A ghostly wax figure at the Cork Gaol (Jail) and Radio Museum, Ireland
Coming up this weekend on the evening of Sunday, July 25th, BBC Radio 3 will be airing a 90 minute radio drama that explores the life of wireless radio pioneer Sir Oliver Lodge.
British physicist Sir Oliver Lodge transmitted radio signals in 1894 (before Marconi), studied wireless transmissions and also investigated psychic phenomena such as life after death.
This weekend’s radio drama is in part drawn from transcripts of seances in which Lodge communicated with his deceased son. According to the drama’s co-author, media historian David Hendy, the radio play “Between Two Worlds” is:
“…about Oliver Lodge, one of the ‘inventors’ of radio, and focuses on the links between his work on wireless and the ‘ether’ and his personal interest in spiritualism: it’s a kind of ghost-story with physics – plus a bit of media history!”
There is something so magical and mystical about radio and the way it transmits voices from afar. It’s not surprising that a radio scientist would also be fascinated by the possibility of communicating with loved ones through the ether after they have passed on.
