Charles Samuel Franklin
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Charles Samuel Franklin (1879 – 1964), who published as C. S. Franklin, was a noted British radio pioneer.
Franklin was born in London, the youngest of a family of 13, and educated at Finsbury Technical College in Finsbury, England, under Silvanus P. Thompson.[1][2] After graduation in 1899 he joined the Marconi Company where he spent his entire professional career.[1] He was first sent to South Africa to provide equipment for the Boer War,[1] then spent 2 years in Russia. After his return to the UK, he invented a number of important radio devices including the variable capacitor (patented 1902), ganged tuning (1907), variable coupling (1907), coaxial cable, and the Franklin oscillator.[2]
Today Franklin is best known for the Franklin beam aerial, his shortwave antenna[1][3]. From the Marconi company's Poldhu station in 1923 and 1924, he sent shortwave transmissions to Guglielmo Marconi on his yacht Electra in the South Atlantic.[2][4] He received British patent 242342 in 1924 for "a pronounced directional effect from aerials of the type that are electrically long in comparison with the signal wavelength".[5]
Franklin was also active in early television development.[3] In 1935 the trustees leased part of Alexandra Palace to the BBC, which used it as the production and transmission center for their new BBC Television Service. Franklin designed its antenna, and the world's first public broadcasts of high-definition television were made from this site in 1936[3].
Franklin received the 1922 IRE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award "for his investigations of short wave directional transmission and reception".
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Beauchamp, K. G. (2001). History of Telegraphy. IET, page 234. ISBN 0852967926. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- ^ a b c Baker, W. J. (1998). History of the Marconi Company 1874-1965. Routledge, page 280. ISBN 0415146240. Retrieved on 2007-11-24.
- ^ a b c Burns, R. W. (1986). British Television: The Formative Years. IET, page 315. ISBN 0863410790. Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- ^ Marconi memorial in Poldhu Cornwall UK (2007). Retrieved on 2007-11-23.
- ^ Kuehnel, Richard (ed.) (2007). Notable Patents on Antenna Design. Pentode Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-24. (Patent 242342)
[edit] Additional References
- K. G. Beauchamp, History of Telegraphy, IET, 2001, page 234. ISBN 0852967926.
- W. J. Baker, History of the Marconi Company 1874-1965, Routledge, 1996, Page 280. ISBN 0415146240.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Radio Marconi memorial
- Kuehnel, Richard (ed.) (2007). Notable Patents on Antenna Design. Pentode Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-24. (Patent 242342)
