Branly's coherer
Cohesor de Branly
- Date
- 1890 · confidence high
- Place
- Institut Catholique de Paris, Paris, France
- Credited to
- Édouard Branly
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Branly discovered that loose metal filings inside a glass tube drastically reduced their electrical resistance on receiving electromagnetic waves, an effect that allowed radio signals to be detected at a distance. Oliver Lodge refined and named it the 'coherer' in 1894, and Marconi adopted it in 1895 for his wireless telegraph.
What it led to
- Refinement and naming of the 'coherer' by Oliver Lodge (1894)
- Marconi's wireless telegraphy (1895)
- The first generation of radio receivers, until around 1907
Made possible
- Wireless telegraphy (radio)1895–1901
- Marconi's wireless telegraphy