Richard H. Ranger – Inventor of the Wireless Photoradiogram
Richard H. Ranger (b. June 13, 1889, d. January 10, 1962) was an inventor credited with inventing the wireless photoradiogram, also known as the transoceanic radio facsimile, a precursor to today’s facsimile machines.
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Life
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, through his career he was an inventor, electrical engineer, and music engineer. After serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War I, he attended MIT later in life.
In World War II, he once again joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps being put in charge of communications and radar in Orlando, Florida at the Radio and Radar Test Labs. Later he was present in Germany at the end of the war to investigate the German communications technology.
Photoradiogram
In 1924 Ranger invented the wireless photogradiogram, sending a picture of President Calvin Coolidge from New York to London in 1924, being the first picture sent through radio facsimile.
The photoradiogram entered commercial use in 1926.
Further Information:
- New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame
- Time Magazine 1924 – Photographs turned into Radio Waves
- Time Magazine 1925 – Wireless Photography
More Biographies on Fax Inventors:
- Alexander Bain – Experimental Fax Machine between 1843 and 1846
- Arthur Korn – Developed Fax Machine for Transmitting Photographs
- Edouard Belin – Inventor of the Bélinographe
- Frederick Bakewell – Improved Bain’s Facsimile Machine
- Giovanni Caselli – Inventor of the Pantelegraph. Sent images 800km across telegraph wires 9 years before Alexander Graham Bell’s Telephone Patent
- Herbert E. Ives – Sent first color fax
- Richard H. Ranger – Invented first Transatlantic Radio Fax
- Rudolf Hell – Invented the Hellschreiber
- Shelford Bidwell – Research in the field of “Telephotography”
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