preamble that the service is ‘radio’.”

(L) Front cover of the program produced for the dinner given by the Submarine Telegraph Companies at the International Telegraph Conference of 1903, and (R) front page of the Radiotelegraph Convention produced at the International Radiotelegraph Conference of 1906 in Berlin. (Courtesy ITU) One of the first persons to popularize this new term in the United States was Lee DeForest. In early 1907, he incorporated the DeForest Radio Telephone Company, and in a letter about the need for government oversight published in the June 22, 1907 Electrical World, he warned that “Radio chaos will certainly be the result until such stringent regulation is enforced.” But it was the Navy that did the most to publicize the new word in the U.S., which added “(Radio)” to the title of the 1913 edition of its Manual of Wireless Telegraphy (Radio) for the Use of Naval Electricians by LCDR S. S. Robison. This well-known resource had been in publication since 1906. The Navy also published its Naval Radio Service Handbook of Regulations in 1913, describing message handling procedures, commercial practices, and other subjects.

ONLINE ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY

The Online Etymology Dictionary notes: • radio (n.)…”wireless transmission of voice signals with radio waves,” 1907, abstracted or shortened from earlier combinations such as radio-receiver (1903), radiophone “instrument for the production of sound by radiant energy” (1881), radio-telegraphy “means of sending telegraph messages by radio rather than by wire” (1898), from radio- as a combining form of Latin radius “beam” (see radius). Use for “radio receiver” is attested by 1913; sense of “sound broadcasting as a medium” also is from 1913. • radio (v.)…”transmit by radio,” 1916, from radio (n.). Related: Radioed; radioing. An earlier verb in the same sense was Marconi (1908), from the name of Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), pioneer of wireless telegraphy.

January 2, 1909 Minutes of the first meeting of the Junior Wireless Club, later renamed as the Radio Club of America (Secretary Book).

October 21, 1911 Minutes where the Junior Wireless Club renamed itself as the Radio Club of America (Secretary Book).

Frederick Lewis Allen described the onrush of the word in Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s, published in 1931. “In the winter of 1921-22, radio came with a rush. Soon everybody was talking, not about wireless telephony, but about radio. A San Francisco paper described the discovery that millions were making: ‘There is radio music in the air, every night, everywhere. Anybody can hear it at home on a receiving set, which any boy can put up in an hour.’ In February, President Harding had an outfit installed in his study, and the Dixmoor Golf Club announced that it would install a ‘telephone’ to enable golfers to hear church services.” The Reading Eagle, in Reading, Pennsylvania, stated in March 16, 1924, “It is not a dream, but a probability that the radio will demolish blocs, cut the strings of red tape, actuate the voice ‘back home,’ dismantle politics and entrench the nation’s executive in a position of power unlike that within the grasp of any executive in the world’s history.” As early as July 1921, the New York Times was calling it wireless telephony, and wireless remained widespread until World War II, when military preference for the word “radio” firmly established it as the word. The word “radio” was used as an adjective by at least 1912, “by radio transmission;” meaning “controlled by radio”. It continues as the proper name of a particular radio station or service, “radio station or service from ___” since at least 1920, as in a radio shack as a small outbuilding housing radio equipment. Thus, “radio” came to be.

RCA AND “RADIO”

The Radio Club of America was founded in 1909 as the Junior Aero Club, and was immediately reconceived as the Junior Wireless Club, Ltd.; co-founded by a group of teenaged boys who were fascinated by wireless, the inventor E. Lillian Todd, and some of their parents. The new Junior Wireless Club operated separately from its predecessor, The Junior Aero Club. In 1911, the Junior Wireless Club changed its name to the Radio Club of America (RCA). RCA is the world’s oldest radio communications society, or club. By 1912, two other organizations, The Society of Wireless Telegraph Engineers (SWTE) and The Wireless Institute (TWI), had also formed, and merged, to create the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) as a professional association dedicated to the new fields of wireless telegraphy and radio. Two years later in 1914, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) was established to promote the interests of the growing number of amateur radio operators. Today, the IRE’s legacy continues in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), following IRE’s 1962 merger with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE). From Hertz to Ham Radio to iPhones, the most interesting thing to me is that the public has lost touch and does not realize it is using “radio” in its everyday lives. Radio is now a disconnected topic. Younger people (under age 50) have gone “digital”, and they no longer seem to realize that their cell phones are, in fact, radio transmitters and radio receivers. It is up to us to remind them of the celebrated history of radio and to reinvigorate their interest in the ongoing technology that is serving everyone so well in the radio spectrum.

SOURCES

D. Bart, Comprehensive Index to the Proceedings of the Radio Club of America for 2013-2013, Radio Club of America, 2013. Invention of Radio, Wikipedia, Invention_of_radio, accessed April 15, 2022. “Radio Conferences” and “Telegraph and Telephone Conferences”, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) website, https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/ RadioConferences.aspx?conf=4.36 and https://www.itu. int/en/history/Pages/TelegraphAndTelephoneConferences. aspx?conf=4.24, respectively, accessed April 15, 2022. Radio (n.), Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www. etymonline.com/word/radio, accessed April 15, 2022. Radio-Etymology, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Radio#History, accessed April 15, 2022. E. Walsh, E. Lilian Todd: Lawyer, Inventor, and the Unlikely Co-Founder of the Radio Club Of America, Proceedings of the Radio Club of America, Spring 2021. T. White, Word Origins, United States Early Radio History, https://earlyradiohistory.us/sec022.htm, accessed April 15, 2022.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David P. Bart, KB9YPD, is Executive Vice President of the Radio Club of America, Chairman of RCA’s Publications Committee, a Life Member, and Fellow. He is also a Life Member and Director of the Antique Wireless Association. He is treasurer of the IEEE History Committee and former vice president of the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.