History of
Radio
Timeline
of the
First Thirty Years of Radio
1895 – 1925
Early scientific discoveries and explorations that made radio possible.
1600: William Gilbert. First book about electricity and magnets.
William Gilbert was a pioneer of the experimental method and the first to explain the
magnetic compass. In 1600, Gilbert published his great study of magnetism. De Magnete –
the first ever book about experimental physics, and arguably the first ever scientific text –
opened the era of modern physics and astronomy and started a century marked by the great
achievements of Galileo, Kepler, Newton and others. He was also the first person to use the
terms "electric force," "magnetic pole," and "electric attraction". Gilbert was also court
physician to Queen Elizabeth I of England, and briefly to James VI/I.
http://web.archive.org/web/20071026041223/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/gilbert.html
1681 July 24: Lightning Damages a Ship's Compass.
An early observation of the relationship between magnetism and electric current.
The Effect of a Thunder Clap on the Compass of a Ship
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, v14 1684 pages 520-521
1732 December 6: Lightning Magnetizes Cutlery
An early observation of the relationship between magnetism and electric current
An Account of an Extraordinary Effect of Lightning in communicating Magnetism
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, v39 1735-36 pages 74-75
1746 January: Pieter van Musschenbroek. Discovery of the Leyden jar (electrical capacitor)
We can classify all electrical technology into either DC (direct current) and AC (alternating current). AC technology is
by far more widely used than DC. All AC technology — including electric power systems and radio – depends on
capacitance as one of its fundamental components (along with resistance and inductive reactance).
http://web.archive.org/web/20080125195547/http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/history/musschenbroek.htm
1748-49 February 22 (4 March 1749 N.S.): Lightning Destroys the Polarity of a Mariners Compass
An early observation of the relationship between magnetism and electric current.
A Letter...concerning the Effects of Lightning in destroying the Polarity of a Mariner's Compass; To Which Are Subjoined
Some
Remarks
Thereon
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, v46 1749-50 pages 111-117
1757 November 9: William Mountaine and James Dodson. That great magnet, the Earth
Observations
concerning
the
Magnetic
Needle.
(pages 333-334):— We conclude that the magnetic needle "is influenced by various and different magnetic
attractions, in all probability occasioned by the heterogeneous compositions in the great magnet, the Earth."
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/image1.pl?item=page&seq=2&size=1&id=pt.1757.x.x.50.x.329
1777 January: William Henly. Comment on the future of electricity
We now (1777) know a lot, but there's still much more to be discovered ... I think we may safely conclude, that
electricity, as it is one of the most powerful, is also one of the most important, agents in nature. Many useful
discoveries have been made …. compared with the facts still undiscovered …..they bear but a very small proportion.
Philosophical
Transactions
of
the
Royal
Society
v67
Dec
1777,
pages
97-98
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/image1.pl?item=page&seq=1&size=1&id=pt.1777.x.x.67.x.97
1781: Luigi Galvani. The electric effect of different metals
Luigi Galvani's work with frogs led to his discovery in 1781 of galvanic or voltaic electricity. An important step in the
scientific investigation of electricity. His name is recalled by a word in modern English, galvanized, used to describe
someone stirred to sudden, abrupt action.
1785: Charles Augustin de Coulomb. Coulomb's Law of Electrostatic Force
In the 1770s, Charles Augustin de Coulomb invented the torsion balance that can measure small forces such as those
produced by electrostatic charges. He developed a clear description of the forces generated between two electrostatic
charges that we now know as Coulomb's Law.
1800: Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta. The first battery to supply electric current.
In 1800, after six years of experimenting, Volta assembled a device that was able to produce a large continuous flow
of electricity. Volta's breakthrough invention suddenly made it possible for people to have a reliable and predictable
supply of significant electric current. It is no accident that many important electrical discoveries came in the next few
decades including telegraph systems. In 1809 Von Soemmering demonstrated a working electric telegraph and in 1835
William Cooke saw the electric telegraph built by Professor Muncke at Heidelberg; on returning to England, Cooke
worked with Wheatstone to develop an electric telegraph good enough to be put into regular use in May 1838. All of
these telegraph systems, and all commercial telegraph lines throughout the rest of the 1800s and well into the 1900s,
were powered by batteries.
1809: Von Soemmering's electric telegraph
A physician, anatomist, anthropologist, paleontologist and inventor, Sommering was one of the most important
German anatomists. In 1809 von Soemmering demonstrated the first electric telegraph, able to send messages over
a distance at a rate of about two letters a minute. This was a genuine electric telegraph that could deliver messages
reliably over a distance that was limited only by the length of wire available.
1820: Hans Christian Oersted. Observation of magnetic effect of an electric current
Before 1820, the only magnetism known was that of iron magnets and of lodestones (natural magnets). He
demonstrated the connection between electricity and magnetism. We now use the words “electromagnetic” and
“electromagnetism” to refer to the combined effects of magnetism and electricity.
The
Electromagnetic
Revolution:
Oersted's
discovery
A Ridiculously Brief History of Electricity and Magnetism
1825: William Sturgeon. First electromagnet
In 1825 he demonstrated his invention, the first electromagnet – capable of lifting twenty times its own weight,
displaying its strength by lifting nine pounds [4kg] with a seven-ounce [200g] horseshoe-shaped bar of iron wrapped
with about eighteen turns of wire, connected to a one-cell (low voltage) battery.
1826: Andre Marie Ampere. Mathematical analysis of magnetic effect of electric current
Ampere is generally credited as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism. The SI unit of measurement of
electric current, the ampere, is named after him. Ampere is best known for his demonstration that electric currents
produce magnetic fields, and his subsequent investigation into the relationship between these two phenomena.
1827: Georg Simon Ohm. Publication of Ohm's Law
What is now known as Ohm's Law first appears in a book printed in Berlin in 1827: Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch
bearbeitet (The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically). He discovered that, in a particular material arranged in
a particular form – an iron wire, or a copper bar, or a lead cylinder, etc. – the electric current in the circuit is directly
proportional to the number of cells in the battery. This is what is now known as Ohm's Law, one of the most
fundamental principles of electricity.
1831: Michael Faraday. Discovery of electromagnetic induction
In 1831, Michael Faraday began his great series of experiments in which he discovered electromagnetic induction, the
ability of a changing magnetic field to produce a voltage in a nearby conductor. The important term is "changing". Any
time a conductor (wire loop) is in the influence of a magnetic field that varies in strength, an electric current is set up
in the conductor. It is this effect, that we now call "electromagnetic induction," that is the basis of present-day
generation of electric power, the transmission of information using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio, television,
radar,
microwave,
etc.)
and
many
other
useful
applications
of
electricity.
1829-1832 Faraday and Henry
Michael Faraday in England, and Joseph Henry in New Jersey, were experimenting at the same time, 1829-1832, with
electric circuits and the associated magnetic effects. Both were working without knowing that the other was doing
similar work. Henry's experiments that revealed electromagnetic induction were done mostly in August 1830, a few
months before Faraday, but Faraday published first and thus is given primary credit for this discovery.
1831: Joseph Henry. Discovery of electromagnetic self-inductance
In 1830, Joseph Henry began experimenting with insulated wires wound an iron core, and succeeded in making
powerful electromagnets. These magnets were powered by an electric current from a battery made according to
Volta's design. In 1830-1831, he deduced the property known as self-inductance, the inertial characteristic of an
electric circuit.
1864: James Clerk Maxwell. Mathematical prediction of electromagnetic waves
In 1864, Scottish mathematician James Clerk Maxwell described electromagnetism – the relationship between
electricity and magnetism – in four classic equations. Collectively known as Maxwell's equations, they describe the
interrelationship between electric fields, magnetic fields, electric charge, and electric current. Some of the solutions
to these equations indicated that there were such things as electric waves. At the time, in the 1860s and 1870s, the
notion of electric waves seemed incomprehensible, but their existence was proved experimentally in 1888 by Heinrich
Hertz, and in the mid-1890s practical applications began to appear through work by Popov, Marconi, Fessenden,
Poulsen and others.
1884: Temistocle Calzecchi Onesti.
Onesti made the so-called "filings tube" that, many years later, was given the name "coherer", a glass tube filled with
metal filings which acts as an insulator when placed in a circuit with a low-voltage battery. This serves as a way to
detect the presence of electromagnetic radiation. These studies by Onesti predate by nearly six years those of Edouard
Branly in France and Oliver Lodge in England, although they are largely credited with the discovery.
The Possibility of Wireless Becomes Reality
1884 October 11: Communication between Ships at Sea. Telegraphing across the ocean without a cable
At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Professor A. Graham Bell, the inventor
of the telephone, read a paper giving a possible method of communication between ships at sea by use of a dynamo
and his telephone system. Professor Trowbridge also offered a method.
1888: Heinrich Hertz. Proof of the existence of electromagnetic radiation (radio waves)
In the decade 1880-1890, the most important advance in electrical physics was that which originated with the research
of Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, an experimental realization of a suggestion made by G.F. Fitzgerald in 1883 as a method of
producing electric waves in space. He discovered the progressive propagation of electromagnetic action through
space, and measured the length and speed of these electromagnetic waves. He also showed that like light waves they
were reflected and refracted. Hertz also noted that electrical conductors reflect the waves and that they can be
focused by concave reflectors. He found that non-conductors allow most of the waves to pass through. These waves,
originally called Hertzian waves but now known as radio waves, conclusively confirmed Maxwell's prediction of the
existence of electromagnetic waves, both in the form of light and radio waves. Today, the term "hertz" (short
form "Hz") is used as the unit of frequency for an electromagnetic oscillation or wave.
1890: Edouard Branly. Invents a way to detect electromagnetic waves
The first practical instrument for detecting Hertzian waves. The instant an electric discharge – a spark or an arc –
occurred in the vicinity the coherer's metallic filings became conductive, and then if it was tapped lightly its
conductivity vanished and it became an insulator. When connected in a low-voltage circuit, in its ordinary state a
coherer had a resistance of millions of ohms, but this dropped dramatically to hundreds of ohms when electromagnetic
waves were produced in the vicinity. The coherer was a very useful device in the early days of experimentation with
electromagnetic waves. It was widely used from the early 1890s until about 1910, when what we now call vacuum
tube rectifiers became available.
