| Heinrich (Rudolf)
Hertz: 
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birth Feb. 22,
1857, Hamburg death Jan. 1, 1894, Bonn
German physicist who was
the first to broadcast and receive radio waves.
He received his Ph.D.
magna cum laude from the University of Berlin in
1880, where he studied under Hermann von
Helmholtz. In 1883 he began his studies of the
electromagnetic theory of James Clerk Maxwell.
Between 1885 and 1889, while he was professor of
physics at the Karlsruhe Polytechnic, he produced
electromagnetic waves in the laboratory and
measured their length and velocity. He showed
that the nature of their vibration and their
susceptibility to reflection and refraction were
the same as those of light and heat waves. As a
result he established beyond any doubt that light
and heat are electromagnetic radiations. In 1889
Hertz was appointed professor of physics at the
University of Bonn, where he continued his
research on the discharge of electricity in
rarefied gases.
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