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Inventors and Inventions

Inventor of the Radio

Inventor of the Radio
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 9 to 12
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   9.52

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    telegraphy, filed, technology, villa, complex, professor, discovery, laboratory, standard, patent, original, subject, credit, telephone, phonograph, invention
     content words:    Ben Franklin, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Wireless Communication, Signal Company, English Channel, United States, Nikola Tesla, But Marconi, When Marconi

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Inventor of the Radio
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Who invented the lightning rod? Easy -- Ben Franklin. Who invented the telephone? Easy -- Alexander Graham Bell. Who invented the radio? Not so easy. At one time individual people invented many new machines. However, as technology became more complex, more and more inventions were the result of several people's work. Sometimes more than one person built the same invention. Also, sometimes good businessmen made an invention popular and got the credit.
 
2     Here is what happened with the invention of the radio, called wireless telegraphy at the time.
 
3     Guglielmo Marconi, the person who generally gets the credit for inventing the radio, began experimenting with wireless communication in the attic of his father's villa in Italy. In 1895, he sent a wireless signal one and one-half miles.
 
4     Marconi found that England was interested in his discovery. They hoped to use it for communication with ships at sea. So, in 1896, Marconi moved to England and began his Wireless Communication and Signal Company. By 1899, he was able to send a signal across the English Channel, a distance of 31 miles.
 
5     At the same time, an inventor in the United States, Nikola Tesla, was also experimenting with wireless communication. As early as 1893, he had experimented with the technology and conducted demonstrations and lectures on the subject. Unfortunately, his progress was slowed when a fire destroyed his laboratory.

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