This Month in History: Charles Fortier Receives Patent for Wireless Technology

Charles L. Fortier was granted patent no. 796,403 for his improvement to electric wave telegraph receivers on August 1, 1905. The patent was granted while Fortier, an inventor and former telegraph operator, was with the American Wireless Telegraph Company (AWTC), a business he co-founded with Johnson Controls' founder, Warren Johnson. The AWTC was established on January 30, 1900 by the two men to develop and exploit the wireless radio technology they had been experimenting with since the year before.