Talk:Oliver Lodge

Additions

Added details of his autobiography. Also that his first experiment took place on August 14. Did it really happen one year before Marconi or in the year before (i.e. months before)? Chrisw404 20:50, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Chrisw404 15:50, 18 May 2006 (UTC) Added a note/reference source to the August 14 date. Corrected a tiny spelling mistake "transmited".

Chrisw404 16:00, 18 May 2006 (UTC) Added a link to Lodge papers archive at Birmingham University.

Afterlife

The article says that Lodge made no public appearances after he died. Interestingly the Scole Experiment, which involved an in depth and extensive period of research into communication with the dead under test conditions in the village of Scole in Norfolk Lodge is supposed to have been among a group of scientists who communicated with the experimenters during their work. Hmmm. ThePeg 23:30, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

The article also suggest that Lodge did not become interested in the subject of life after death until his son Raymond died in 1915. In fact, while his initial interest was in telepathy, he became interested in survival evidence around 1889, when he began sitting with Leonora Piper during her visits to the UK. His book, "Survival of Man," which is about life after death, was published in 1909, six years before Raymond's death. Moreover, he did not sit with "psychics," as stated. He sat with "mediums." There is a distinction. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.95.179.148 (talk) 22:00, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, a big difference: psychics are frauds, while mediums are charlatans. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.13.47.4 (talk) 06:55, 8 April 2010 (UTC)

There were a number of scientists who were interested in the afterlife. I believe the Curies are counted among them, along with William Crookes. This article shows a bias against the existence of an afterlife and omits the views of these very credible scientists when it would of course be appropriate to mention them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:5B0:42D1:EC28:E48F:B029:DFE0:F2E4 (talk) 05:40, 21 August 2019 (UTC)

Inventions

The article says lodge invented the spark plug, wireless, the moving-coil loudspeaker, the vacuum tube (valve) and the variable tuner. I can accept the moving-coil loudspeaker. There are problems with the rest. He invented a specific form of spark ignition; to say he invented the spark plug is not specific to what he actually did invent. As far as wireless telegraphy, it cannot be said absolutely that any one person invented what was essentially an amalgamation of many people’s inventions and researches spanning decades. If, for arguments sake, Lodge is to be considered the inventor of wireless based on his work with the coherer, then we must also consider Branly’s role. I cannot even imagine how he could be given credit as the inventor of the valve / vacuum tube. Poweroctopus (talk) 05:59, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Please add the relevant correct details, with references. I know a little of Lodge's scientific work, but almost nothing about the technology (wireless, etc.) parts. Maybe someone else will chip in. -- Astrochemist (talk) 13:10, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

FURTHER REMARKS concerning a few revisions that need to be made to the article on Lodge - here are a few leads: Lodge was a major contributor to the early development of wireless telegraphy - not its inventor. Lodge categorically did not invent the valve (vacuum tube). Lodge did introduce a special purpose spark igniter. His sons developed and manufactured the Lodge spark plug. Lodge did invent the moving coil loudspeaker. Lodge did give a most impressive demonstration of the transmission and detection of Hertzian waves in June 1894 at the Royal Institution where he used a primitive form of the Branly filings tube which he called a coherer. He repeated his lecture and demonstrations at the British Association meeting at Oxford in August 1894 where he made good use of the Kelvin marine galvanometer loaned to him by Alexander Muirhead.

Again, I repeat, please remove any suggestion that Oliver Lodge invented the valve(vacuum tube)because this is absolutely wrong and is already causing misinformation to circulate.

Oliver Lodge's greatest claim to fame in the field of wireless telegraphy is the tuned circuit - which arose from his own brilliant experiments and from the deep insight he derived from the work of James Clerk Maxwell. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cannocchiale (talk • contribs) 09:26, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I also thought the claims were odd in the paragraph beginning "Besides inventing the spark plug and wireless...". Does someone want to make the revisions? Cannocchiale? Noamz (talk) 16:24, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't know much about this aspect of Lodge's work, but if you can make some additions then I'm certainly willing to proofread, etc. Additions will be more valuable if you can support them with references to legit sources. Good luck! - Astrochemist (talk) 20:50, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

The claim about the vacuum tube has no reference, no corroboration, and is ruled out in the pedia page on the tube. The normal no original research and requirement for reference dictates that it be deleted, with the burden of proof for adding it back in to be external references. I can't see why this was ever in contention. Tim bates (talk) 20:21, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

[1]

quite useful information in this book

[2] Tim bates (talk) 21:17, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

What is wrong with this sentence?

