Long ago there lived a race of cats that had more or less the same problems with antennas that we humans have today: bad reception during the last seconds of the game, continuous snow during their favorite part of their favorite movie and a serious lack of the "magic position" that you need to maintain when you are covered in tinfoil and gripping the antenna. Unfortunately for them, they didn't have this web page to refer to and so they died. This left an opening for humans. Initially, humans could only communicate verbally over short distances, i.e. by shouting at a distance, arousing in them the desire for long-distance communication (very different from a long-distance relationship, don't confuse the two, otherwise this site will make absolutely no sense). Okay, so I made that part up about cats, but seriously, if anyone knows how to get a good reception with a little brother covered in foil, let me know... not that I've done it, mind you, I'm just wondering. Now, on with the show. The first antenna experiments were conducted by Joseph Henry in 1842 at Princeton University. Henry managed to "throw a spark" when he observed that the magnetic needles were magnetized by a current induced in a circuit several floors above. In 1885 Thomas Edison patented a communications system that used a type of vertical antenna. Then came James Clerk Maxwell, who presented his theory of electromagnetism to the Royal Society in 1864, providing the theoretical basis for antennas. With this discovery, many other scientists began to explore this new frontier and the radio era began. Just so you don't end up like this guy, I'll explain some terms so the technical discussion is a little easier to follow. . (Note: Don't try to open a window this way, you will most likely throw your shoulder out because mice have relatively low mass and it takes an arm to get them up to the speed of opening the window, aka "ridiculous" speed" for you fans of Space Balls.) The terminology is as follows: Technical Stuff Here's information that goes a little deeper into the theory of how an antenna works. While this is not a very intellectually intense site, I will warn viewers during the break lunch or maybe while surfing the web "between projects", that there are some concepts on this page that use what some call "mathematics" and others supposedly important "scientific information"..