Reginald Fessenden: Father of Voice Radio

Canadian-born Reginald Fessenden is widely considered to be the Father of Voice Radio. Public Domain

Reginald Fessenden (1866–1932) was born to an Anglican minister and a writer in East Bolton, Quebec. Fessenden received a fine education growing up, attending DeVeaux College, a kind of military prep school in Niagara Falls. It was during this time, at age 10, that he witnessed Alexander Graham Bell demonstrate the telephone in his Brantford, Ontario laboratory (the same place Bell would make the first successful long distance call—from Brantford to Paris).

In 1877, Fessenden left DeVeaux to attend Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario. After graduating, he attended Bishop’s College in Lennoxville, Quebec. He found success at the school, even teaching mathematics. His time there, however, was short-lived due to financial constraints. At 18, he accepted a position in Bermuda as the headmaster of the Whitney Institute. Around a year later, he decided to return to North America, but this time, he arrived in New York. His goal was to work for one of the nation’s most famous and brilliant inventors: Thomas Edison.

Joining Edison and Westinghouse

When he first applied, Edison brushed him off, as Fessenden had no credentials. Fessenden was persistent, promising that he was a fast learner. Edison relented and gave him a job as a tester at Edison Machine Works in New York. Fessenden proved more than competent and was promoted to head chemist for the Edison Laboratory in Orange, New Jersey in 1887.

For the next three years, Fessenden remained in Edison’s employ, until Edison’s company began to struggle financially. In 1890, Fessenden got married and was laid off. But his unemployment didn’t last long. His reputation had become well established in the industry. George Westinghouse, one of Edison’s primary competitors, hired Fessenden.

Edison Machine Works on Goerck Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, photographed by Edison employee Charles L. Clarke. Public Domain

He joined the Westinghouse Electric Company’s subsidiary, United States Company, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A couple of years later in 1892, Purdue University offered him the professorship in electrical engineering. A year after accepting, he left the school for Pittsburgh to become professor of electrical engineering at Western University of Pennsylvania (now University of Pittsburgh) from 1893 to 1899.

During this time as a professor, Fessenden remained a consultant for Westinghouse, even assisting him with the lighting of the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. While a professor, his research involved X-rays, microphotography, and electricity. He also became interested in the new technology of wireless telegraphy developed by Guglielmo Marconi.

Joining the Weather Bureau

In the spring of 1900, Fessenden joined the U.S. Weather Bureau (now known as the National Weather Service) where he conducted experiments in radiotelegraphy. The Weather Bureau wished to communicate weather updates to and from ships at sea. Fessenden demonstrated the ability to conduct wireless messages via Morse code, but his goal was to conduct voice transmission. On Dec. 23, 1900, from his lab on Cobb Island, Maryland, he would prove such an idea was possible.

Cobb Island on the Potomac River, scene of the first successful radio transmission of speech, in 1900. Public Domain

“One, two, three, four. Is it snowing where you are, Mr. Thiessen? If it is, telegraph back and let me know.” This brief transmission between two towers one mile apart was the first time such a transmission had taken place. Fessenden would spend much of his life improving on voice transmission through amplitude modulation (AM).

By March 1902, Fessenden transmitted a voice message from Cape Hatteras to Roanoke Island, about 50 miles apart. These were major leaps in communication technology. Disputes between Fessenden and the Bureau about patents, however, resulted in the inventor resigning that same year.

Forming His Own Company

Immediately after departing, he, along with millionaires T.H. Given and Hay Walker Jr., formed the National Electric Signaling Company (NESCO) to manufacture, promote, and sell his inventions. One company objective was to compete directly with Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company Limited.

A 1904 advertisement for NESCO. Public Domain

By the end of 1906, he demonstrated how to integrate wireless telephony with the telephone system. This would allow smaller telephone companies to compete with the monopoly Bell Telephone. During this same time, he conducted a “telephonic speech” transmission from Marshfield, Massachusetts across the Atlantic Ocean to Machrihanish, Scotland.

That same year, on Christmas Eve, Fessenden conducted a radio broadcast, which included a reading from the Gospel of Luke, a recording of Handel’s “Largo,” Fessenden’s playing “O Holy Night” on violin, and ending with the inventor wishing listeners a “Merry Christmas.” The broadcast from Marshfield reached as far as Norfolk. It is considered the first radio broadcast.

By 1911, however, patent disputes would arise. Fessenden was either fired or resigned; regardless, he left NESCO that year and would be entangled in litigation for many years. The litigation cases would finally conclude in 1928, which resulted in a hefty cash settlement.

Focusing on Submarine Technology

After leaving NESCO, his primary interests focused on submarine telegraphy. He joined the Submarine Signal Company of Boston as a consulting engineer, a position he retained the rest of his life.

Fessenden invented the submarine oscillator, which “protect[ed] shipping with a wall of sound.” This device enabled ships to communicate with each other and onshore facilities. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Fessenden Oscillator ultimately resulted in the ability to measure depths, generate sidescans of sonar imagery, and observe geophysical and physical oceanographic parameters.

After receiving the large cash settlement in 1928, Fessenden purchased a home in Bermuda where he lived the rest of his life. His wife, Helen, published a biography of him in 1940, entitled, “Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrows.” Fessenden was awarded the Scientific American’s Safety at Sea Gold Medal in 1929. He was awarded the Institute of Radio Engineers Medal of Honor and the John Scott Medal by the Philadelphia Board of Directors of City Trusts in 1921 and 1922, respectively. In 1977, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists established the annual Reginald Fessenden Award for the “person who has made a specific technical contribution to exploration geophysics, such as an invention or a theoretical or conceptual advancement, which merits special recognition.”

Purdue University, where Fessenden briefly taught, has offered the Fessenden-Trott Scholarship since 1980. The Reginald A. Fessenden House in Newton, Massachusetts, was established as a National Historic Landmark in 1976. Over his life, he received approximately 500 patents. He is considered the “Father of Voice Radio.”

The Reginald A. Fessenden House in 2012. Macgicpiano/CC BY-SA 4.0

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