What They're Looking For
Study Year: 1st Year
Citizenship: Canadian
About Scholarship
Professor Fessenden was born in Canada in 1866. He came to Bermuda as a young man and was Headmaster of the Whitney Institute for approximately two years. He married Helen May Trott of Bermuda in 1890. During a distinguished career in Canadian and American universities, which included appointments as Professor of Electrical Engineering at Purdue University and at Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh) Professor Fessenden became a renowned inventor of electrical and radio equipment and was a pioneer of radio broadcasting. He developed an entirely new system of wireless transmission distinct from and based on a different principle from that of Marconi and Lodge and he first tested the wireless telephone at Cobbs Island, Maryland, in 1900. Six years later he effected the first two-way trans-Atlantic wireless telegraphic service between Brant Rock, Massachussetts, and Machrihanish, Scotland. Professor Fessenden also invented the oscillator, the fathometer (also known as the sonic depth finder), the wireless compass and other submarine signaling devices. He was honoured by the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1921 and received the John Smith medal for his invention in “Continuous Wave Telegraphy and Telephony” in 1922, followed by the Scientific American Medal for his numerous inventions relating to safety at sea.