Branley's invention was a big step forward in the development of the science and technology of electromagnetic
radiation. Today we all are immersed continuously in a wash of electromagnetic radiation. We are surrounded by
electromagnetic radiation coming from all directions, yet – without suitable instruments – we are wholly unaware of
it because humans do not have the sensory ability to detect this radiation. Today we have an amazing variety of cheap
everyday devices that are able to detect the presence of electromagnetic radiation, from ordinary radio receivers,
mobile phones to GPS receivers, etc. Before Branley's invention of the coherer, the only way to detect the existence
of electromagnetic radiation was the primitive arrangement used by Heinrich Hertz. But whenever we are temporarily
without one of these devices, we are unaware of the sea of electromagnetic radiation that exists from the surface of
the Earth upward through the atmosphere and outward millions of kilometres into space.
1891: Fred Trouton suggests rotating alternator for wireless transmitter
Trouton noted that if an electrical alternator could somehow be run fast enough, it would generate electromagnetic
radiation. This approach was later explored by Fessenden and Alexanderson.
1895 May 7: Alexander Stepanovich Popov. Early radio receiver
In the early 1890s, Alexander Popov was working in Russia on a way to detect thunderstorms by using atmospheric
radio waves to detect the occurrence of distant lightning strokes. Anyone who has listened to an AM radio receiver
while a thunderstorm is active, can understand how a radio receiver works as a lightning detector. In 1894 he built an
apparatus that could register electrical disturbances due to lightning, and then suggested that it could be used for
receiving man-made signals. It contained a coherer. Without question, this was a primitive radio receiver. In 1896, he
demonstrated the transmission of radio wave signals between different parts of the University of St. Petersburg.
1895: Marconi's early wireless experiments in Switzerland
In February 2003 it was acknowledged Marconi's early wireless experiments in Salvan, Switzerland, were a "Historical
Milestone". Recalling that Salvan had been the theatre of a major event in the history of electrical engineering and of
mankind. Through his intelligence and doggedness of purpose, Marconi, father of wireless communications, provided
an example of creativity and inventiveness to younger generations.
1896 June 2: British Patent number 12039
Guglielmo Marconi is awarded British Patent number 12039, the world's first patent for a system of telegraphy using
Hertzian waves (radio).
1897 January 29: Bose lectures on electromagnetic radiation
In this 1897 lecture, Bose demonstrated his devices for the generation and detection of radio waves. More than five
hundred people including Oliver Lodge, James John Thomson and Lord Kelvin had assembled to hear Bose. The lecture
was not only praised but it was considered valuable enough for publication in the Transactions of the Royal
Society. The University of London conferred on him the D.Sc. degree for his work on electric waves.
The date of Bose's "Friday Evening Discourse" has been reported in some sources as Friday 19th January 1897, or as
Friday 19th July 1897. The problem is, in the year 1897, January 19th was a Tuesday, and July 19th was a
Monday. However, the 1897 calendar shows January 29th as a Friday.
Jagadish Chandra Bose
1897: Braun Invents the Cathode Ray Tube Oscillograph
Braun’s invention the first cathode ray tube (CRT) is an essential tool for working with radio waves. Beginning in the
1920s and to the present day, millions of CRT devices have been manufactured and sold, for oscilloscopes, television
receivers, computer monitors, hospital electronic and monitoring devices, etc. In 1909, Braun was awarded the Nobel
Prize jointly with Guglielmo Marconi. Braun had produced four improvements in wireless circuitry that were
recognized by the committee awarding the Nobel Prize; it was also noted that Braun's replacement for the Marconi
spark-gap circuit was not simply an improvement but an important new advance.
In December 1914, Braun travelled to New York to testify in a patent suit involving the large German wireless telegraph
station at Sayville, Long Island, New York – after the two German submarine (underwater) telegraph cables had been
cut in August 1914 (see below), the Sayville wireless station was the most important remaining communications link
between Germany and the United States at a time of heightened international tension – against legal (patent) attacks
by the British controlled Marconi Corporation. When the United States entered World War One, in April 1917, Braun
was interned as an enemy alien and died before the war ended.
Commercialisation Begins
1897 July 20: The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company
In 1897, with the help of wealthy relatives, Marconi founded the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, with Colonel
Jameson Davis, a cousin, as the first Managing Director. The company was registered (incorporated) on 20 July
1897. On 24 March 1900, the name was changed to Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Limited.
1898 July 20: Kingstown Regatta Reported by Wireless
One of the biggest scoops in Irish newspaper history involved the Kingstown Regatta in the summer of 1898. The
results of the yacht races were not especially interesting, but the technology used to transmit them was
revolutionary. Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor of wireless telegraphy, was commissioned by T.P. Gill, editor
of the Dublin Daily Express newspaper, to report the results of the races "direct from the high seas". The newspaper
chartered a yacht, The Huntstress, for Marconi, who set up his equipment and a mast on board. He followed the
regatta 10 miles out into Dublin Bay, to Kish Lighthouse, and, on
July 20th, 1898, sent back the first-ever press report by wireless
telegraphy to a land station in the harbourmaster's office. This
report was printed on a Morse tape machine, decoded and
telegraphed
to
the
newspaper's
newsdesk.
Marconi had strong Irish connections. His mother, Annie
Jameson was a member of the whiskey-distilling family of
Daphne Castle, County Wexford, and his first wife was Beatrice
O'Brien, daughter of Edward Donough O'Brien, the 14th Baron
Inchiquin of County Clare.
Marconi (left) with his assistant George Kemp
Kingstown Regatta Experiments: Newspaper report by wireless
telegraphy column from the Dublin Daily Express describing the
second day (July 21) of reporting on the yacht races at
Kingstown Regatta
http://markpadfield.com/marconicalling/museum/html/objects/ephemera/objects-i=323.002-t=2-n=0.html
Kingstown Regatta Experiments: Extracts from the diary kept by George Kemp installation of the equipment and
reporting of the yacht races at Kingstown Regatta 1898
http://markpadfield.com/marconicalling/museum/html/objects/ephemera/objects-i=902.004-t=2-n=0.html
1899 August 23: First ship-to-shore signal to a United States station
On this day, the first ship-to-shore wireless message in United States history is sent by Lightship No. 70 to a coastal
receiving station at the Cliff House in San Francisco. "Sherman is sighted," the message said, referring to the troopship
Sherman, which was returning a San Francisco regiment from the battlefields of the Spanish-American War. It marked
the first use outside of Great Britain of this technology.
1899 September: International Yacht Races of 1899, at New York
In September 1899, Marconi travelled to New York to demonstrate his wireless technology. His assignment was to
give up-to-the-minute reports of the America's Cup yacht race between Columbia and Shamrock, being held off Sandy
Hook, Long Island. From the deck of an observation ship, Marconi used his wireless to report the progress of the race
to a wireless operator at the New York Herald. As each update reached the newsroom, editors' awe intensified. Never
in history had an event been tracked in this manner. The next issue of the Herald proclaimed: "Marconi's Wireless
Telegraph Triumphs."
1899 November 22: Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America incorporated
The ancient terror of silence
Until the dawn of this century (1900) ships great and small sailed for distant ports and, once they had passed over the
horizon, were lost to the world until weeks or months later when they were again sighted on shore. Once out of sight
of land those who went down to the sea in ships belonged to another world — a world of stark loneliness and utter
silence. Ships burned or foundered in storms with not so much as a whisper reaching land to tell their fate. The crew
of a sinking or burning ship fought their battle for life, silently and alone. Wireless telegraphy with its magic powers
was to wrest from the sea its ancient terror of silence and to give speech to ships which had been mute since the dawn
of navigation.
Karl Baarslag, SOS to the Rescue, Oxford University Press, 1935. Thomas H. White Radio at Sea (1891-1916)
1900 March 24: Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd.
The name of the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company is changed to Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company
Limited.
1900 April 25: Marconi International Marine Company
The Marconi International Marine Company was incorporated on this day, to handle Marconi's marine
(ship communications) business.
1900 June 3: Brazilian broadcast of the human voice
Father Roberto Landell de Moura, a Roman Catholic priest and inventor, is said to have publicly demonstrated a
radio broadcast of the human voice on 3 June 1900 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Unfortunately, most of the online
information about this event is in the Portugese language, thus is effectively inaccessible.)
1900 July 4: Big British Navy contract with Marconi
On 4 July 1900 the British Admiralty entered into a contract with Marconi Company for installation of their apparatus
on 26 ships and six coast stations at a cost of £3,200, plus an annual royalty of the same amount during life of the
contract. The contract stipulated that each set be tested and operate satisfactorily between Portland and
Portsmouth, a distance of 65 miles. Additionally, it required Marconi Company to train naval signalmen in use of the
apparatus at that company's expense.
This lease was the subject of considerable misunderstanding between the Royal Navy and Marconi Company Under
British law, Marconi stood in a somewhat precarious position in attempting to introduce his system into the United
Kingdom. By act of Parliament, enacted in 1863, and amended in 1869, the government was given a monopoly over
any telegraph apparatus for transmitting messages or other communication by means of electric signals. Several
attempts were made from time to time to test validity of the government's position, but in every instance it was
upheld. In 1899 Marconi Company applied to the postmaster general for a license to use the system on land in
England, but the government refused to grant it. If postal authorities, exercising the monopoly, had been so
disposed, they could have compelled Marconi to close all his experimental stations, since he had not received official
sanction for them. The Marconi firm, being protected by the Patents Act, the government was placed in the same
position as a private individual. Although the government possessed the monopoly, it was unable to adopt the
Marconi system without awarding compensation, either by purchasing the system outright, or by payment of
royalty. In a later agreement, dated 24 July 1903, the Admiralty solved the problem by awarding Marconi Wireless
Telegraph Company satisfactory compensation for naval installations.
1900 December 23: Fessenden transmits the human voice from Cobb Island
Although best known for his 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast of music and voice from Brant Rock, Massachusetts,
Reginald Fessenden actually made the first transmission of voice in 1900 while under contract to the United States
Weather Bureau. His continuous wave theory – whereby a sound wave is combined with a radio wave and
transmitted to a receiver where the radio wave is removed so that the listener hears only the original sound –
describes how radio works today. Fessenden proved his theory on 23 December 1900 from an island in the Potomac
River, near Washington, D.C. Speaking to an associate who was a mile away with a receiving unit, Fessenden said:
"One - two - three - four, is it snowing where you are Mr Thiessen? If it is, would you telegraph back to me?"
Thiessen replied (by landline telegraph) in the affirmative and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Ideas that Made Radio Possible by the U.S. FCC Federal Communications Commission
The Start of Radio Broadcasting by Canadian Communications Foundation
1901: A History of Wireless Telegraphy
A History of Wireless Telegraphy (2nd edition, revised) John Joseph Fahie, 1901 .
