The Ether of Space

Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851 - 1940) studied at the Royal College of Science and at University College, London, and in 1881 became professor of physics at Liverpool. A pioneer of radio-telegraphy, Lodge's early experiments of 1888 showed that radio-frequency waves could be transmitted along electric wires and in 1894 he demonstrated a radiotelegraphic set in which he had perfected the coherer, a radio-wave detector and the heart of the early radiotelegraph receiver. Also in 1894 he hypothesized that the Sun emitted radio waves; a fact not proven until 1942. In 1900 he was appointed first principal of the new university at Birmingham. He was knighted in 1902.Marconi said: "He is one of our greatest physicists and thinkers, but it is particularly in regard to his pioneering in wireless, which should never be forgotten. In the very early days, after the experimental confirmation of Maxwell's theory as to the existence of electric waves and their propagation through space, it was given to only a very few persons to possess clear insight in regard to what was considered to be one of the most hidden mysteries of nature. Sir Oliver Lodge possessed that insight in a far greater degree than perhaps any of his contemporaries."