In the 34 years from 1895 through 1929, the world took a giant step forward in communications.
Two inventions, the radio and then the television, made that great leap possible.
Italian Guglielmo Marconi gets credit for building the first radio, in 1895. In fact, many families used to call their radios “Marconis.” Thirty-four years later, a Russian inventor who had immigrated to the U.S. made the next great stride in communications: In 1929, Vladimir Zworykin demonstrated the first all-electric television system. Zworykin’s system was the standard for decades, but today’s televisions are vastly different. Most work like monitors that translate digital data from cable or satellite into pictures and sound.
