To understand anything well, it helps to understand the history of it.  Everyone at DHDI has a diverse background from architects and structural engineers to audio engineers and acousticians.  What makes each of us more understandable as people is our history.

Steven Johnson is an author who writes about innovation and the connection between history and the modern day.

His book How We Got to Now.  Six Innovations that Made the Modern World was followed by a PBS series by the same name.  Episode 6 features sound.  It’s fun to watch, interesting and easy to understand.  We recommend it as a fun holiday weekend video to watch.  It’s free to view on Amazon Prime or available on DVD from PBS.

The motivations and reasons behind the inventions we take for granted today are lessons we can all learn from and apply to the future.

Interesting Highlights include:

The world’s first audio recording 20 years before Edison by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville using the Phonautograph.

The self-proclaimed father of radio, Lee De Forest invented the Audion.  His dedicated website is alive and well.

Actress Hedy Lamar and George Antheil invent a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes which leads to the invention of wireless communications.

Reginald Fessenden reacts to the tragedy of war by helping navigation of ships by inventing sonar.