During early days, science and technology were separated from each other. Science belonged to philosophers while technology belonged to the tanners, millers, and silversmiths.

In the thirteenth century, science and technology became more closely related. We owe this to Roger Bacon (1214-1294). He designed experiments to confirm scientific theories. This led to a program of reforms in which new areas of scientific studies were opened in the universities of the west. These scientific studies brought together science and technology.

In the nineteenth century, many inventors based their inventions on the works of scientists. Examples are:

1.       Thomas Edison (1847-1931), the inventor of the electric lamp, based his invention on what Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and Joseph Henry (1797-1878) discovered about electricity.

2.       Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), the inventor of the telephone, based his invention on what Herman Von Helmholtz (1821-1894) discovered about waves.

3.       Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), the inventor of the wireless telegraph, based his invention on what Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) discovered about electromagnetism.

Today, humanity is increasingly dependent on science and technology to meet its material needs.

Most of the water we use for drinking has been scientifically treated and purified. We use electric appliances at home and in our offices. We use machines that simplify the tasks of daily living. Better clothing is available because science and technology have provided better fabrics and improved methods of textile manufacture. Technology has also made possible the development of better soaps and cleaners to clean our clothes, more nourishing food for our bodies, better materials for building homes, and more effective drugs to cure or prevent diseases.

Other far-reaching developments may accompany the advancement of technology. Examples are language-translation machines that will bring the goal of worldwide communication a step closer; increased success in the transplant of natural vital organs from one person’s body to another; and probably the most dramatic of them all, the establishment of a manned spacecraft on the moon. It is possible what within your lifetime, you may see the partial control of the weather; the complete elimination or control of viral and bacterial diseases; the correction of hereditary defects; and the laboratory creation of primitive forms of artificial life.

Soon many of you will receive computer-based instruction that permits a “conversation” between you and the computer programming, decision theory, and systems analysis more meaningful. We now live in a dynamic age of satellite-relayed television, electromechanical “brains”, guided missiles, and miracle drugs. Each of these far-reaching developments will affect our daily lives. A study of the products of science and a fuller understanding of the role they play in modern society is important.

Technology has helped improved our lives. Through technology we have better shelter and clothing, increased food production, and a higher standard of living. In the field of agriculture, technology has helped improved food production and preservation.

Technology can also have harmful effects. The outcome of technology should be considered and carefully studied to determine its effects on man and society. For instance, gases produced by cars and factories may pollute the air and produce harmful effects. Technology should be used with caution. It should be used to produced new products and develop new methods, which could help many people lead healthy lives. But the harmful effects of technology must be carefully weighed and prevented.

By 1972, James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist, put forward his theory concerning radio waves.  He showed how they might work.  By 1885, the American Telephone and Telegraphy Company (ATT) came into existence, capitalizing on  the commercial usage of the telegraph and the telephone.  It however, took Heinrich Hertz, to show what the real radio waves were like, that we have come to know today.

It is unclear who has been the first radio voice, but most historians tend to think that Nathan B. Stubble of Murray, KY, holds that distinction.  By 1835, Guglielmo Marconi had improved on telegraphy by sending messages over considerable distances that came to replace the undersea cables to Europe.  It was he, that in 1901, that transmitted the letter “S” across the Atlantic Ocean.  Five year later, Marconi’s feat was followed by Reginald Fessenden that broadcast voice and music with his alternator at Brant Rock, MA, singing, reading from the bible, and playing a violin, according to Gleason Archer in the History of Radio to 1926 (1939), and Erick Barnouw in A Tower of Babel (1966).

In 1907, Le DeForest took out a patent on the audion tube.  Three years later in April, “Doc” Charles Herrold began broadcasting from the Garden City Bank Building in San Jose, CA, and started a college named the Herrold College of Wireless and Engineering.

The Wireless Ship Act of 1910 was passed by Congress.  It required all ocean going vessels traveling over 200 miles with over 50 passengers, to be equipped with a wireless radio able to communicate with other vessels, and shore stations. Wireless was put to work when the “unsinkable” Titanic hit an iceberg.   

Around 1913, there were about 1,000 radio transmitters operating in the United States.  During this period of experimentation, Herrold and his students broadcast music and talk.  In 1914, Herrold’s child, first cries, were aired to a spellbound audience.

It was in 1915, that David Sarnoff came to write his famous “music box” memo, in which he envisioned radio being used for entertainment purposes.  When WW1 broke out in 1917, there were close to 9,000 radio transmitters in operation.  The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was established in 1919, and the first radio station KDKA, in Pittsburgh, PA, came into business, one year later, and broadcast the Harding-Cox presidential race.  The first radio network began in 1922.  It consisted of WGY in Schenectady, NY, and WJZ in Newark, NJ.  RCA sold $11 million worth of receivers. AT&T’s WEAF broadcast its first commercial program.

By 1924, there were more than 500 stations broadcasting locally.  AT&T built a six station network around WEAF.  By 1925 receiver sales had jumped to $50 million.  By 1926, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) began programming on its Red and Blue networks.  

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During the early 1920s, there was much chaos because the frequencies were crowded, and amateur and professional broadcasters changed them at will.  This happened during the Progressive Era, so a Secretary of Commerce was assigned to regulate the wavelengths.  In the Congressional Report of 1927, it was stated that by 1926, there were over 15,000 amateur radios, some 2,000 ship stations, and about 500 broadcast stations.  Broadcasting was seen as serving in “the public interest, convenience, and necessity.”  

In 1928, William S. Paley purchased a floundering network named it the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).  The show “Amos ‘n’ Andy became this network’s famous hit that appealed to a mass audience.

By 1929, newspaper columnist Walter Winchell turned to radio.  Sales of radio reached an all time high of $19 million by the time of the Wall Street crash, and CBS was operating in the black.  By the end of the 1920s, there were now in place the following radio networks, AT&T, NBC Red & Blue, and CBS.  

 Humans have always communicated with each other. After the electricity had been invented, it was possible for the Morse and others that work on the telegraph. The speed of the telegraph was to drop Pony Express, pigeons and smoke signals, for now, there was keen masts along the railway tracks and at every railway station, could receive or send messages.

Prize in 1856 for sending messages was approx. 40 cents for 15 words.

In the late 19th century came the wireless telegraph (radio wave) which we can thank for Guglielmo Marconi. Until then, ships had only been able to communicate closely on land or close to other ships. The wireless telegraph also used Morse code to send messages.

Probably the most famous Morse signal is enough SOS (… — …) as the Titanic when it sent aid into an iceberg and as everyone knows and does help. Today when we speak over the radio or telephone use is also May Day comes from the French “M’aidez” and does help me. Another interesting thing about Morse code is that you can also use sound, light or flags to send signals.

 
You can compare the telegraph to today’s email to the email computer also communicate with signs, it is obviously much faster than Morse code, but the principle of communicating the same speed is the same. But the difference between e-mail and the telegraph is that everyone can send an e-mail if we have learned to read and write and have a computer available. To use the telegraph, you should be trained to send and understand the codes and it was only such military and postal services were trained. Millions of people have up to several computers at home and sends e-mails every day. It is also cheaper.

But the Internet (and thus e-mails) would not exist if no electricity and the telegraph was invented and further developed by various scientists