Wireless

Heinrich Hertz's main initial experiment used a spark-gap transmitter. It is not something that transmits recorded sounds like voice: it only transmits noisy beeps. And as such was used for wireless telegraphy.

Modulation basically means encoding data on a carrier wave.

Image that we are at a point in history where spark-gap transmitters can send Morse code.

But now people want to send voice. How to do it?

It would not be practical without modulation: Why can't you send voice without modulation?

Basically, the antenna has to be very, very large, more comparable to wavelength. E.g. even for the higher pitches, we fall in very low frequency, so have a look at the size of some of the submarine VLF antennas! They are like football pitch sized.

Early transmitters such as the spark-gap transmitter could only send noises to send Morse code.

To send voice and music, amplitude modulation had to be developed. And a key ingredient of this is the carrier wave.

The problem is, the carrier wave needs to have somewhat high frequencies, in the hundreds of kHz TODO why. But as you might imagine, that is hard to achieve by mechanical means such as a hand cranck like Hippolyte Pixiis alternator!

Interestingly, some of the first carrier wave generators were actually mechanical, e.g. the Alexanderson alternator.

But clearly such mechanical machines were not very scalable, and soon more electronic devices were introduced, notably the vacuum tube.

As well put by Wikipedia, a radio receiver has to perform three functions on the signal from the antenna:

The first type of device that allowed sending Morse code without wires, as opposed to the wired electrical telegraph that previously existed.

Naval communications was one of the first major applications, as you can't have wires on boats!

Wireless voice transmission came about with modulation.