1901 March: The Slaby system of Wireless Duplex Telegraphy
From an ill-understood curiosity wireless telegraphy seems at last to have become an important and valuable branch
of electrical science. Much of the credit for this evolution is due to Prof. Slaby, of Charlottenburg, Germany, and
collaborator, Count Arco, both of whom have systematically investigated the phenomena of the Hertzian waves and
formulated laws by which these phenomena can be explained. As a result of their labors, the uncertainty and
whimsicality of wireless telegraphy have disappeared... Not the least interesting feature of Prof. Slaby's invention is
the possibility of receiving two messages simultaneously at a single station.
The Slaby system of Wireless Duplex Telegraphy Scientific American, 9 March 1901
1901 July: Marconi demonstrates two-way radio for automobiles
"...communication can be maintained while the vehicle is traveling..."
Marconi has found that the equipment works "for the transmission of messages over short distances, up to about 30
miles [50km]" Military Automobile for Wireless Telegraphy Western Electrician, 27 July 1901
1901 October: International Yacht Races of 1901, at New York. Radio fiasco
In 1901, Lee De Forest and Edward Smythe obtained a contract with the Publisher's Press Association to provide
radio reports of the 1901 international yacht races. So unprepared was he for the competition that, had it not been
for the long postponement of the races caused by the assassination of President McKinley, he would not have had
his apparatus ready.
During the contest both the Marconi and De Forest mobile stations noticed their shore units signaling frantically with
flags asking, "What is the matter? Signals confused. Cannot read." De Forest tried to improve his transmissions,
and, seeing no more signaling, gained the impression he was getting through satisfactorily. When his tug docked he
expected to be overwhelmed with congratulations, feeling he had made a great showing against his
competitors. However, the event had produced three losers, Lipton's Shamrock II, Marconi, and De Forest.
The American Wireless Telephone & Telegraph Company, having no sponsor, had nothing to lose and everything to
gain by preventing the reception of their competitors' transmissions. The simultaneous broadband transmissions of
the spark sets simply jumbled each other into both illegibility and incoherency. The failures of the race-reporting
efforts of the Marconi and De Forest interests proved of great value to others and, by experience, even to the
losers. Shoemaker, who had developed the American Wireless Telephone & Telegraph Company equipment, was
catapulted into prominence in the radio world...
— Excerpted from: The International Yacht Races Create a Radio Fiasco History of Communications Electronics in the
United States Navy by Captain Linwood S. Howeth, United States Navy (Retired)
1901 December: Slaby-Arco Portable Field Equipment for Wireless Telegraphy
On the 11th of May, 1897, when the crucial tests of Mr. Marconi's then new wireless system were being made in
England, that the Italian inventor was assisted by Prof. Slaby, who saw and believed in the ultimate useful future of
spark telegraphy. To-day both he and Marconi are the inventors of improvements of the highest type, and these
improvements are for the greater part specifically for the purpose of enabling messages to be sent and received by a
number of operators in the same vicinity at one and the same time. Prof. Slaby terms this method of selectiveness
multiple wireless telegraphy, and Mr. Marconi designates his means to this end under the caption of syntonic
wireless telegraphy...
The Slaby-Arco Portable Field Equipment for Wireless Telegraphy by Fred Collins Scientific American, 28 Dec 1901
The Complete Works of Frederick Collins, 1900 - 1909 by John D. Jenkins
1901 December 12: First transatlantic radio signal
On this day, Marconi and his assistants were able to hear the three short bursts of the Morse code 'S' at the
receiving station set up in a hospital in Signal Hill, St. John's Newfoundland. This first transatlantic telegraph
transmission originated in Poldhu in Cornwall, England, 2100 miles [3400km] across the Atlantic Ocean.
1902 January 13: Seventy ships equipped with Marconi's wireless telegraph
...I will give you a brief description of what my system has at present accomplished, especially in reference to use on
ships, and what I hope it will accomplish in the future. Wireless telegraphy is now attracting very great attention all
over the world, and its progress is not slow. Five years ago, the system with which my name is identified was
working over a distance of about two miles [about 3km], but its range has been rapidly increased until a few months
ago it was quite possible to communicate by means of an improved and attuned system over a distance of 200 miles
[about 300km]. The commercial application of the system has been given serious consideration, and improvements
of importance have been made. It may interest you to know that the commercial application of the system has been
tried in Great Britain, its chief base being in England. It may interest you, also, to know that there are over seventy
ships carrying permanent installations for wireless telegraphy. Of these thirty-seven are in the British Navy, twelve
in the Italian Navy and the remainder are on the large liners, such as the vessels of the Cunard Line, the North
German Lloyd and the Beaver Line. There are over twenty land stations equipped in Great Britain and on the
Continent of Europe, which work in connection with the ships, and several on this side of the water, and a certain
number of Lloyd's signal stations are now being equipped....
— Guglielmo Marconi, speaking at the Annual Dinner of the AIEE at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York 13 January 1902.
1902 February: Wireless telegraph tests with steamship Philadelphia
In February 1902, a Marconi receiving station was installed on the steamship Philadelphia, proceeding from
Southampton to New York. The receiving aerial was rigged to the mainmast, the top of which was 197 feet above
the level of the sea, and a syntonic receiver was employed, enabling the signals to be recorded on the tape of an
ordinary telegraph recorder. On this voyage readable messages were received from Poldhu (in Cornwall, England)
up to a distance of 1550 miles, and test letters were received as far as 2100 miles.
It was on this voyage that Marconi made the interesting discovery of the effect of sunlight on the propagation of
electric waves over great distances. He found that the waves were absorbed during the daytime much more than at
night and he eventually reached the conclusion that the ultraviolet light from the sun ionized the gaseous molecules
of the air, and ionized air absorbs the energy of the electric waves, so that the fact was established that clear
sunlight and blue skies, though transparent to light, serve as a fog to the powerful Hertzian waves of wireless
telegraphy. For that reason the transmission of messages works better between England and Newfoundland across
the North Atlantic, than in the clearer atmosphere of lower latitudes. Marconi's 1902 experiments on the
Philadelphia were performed at 366 metres wavelength (820 kilohertz). These effects are very frequency
dependent, as Marconi and others gradually appreciated in the following years.
1902 March 22: Spanish Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
Julio Cervera Baviera founded the Spanish Wireless Telegraph and Telephone Corporation bringing the patents he
had obtained in Spain, Belgium, Germany and England and established the second and third regular radiotelegraph
service in the history of the world in 1901 and 1902 by maintaining regular transmissions between Tarifa and Ceuta
for three consecutive months, and between Javea (Cabo de la Nao) and Ibiza (Cabo Pelado). This was after Marconi
established the radiotelegraphic service between the Isle of Wight and Bournemouth in 1898.
1902 April 06: German “Official” Wireless Telegraphy System
The Kaiser published an order to the effect that the Slaby-Arco telegraphic system should be exclusively employed
on all vessels of the imperial navy and in all coast signal stations. This imperial order is of wider significance than is at
first apparent, since the commercial marine will also of necessity adopt the system which has been rendered
obligatory for the navy.
Thirty-two German ships of war already possess the necessary apparatus and experimental stations with which
telegrams have been exchanged. In engineering circles it is stated that the German Government is preparing a law
regarding wireless telegraphy the object of which is to protect German engineers. The erection of stations after the
Marconi system, it is declared, will not be authorized on the German coasts. It is declared that Mr. Marconi is
endeavoring to establish a world monopoly, and that the attempt must be frustrated, a task which will present the
less difficulty, inasmuch as experts are fully agreed that the Slaby-Arco system is in all respects equal to that of
Marconi.
Eighteen months ago, as a result of investigations made by the German Postmaster General as to which was the best
system of wireless telegraphy, it was found, in a report made, that the "Schäfer system of spark telegraphy" was the
best. But the report concluded: "From the present state of spark telegraphy in Germany it may be said that the
Gernan systems can completely replace the Marconi one, but the incompleteness of practical experiments prevents
any real decision as to the best German system."
— The New York Times, 06 April 1902
1902 December 15: First transatlantic radio press report
The first transatlantic radio press report, 15
December 1902
"On This Day" (in history), The National Post,
15 December 2006
1903: New Zealand Wireless Telegraphy Act
1903 May 27: Telefunken Gesellschaft is incorporated
In the late 1890s, the Slaby-Arco wireless system of wireless telegraphy was developed in Germany by Adolf Karl
Heinrich Slaby (1849-1913) and Graf George von Arco (1869-1940). Germany's first antenna installation was erected
by Professor Slaby and Count Arco on the tower of the Heiland Church in Sacrow in August 1897, their first
successful transmitting experiments having covered half a kilometre in June of that year, only three months after
Slaby had witnessed a series of demonstrations by Marconi on Salisbury Plain in England only one year previously. In
May 1903, pressure from the German government resulted in a three-way merger of the work Braun, the Siemens
Brothers and Slaby-Arco AEG wireless firms, to form the Telefunken company.
When interviewed to-day, Professor Slaby uttered an emphatic denial of the charge made by Mr. Marconi that he
had adopted his principles in the development of the Slaby-Arco wireless system. Professor Slaby not only parries
the blow but thrusts back by asserting that Mr. Marconi made use of receiving apparatus invented by the Russian M.
Popoff, and of tubes invented by the Frenchman Mr. Branly, in making the test in 1897 in the Bristol Channel for the
benefit of the British Postal Department. — International Herald Tribune, 10 April 1902
1903: United States Navy's radio tests
In 1903 seven manufactured systems were tested aboard two warships, the USS Topeka and USS Prairie. Reception
distances ranged up to 62 miles [120km] for Slaby-Arco (Germany) to only 13 nautical miles [25km] for
Rochefort. Lack of equipment and trained operators hindered the testing. By September the Navy had acquired
37 Slaby-Arco devices and 18 by other manufacturers. Naturally American manufacturers began to complain about
the purchases from the German outfit.
1903 August 4-14: First International Radio Telegraphic Conference, Berlin
Current status of the Wireless Telegraph technology
...The Marconi Company has established posts at various points in the United States, in Canada and in the United
Kingdom, also at a few Continental points, and at several of Lloyds stations throughout the world. Various steamers
have bought their apparatus, and travellers are now frequently able to keep in touch with the world during the
whole passage across the Atlantic, by means of the Marconi apparatus on board other ships and at the shore
stations. When Prince Henry visited the United States, he travelled on board a German steamer having a Marconi
apparatus, and his approaching arrival was duly notified to the world. When he returned to Germany, he was on
board another German steamer furnished with the German Slaby-Arco apparatus. On approaching the isle of Wight,
the Marconi station at first communicated, and then, finding the apparatus of a rival on board, refused to take a
message. Emperor William of Germany thereupon called a preliminary conference of the Powers to consider the
matter... (This was 1903 International Radio Telegraphic Conference, Berlin.)
