Wireless World
History
The Marconi Company published the first issue of the journal The Marconigraph In April 1911 . It was the first journal written especially for wireless communication and circulated largely among engineers and operators.
In 1913 the name was changed to The Wireless World and in April the first issue was seen in the news-stands.
From April 1922 it was known as The Radio Review. This journal was first published October 1919 and ended as part of The Wireless World.
In September 1984 the title was changed to Electronics and Wireless World. The magazine is still published, but under the title Electronics World, and is available from major magazine stores or by subscription.
A sister publication was “Wireless Engineer” which was more of a learned journal than a popular magazine, featuring high quality articles.
Target audience
It was also aimed at home constructors, publishing articles on building radio receivers and, after the BBC started regular 405-line TV programmes from Alexandra Palace in 1936, complete details on building your own TV set – including the winding of the high-voltage CRT deflector coils (not a task for the faint hearted). A similar series was published after 1945 utilising the then ubiquitous EF50 RF amplifier valve (tube).
Famous articles
In 1945 it published a famous article by Arthur C Clarke (then of The British Interplanetary Society) which foresaw the coming of communications satellites in synchronous orbit around the Earth.
Audio and electronic design
For decades, Wireless World was a place where pioneers in audio and electronic design shared ideas. In 1947-49, it published articles on building what became the famous “Williamson amplifier” by D.T.N Williamson – using a pair of triode connected KT66s (very similar to the American 6L6) in push-pull to give 15 watts output. In 1955, it published the design of the popular Mullard 5-10 audio amplifier using two EL84s in ultra-linear push-pull configuration. In the 1960s and 1970s there were many further articles on advances in audio and electronic design, notably the ‘Tobey-Dinsdale Amplifier’ and the ‘Linsley Hood’ power amplifier. Later, in 1975/6, Wireless World published a design for the decoding of broadcast TV Teletext information before the first commercial decoder became available in the marketplace. Later on, it published regular columns of Circuit Ideas.
Computers
In 19671968 a series Wireless World Digital Computer by Brian Crank was published. This described how to build a very simple binary computer at home. It was constructed entirely from reject transistors (to keep the cost down) and was intended for teaching the basic principles of computer operation.
In 1977 a series of articles was published based on the design of the NASCOM 1 computer.
Around 1979 they published a design for a “scientific computer” which was sold as the PSI Comp 80 in kit form by the company Powertran.
Contributors
Contributors included M.G. Scroggie, who contributed articles of an educational nature on subjects such as applied mathematics and electronic theory using the pen name “Cathode Ray”. “Free Grid” was the pseudonym of Norman Preston Vincer-Minter (18971964), a classicist and ex-naval wireless operator who specialised in deflating pomposity with his biting wit. Amongst the early editors was W.T. Cocking (designer of the WW television sets); the last five editors were Tom Ivall, Philip Darrington, Frank Ogden, Martin Eccles and Phil Reed. The current editor is Svetlana Josifovska.
On pages 232 and 233 of the April 1961 Golden Jubilee issue, regular contributor “Free Grid” speculates what the next 50 years might hold and predicts that “long before our centenary year … all positions now sacred to the male will have been taken over by women.” He went on to make certain remarks in jest about the “editress of 2011” that would not be acceptable today.
Pat Hawker MBE, also well-known for the “Technical Topics” feature he authored for exactly 50 years in the Radio Society of Great Britain’s “Radio Communication” or “RadCom” magazine, contributed the regular column “World of Amateur Radio” from May 1969 to April 1982.
An occasional contributor, Ivor Catt, sparked controversy with an article on electromagnetism in December 1978 by challenging the validity of Maxwell’s displacement current. This spawned an exchange of letters to the editor which lasted for years.
References
^ Kavan U. Ratnatunga. “The 1945 Proposal by Arthur C. Clarke for Geostationary Satellite Communications”. http://lakdiva.org/clarke/1945ww/.
^ R Tobey & J Dinsdale, “Transistor Audio Power Amplifier”: Wireless World for November 1961, pp. 565-570; see also Wireless World for February 1962, pp. 69-70. (The authors of this very successful design acknowledged H C Lin’s earlier design of a quasi-complementary transistor amplifier configuration, for which see US Patent 2,896,029 for “Semiconductor Amplifier Circuits”, to H C Lin, issued 21 July 1959, filed 3 May 1955.)
^ 1980s Vintage Computers – Wireless World Magazine
External links
Electronics World
Wireless World covers, history, and projects
Wireless World Digital Computer
Sir Arthur C. Clarke at MysteryVisits.com
Categories: British science and technology magazines | Wireless | Publications established in 1911
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