One hundred years ago an ambitious young German physicist demonstrated that electromagnetic radiation exists and that it behaves like light. Heinrich Hertz’s experiments had, without doubt, the widest impact outside the scientific community of any in physics up to that time. Within physics they surprised the British, who did not expect to find this kind of radiation quite so simply. His results were surprising to the Germans as well, but they were also perplexing and difficult to grasp, an effect that Hertz sought to overcome through an elaborate series of theoretical articles. Then, just as his influence within German physics seemed destined to reach heights hitherto achieved only by his mentor Hermann von Helmholtz, Hertz succumbed to an extremely painful jaw malady that he had suffered from even in the midst of his most intricate experiments and complex theorizing.