...Marconi was the first to discover the fact that the most satisfactory way of collecting the waves caused by the
spark and transmitting them through space, and of receiving them and conveying them to the Branly tube, was to
have two upright wires, one at each station. Marconi's discovery gave the clue to practical and useful ranges; he was
the first to see the commercial value of Wireless Telegraphy, and the Marconi Company was the first company in the
field to exploit the new discovery. There is no question, in this resume, of reflecting in any way on the claims of rival
inventors. Lodge, Fleming, Muirhead, Fessenden, De Forest, Tesla, Ducretet, Rochefort, Guarini, Popoff, Arco, Braun,
Slaby, etc., have all contributed in most material fashion to the present imperfect solution of the problem; and in
many cases the patents show that there have been independent discoveries of exactly the same thing in different
countries at practically the same time. It is the old story over again that is found in the history of so many
inventions: the world being ripe for the idea, the minds of many men in many countries were turned to it at the
same instant. Consequently, the future battle of patents is one which is likely to be severe.
The possibility of practical Wireless Telegraphy being established, three questions immediately presented
themselves:
(1) how to secure secrecy;
(2) how to prevent interference;
(3) how to obtain range.
It may be stated that to-day the practical working range, used between ship and ship at sea and between ship and
shore, varies from thirty to forty nautical miles [about 60 to 80km], though the apparatus of the various makers is
scheduled (claimed) to range from 100 to 125 nautical miles [about 200 to 250km]. This is because there are so
many misstudied phenomena whose effect is not yet thoroughly understood. For example, electric disturbances of
the atmosphere such as thunder storms, near or distant, have a marked effect. Sunlight has also a marked effect...
In order to obtain secrecy, two methods are now being studied. By the first method the sending and receiving
apparatus are tuned to a similar wave-length.
To reach the extreme ranges obtained by Marconi, it has been found necessary to erect huge wire-cages at Poldhu,
Glace Bay and Cape Cod, so often shown in the illustrated papers. An apparatus of one hundred and fifty horsepower is said to be employed; but the Marconi Company are naturally jealous of their business interests and nothing
is known of their exact methods of procedure by anyone except the experts of the company...
1903: International Yacht Races of 1903 Another fiasco, an early example of deliberate "jamming"
How the Newcomers Made the Old Companies Look Ridiculous
The rival wireless companies again came in conflict in the international yacht races of 1903, when Sir Thomas Lipton
brought his Shamrock II over from England, to win the America's Cup. For fast reporting of the race, one of the press
associations used the Marconi system, and another had the De Forest apparatus on its tug boat. The International
Wireless Telegraph Company (IWT), failing in their effort to get the press associations to use their system, set up a
very powerful station on the Navesink Highlands. Throughout the yacht races, the IWT operators ran their
transmitter continuously, producing such powerful electrical interference that neither the Marconi nor the De Forest
signals could be read by the onshore listeners. The IWT operators on the shore, when they tired of sending "A-A-A,"
and "B-B-B," amused themselves by calling the Marconi and De Forest operators bad names. Some of the etheric
language sent out from Navesink Highlands during those races was not fit to print. The Marconi and De Forest
people tore their hair, but the IWT promoters truthfully said that there was no law to prevent a man from sending all
the wireless messages he desired out into the great unknown.
— Fools and Their Money by Frank Fayant...The story of the Wireless Telegraph bubble... Success Magazine, January
1907, pages 9-11, 49-52
1904 February: Wireless telegraph on ships at sea
Messages are sent and received by ships at sea. The amount of electric power available aboard an ordinary
passenger liner is sufficient to send wireless messages 150 miles [280km] under favorable circumstances. Knowing
the sailing-days and speeds of the ships that they are likely to meet or overtake, the navigating officers of a liner can
calculate roughly when they are likely to come within the required radius of another floating telegraph office.
Sometimes a vessel has been in almost daily communication with others all the way across the North Atlantic. The
Work of a Wireless Telegraph Man The World's Work, February 1904
1904 February 1: CQD Distress Call
Marconi International Marine Communication Company, Circular No. 57:
It has been brought to our notice that the call "C.Q." (All Stations), while being satisfactory for general purposes,
does not sufficiently express the urgency required in a signal of distress. Therefore, on and after the 1st February,
1904, the call to be given by ships in distress or in any way requiring assistance shall be "C.Q.D."
This signal must on no account be used except by order of the Captain of the ship in distress, or other vessels or
stations retransmitting the signal on account of the ship in distress. All stations must recognise the urgency of this
call and make every effort to establish satisfactory communication with the least possible delay.
Any misuse of the call will result in the instant dismissal of the person improperly employing it.
1904 April: United States Wireless Telegraph Board tests
In its endeavour to secure equipment manufactured in the United States, the Navy Department on 2 April 1904
revitalized its Wireless Telegraph Board. The testing, which continued through 1904 and a portion of 1905,
culminated with a final report, which stated that Telefunken equipment was the most desirable.
1905: Australia Wireless Telegraphy Act
1905 May 27: Japanese use radio in major naval battle
Wireless telegraph contributes to Japanese victory at Tsushima Strait. The Japanese navy used radio communication
to scout the Russian fleet during the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, a crushing Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese
War. On the night of 26-27 May 1905, as they approach Japan's Tsushima Strait the Russian fleet, wanting to sail
undetected into Vladivostok, steer outside regular shipping channels to reduce the chance of detection, but by
chance a Japanese ship sees their lights. At 5am, intercepted radio (wireless telegraph) signals tell the Russians that
they have been discovered. Admiral Togo receives the message at 5:05am, and immediately he begins to prepare his
battle fleet for a sortie. Throughout the day, the Japanese Navy uses frequent radio messages to convey intelligence
reports and battle orders. By sundown the Russians are decisively defeated. Overnight, Japan becomes one of the
world's greatest nations, in part because of effective use of the new wireless telegraph technology – the first
significant use of radio in war.
1905 December 19: New distance record for wireless telegraph transmission
In 1905, the American De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company built a wireless telegraph station at Manhattan Beach,
Coney Island. On the night of 19 December 1905, this station was heard by the Navy's newly completed Canal Zone
station a distance of 2,150 miles.
1906: First Alexanderson alternator
1906 October 3: Berlin Wireless Telegraphy Conference
Called with a view to bringing about an international agreement in regard to the use of the new means of
communication. To try to bring about an arrangement between the Slaby-Arco system used by Germany, and the
Marconi system, employed in England. Great Britain and its colonies have given a monopoly to the Marconi
Company, which already possesses 74 stations in England and America. In addition, 660 British war vessels and
85 large steamships are fitted with Marconi apparatus. The Marconi Company refuses to hold communication with
vessels equipped with the apparatus of other companies. — International Herald Tribune, 3 October 1906
1906 November 3: International Wireless Telegraph Convention, Berlin
An international radio agreement was signed at Berlin, Germany on 3 November 1906, by Germany, The United
States of America, Argentina, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Denmark, Spain, France, Great
Britain, Greece, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Monaco, Norway, The Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Roumania, Russia,
Sweden, Turkey, and Uruguay.
• Article 6: The High Contracting Parties shall notify one another of the names of coastal stations and stations on
shipboard referred to in Article 1, and also of all data, necessary to facilitate and accelerate the exchange of wireless
telegrams, as specified in the Regulations.
• Article 9: Wireless telegraph stations are bound to give absolute priority to calls of distress from ships, to similarly
answer such calls and to take such action with regard thereto as may be required.
This international agreement (treaty) went into effect on 1 July 1908.
1906 December 24: Reginald Aubrey Fessenden. First radio broadcast of music
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden was the first person to prove that voices and music could be heard over the air without
wires. The early development of radio waves for communication, by Popov, Marconi and others, depended on
generating and broadcasting short bursts of electromegnetic energy, that could imitate the dots and dashes of
telegraph communication through wires. Fessenden had many ideas about communication by radio – his most
important was the idea that information could be transmitted by continuous radio waves. Fessenden thought that
this could be done by modulating (varying) the amplitude (power) of the broadcast radio wave. At the receiving end,
the modulated wave could be converted to audible sound, making possible the broadcasting by radio of speech and
music. On 24 December 1906, Fessenden used his own equipment set up to broadcast music
The Cosmic Inventor: Reginald Aubrey Fessenden by Fred Seitz
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society v89, 1999
Radio's First Voice by Mervyn C. Fry
The Cat's Whisker, Canadian Vintage Wireless Association v3 n1, March 1973
1907 August 14: Marconi Plant Ready
Company prepared to take transatlantic business by Oct. 1. The officials of the company anticipate that all
preparations will be completed before the middle of September, and say that satisfactory exchanges of messages
between the Irish station at Clifton and the Canadian station at Cape Breton have been going on for weeks past...
— The New York Times, 14 August 1907
1907 September 23: Wireless Across the Atlantic Soon
Marconi arrived in Glace Bay. "Yes, we have surmounted all the difficulties and we are sure of success." "You use
Coninental Morse in sending your messages, do you not?" "Yes, but if I find that the ordinary Morse code suits us
better we shall adopt it. We are able to send space letters by wireless." "How many words can you send per
minute, Mr. Marconi?" "Well, we have not tried for speed, but we usually send twenty words a minute. We could
send faster than that." Mr. Marconi stated that bad weather would not affect the service, provided the masts and
poles used in wireless system remained undamaged, and that the rates would be ten cents a word for ordinary
commercial messages and five cents a word for press dispatches. These rates, he said, would be cut in two later.
The messages sent from the station at Glace Bay will be received on the other side of the Atlantic at Clifden, Ireland,
where, Mr. Marconi said, a new plant had been established, fitted out with the latest machinery, much more
powerful than that of the older station at Poldhu, Cornwall. The Cornwall Station, however, would be utilized as a
secondary plant.
"Who will send the first wireless commercial message?" "I have not chosen anyone, and very likely it will be myself
who will do so." "Have you yet chosen a name for your message?" "No not yet. 'Marconigram' seems to stick on
the tongue, and so far we have no other." — The New York Times, 24 September 1907
1907 October: Radio telephones for British Navy
The British Admirality has made arrangements for installing wireless telephones in some of the vessels of the
fleet. The work is being carried out by the Radio Telegraph Company. It is said that by these wireless telephones
conversation can be carried on between two vessels that are thirty miles apart. The voices heard on these wireless
telephones are clear and distinct, and telephoning is in many respects easier at sea than on land...
Sea Telephones by Wireless for British Fleet 29 October 1907
This newspaper clipping mentions the Radio Telegraph Company as the supplier of these radio telephones to the
British Navy. This may refer to the Amalgamated Radio Telegraph Company Limited, formed in 1906 in Denmark.
