Radio
In 1897, with Marconi radio experiments from Lavernock Point in south Wales to the island of Flatholm, became one of Marconi's most ardent supporters. He made various efforts to support Guglielmo Marconi in the wireless field. Preece gained financial assistance from the Post Office to help expand Marconi's work. Preece believed that the Earth’s magnetic field was critical in the propagation of radio waves over long distances.
He had a long-standing rivalry with Oliver Heaviside over his traditional ideas about electricity. It was derisively referred to as "the drain-pipe theory" by Heaviside, because Preece presented the analogy of electricity and water for thought experiments. Reportedly, he never understood James Clerk Maxwell's advances to "mathematical scientific theory".
Preece once stated, conveying sentiments which were later made by Edwin Armstrong,
- True theory does not require the abstruse language of mathematics to make it clear and to render it acceptable All that is solid and substantial in science and usefully applied in practice, have been made clear by relegating mathematic symbols to their proper store place --- the study. - Preece's inaugural speech as president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1893
Preece served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers between April 1898 and November 1899.
Read more about this topic: William Henry Preece
Famous quotes containing the word radio:
“Local television shows do not, in general, supply make-up artists. The exception to this is Los Angeles, an unusually generous city in this regard, since they also provide this service for radio appearances.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
“Now they can do the radio in so many languages that nobody any longer dreams of a single language, and there should not any longer be dreams of conquest because the globe is all one, anybody can hear everything and everybody can hear the same thing, so what is the use of conquering.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Having a thirteen-year-old in the family is like having a general-admission ticket to the movies, radio and TV. You get to understand that the glittering new arts of our civilization are directed to the teen-agers, and by their suffrage they stand or fall.”
—Max Lerner (b. 1902)