Coaxial Transmission Lines, Related Two-Conductor Transmission Lines, Connectors, and Components: A U.S. Historical Perspective

This Special Issue of the Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques in observance of the first 100 years of the IEEE has an especially interesting parallel for the history of guided electromagnetic (EM) waves. It was in this decade 100 years ago that Heinrich Hertz, a German professor of physics, carried out his original experiments which demonstrated the reality of the Faraday-Maxwell theory of the wave nature of light and electricity and the central thesis that they are essentially the same. According to Hertz, the result of the experiments is to confirm the fundamental hypotheses of the theory. He acknowledged the problems of following Maxwell\´s difficult style, with its "unwonted mathematical difficulties," and of not always being quite certain of having grasped the physical significance of Maxwell\´s statements.