the radio...

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Many people were involved in the invention of radio transmission of information as we know it today. Despite this, during its early development and long after wide acceptance, disputes persisted as to who could claim sole credit for this obvious boon to mankind. Much of this argument was and is driven by perceived profit or national pride, and so tends to consider such issues as 'the first practical...' (for a given value of 'practical'), or whether the development took place in the inventor's country of birth or not. James Clerk Maxwell performed the theoretical physical research which correctly predicted the existence of radio (and all other electromagnetic) waves, and Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was the experimental physicist who first created radio waves in a controlled manner. Neither, though, devised practical systems for widespread use. Later developments are greater or lesser engineering developments of their work and so lead to the 'inventions of radio': the objects, processes, or techniques to transceive information, which are certainly major developments in the field.