Father of the radio: Hungarian Tivadar Puskas

Among the many ingenious inventors to come out of the small country of Hungary, Tivadar Puskas was probably one of the inventors with the greatest impact on the world in terms of shifting paradigms and the betterment of human communication.

Puskas began his engineering studies in Vienna, an continued them in Hungary at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. He relocated to London in 1866, then began working in the US as a colleague of Thomas Alva Edison, of whom he became the European representative.

The first telephone exchanges were implemented using Puskas’ designs in 1878 and in 1879 in Boston and Paris, respectively. After returning home, he began the construction of telephone exchanges throughout the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and later took directorship of the telephone network of Budapest. His designs revolutionized communication and contributed to the globalization of information and the positive use of science. Without his designs, the great network of telephony that we use today would not exist.

An invention that may be of even greater significance is the predecessor of the radio, which was patented as his design in 1892. As an ironic and morbid turn of events, the public announcement of his death was made possible by his invention of this device.

It was Puskas who first used the phrase “hello” as a greeting during a phone conversation, whose use later spread throughout the world. It is derived from the Hungarian “hallom” which means “I can hear what you are saying”.

Written by Andras M. Badics on Dec 14 2009. Filed under Culture. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry. Please note that although we follow an unmoderated comments policy, profanity is not allowed. We cannot be held responsible for views expressed by our readers.