Edward Harper (1873 – ) was a British engineer who travelled to Colombo in 1921 to work in the

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Telegraph Department. Harper was appointed Chief Engineer. He had an innovative mind and his passion was broadcasting. Edward Harper is known as the 'Father of Broadcasting,' in Ceylon.

The launching of broadcasting in Ceylon

Harper together with Ceylonese and English radio enthusiasts founded the Ceylon Wireless Club. They experimented with radio broadcasts in 1923 the first experiments took place from a tiny room in the Central Telegraph Office - gramophone music was broadcast with the aid of a small transmitter captured from a German submarine. The transmitter was built by Ceylon

Telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

engineers. This was historic because it happened three years after the inauguration of broadcasting in Europe. Ceylon plays an equal role in the beginnings of broadcasting alongside

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

Colombo Radio

On 16 December 1925 a regular broadcasting service was launched in Colombo. The radio station was known as Colombo Radio, adopting the call sign, 'Colombo Calling.' As a result of Edward Harper's efforts and that of the pioneering Ceylonese engineers,

Radio Ceylon Radio Ceylon ( ''Lanka Guwan Viduli Sevaya'', , ''ilankai vanoli'') is a radio station based in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and the first radio station in Asia. Broadcasting was started on an experimental basis by the colonial Telegraph Departme ...

came into being; it is the oldest radio station in

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

References

External links

Radio Ceylon/Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC): The Story of Broadcasting in Sri Lanka - Photograph of Edward HarperBBC Radio 4 - Empire Stories
* ttps://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2010/02/28/mon03.asp A brief history of radio and radio drama - Sunday Observer, Colombo {{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Edward British broadcasters English engineers 1873 births Year of death missing Sri Lankan people of British descent

The launching of broadcasting in Ceylon

Colombo Radio

See also

References

External links