05/07/2025
The man who discovered the principles behind WiFi called his own breakthrough 'useless'.
Between 1886 and 1889, a German physicist named Heinrich Hertz conducted a series of brilliant experiments in a simple lab.
His goal was purely theoretical. He wanted to prove the existence of invisible electromagnetic waves, which had been predicted years earlier by another scientist, James Clerk Maxwell.
Using a device called a spark-gap transmitter, Hertz successfully generated and detected these waves, which traveled at the speed of light.
He had proven something existed that no one could see. It was a monumental scientific achievement. 💡
Yet, when a student asked him about the practical applications of his discovery, Hertz reportedly replied, "Nothing, I guess." He saw no valuable purpose for it.
He believed it was simply an experiment confirming a theory, with no real-world use. 📡
Of course, he couldn't have seen what was coming. His proof of "Hertzian waves" directly inspired Guglielmo Marconi to create the wireless telegraph just a few years later.
That lineage of innovation, built upon his "useless" discovery, eventually led to radio, television, and the WiFi that connects billions of us today.
His work became the absolute foundation for the wireless world, a future he himself could not imagine.
Sources: National MagLab, Britannica, Ham Radio Academy, WHYY