I feel like I hear about this guy once every second
which is about the frequency that the heart (german Herz) is beating with.
Whatever you do, love Hertz
The germans are really something else, what innovation hasn’t sprung from their imagination?
I mean, it would be some 25 years until the radio was invented. And Hertz’ machine required a 30kV spark on a 2.5m meter long antenna with 2 solid 30cm zinc spheres, and his transmission range was something like “barely down the hall”.
Not the most practical method.
I’m sure someone thinks it’s perfect for their use case, semi relevant xkcd:
At least physics will never get patched. The spark device with zinc spheres will always do that thing.
FCC: And get you arrested
So like Bluetooth?
Yes, except you need to buy each bit in a big glass jar.
Edit: only half joking, they used big Leiden Jars, which were basically giant glass batteries. There was no such thing as people with power at home, unless you were crazy rich
There were electrochemical cells (invented in 1800) that provided a constant current for some time.
Idk the details. Look up Galvanic cell, Volta cell.
But somehow more reliable.
Those practical methods would never have existed if not for Hertz’ experiments. Those were 25 years of other scientists, having seen that this new concept exists, refining his contraption into what eventually would become the machine that we know as a radio.
Fun fact: The german word for using a radio is “funken”; literally “to spark”. A radioman is, or was, a “Funker”. When you are talking over the radio, you are doing it “Über Funk”.
ooh i always guessed the word “Funk” comes from function, i.e. the radio is a useful tool that has a function to whoever is using it.
It really is from “Funkentechnik”: “Spark technology”. I wonder how many people appreciate the post for the cute etymology and how many because it sounds funny.
Good information for ham radio people, too. Hobby sounds too geeky? Just say you’re into Über-Funk-Parties.
Appreciate for both of course!
ok but now, where does the word “Funke” (spark) come from?
mittelhochdeutsch (mitteldeutsch) vunke, althochdeutsch funcho, entstanden aus den mit -n- gebildeten Formen des Feuer zugrunde liegenden Substantivs
https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Funke#Bedeutung-1
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Pretty much the first type of commercially viable radio transmitter was the spark-gap transmitter (“Knallfunkensender” in German). It worked by charging up some capacitors to up to 100kV and then letting them spark. This spark sent a massive banging noise on the whole radio spectrum, which could then be turned into an audible noise using a very simple receiver. That was then used to send morse codes (or similar encodings).
They went into service around 1900, and by 1920 it was illegal to use these because they would disrupt any and all other radio transmissions in the area with a massive loud bang.
“Knallfunkensender”
Literally “Bang-Sparks-Sender”.
Are you sure it’s because of the radio spectrum bang? I always thought it was because of the audible bang.
If someone operated such a thing today, any guesses what the death zone for electronic devices would be?
It’s a broadband bang that can be heard across the whole spectrum. It becomes audible when listening to radio broadcasts.
Regular radio transmissions are comparatively narrow band, allowing lots of simultaneous transmissions in the same airspace, each on its own frequency. The spark gap transistor is very wide band, so it basically sounds as if you are sending a bang sound across all radio frequencies at the same time.
It wouldn’t destroy radio equipment, but the radio transmissions. It’s basically as if you’d use a radio jammer as a morse code transmitter.
this type of science-discovery to usefulness-realization latency is the norm, pretty sure Curie didn’t envision nuclear power plants
She didn’t envision a lot of things
I suppose it’s like asking a biologist what type of dishes would they do with a plant species they just discovered
Is that not what drives biologists, trying to eat new discoveries before someone else
Darwin ate every damned thing he came across.
That’s gross.
Recycled protein.
How?
Just like how anthropological archeologists compete to eat the oldest thing they find
most likely, other humans eat it first, they just didn’t write it down and publish it
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ME TOO!
I feel like the signal processing community is really passionate about their work. It comes out in their books. I know I can talk for hours and hours and hours about signal processing. And my DSP professor was like that too. That was such a fun class.
Half of the field is viable thanks to a single algorithm: FFT
FFT was a DARPA project. It alone probably makes all their funding worth it.
This may be an even better example than the positron. Originally a theoretical antimatter form of the common electron, with no practical application.
Turned out to be a vital tool for medical imaging. If you or someone you know has ever had a PET scan, now you know what the P stands for.
I always thought it stood for “pepperoni.” So, you’re saying “PET” stands for “Positrons, Endives, and Tomatoes”?
No it stands for animals you keep at home.
PET scan, its powered by hamsters.
I guess they decided CAT scan wasn’t inclusive enough.
Cats were originally used for their curiosity, but training hamsters and eventually parakeets led to much smaller machines.
If you think about it, almost all computer-technology is radio. Wifi, bluetooth, GPS, radar, and cellular are literally radio. Meanwhile everything else runs on transistor tech developed and refined… for radios.
Our modern economy couldn’t exist if people like Hertz and Maxwell didn’t get to toy with their useless hobbies. But we can’t rely on the curiosity of the leisure class anymore. Basic research is expensive, necessary, and a public good. I’m afraid that the Trump regime has already spoiled the secret sauce that makes America the technology leader of the world.
Even more than that, just proving Maxwell was right was a key stepping stone to all of modern physics. Maxwell, not Einstein, was the first to show that the speed of light is invariant, and Einstein’s Relativity was a framework for explaining how tf physics works if that’s actually true. Prior to Einstein, physists all just kind of assumed there was some flaw in Maxwell’s theorems to lead to this crazy speed invariance, but as the evidence just kept piling up in favor of Maxwell, they started having to wrestle with the uncomfortable thought that this could actually be true. In this sense, Hertz can also be thought of as an important step to Einstein and beyond, and almost all of our modern technology.
