Notre Dame celebrates wireless research

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WSBT) — Wireless is a part of just about every aspect of our lives.

A Notre Dame professor was one of the first people in the United States to do a wireless transmission...125 years ago today!

Everywhere you go, there are wireless communications happening all the time.

That wasn’t the case 125 years ago, and part of the evolution of that took place at Notre Dame.

It was on April 19, 1899 when Jerome Green, a professor in the University of Notre Dame’s electrical department performed a monumental experiment.

He conducted a wireless transmission from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the university’s campus to Saint Mary’s College more than a mile away.

At that time, that was considered long-range transmission.

"In the 1840s people were doing wired communications, basically telephone lines all over the country. And we used Morse Code with the telegraph. But wireless was really the vision," said Jonathan Chisum, University of Notre Dame Electrical Engineering Associate Professor.

Chisum is a part of a team of Notre Dame faculty and students who attempted to re-enact that first long-range transmission125 years later.

At that time, they had no idea that the transmission they were able to produce had such a large scope.

It’s something that people wouldn’t be allowed to do in today’s world.

"They didn’t realize at the time, at least initially, that they were actually using up essentially the entire electromagnetic spectrum for their tiny little dot and dash," said Chisum.

After that initial experiment, Professor Green wanted to go further.

He increased the distance of those transmissions, becoming more of what one would consider long-range.

"They transmitted to south of South Bend. They transmitted over to Mishawaka. So, two mile ranges and five mile ranges. And then they kept going. They took it up to Chicago," said Chisum.

That first transmission was the birth of amateur radio as we know today.

The University of Notre Dame continues to conduct wireless transmission research, more than 100 years later.

"A combination of 150th birthday of Guglielmo Marconi and everything we have going on in this anniversary date felt like a good time to have such an event," said Nick Laneman, University of Notre Dame Wireless Institute.

"The Wireless Institute research center has been operating since 2010 and collaborates with other departments on campus.