English: Artist's conception of German scientist Heinrich Hertz historic discovery of radio waves in 1886. To generate the waves Hertz used a spark gap radio transmitter (rear) consisting of a spark gap between two brass balls attached to a half-wave dipole antenna consisting of two wires with metal plates at the ends, powered by a Ruhmkorff coil with primary current supplied by a set of liquid batteries on the lower table. The Ruhmkorff coil generated pulses of high voltage which caused sparks to jump between the brass balls. Each spark excited oscillating radio frequency currents in the antenna, which were radiated as electromagnetic waves (radio waves). For a receiver, Hertz used a simple loop of wire (in his hands) with a narrow gap between the ends, forming a narrow spark gap (this picture is slightly inaccurate; Hertz actually used a micrometer gap consisting of an adjustable thumbscrew with its end close to the opposite electrode, to precisely measure the spark length). The length of the wire was a quarter wavelength, so the loop formed a resonant loop antenna, and the radio waves excited a voltage in the wire. So each spark of the transmitter excited a spark in the receiver loop.