REGINALD FESSENDEN
1866-1932

A Canadian, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was the first person to prove that voices and music could be heard over the air without wires. Yet some books ignore him, others mistakenly call him an American, and one Canadian encyclopedia cites his mother as the principal founder of Empire Day but overlooks her eldest son’s accomplishments. Marconi, on the other hand, is given credit for radio even though his theory on sound waves was wrong and even though he was still sending only Morse code signals when Fessenden made his first “broadcast.” 

A larger-than-life eccentric genius, Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, often arrogant and cutting, was also respected as a warm and loyal colleague [PAC/PA 93160]
The reasons for the oversight are many. Although born in the Eastern Townships of Quebec in 1866, Fessenden left Canada at 18. He later worked for Edison, was a professor at two American universities, and was working with an American company when he proved his theories for broadcasting. In addition, lacking the showmanship of Marconi and Edison, Fessenden had difficulty marketing himself or his inventions.

A brilliant student at Trinity College School, Port Hope, at 14 he was granted a mathematics mastership to Bishop’s College in Lennoxville, Quebec. This gave him a small income and a credit for a college year if he passed the exams. He did, but a growing interest in science caused him to tire of study of the classics, and thus at 18 he accepted a teaching position in Bermuda.

Two years later he was hired for Thomas Edison’s machine shop where he so impressed his superiors that Edison invited him to work in the labs. At 24 he was chief chemist, but financial difficulties forced Edison to lay him off. He was hired almost at once by George Westinghouse, and two of his inventions helped Westinghouse fulfil his contract to light the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Fessenden then became professor of electrical engineering at Purdue University, and a year later Westinghouse arranged that he become chief of electrical engineering at Western University of Pennsylvania and conduct research for him.

At the university, Fessenden explored his major interest, the study of Hercules sound waves. Marconi believed waves were generated by creating a spark that caused a whiplash effect, but Fessenden rejected this concept, theorizing correctly that sound waves continuously rippled outward — like water when a stone is dropped into it. Further experiments led him to suggest that, if the waves could be sent at a high frequency, it would be possible to hear only the “variations due to the human voice.”

In 1900 he joined the US Weather Bureau on the understanding that the bureau could have access to any devices he invented but that he would retain ownership. This suited Fessenden perfectly. Within months he improved their Morse code systems for weather forecasting, and in his own experiments transmitted voice a mile away for the first time. In 1902, however, a Bureau superior demanded a share of his patents. Rather than submit, Fessenden complained to President Theodore Roosevelt, but his letter was returned to the Bureau and he was forced to resign. 

Seen with his staff outside Brant Rock Station, Fessenden, seated, was born in Quebec where he attended Bishop's University. He made the first public radio broadcast of music and voice on Christmas Eve, 1906 [North Carolina Division of Archives and History]
Two Pittsburg millionaires joined with him to form the National Electric Signaling Company (NESCO) to develop Morse code services between Brant Rock, Massachusetts, and several American points and to carry on his own research. In 1903 he sent a voice message to an assistant 50 miles distant, and another was heard at his experimental towers in Scotland. In 1904 he was also hired to help engineer the Niagara Falls power plant for the newly formed Ontario Power Commission, and in 1906 he opened his own Canadian company in Montreal.

His greatest achievement that year, however, occurred at 9 p.m., Christmas Eve, 1906, when wireless operators of several United Fruit Company ships in the Atlantic, tipped off to expect something unusual on their NESCO-provided sets, heard Fessenden transmit a recording of Handel’s “Largo” on an Ediphone, play “Oh Holy Night” on the violin, and read from the Bible before wishing them a Merry Christmas. 

In 1906, Fessenden achieved 2-way voice transmission by radio between Machrihanish, Scotland, and Brant Rock Station, Massachusetts (Marconi had sent radio signals from England to Newfoundland in 1901, but only one-way and in Morse Code). In this view he is seen, right, in his laboratory at Brant Rock with operators Parmill and Wescoe [North Carolina Division of Archives and History]
Marconi’s theory still prevailed, however, and even Fessenden’s own backers were not interested in voice or music communication. The partnership began to sour, and this eventually led to the seizure of his patents as his sponsors believed they did not need him any more. Fessenden sued.

For the next two years he invented various gadgets in order to earn a living and to pay legal fees before joining the Submarine Signal Company in Boston. There he developed a wireless system for submarines to signal each other, and a device — to avoid another Titanic disaster — that could “bounce radio waves off icebergs miles away.” Later he sent sound waves to the bottom of the ocean to accurately tell its depth. He was eventually to have some 500 patents to his credit.

At the outbreak of World War I, Fessenden volunteered his services to Canada, went to London, and developed a device to detect enemy artillery and another to locate enemy submarines. But the military bureaucracy was not interested in pursuing many of his ideas; therefore, he returned to Boston in 1915 and perfected his ocean depth device — he called it a fathometer — which gave him enough financial security to live comfortably and spend summers visiting friends and relatives in Canada.

The phenomenal interest in radio in the 1920s increased his demands for settlement of his lawsuit, and he finally gained recognition for his pioneer work. The Institute of Radio Engineers presented him with its Medal of Honour, and Philadelphia awarded him a medal and cash prize for “one whose labors had been of great benefit to mankind.” Finally, in 1928, he won an out-of-court settlement for $500,000 for his patent lawsuit.

Fessenden, then 62 and with a heart condition, decided to return to Bermuda where he had met his wife, Helen, more than 40 years earlier. There, the man called by the head of General Electric Laboratories “the greatest wireless inventor of the age — greater than Marconi,” died in January, 1932, largely a forgotten man.