Inventing Schemes and Strategies: The Making and Selling of the Fessenden Oscillator

Reginald Fessenden's pioneering work in radio has been the subject of much scholarly attention, but historians have neglected his equally impressive career in the field of underwater acoustic technology. 1 In 1913, as a consulting engineer for the Submarine Signal Company (SSC), he invented the Fessenden Oscillator, a versatile electromechanical device that launched two revolutionary maritime technologies: underwater telegraphy and underwater echo ranging, a method of determining the distances of submerged objects still used in sonar, acoustic depth sounding, and radar. 2 [End Page 462] More than a prototype, the oscillator delivered immediate practical results and achieved decades of commercial success. Seafarers considered Fessenden's invention a godsend. In 1929, a committee of the American Museum of Safety, comprised of "men who are used to commanding vessels or fleets," voted unanimously to abandon its original intention to recognize a single technological innovation and instead awarded the Scientific American Magazine Gold Medal of Safety to Fessenden for twelve inventions based on the oscillator. 3