[MrFixr55]

I recently bought the "Bible" on the subject, Eric Wenaas' "Radiola- The Golden Age of RCA". I will have to reread it to see what mention of Fessenden. According to Wikipedia, he was a rather prolific inventor, but like de Forest, not a businessman (although not as involved in as many nebulous business dealings as de Forest was. I believe Fessenden had a lot to do with heterodyning to produce a "tone" in the reception of Morse code. However, the technique did not come to common practice until the invention of the vacuum tube. He was an advocate of "alternators" as sources of radio waves as opposed to the spark gap transmitter. Alexanderson ran with the idea to produce the famous GE Alexanderson Alternator. Some of Fessenden's ideas and patents included the rotary spark gap transmitter, electrolytic detector, CW (Continuous Wave) and AM (Amplitude Modulation), and techniques that were developed into RADAR and SONAR. Fessenden had associations with Edison, GE and Westinghouse. He may
be somewhat of an unsung hero; he should be as famous has Hertz, Armstrong and Marconi.

I remember reading in a 5th or 6th grade reader at school in 1965 or 1966 about the first transmission of voice and music on Christmas Eve, 1906, by Fessenden. (The reader was likely published several years earlier, as the cars illustrated in the reader were late 1940s vintage.) By then I was really interested in electronics. There are now questions as to if anyone actually heard the transmission, which consisted of several scripture readings and recordings, including Adolphe Adams' "O Holy Night". Several of Fessenden's patents were held by a failed company he helped found, NESCO (the National Electric Signaling Company). These patents were eventually transferred to Westinghouse, who bought the company, then to RCA. By then, Fessenden was fired from NESCO.