"He was the eldest of eight sons and a daughter of Oliver Lodge (1826–1884) - later a ball clay merchant [4] at Wolstanton, Staffordshire - and his wife, Grace, née Heath (1826–1879)." Folks, I don't know what to do with this. Back in 1879 I don't think it was really possible for anyone to be both a daughter AND a son to someone. Nowadays I would not make such a claim, but back then I don't think it was possible and probably even homosexuals would have had moral objections to sexual re-assignment surgery. Brothernight (talk) 06:22, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

I read is as "His parents had nine children, eight sons and one daughter, he was the oldest child." MidlandLinda (talk) 20:39, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Anecdote

William Blenheim, my great-grandfather was an associate of Lodge. Family anecdote has it that much of the practical work on radio was done at William's workshop in Egham, and the two of them would do experiments out on Salisbury Plain dressed head to toe in rubber suits; they had little idea of what they were really playing with. William went along with Lodge to Buckingham Palace on the occaaion of Lodge's knighthood in 1905.

William's son, also called William (Willie) went to Liverpool to study under Lodge, and afterwards became the "physicist" and demonstrator to the Lodge Muirhead company, and took the radio equipment around to various locations. He made the first experiments with marine radio on SS Vedamore, and managed to communicate up to 300 miles off-shore until the batteries went flat. He also demonstrated the first mobile radio to the army (on a horse and cart), and set up the first commercial radio links between Rangoon and the Andaman Islands, and between Trinidad and the Leeward Islands.

The relationship declined because of Lodges assoctaion with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and their mutual enthusiasm for spiritualism. Lodge tried to recruit William into a project to try to contact the dead using radio, and William would have none of it.

Flydlbee (talk) 13:48, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Lodge and Tesla

Lodge's experiments with spark discharge oscillation were famous and important. It had been known since the 1850s that discharging a condensor produced an oscillating current(Thomson), and Lodge explained this phenomonon in the 1880s as the action of a condensor with an inductor (which created "recoil" in his words).

Tesla's first experiments with high frequency electricity were based on high speed alternators. He then began to use spark discharge, which he spoke of as the well known invention of Oliver Lodge. Tesla's big contribution was the tuned RF transformer and the general importance of tuning and resonance of coupled circuits.

It is not clear that Tesla demonstrated radio wave transmission before Lodge or Marconi, since his experiments were based on localized induction effiects. Later in life, Tesla wrote articles in which he claimed that radio waves did not exist, and all radio communication was actually due to currents conducted through the ground. It's very fasionable now to view Tesla as a wizard, but it's important to also realize he was eccentric and sometimes quite misguided in his work. DonPMitchell (talk) 18:59, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Orphaned references in Oliver Lodge

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Oliver Lodge's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Huurdeman":

• From LC circuit: Huurdeman, Anton A. (2003). The worldwide history of telecommunications. USA: Wiley-IEEE. pp. 199–200. ISBN 0-471-20505-2. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• From Alexander Stepanovich Popov: Huurdeman, Anton A. (2003). The Worldwide History of Telecommunications. John Wiley and Sons. pp. 205–207. ISBN 0471205052. A picture of Popov's receiver appears on p. 207, fig. 12.2
• From RLC circuit: Huurdeman, Anton A. (2003). The worldwide history of telecommunications. USA: Wiley-IEEE. pp. 199–200. ISBN 0-471-20505-2.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 16:14, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Missing Point in Enumeration

In the second paragraph of "Electromagnetism and Radio" is written "three obstacles slowed Lodge's progress". Afterwards there are listed up: 1. frequencies, 2. bad advice - but what is the third?--Nix schlecht (talk) 15:47, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

hmmm, tough since there is no reference at that point. I think the third was he had a full time teaching job (but that may have been Popov). Could just be re-worded. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 21:51, 3 May 2015 (UTC)

I don't think the full time teaching job was the third point in this enumeration, since this point seems to substitute the point with the bad advice (chronologically). However, I re-worded it.--Nix schlecht (talk) 20:39, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

Primary sourced material in the lead

In a cleanup of the lead[3] I removed the primary sourced claim "credited by Lorentz (1895)[3] with the first published description of the length contraction hypothesis". This claim in nowhere in the body of the article (non-summary) and claims referenced to primary sources only do not belong in the lead, or anywhere in the article for that mater per WP:PST. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 21:42, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

Memorial Lecture for Hertz

In the article you'll find the 14th of August 1894 as the date of the memorial lecture for Hertz, but in the reference therefore (Sungook Hong, Wireless: From Marconi's Black-box to the Audion, MIT Press, 2001, pages 30), you'll find the 1st of June 1894. If there are no objection, I'll change it in a while.--Nix schlecht (talk) 20:30, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

According to this there were three lectures, June 1, later in June, and 14th of August where he transmitted 55 meters. So yeah, should be fixed. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 22:53, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

Done.  Nix schlecht (talk) 19:23, 9 June 2015 (UTC)

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