The Arc Transmitter...Development...of the Poulsen System in Denmark, England...United States by Hans Buhl
1907 October 17: New York Times Message First Over Sea
Wireless Dispatch from London Correspondent Will Open Marconi Service
Recognizing the great interest in this epoch-making event shown by The New York Times, the Marconi Company has
arranged that the first message transmitted westward across the Ocean shall be one for that newspaper from its
London correspondent. The first eastward has already been filed. It is from Sir Wilfred Laurier, Premier of the
Dominion of Canada, to The London Standard. In it Sir Wilfred will congratulate the English people upon the
establishment of this new means of communication between Great Britain and Canada. — The New York Times, 17
October 1907
1907 October 17: Marconi's transatlantic telegraph begins commercial operation
On this day, Marconi's new transatlantic wireless telegraph service is officially opened for regular commercial
operation. The eastern station is located at Clifden, Ireland, and the western station at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.
• Interior Description...Operator's Room...Marconi Wireless Sydney, 16 Oct 1907
• Marconi Says Continuous Wireless Within Week Halifax, 16 Oct 1907
• Trans-Atlantic Wireless Today Halifax, 17 Oct 1907
• Wireless Message Across the Atlantic Halifax, 18 Oct 1907
• Marconi...Sent 10,000 Across the Atlantic Halifax, 18 Oct 1907
• Wireless Joins Two Worlds New York, 18 Oct 1907
• Wireless from King Edward Halifax, 19 Oct 1907
• Congratulations for Marconi Halifax, 21 Oct 1907
• Marconi's Achievement Halifax, 21 Oct 1907
• Wireless Station in Constant Operation Halifax, 24 Oct 1907
• Post Reporter Sent Message to Clifden...Short Answer Sydney, 23 Oct 1907
• Second Test of the Marconi Over-Ocean Wireless System... Sydney, 24 Oct 1907
On 17 October 1907, the commercial transatlantic wireless telegraph service was officially inaugurated.
The first westbound message was sent by English statesman Lord Avebury (John Lubbock) to the New York
Times. The first eastbound message was sent from Canadian Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier to the London
Standard. For the first few days, the system was dedicated to transmitting messages to the press, as well as
communications from dignitaries and notables. Among the eminent scientists and inventors involved in the first
day's excitement was Hiram Maxim, the father of the machine gun. He sent a message from London to American
inventor Peter Cooper Hewitt, concluding with this remark: "All honor to Marconi! Perhaps the next step will be to
harness the whole energy of Niagara to make an attempt to communicate with the planet Mars." The messages
were supposed to be limited to just fifty words each, but that rule was broken several times on the first day. One
reporter estimated that about 10,000 words were transmitted, both ways, by 7:30pm on the first day.
Source:— Today (Oct 17th) in Technology History Centre for the Study of Technology and Society
http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2002/oct17.htm
Transatlantic wireless
telegraph service opened
for business
Telegram from Lord
Avebury to the New York
Times, 17 Oct 1907
Transmitted from Ireland
across the Atlantic Ocean
by Marconi Wireless
Telegraph
to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia,
and from there to New
York by Western Union
landline
by electricity, then printed
on paper (above) and
delivered to the Times
newspaper
Source:— Today (Oct 17th) in Technology History
Centre for the Study of Technology and Society
http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2002/oct17.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20050319175801/http://www.tecsoc.org/pubs/history/2002/oct17.htm
The first message sent eastward to England on October 17th [the original 1907 article mistakenly gives the date as
Oct. 18th, the true date was the 17th] was from Sir Wilfred Laurier (Prime Minister of Canada), and was addressed to
the London Standard (newspaper). British greetings came back. Then the line was formally declared open for press
business, and 10,000 words of press dispatches came back and went forth that day. The charge was five cents a
word, with telegraph tolls on land added, making a rate of about eight cents a word from New York to
London. These are what are called "press rates." When the world at large can use the line – not today nor, perhaps,
this year – the rate will be at least double that amount. Meantime, the transatlantic wireless is the servant of the
newspapers.
Transatlantic Marconigrams Now and Hereafter The World's Work, December 1907
The telegraph companies carefully defined a "word" to be exactly five letters. The telegraph company agent
accepting a message for transmission would count the individual letters in the whole message and then divide by
five; the result was the number of "words" for the purpose of calculating the charge.
Any fractional remainder was counted as an additional word. The letter count included the
address to which the telegram was to be delivered, all numbers had to be spelled out in full,
and no abbreviations were allowed.
On 17 October 1907, the inaugural message was sent at 11:30am from Lord Avebury to the New York Times. It was
the first regular public radiotelegraphy for news and commercial purposes between Europe and North America.
Marconi in Connemara (Ireland) Clifden Chamber of Commerce
The first message sent westward from England on October 17th:
When Marconi opened his regular transatlantic wireless service between Clifden, Ireland and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
on October 17, 1907, the first message sent westward was to The New York Times from its London office. Later on
that evening, The Times's Paris bureau sent a message of greeting from Clemenceau, the French premier.
1907 October 18: Regular Telegraph Companies Accepting Messages for Transmission
General Manager John Bottomley of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America received the following
telegram yesterday morning at 10:42 from an aide in charge of the transatlantic wireless sending station at
Glace Bay, Nova Scotia: "Everything going splendidly. Have handled a couple of thousand words already. Shall be
busy all day." Messages to be sent across the Atlantic by the wireless system are filed at the local Western Union
and Postal telegraph offices, just as if they were to be sent by cable. They are then sent to Glace Bay over the wires
of these companies. There the Marconi people take up the message and send it across the sea. Mr. Bottomley
estimated that the Glace Bay office must have handled between 4,000 and 5,000 words yesterday. Few except
congratulatory and press messages are to be sent thus for the first two or three days.
— The New York Times, 18 October 1907
1907 October 18: Big Reduction in Cost of Communication
Telegram rates cut in half. There is not necessarily any advantage in the promptness or accuracy with which
messages will be delivered. The real advantage, and it is an enormous one, lies in the cheapness and in the ability to
extend the means of doing increased business at far less cost than is required with the cables.
With the Marconi system cutting the rates from 25 cents to ten cents, and the press rates from ten cents to five, a
reduction of 60 per cent in one case and 50 per cent in the other, the question of what the cable companies can or
cannot do became academic. That reduction is in itself in the nature of a revolution.
For the gain in the ease, in the economy of doing business across the oceans is not merely a matter of buying and
selling and the profits therefrom, it is a matter of intimate human intercourse, of multiplying mutual interests, of
stimulating co-operation, of making men in far distant lands know each other better, trust each other more, and,
consciously or unconsciously, aid each other. Men will not so readily quarrel with those with whom they have had
profitable dealings, and misunderstandings will get corrected where intercommunication is easy, prompt, cheap, and
habitual.
There is another phase of this important evolution, less directly, but very substantially interesting. It is the
international exchange of news, the circulation of information through all the arteries of the whole human
system. Of the value of this no accurate estimate can easily be made, not even one as near as is possible for purely
business communication. But the least imaginative mind can see that the value is very great. The essential element
in the process is familiarity in the minds of the nations with the affairs and sentiments of other
nations. Mr. Marconi's invention, in its fullest development, is not going to bring the millennium very much nearer,
but it is going appreciably to contribute to the removal of some of the causes of contention, confusion, and waste.
— The New York Times, 18 October 1907
1907 November 4: Our Marconi Wireless Service
The New York Times
Already the great value of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph as a means of transmitting news dispatches across the
Atlantic has been thoroughly demonstrated. In less than a month from the completion of the stations at Glace Bay
and Clifden the Marconi Company has become an active and potent competitor with the cable companies in the
quick and accurate service of foreign news...
— The New York Times, 4 November 1907
1907 December 19: Telephone Across the Atlantic Soon
Poulsen expects to transmit telephone messages next February
COPENHAGEN, December 18:— The American minister, Dr. Maurice F. Egan, and others from the American legation
as well as several representatives from the French legation, visited the laboratory of Professor Poulsen, who recently
developed a new system of wireless transmission and he demonstrated the power of his equipment to transmit
messages clearly and accurately. He said that he hoped to communicate with America via Ireland by wireless
telephone in February next.
— Halifax Herald, 19 December 1907
1908 January 22: Wireless System to Open
Private Messages will be taken by the Marconi Co. after Feb. 2
Only between London and Montreal
LONDON, Jan. 21:— Before his departure for Ireland tonight William Marconi told The New York Times
correspondent that the Marconi transatlantic wireless system will be opened to the public on Feb. 1 or 2, and that in
the beginning the service will be between London and Montreal only via Clifden, Ireland, and Poldhu, Cornwall, on
the eastern shore of the Atlantic, and Glace Bay, on the western shore. Montreal was chosen as the beginning point
for the transmission of business and private messages because Canada has subsidized the wireless system to the
extent of $80,000. In the effort of the American telegraph companies to stifle the company, through fear of its
competition, Mr. Marconi said: "The telegraph companies placed a grave obstacle in the way of our success by
refusing to accept at press rates messages filed in New York for transmission via Glace Bay, thus adding from
8 to 4 cents a word to the cost of an east-bound message, while the regular press rates from New York to Glace Bay
were only 1 cent a word..." The rate on private messages between London and Montreal will be only twelve cents a
word, seven cents less than the rate charged by the cable companies.
— The New York Times, 22 January 1908
1908 April 25: Marconi Service has Singular Mishap
Aerial wires at Glace Bay broken in big Nova Scotian storm
Restoration delayed by fierce cold and icy condition of poles from which wires are strung
LONDON, April 25:— The Marconi Transatlantic Telegraph service is having its first serious interruption since its
inauguration last October. This interruption accounts for the fact that the European correspondents of The New
York Times to-day are transmitting their dispatches for The Sunday Times by cable instead of by wireless telegraph...
— The New York Times, 26 April 1908
1908 August: William Dubilier predicts wireless telephones for automobiles
"...every auto will be provided with a portable wireless telephone..."
In case of accident or breakdown, the phone can be used to call for help.
