Poulsen arc (continuous-wave transmitter)
Arco de Poulsen (transmisor de ondas continuas)
- Date
- 1902-1903 · confidence high
- Place
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Credited to
- Valdemar Poulsen (with P. O. Pedersen)
- Field
- Communication
What it is
An electric-arc generator in a hydrogen atmosphere and magnetic field that produces continuous, undamped radio waves, patented by Poulsen around 1902-1903. It was used to transmit voice and music and for long-range telegraphy before vacuum tubes.
Duddell's 'singing arc' (1900) was the precedent; Poulsen made it capable of generating radio frequencies.
What it led to
- wireless telephony and the first voice broadcasts
- the transoceanic stations of Federal Telegraph (California)
- replacement by vacuum tubes in the 1920s