Before We Went Wireless

This is the first biography of the brilliant inventor and practical experimenter, British-born David Edward Hughes. A contemporary of Edison and Bell, Hughes made major contributions in the fields of telegraphy, telephony, metal detection, and audiology. His printing telegraph, adopted across much of Europe, made him a fortune. Hughes sent and received wireless signals in 1879, some sixteen years before Marconi, but faced with the skepticism of his peers, he discontinued his research and his accomplishments were only recognized years later. The fruit of over ten years of research in libraries, archives, and museums, as well as access to all of Hughes's private papers and visits to places where Hughes lived and worked in the UK, US, and Europe, this is the definitive account of a great Victorian scientist whose inventions laid the foundations of the Communications Age. Over 100 illustrations include historic prints, photographs, and documents, and modern technical illustrations: Hughes's lab work and instruments; the places where he lived, worked, and traveled; and portraits of the most prominent people in his work and family life. Extensive endnotes and index.