The Collins Wireless Telephone Modern Electrics, August 1908
(Brief) Reminiscences of Old-Timers: William Dubilier
Radio-Craft, March 1938
(Complete) Reminiscences of Old-Timers: William Dubilier (.pdf)
Gold Country Nuggets, Newsletter of the Nevada County Amateur Radio Club
Nov-Dec 2000
1909 February 11: Sinking of the Republic
The SS Republic, a Royal Mail Ship (RMS) authorized to carry both the British and United States mails, was flagship of
the White Star Line steamship company's Boston-European Service, and one of the largest and most luxurious
passenger liners in the world. On the morning of 23 January 1909, the Republic, outbound from New York, was
rammed by the Florida, in heavy fog off the coast of Massachusetts. Republic immediately began sending distress
signals by Marconi wireless. (This is reportedly the first practical application of the then recently invented wireless in
an open sea rescue effort.) Although the Republic eventually sank, it stayed afloat long enough to transfer all of its
surviving crew and passengers to safety, and also radioed for assistance from other ships, most importantly the
Baltic. The Republic's initial "CQD" distress signal, sent by Marconi operator Jack Binns, was picked up by the
Marconi land station "MSC" at Siasconsett, Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. In this incident, probably 1,500 lives
were saved by means of radio.
Operator Binns' Wireless Log Modern Electrics, February 1909
Within minutes of the collision, the Republic's Marconiman sent the "CQD" ("CQ" meaning "[Attention] All Stations",
and "D" meaning "Distress"), the predecessor to today's "SOS" distress signal, over the airwaves to the world at
large. No less than seven ships, including several major liners, responded. This was the first practical demonstration
of this new technology's ability to aid victims of disasters at sea, and this "miracle" captured the wide attention. It
was one of the world's earliest "breaking-news" "live" mass-media event. The Republic's passengers were
transferred twice, first to the less damaged Florida, then to the called-to-the-rescue White Star liner Baltic. This
double-transfer open-sea rescue maneuver remains the largest on record.
RMS Republic
1909 December 10: Nobel Prize awarded to Marconi
of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.
Presentation Speech, Nobel Prize in Physics, 10 December 1909
Nobel Foundation Official Web Site
Guglielmo Marconi - Banquet Speech, 10 December 1909
Nobel Foundation Official Web Site
Guglielmo Marconi - Biography
Nobel Foundation Official Web Site
Swedish stamps 1969: the winners of the Nobel Prizes in 1909 including Marconi
There cannot be many people who screwed up at school, failed to get into university, and then went on to win a
Nobel Prize for Physics. But at least one did, and with good reason: he made radio happen. In a few years of manic
activity, Guglielmo Marconi managed to transform an obscure piece of maths into a social upheaval that makes the
dot.com phenomenon look about as radical as a new bike for your postman... No intellectual, Marconi earned his
Nobel prize the hard way by dragging a great chunk of physics out of the lab and holding it up for the world to see,
approve and, more importantly, buy...
Guglielmo Marconi: radio star by Physics World
1910: Fessenden and Marconi
During the First Decade of the Twentieth Century Marconi kept building larger antenna systems, larger since he was
striving for greater transmission distance and improved signal reception, which lowered the operating frequency. At
Poldhu in England the frequency of his station in October 1902 was 272 kHz. His initial station at Table Head, Glace
Bay, Nova Scotia, in December 1902 was a massive structure comprising 400 wires suspended from four 61 metre
wooden towers, with down leads brought together in an inverted cone at the point of entry into the building. The
frequency was 182 kHz. By 1904 his English antenna had become a pyramidal monopole with umbrella wires, and
the frequency was 70 kHz. In 1905 his Canadian antenna, moved to Marconi Towers, Glace Bay, was a capacitive
top-loaded structure, with 200 horizontal radial wires each 305 metres long, at a height of 55 metres, and the
frequency was 82 kHz. By late in 1907 he was using a frequency of 45 kHz...
— Fessenden and Marconi: Their Differing Technologies and Transatlantic Experiments During the First Decade of
the Twentieth Century
by John S. Belrose, International Conference on 100 Years of Radio, 5-7 September 1995
1910 January 9: Marconi to install New Equipment at Glace Bay
Will replace transatlantic equipment destroyed by fire
LONDON, Jan. 8:— William Marconi has arranged to sail for America on Jan. 20 to supervise a new installation of his
transatlantic wireless apparatus at Glace Bay, in place of that destroyed by fire. The station at Clifden, on the Irish
coast, has been re-equipped, and Marconi is confidently looking forward to a resumption of transatlantic wireless
service in the course of the next month. Experience in the actual working of his system before the destruction of the
Glace Bay apparatus had given occasion for valuable observations which will be utilized in the re-equipment of both
the Irish and Newfoundland stations...
— The New York Times, 9 January 1910
1910 April 24: Wireless Renewed Across Atlantic
The Marconi wireless station at Glace Bay will be ready for transatlantic business in a few days. The original station
was destroyed by fire in August of last year. The new station occupies a picturesque site on Glace Bay, the station is
a landmark for miles around. — The New York Times, 24 April 1910
1910: Valdemar Poulsen. The Federal Telegraph Company
In 1903, Valdemar Poulsen began development of an arc transmitter which increased the frequency range of
Duddell's Singing Arc (1900) from 10 kHz to 100 kHz, enabling speech to be transmitted up to a radius of
150 miles. By 1920 the Poulsen Arc transmitter was as powerful as 1000kW with ranges of up to 2500 miles. The
Poulsen Arc Transmitter was extensively used in radio before the advent of vacuum tube technology in the mid1920s.
In 1909, the Poulsen Wireless Telephone & Telegraph Company was founded in San Franscisco. The associated
Poulsen Wireless Corporation of Arizona was incorporated in 1910, and then the Federal Telegraph Company. The
Federal Telegraph Company, specializing in manufacturing arc transmitters, brought Poulsen's arc transmitter to the
United States. When NAA, the United States naval spark station at Arlington, Virginia, went into commission
in 1912, an arc transmitter also was installed; thus two rivals, Fessenden with the spark, Poulsen with the arc met on
a common proving ground. Arc transmitters up to 500 kilowatts were tested by the U.S. Navy. One main
disadvantage was found in that the arc emitted harmonics and arc mush. The arc produced so much heat that a
water cooling system was required.
Nevertheless, during the First World War a number of United States Navy battleships carried arc transmitters. The
U.S.S. George Washington, which took President Wilson to the Peace Conference in France in 1919, was equipped
with an arc transmitter in hopes that communication might be maintained all the way across the North Atlantic. It
was a triumph for radio when the Washington entering the harbor at Brest, France, sent radio signals from its arc
transmitter which were picked up at Otter Cliffs, Bar Harbor, Maine, and a 600-word message (sent in Morse code)
was received without the loss of a word.
The First Complete Arc Transmitter and receiver
built by Poulsen Wireless in 1910 in Palo Alto
L to R: Doug Perham, F. Albertus, and Peter V. Jensen.
Jensen left shortly after this photo was taken
to start the Magnavox [loudspeaker] Company
Image source:
http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/POULSEN_BIO.html
Valdemar Poulsen by Russell Naughton
Valdemar Poulsen Wikipedia
Ocean Beach Wireless Transmitting Station by Virtual Museum of San Francisco
100 Years of Magnetic Recording 1898-1998: Poulsen's Patent
The Arc Transmitter...Development...of the Poulsen System in Denmark, England...United States by Hans Buhl
1910 July 31: Capture of Dr. Crippen
A dramatic demonstration of the value of wireless telegraphy in police work – the capture of Dr. Crippen and Miss
Le Neve off Father Point, Quebec, Canada. Crippen has gone down in history as the first criminal to be captured with
the aid of wireless communication.
Hawley Harvey Crippen Race Over Ocean to Catch Crippen; Wireless Reports Him on Way to Canada – Detective on
Fast Boat in Pursuit. — The New York Times, 24 July 1910
1910 September 18: Action Again Urged for Cheaper Cables
Institute of Journalists in London: Cable Rates are Intolerable. Wireless alternative delayed by landline telegraph
companies. A resolution "that the time has arrived for binding the Empire together with an electrical girdle of cheap
cables" was voted by acclamation.
The difficulty of the Imperial Government was that they were tied up by contract obligations to one cable company,
and it was only fair to say that they would probably move more quickly if it were not for this convention. This,
however, had to be dealt with in a broad and statesmanlike manner, and he could not believe that the Imperial
Government would long obstruct the way.
There was, of course, the speaker added, the alternative of wireless communication. They all recognized the genius
with which Mr. Marconi had extended the sphere of wireless telegraphy. At the same time, while it was possible to
use it for press purposes under certain conditions, it did not fulfill all requirements. One of the great New York
newspapers, he believed, was at this moment using the press telegraphic service, and one of the great London
papers, The Times, had used it also; but at present, owing to the difficulties that Marconi had had with the land lines,
and owing also to the fact that, up to the present, the service had not been sufficiently regular and certain for press
purposes, they were still dependent upon cable communication. So far as regarded the Cable Committee of the
Empire Press Union, of which he was Chairman, he would say that they would most willingly cooperate with the
Institute of Journalists in making a further representation to His Majesty's Government and doing all they could to
bring down the cost of cable communication...
Mr. Henniker Heaton delivered an address in support of the resolution in which he urged that the cables of the world
be bought out at the market price of the day by the Governments of the civilized world. The British and Colonial
Governments, he said, now paid nearly $1,250,000 every year for official cable messages. This sum would go far
toward the purchasing of the cables from the companies. It was advisable, at all costs, to put an immediate end to
all cable monopolies. The first step was to call a conference of the Postmasters General of the world and establish a
penny-a-word telegraph rate throughout Europe. The next step was to hold a conference with the postal authorities
of America. The present high rate of one shilling a word yielded $5,000,000 per year. The carrying capacity of the
cables to America was twelve times greater than their present work. They would hardly believe that while the
carrying capacity of the cables to America and Canada was 300,000,000 words per annum, we sent only 21,000,000
words. There were about sixteen lines to America – thirteen from this country, and he had, without contradiction,
published tho fact that ten of these lines were kept idle by the "ring". Every effort had been to reduce the cable rate
to America, with determined opposition by the cable monopolies. He was bound to say that, if he were in tho
position of tho cable companies, he would offer the same opposition, but it was intolerable that 120,000,000
persons should be reduced to this small volume of communication as the result of such cable charges.
The movement for a reduction in cable rates is steadily growing in England. Papers which only a few months ago
considered the question outside the rango of practical politics now discuss it as a matter must be dealt
with. The Globe for instance, has an editorial article, in which it says: ...Whether we buy the cables outright or not, it
is politically expedient for the State to establish a maximum rate, just as it established the maximum third-class
railway fare... A bill actually passed the Canadian Parliament authorizing such action, but the cable companies
secured the insertion of a clause providing that Canada should only interfere on condition that the British
Government would take corresponding measures. That was reasonable enough, but why does the British
Government take no notice? It is stated that their hands are tied by a convention with one of the companies. But
that may be denounced at any time. In any case it does not last forever. Surely the Post Office should give some
official explanation of its attitude and policy. The control of the is cables is as much a matter of State in the modern
world as the conrol of roads, and if the Post Office has good reason for neglecting what is really a part of its duty,
those reasons be stated without delay.
