Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil
Sainte-Assise Antennas
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| Industry | Electronics |
|---|---|
| Fate | merged |
| Successor | Thomson-CSF |
| Founded | 1919 |
| Founder | Émile Girardeau |
| Defunct | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
The Compagnie générale de la télégraphie sans fil (CSF: General Wireless Telegraphy Company) was a French company founded in 1918 during a reorganization and expansion of the Société française radio-électrique (SFR), which became a subsidiary. The company developed technology for radio-telegraphy, radio program transmission, radar, television and other applications. It provided broadcasting and telegraphy services, and sold its equipment throughout the French colonial empire and in many other parts of the world. In 1968 CSF merged with the Thomson-Brandt to form Thomson-CSF.
From the mid-19th century the world was connected with an increasingly dense network of telegraph wires and submarine cables. In 1887 Heinrich Hertz of Germany conclusively proved the existence of electromagnetic waves. Alexander Stepanovich Popov of Russia developed antennas to transmit and receive radio waves. Scientists such as Édouard Branly and Nikola Tesla also contributed to development of the concepts. In 1895 Guglielmo Marconi, a student at the University of Bologna, invented wireless telegraphy. In 1897 he founded the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in England. Its subsidiary the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America was formed in the US in 1899. The Telefunken company was created in Germany in 1903 as a joint venture of Siemens and AEG.
In France the engineer captain Gustave-Auguste Ferrié (1868-1932) gathered a team to work on wireless telegraphy for the military. Ferrié demonstrated the value of radio telegraphy to the government during the volcanic eruption of the Mount Pelée in Martinique, and showed the value of placing antennas at the summit of the Eiffel Tower. In 1908 the young polytechnic Émile Girardeau joined Ferrié's team. Girardeau and the scientist Joseph Bethenod decided to found a French company to meet military and civilian radio communication needs.
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Wikipedia