Radio, Gadgets and Electronics — 100 Years Of History
Gadgets and wireless technologies are now used everywhere. But it is even more interesting to see how it all began, what technologies have changed our life. Having found an online archive of old magazines, I decided to trace what was the cutting-edge of technological progress for our great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers.
Before we begin, a small addition. Firstly, I am an engineer and not a historian — perhaps not all dates in the text are 100% correct. Secondly, I probably missed something, the volume of this article is not enough to cover everything that was created within a last century. But I tried to highlight those technologies that most influenced our life and made it the way it is known today.
Let’s get started.
1920s—Vacuum Tube Radio
I will not consider the history of Hertz and Marconi, everyone knows this, and it appeared earlier than the interval considered in the article. 100 years ago, vacuum tubes were already used for radio reception.
The radio receiver schematic was pretty straightforwand that time (1920):