— The New York Times, 18 September 1910
In 1864, the cable companies set up a pool (agreed among themselves) to protect telegram (cablegram) rates, which
remained at two shillings per word until December 1884, when it was reduced to 1s. 8d. (one shilling eight pence)
per word to fight a newly-opened service of the Commercial Cable Company. In June, 1886, the pool companies
reduced their rates to 6d. (six pence) per word in an attempt to force the Commercial Company out of
business. Commercial also reduced its rate to 6d. The 6d. rate was not profitable so, in September 1888, all the
companies agreed to increase their rates to 1s. (one shilling) per word and they remained at this level for thirty-five
years (until 1923)...
1910 November 14: Wireless to Italy Now
Marconi to-day personally directed an exchange of communications between the wireless station at Coltano (near
Pisa, in Italy) and the stations at Clifden, Ireland, and Glace Bay. Nova Scotia, thus inaugurating a new service by
which it is expected that the rates of wireless dispatches to America will be greatly reduced...— The New York Times,
14 November 1910
1910 November 20: First Wireless from Italy
New Station at Coltano, the Most Powerful in the World. Marconi Sends Greetings to The Times Across 4,000 Miles
of Space a new distance record for wireless telegraph transmission covering a tenth of the Earth. The English
Marconi Company has recently taken over the Russian operations and is contemplating a number of large wireless
stations in the interior of the empire which would be in touch with Coltano and Clifden...
— The New York Times, 20 November 1910
1911: The wireless telegraph has revolutionized communication
Electric wave telegraphy has revolutionized our means of communication from place to place on the surface of the
earth, making it possible to communicate instantly and certainly between places separated by several thousand
miles, whilst at the same time it has taken a position of the greatest importance in connection with naval strategy
and communication between ships and ships and the shore in time of peace. It is now generally recognized that
Hertzian wave telegraphy, or radio-telegraphy, as it is sometimes called, has a special field of operations of its own,
and that the anticipations which were at one time excited by uninformed persons that it would speedily annihilate
all telegraphy conducted with wires have been dispersed by experience. Nevertheless, transoceanic wireless
telegraphy over long distances, such as those across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is a matter to be reckoned with
in the future... Encyclopedia Britannica 1911
1911 April: First issue of The Marconigraph
In April 1911 the Marconi Company published the first issue of the journal The Marconigraph. It was the first journal
written especially for wireless communication and circulated largely among engineers and operators. In 1913 the
Marconi Company wanted a broader audience, so in April 1913 the name was changed to Wireless World.
Sixty Years of Wireless World by Hugh S. Pocock, F.I.E.E.
Wireless World Wikipedia
1912 January 28: Marconi long distance wireless telegraph station at Aranjuez.
The Marconi long distance wireless telegraph station at Aranjuez, twenty-five miles from Madrid, was formally
opened yesterday by the King of Spain. — The New York Times, 29 January 1912
1912 March 8: Accepts Wireless for British Empire
British Government agrees to Marconi Company's terms for inter-imperial communication
LONDON, March 7:— After many delays the British Postmaster General, acting on behalf of his Majesty's
Government and the Governments of the dominions and colonies, today formally notified the Marconi Company of
the acceptance of the terms submitted by that company for the construction of all the long-distance wireless
stations which are required for the imperial wireless scheme... — The New York Times, 8 March 1912
1912 March 16: The Marconi Banquet at New York
New speed records for transmission of transatlantic messages
Ten minutes from London to New York by Marconi wireless telegraph
...The enemies of Sir Rufus Isaacs (the British Attorney General) and of the Asquith Ministry, for it is manifest that
the investigation has been turned into an attack on the government, have had a great deal to say about the wireless
dispatches sent to The New York Times by the British Attorney General and others upon the occasion of the banquet
given to Mr. Marconi and Godfrey Isaacs, General Manager of the Marconi Company, in the tower of The Times
Building on the evening of March 16, 1912. The ignoble pettiness of the attack and the disposition to convert wholly
baseless suspicion into the substance of scandal are clearly revealed in the use made of these dispatches. The
managers of what we may call the prosecution in the Committee of Inquiry would have the public believe that these
wireless dispatches were a aprt of a stock market intrigue to "boom!" the Marconi shares. Inasmuch as these
gentlemen have sought to bring The Times into the affair, this newspaper will take the stand as a volunteer witness
for a statement of facts.
During the three months preceeding the evening of the banquet on March 16, The Times had been receiving nearly
all its daily foreign service by wireless telegraphy. It tendered its hospitality and its greeting to Mr. Marconi in
recognition of his priceless service to the commerce of the world and to humanity by his invention. Up to that time
the best time of transmission of dispatches from London to The Times office in New York was 55 minutes. On that
evening The Times made a special effort to improve on this record. To that end it appealed to the British Postmaster
General for more rapid transmission over the land lines from London to Clifden. The result was that a remarkable
series of new records was established, two of the messages of congratulation to Mr. Marconi being transmitted from
London to The Times office in 10 minutes, while our regular news dispatches came through that night in from 20 to
27 minutes each...
Sir Rufus Isaacs has testified that he knew nothing of the banquet, of Mr. Marconi's presence in New York, or of the
presence here of his brother Geoffrey Isaacs, until The Times correspondent in London by telephone asked him to
send a message of congratulation to Mr. Marconi...
The tone of these messages, the words in which some of the chief men of England congratulated Mr. Marconi upon
his great invention, ought to satisfy even the meanest mind that the banquet tendered to Mr. Marconi and the
messages transmitted by his system of telegraphy from London to New York, so far from being affected with any
commercial interest or purpose, were intended as a tribute of appreciation to a man who had earned the gratitude
of the world and made his own name imperishable by a discovery that enlists the forces of nature in the useful
service of humanity. The Times has never made any concealment of its deep interest in the advance of an art which
reduced the cost of transmitting its foreign news dispatches by one-half. Nor does it think that motives of private
interest alone can be imputed to whatever recognition and encouragement it has given to Mr. Marconi, since as a
direct result of the introduction of wireless telegraphy ocean cable rates to Europe have been reduced 50 per
cent. Not only The Times and all American newspapers, but all the American people share in that benefit.
So far as we have observed, nobody has been at pains to point out to the Committee of Inquiry that the position of
the American Marconi Company was bettered, not by anything the British Attorney General did or could do, but
largely by two facts, the absorption of the United Wireless Company and the agreement of the Western Union
Company to open all its offices and land lines for the reception and delivery of wireless messages...
— The New York Times, 28 March 1913
1912 March 18: Fast Wireless Message Amazes
London to New York in 22 minutes
LONDON, March 17:— Lord Avebury expressed great appreciation when The New York Times correspondent
informed him to-day that the wireless message he sent from here reached New York on Saturday night (March 16th)
in twenty-two minutes. For a moment he appeared almost unable to speak, merely saying, "Great! Great!"
— The New York Times, 18 March 1912
1912 April 14-15: Sinking of Titanic
The story of the the crucial role of the Marconi wireless telegraph, and its two operators Jack Phillips and Harold
Bride, during the sinking of White Star liner Titanic, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, has been told many times. It is
not necessary to repeat it here. For those who want to refresh their memories, any Internet search service will find
many sources.
1912: International Radiotelegraph Convention, London
• Article 11 requires some ships to have emergency radiotelegraph installations.
• Article 21 dictates a distress signal for ships, and requires ships to suspend correspondence and reply when
distress signals are heard.
• Article 45, requires countries to supply their coast stations with meteorological telegrams, and requires them to
facilitate the communication of the information regarding wrecks and casualties at sea.
1912: Charles Herrold begins regular radio broadcasts
Beginning in 1912, ten years before officially-licensed radio broadcasting began in the United States, Charles David
Herrold transmitted weekly entertainment radio programs from his Herrold College of Wireless and Engineering in
San Jose, California, to a small but loyal audience fron San Jose to San Francisco. This was before vacuum tubes, and
his broadcasts were received by homemade crystal sets. He continued his weekly broadcasts until 1917 – when the
United States entered World War One, the government shut down all private radio stations.
Note, by Mike Adams: – In our research, my co-author Gordon Greb and I traveled to the Clark Papers Collection at
the Smithsonian to determine if there were any other individuals in the world who had a radio station on the air as
early as Charles Herrold did in 1909. We found a few one-time experimenters, but none who, as Herrold did:
(1) were broadcasting entertainment programming,
(2) on a regular basis,
(3) pre-announced,
(4) to a known audience...
Charles "Doc" Herrold by Russell Naughton
Doc Herrold's San Jose Broadcasting Station by John Schneider
Charles Herrold Wikipedia
Charles Herrold by Mike Adams and Gordon Greb
Charles Herrold of San Jose California was on the air every day between 1909 and 1917 broadcasting music and
information to an audience of experimenters who listened on home made crystal radios...
Official Proclamation, 12 September 1994 by the Mayor of Oakland, California
1912: Wireless Telegraphy Much Cheaper Than Cable
It is interesting to view some of the financial projections from 1912. The cost of an underwater cable to cover a
distance of 3,000 miles [5,000 km] is anywhere from $7,000,000 to $10,000,000, while the total cost of a pair of
wireless stations to do the same work is but $600,000. The cable must handle $500,000 worth of business in order
to earn enough to keep it in repair while two percent of this amount would take care of the same item for the
wireless. Two million words at 25 cents a word will earn only a sufficient sum to cover depreciation of the cable,
while the same number of words at half rate by wireless will produce enough to pay depreciation charge and 35% on
the investment besides.
Source:— Marconigraph, 1912 by Frederick Minturn Sammis
1912 September: Around-the-World Wireless
To the layman, a wireless station consists of a small and insignificant hut containing the wireless equipment and one
or two masts or towers supporting the aerial wires, but it is probable that comparatively few readers have seen any
of the really large Marconi transatlantic stations. These monuments of the inventive mind and untiring zeal of
Guglielmo Marconi covers tracts of land over a mile in length upon which are erected a large number of huge steel
masts which, in some instances, are 400 feet [120m] high. The masts support a network of copper wires...
Source:— Popular Mechanics, September 1912 by Frederick Minturn Sammis, Chief Engineer,
Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America
1913 January 14: A chain of Imperial Wireless stations Urgently Needed
Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company Limited agreement
Special Report from the House of Commons Select Committee
British House of Commons Select Committee on Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company Limited Agreement
Chairman: Sir Albert Spicer
Report total pages: xxxviii, 977
Purpose:— "To investigate the circumstances connected with the negotiation and completion of the Agreement
between Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited, and the Postmaster-General of Great Britain, with regard
to the establishment of a chain of Imperial (Britsih Empire) wireless stations, and to report thereupon.