It’s getting pretty drafty up here. Giants on shoulders of giants all the way down. I can’t even see the bottom anymore.
Bottom is probably Newton. The guy was a machine.
Two inventions:
- Internet
- Computers
are independent of each other, but go together nicely.
You could have an internet (sort of) without computers. Consider Teletypers, FM Radio broadcasts, or Telephone.
an internet (sort of) without computers.
Really? You mean like the … telephone network?
Transistors were mostly developed for telephone systems (the ones with wires) as a replacement for tubes. And the modern tech used for radios is very different from that used for computers.
Ithink you could be more charitable in your reply. Transistors were developed to replace tubes in telephone systems… Okay but the tubes had been developed to where they were because of their usefulness in radio.
And while computers don’t inherently rely on radio, it’s radio communication that’s taken computers from one in every office to one in everyone’s pocket. Right? The main thrust of the previous commenter is true.
Did it Hertz when he realised the opposite, or did that happen after his time?
No, Hertz never lived to see applications of his discovery. Guglielmo Marconi (was a fascist) started working on radio telegraphy in 1894, shortly after Hertz’ death.
Oof! One of those moments which kinda’ make one wish there wasn’t an afterlife…
Thank you for the tidbit, though, and fuck Fascists regardless!
One of those moments which kinda’ make one wish there wasn’t an afterlife…
Tada, your wish is reality 🙃
I’m of the “I don’t know, whatever” persuasion=))
I wish Russell’s Teapot wasn’t real.
Oh yeah? Prove it!
Look, I agree that from a purely logical standpoint, there ain’t nothing there. Personally, I believe the Universe is enough as far spiritual anchors go. But from an “I’m just breathin’ here” standpoint, I genuinely couldn’t care less. As long as people don’t hurt others out of their beliefs, they can knock themselves out believing whatever they so desire!
To be perfectly honest, I also think it adds a bit of flavour to the world as long as it’s benign, I’ve had the immense luck of meeting a few religious people who took the good things out of The Text (generalising) and forged their own very personal relationship with the divine! They were the kind of people who took Free Will as being the highest imperative at the end of the day, people who would have fundamentally tried to respect existence even without the pre-existing framework. I’m thinking here specifically of my godfather (raised in an Orthodox household), who’s a middle-management kinda’ Priest (I don’t know the ranks, I’m sorry…).
Having these examples in mind, I prefer all the more to live and let live, as long as they do so as well.
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Not really, he’s not stealing something his dad made, using modern tech to smooth over the 60s parts and presenting it as his own invention.
You don’t understand that’s just Hanseatic understatement.
I mean, why would a guy that started a car rental company know anything about radio waves?
Gotcha!
Because of car radio? Vertical integration, you know.
I thought he was a baker. When I was a kid people would always be talking about “Hertz donuts”. Then they’d punch me. I never knew why.
This post tickles a fond memory of mine. I was talking to a right-wing libertarian, and he said there should be no research done ever if it couldn’t prove beforehand its practical applications. I laughed out loud because I knew how incredibly ignorant and ridiculous that statement was. He clearly had never picked up a book on the history of science, on the history of
- electromagnetism (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have a generator nearby when his eyes were being operated on with LASIK; generators are a technology built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- quantum mechanics (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have semiconductors in his phone, or if he didn’t have access to lasers for his LASIK surgery, both of which are technologies built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- superconductivity (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have superconductors for an MRI if he ever needs it, a technology built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- radio waves (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have radio waves for his phone and computer’s wifi and bluetooth to run his digital business, technologies built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
- X-rays (it would be a shame if the poor libertarian didn’t have x-rays to check the inside of his body in case something went wrong, a technology built by basic research that didn’t have practical applications in mind)
Bullshit. Lasers have been intended to gain interplanetary superiority since the dawn of time. We just didnt know how to make them or that they could also be used to read music from a circle
When talking with libertarians you should keep in mind they have completely different axiomatic values. It is often the case that they understand a certain policy would be on net bad for everyone, they simply don’t care. They are rarely utilitarian about those issues.
I get along much better with libertarians who justify libertarianism with values extrinsic to just “muh freedom” – they are usually much more willing to yield ground in places where I can convince them that a libertarian policy would be net negative, and they have also moved me to be more open minded about some things I thought I would never agree with.
Those are much rarev in my opinion.
and they have also moved me to be more open minded about some things I thought I would never agree with.
Such as? I’m curious.
Was he the guy that started that rental car company?
/s
His customers lamented that driving was so boring and they wished there was some magical way for the cars to play music.
Oh well. Nothing to be done there.
Just straight lazy… Shame.
Hertz donut
TIL: I’m just like Hertz
Nothing, I guess
Aw, cheer up; someone will apply you in thirty to forty years.
I feel like this is a very “scientisty” thing - the theoretical aspect is so fascinating and being able to fit all the pieces into a model that is mathematically accurate is the reward.
Considering the practical application of the model and how it can benefit society (or in other words, be marketed for profit) takes a different set of skills.
I absolutely detest the equivocation of “benefits society” and “marked for profit”.
Plenty of things have been discovered to have practical applications which can benefit society yet are shelved or have its implementation frustrated because it cannot be exploited for profit or threatens the profits of a preexisting application which it would replace.
