Roberto Landell de Moura

Roberto Landell de Moura was a Brazilian priest and inventor who was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1861. He studied theology and physics in Rome, where he was ordained in 1886. He returned to Brazil and worked as a priest in various parishes in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo. He also devoted himself to scientific research, especially in the field of wireless communication. He invented several devices that could transmit voice and telegraph signals without wires, using electromagnetic waves. He conducted several experiments in Campinas and São Paulo between 1893 and 1900, demonstrating his inventions to the public and the authorities. He is reported to have achieved the transmission of voice over a distance of 8 kilometers in 1899, and of telegraph signals over a distance of 32 kilometers in 1900. He also claimed to have invented a wireless telephone and a precursor of the television. He obtained patents for his inventions in Brazil and the United States, but he faced many difficulties to develop and promote his work, such as lack of funds, technical problems, disbelief, and opposition from the church and the government. He was often accused of being a fraud, a madman, or a heretic. He died in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1928, at the age of 67. He is now recognized as one of the pioneers of wireless communication and radio broadcasting, and has received many honors and tributes in Brazil and abroad. ¹