Canadian Communication Firsts

Wired and wireless communications were both Canadian firsts. The invention of the telephone by Canadian Alexander Graham Bell is well known. Less known is the Canadian inventor of radio, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden.

On August 10, 1876 Alexander Graham Bell transmitted human voice electrically 13 km by wire between Brantford and Paris, Ontario. He had previously on August 4 transmitted his voice from Brantford to family and friends at his home 6 km away. The famous earlier experiment where he said "Come here Mr. Watson" was just between offices. This proved that telephone voice communication could compete successfully with the telegraph.

Many people associate the invention of radio with Guglielmo Marconi. He is credited with the invention of the radio telegraph. He developed wireless transmission of telegraph code using a spark transmitter. However the inventor of the radio with wireless audio transmission by modulation of continuous waves was Reginald Aubrey Fessenden. This would be analogous to what we call AM (amplitude modulation) radio today.

On December 23 , 1900 Fessenden made what appeared to be the first wireless audio communication over a distance of 1.6 km. In 1906 he made the first transatlantic radio communication. Then on Christmas Eve December 24, 1906 he made the first radio broadcast of music and voice. He played O Holy Night on the violin and read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2. He broadcast from a transmitter at Brant Rock, Massachusetts to an unknown number of shipboard radio operators along the Atlantic coast.

Fessenden, like many others, went to the US to be able to get the backing to conduct his research. He got a job working in Thomas Edison's labs. He also worked for George Westinghouse for a time, and General Electric made the equipment to power his transmitter. He never really made any financial success from his inventions and most of his accomplishments have not been well known.

Canadians made these firsts in wired and wireless communications. And Canada has continued to be at the forefront in communications such as satellite and fibre optics.