IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2022 - 18

Book Review
1894 at Oxford or anywhere else. This testimony, first
chronicled in 2013, was documented in the Report
of the Select Committee on Radiographic Convention,
which was prepared for the British House of Commons
to assist them in determining whether or not
it was in the national and public interest to ratify the
Radiotelegraphic Convention, signed by British representatives
attending the Convention in Berlin on 3
November 1906.
At these hearings, Lodge was asked this question
by an examiner: " What was the first date and
place that you transmitted intelligible message by
means of Hertzian waves? " Lodge answered, " In my
early experiments and in 1894 I did not attempt to
transmit words by Morse code... All I did was send
short and long signals. " (This was in the context of a
vision experiment.) He was then asked the question
" But previous to 1896 you did not give the invention
any personal application. " Lodge answered, " No. "
Clearly, Lodge was deceptive in his claim in Past
Years stating that he sent telegraphy messages using
letters of Morse code in 1894 at Oxford.
Author David Amigoni acknowledges the problem
with Lodge's Past Lives: " Lodge's autobiography is
a rather problematic reconstruction of his claim for
priority in developing what Lodge himself called 'a
very infantile kind of radio telegraphy.' " In an essay
appearing later in the book, Imogene Clarke expands
on this theme by inferring that Lodge's autobiography
is a rather problematic reconstruction of many of his
claimed discoveries: " If we are to argue for Lodge's
importance in the history of physics, it is not on the
evidence of discoveries or developments but rather
on the basis of his work disseminating contemporary
ideas. " I certainly agree with that assessment.
After reading this book, I did not get the feeling
that it will go very far in rejuvenating Lodge's reputation.
First, the authors have opened Pandora's box
by pointing out that Lodge has rewritten history in his
autobiography and that he himself did not actually
invent or discover very much. To that, I would add
his writings were often ambiguous and deceptive.
Also, the general population today is much more
sophisticated than the population he connected
with at the end of WWI, and I do not believe that
mainstream scientists, engineers, historians, and the
well-educated and more-informed public of today
will brook a scientist who became popular 100 years
ago by attempting to explain the psychic world in
18
scientific terms when the psychic world, by definition,
is inexplicable by laws of physics.
I would be remiss if I closed without pointing out
a few of the more egregious errors in this book. Peter
Rowlands claims that Lodge had priority in the discovery
of electromagnetic waves:
" Further experiments after the lectures led to many
incidental discoveries...and publication of the
early results in June [June 17 and June 22, 1888].
These included the first actual publication of any
verification of Maxwell's theory and the first published
statement that electromagnetic waves had
been discovered, with the correct wavelengths if
their velocity was assumed to be that of light, as
Maxwell's theory required. "
In fact, Heinrich Hertz published his discovery of
electromagnetic waves in air, with the correct velocity,
in issue No. 8(a) of Annalen der Physik, which
was published on 20 May 1888.
Another example is David Amigoni's statement
that Lodge filed five patents in 1896-the same year,
Marconi filed his first patent on a wireless telegraphy
system. The clear intent was to show that Lodge was
already pursuing wireless telegraphy at the time Marconi
filed his first patent in April of 1896. The truth is
that Lodge did not file any patents in 1896. The very
first patent application Lodge filed on wireless telegraphy
was for a method of tuning, which was dated
8 May 1897. Amigoni further clouds the timelines by
stating that Lodge was " particularly proud of the patent,
obtained in 1897, for a sensitive tuning device. "
Lodge's patent was not granted until 10 August 1898,
more than a year after Marconi's patent was granted.
In closIng, I would like to point out that there are
often sharp differences of opinion on a number of
key points among the various authors in their essays.

Eric P. Wenaas writes a book review column
for the Antique Wireless Association Journal and
has written a book and many published articles
on the history of wireless. Wenaas has a Ph.D. in
interdisciplinary studies in engineering from SUNY
Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
 Direct questions and comments about this article
to Eric P. Wenaas, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067 USA;
eric@chezwenaas.com.
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2022

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