On the 25th August 1956 George Washington Pierce died

Pierce was born in Texas USA in 1872 and was an inventor and pioneer in wireless telephony and a noted teacher of communication engineering.

He developed the Pierce oscillator, which utilises quartz crystal to keep radio transmissions precisely on the assigned frequency and to provide similar accuracy for frequency meters. His other accomplishments included the mathematical calculation of the radiation properties of radio antennae and the invention of a method of recording sound on film.

Early communications at Harvard

Pierce was an exceptional teacher, and he offered a number of the earliest courses in radio communications at Harvard University where he taught between 1903 and 1940. This pioneering teaching, together with his many influential publications on radiotelegraphy and electro-acoustics, led to his being credited with building the scientific foundations of electrical communication.