What Father Landell de Moura Used to Do in His Spare Time Marcelo S. Alencar, Thiago T. Alencar and Waslon T. A. Lopes Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, PB, Brazil Abstract—Father Roberto Landell de Moura, born in 1861, in Porto Ale- gre, Brazil, built the first wireless transmitter for message transmission in 1892, even before Marconi’s experiments. In 1894, he made the first public transmission through Hertz waves, with a broadcasting range of eight kilo- meters, from the top of a hill on Av. Paulista to the top of Sant´ anna hill, in S˜ ao Paulo. Between 1903 and 1904, father Landell de Moura managed to patent three inventions in the United States: the ”Hertzian or Landellian” wave transmitter, the wireless telephone and the wireless telegraph. The Brazilian patent of Father Landell’s device received the number 3279, in 1900. This paper tells a little bit about his history and inventions, including the facsimiles of his American patents, in order to pay tribute to one of the great inventors of all times in the field of electrical communications. Keywords—Landell de Moura. Wireless telegraphy. Wireless telephony. I. I NTRODUCTION A ther Landell, born in 1861, in Porto Alegre, built the first wireless transmitter for message transmission in 1892 (Carneiro, 1999). In 1894, he made the first transmission through Hertz waves, with a broadcasting range of eight kilome- ters, from the top of a hill on Av. Paulista to the top of Sant’anna hill, in S˜ ao Paulo (Oakenfull, 1912). Between 1903 and 1904, father Landell de Moura managed to patent three inventions in the United States: the ”hertzian or lan- dellian” wave transmitter, the wireless telephone and the wire- less telegraph. The Brazilian patent of Father Landell’s device received the number 3279, in 1900 (Alcides, 1997). This chap- ter tells a little bit about his history, so as to guaranty that his name shows among the great inventors of all times in the field of communications (Alencar, 2003). II. THE FANTASTIC FATHER LANDELL DE MOURA Roberto Landell de Moura was born in January 21st of 1861, in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, on the Rua de Braganc ¸a, as it was called then, today it is Marechal Floriano, at a house located at the same curb as the old Prac ¸a do Mercado, being baptized, along with his sister Rosa, on February 19th 1863, at the Rosario Church, of whose attendants, years later, and until he passed away, would come to be a vicar. He was the fourth of twelve brothers, sons of In´ acio Jose Ferreira de Moura and Sara Mariana Landell de Moura, both descendants of traditional families of the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Fornari, 1960). Landell de Moura attended the Col´ egio dos Jesu´ ıtas, in Sao Marcelo S. Alencar and Thiago T. Alencar are with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Communications, Electrical Engineering Department, Federal Uni- versity of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, PB, Brazil. Phone: +55 83 3101410, E-mail: malencar@dee.ufcg.edu.br Waslon T. A. Lopes is with the Faculty of Science and Tecnology, AREA1, Salvador BA, Brazil. This work was supported the IEEE Foundation, CNPq and CAPES. Leopoldo, a city located next to Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul. He attended the course of humanities, known as Classic at the time, equivalent to High School today. In 1879, Landell de Moura transferred to Rio de Janeiro, to attend the Escola Central, previously known as the Academia Real Militar, founded in 1792, by order of Dona Maria I, Queen of Portugal, bearing the name of Real Academia de Artilharia, Fortificac ¸˜ ao e Desenho, and today goes by the name of Instituto Militar de En- genharia (IME). Apparently, he got a job at a secos e molhados warehouse to pay for his stay at the capital of the Empire. At Rio de Janeiro, Landell de Moura only stayed a few months. His brother, Guilherme, who intended to follow an ecclesiastical career, stopped by Rio de Janeiro, on his way to Rome, Italy, and convinced him to embrace priesthood. In the Brazil of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th cen- tury it was important that each and every traditional family had a priest, as well as a military officer. In Rome, Landell de Moura started to attend the Col´ egio Pio Americano and also the Universidade Gregoriana, as a Physics and Chemistry student, subjects to which he showed a certain inclination since a child. He was made a priest in November 28th 1886. Back to Brazil, he stayed at the house of priests at the Morro do Castelo, Rio de Janeiro, when he had the opportunity of exchanging some ideas with D. Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, about sound transmission, a subject that fascinated D. Pedro II since 1856 and that led him to finance part of Alexander Graham Bell’s work in the United States. After a short stay at Rio de Janeiro, Father Landell de Moura was designated chaplain and professor of Universal History of the Episcopal Seminary of Porto Alegre. In 1891, he was nom- inated parochial vicar of Uruguaiana and, in 1892, was trans- ferred to the state of S˜ ao Paulo where, for seven years, he worked as vicar in Santos, Campinas and Sant’Ana. III. LANDELL DE MOURA’ S PRINCIPLES In 1893, Father Landell de Moura worked in the city of Camp- inas, in the inlands of the state of S˜ ao Paulo. It had already been a few years since he arrived from Italy, and the calmness of the city permitted the development of his ideas about wireless trans- mission, the principles of which were enunciated by him: “All vibratory movement that until today, as well as in the future, can be transmitted through a conductor, could be trans- mitted through a beam of light; and, by that same fact, could be transmitted without the aid of that agent”. “All vibratory movement tends to transmit itself in the direct ratio of its intensity, constancy and uniformity of its ondulatory movements, and in the inverse ratio of the obstacles that oppose themselves to its propagation and generation”.