Alfred Traeger

Alfred Hermann Traeger, OBE (2 August 1895 – 31 July 1980) was an Australian inventor, chiefly known for the development of the pedal radio.[1]

Biography

Traeger was born in Victoria, and raised near Adelaide, South Australia.

He was instrumental in the establishment and early success of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. Traeger had an interest in radio for much of his life. During the 1920s, he was contacted by Rev John Flynn to assist in experiments which were to enable remote families access to medical treatment by using radio equipment. He also suggested the idea of the School of the Air, which was later implemented by Adelaide Miethke. Since much of remote Australia had no access to electricity, the initial problem was how to provide reliable power to a radio. Traeger consequently developed a pedal generator to power a morse code wireless set.

He made subsequent refinements to this system. A keyboard was developed which enabled unskilled operators to type their message in plain language and have it transmitted in morse. He later developed a voice-capable transceiver.

He was assisted by his younger brother Johann Gustav Traeger and his father Johann Hermann Traeger.

Due to the success of these inventions, the Traeger Transceivers company was founded, and radios were exported to a number of countries. Traeger was awarded an OBE in 1944.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Alfred Hermann Traeger". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 2011-06-02. Engineer, was born on 2 August 1895 at Glenlee, Dimboola, Victoria, eldest son of Johann Hermann Traeger, farmer, and his wife Louisa, née Zerna, both South Australian born. His German grandparents had migrated to South Australia in 1848 and his father returned there with his family in 1902. A curious, patient, precise child, at 12 Alfred made a telephone receiver and transmitted between the toolshed and his house. He attended Balaklava Public School and the Martin Luther School ...

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