Speaker Series: "Reginald Fessenden: Brilliant Inventor, Unsuccessful Radio Entrepreneur"

Chatham Marconi Welcomes Tom Inglin to its Speaker Series

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, a Marconi contemporary, made significant advances in radio technology from 1900 to 1911.  His work was focused on continuous wave transmissions with the goal of transmitting sound over radio waves.  He was the first to demonstrate practical radio telephony and several of his other innovations made their way to the Chatham RCA station.  However, his track record commercializing inventions was less impressive.  Some of his inventions were ahead of their time but he was also unable to manage ownership issues with financial partners.  We’ll look at his life, selected radio inventions, business activity and contrast his contributions to that of Guglielmo Marconi.

About Our Speaker

Tom Inglin earned a PhD in Organic Chemistry and spent 35 years in Consumer and Healthcare Product Development.  He holds 12 patents, is a Registered Patent Agent and Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati School of Pharmacy.  His lifelong interest in radio began at a young age when he imagined radio waves traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to France while visiting his grandparents at the New Jersey shore.  It wasn’t until later that he realized he was sometimes looking West across the Delaware Bay.  An amateur radio operator since high school, his retirement volunteer gig at the Marconi/RCA Wireless Museum is a dream come true.  He is currently a museum docent and Secretary of Chatham Marconi’s Board of Directors.
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