Special Report, 14th January 1913. It is a matter of urgency that a chain of Imperial Wireless stations should be
established, and that whatever system was finally adopted and whether or not the Agreement was modified or
confirmed, the first six stations should be in the places named in the second article of the Agreement.
The Government of Great Britain should be free to accept or reject any system of wireless telegraphy from time to
time; it should appoint a highly qualified scientific Committee to report on existing systems of wireless telegraphy,
within three months...
Special Report from the Select Committee on Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company Limited agreement
by BOPCRIS, British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service
Post Office, Telecommunication – Cables, Telephones, Wireless Telegraphy: 1900-1916
1913:More than 1500 ships are equipped with Marconi wireless telegraph
A special section of Lloyd's Register is devoted to ships fitted with wireless apparatus, and rates of insurance on such
ships are considerably lower than on vessels not so equipped... The advance of maritime wireless telegraphy to the
indispensable part it now plays in the daily round of a ship at sea has been extraordinarily rapid. At the beginning
of 1909, after eight years of development work, there were 125 ships of the mercantile marine fitted with Marconi
apparatus. By the end of that year the number had risen to nearly 300; today the total is well over 1500. On the
North Atlantic route – where, owing largely to the establishment by the Marconi Companies of shore stations in
Great Britain, Canada, and the United States, wireless telegraphy has seen its greatest development – 182 vessels,
comprising the principal vessels on all the leading lines, are equipped, and many others are in course of being
fitted. On the South Atlantic route the figures are also remarkable, and the number of ships fitted during the past
two years has increased almost threefold. On South African routes similar rates of increase are to be noted...
Wireless Telegraphy and the Mercantile Marine
The Yearbook of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony, 1913
1913 March: Testing of Marconi Transatlantic Service
Report on the March 1913 test, by the Advisory Committee on Wireless Telegraphy, of the Marconi trans-Atlantic
service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Clifden, Ireland
Test Report, March 1913
Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph
page 1 page 2 page 3
page 4
page 5
page 6
page 7
page 8 page 9 page 10 page 11 page 12 page 13 page 14
The Advisory Committee on Wireless Telegraphy was appointed in January 1913, by the Postmaster General of Great
Britain, on the recommendation of the Select Committee on the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company
Agreement. Its report was delivered in April 1913. Purpose:— "To consider and report on the merits of the existing
systems of long distance wireless telegraphy and in particular as to their capacity for continuous communication
over the distances required by the Imperial chain."
There were five systems then in existence – the Marconi, Telefunken, Poulsen, Goldsmidt and Galletti.
From its enquiries and experiments the Committee concluded that the Marconi system was the only one capable of
fulfilling the requirements for the Imperial chain, but this did not imply that the Company should be employed as
contractors for all the work required. It might be better for the Government themselves to undertake the work, with
the scientific advice, using contractors, though the Marconi Company alone had practical experience of putting down
stations and organizing traffic, etc. In view of the rapid developments taking place the Post Office should not pledge
itself to the continued use of any apparatus or be subject to any penalty for the disuse of apparatus installed. Two
stations should be used also for experimental work. As existing patents might hinder development by preventing
the combination of the best devices, the Committee laid stress on the fact that the Government was not fettered by
considerations arising out of patent rights, but could use any patent on fair terms under section 29 of the Patents
and Designs Act, 1907. The Post Office should have a special staff to test new invention.
Report of the Committee appointed by the Postmaster General to consider and report on the merits of the existing
systems of long distance wireless telegraphy and in particular as to their capacity for continuous communication
over the distances required by the imperial chain
by BOPCRIS, British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service
Post Office, Telecommunication – Cables, Telephones, Wireless Telegraphy: 1900-1916
1913: Germany's World-Wide Wireless Communications System
Locations of Germany's world-wide wireless communications system 1913
Map showing of Germany's world-wide wireless communications system 1913
Full-size map online by Gorm Helt-Hansen
Large enough (5380 × 2969 pixels) that all text is legible
1913 June 12: Marconi speeds up wireless messages
Inventor says new station at Belmar will handle sixty words a minute
NEW YORK, June 12:— Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, arrived here yesterday on the White
Star liner Olympic to inspect the new transatlantic wireless station being constructed at Belmar, New Jersey, and
also to give evidence in the suit of the Marconi Company against the National Electric Signaling Company for
infringing upon its patents.
— The New York Times, 12 June 1913
1913 October 9-10: The Volturno Disaster
Fire at sea, extraordinary marine tragedy
135 lost in fire on liner on mid ocean
521 saved by ten rescue ships during raging gale
On October 9, 1913 in the early morning, a fire broke out on the Volturno, en route from Rotterdam to New York,
then in the mid Atlantic in a heavy storm and high seas. There were 654 persons aboard, 561 passengers and
93 crew, the passengers mainly being emigrants from European countries, heading to the New World. Volturno's
cargo included quantities of oil, rags, burlap and chemicals, all highly inflammable. The fire spread through the
ship. Four crewmen died in the flames. Three great explosions occurred. A distress call was sent out by the then
relatively new wireless. Lifeboats were lowered into the high seas and capsized or were crushed. Eleven ships
responded and raced to the scene, the first to arrive being the Carmania. Rescue was attempted but boats sent out
at great risk were unable to pick up passengers due to the rough sea. The ship continued to burn and, as night fell,
the desperate passengers assembled at the stern of the vessel, as far from the fire as they could get. Next morning,
the gale had subsided and the sea was calmer, calmed no doubt in part by heavy oil spread on the sea by the tanker
Narragansett. The rescue fleet took off a total of 520 survivors, with the Grosser Kurfürst taking 106, the most
survivors rescued by a single ship. Captain Inch was the last person to leave the stricken vessel with the ship's
papers in hand and with his dog in his arms. 134 people died. The incident was witnessed by all of that assembled
fleet of eleven ships, unable to help for many many hours until the weather and sea conditions improved...
The Burning of the Volturno by Peter Searle
The Volturno Ship Disaster by Jan Daamen
The one supreme fact and lesson in this lurid catastrophe is that the great majority were saved because an Italian
student thousands of miles away had discovered how to send messages for aid anywhere thru air and ether, and had
fitted seagoing vessels with his wireless apparatus. The operator on the Carmania, two hundred miles away, caught
the signal cry of danger, "S.O.S.," and he swept the seas to send the warning wherever it might find a vessel... The
La Touraine caught it, the Kroonland heard it; the Seydlitz found it, it reached the oil ship Narragansett; in a few
hours the doomed ship was surrounded with a fleet of vessels... But for him (the Italian student) the fate of the
Volturno would have been one of the mysteries of the sea – sailed, never heard from – all buried in flame and wave,
out of all knowledge and memory, except in the tears of those who vainly waited for their unreturning kin. We
crowd our crypts and valhallas with effigies of men who have won renown in deadly war; one of these days we will
give place in parks or capitols to those who have saved life and made life worth the saving...
The Triumph of Wireless The Independent, 23 October 1913
Made available online by Jan Daamen and Henning Pfeifer
1914 July 28 – August 4
World War One Begins
• 28 July 1914: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
• 1 August 1914: Germany declares war on Russia
• 3 August 1914: Germany declares war on France
• 4 August 1914: Great Britain declares war on Germany
• 5 August 1914: The British cut the German transatlantic cables, thus forcing Germany to use insecure radio circuits
for its overseas communications. The direct cable connections from New York to Germany are not restored
until 1919, after the end of the war. Telegraph communication between the United States, neutral for 33 months
until April 1917 (and doing a lot of business with Germany during that time) was almost entirely by long-distance
wireless, with a small amount of message traffic carried by roundabout cable routes that were both slow and
unreliable.
Electronic Warfare in WW1: The Telegraph War 1914-1918
...Britain with her vast empire and trading interests was particularly vulnerable to damage to the cable network; she
was, however, well placed to protect her cables and wreak havoc on those of her enemies. Germany had a problem
as, for geographical reasons, most of her international cables left Europe via the English Channel...
On August 4, 1914 Britain opened the telegraph war by cutting the German submarine (underwater) cable that ran
from Borkum in the North Sea to the Spanish island of Tenerife in the South Atlantic. There was a substantial
German research station on the coast of Tenerife and there were fears... that this was being used as a cover for
espionage and potentially for U-boat support. As Tenerife lay close to the sea routes that British ships would take to
Britain's West African colonies and South Africa, Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) ordered the
cutting of the communications link.
The next step was the remaining German cables running through the English Channel. Many of these were simply
grappled, raised and cut but some (linking to neutral countries) were patched into the British cable network this
providing the Allies with additional capacity (and in the short term probably intercepting incoming messages for
Germany from the remote terminus of the cable). Much of Germany's telegraph connection to the world beyond
the Central Powers was destroyed.
Germany struck back, on 7th September 1914 the German cruiser SMS Nurnberg, accompanied by SMS Leipzig
under cover of the French flag approached the tiny Pacific territory of Fanning Island. Fanning Island's only
importance was that a submarine (underwater) cable from Canada came ashore to a cable station providing the
switching equipment to route messages to and from two connecting cables, one to Australia and the other to New
Zealand. A landing party from the Nurnberg wrecked the station and cut the cables...
In November 1914 the crew of the German commerce raider Emden were ordered to destroy the cable station on
Direction Island in the Coccos. This station provided a link between Australia and South Africa. On the morning of
the 9th the cable station staff saw a warship approaching. Having been warned about SMS Emden the station's
wireless operator sent out a message. "Strange warship approaching" and shortly afterwards "SOS! Emden here"
before a German landing party took the station. These radio messages were picked up by a passing troop convoy
and one of the cruisers escorting it peeled off making full speed towards Direction. The cruiser was the
HMAS Sidney; within an hour and a half of battle being joined the burning Emden was beached on the nearby North
Keeling Island. The landing party managed to cut one cable and wreck some instrumentation before fleeing (they
made it back to Germany after 7 months via the Dutch East Indies and Turkey)...
— Source: The Telegraph War PatriotFiles.com
http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/showthread.php?p=434309
— Also see: Capture of SMS Emden, 9 Nov 1914 Timelines.com
http://timelines.com/1914/11/9/capture-of-sms-emden
— Also see: SMS Emden (launched 1908) Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Emden_%281908%29
— Also see: Karl von Müller: Defeat and captivity Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_von_M%C3%BCller#Defeat_and_captivity
— Also see: Battle of Cocos Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cocos
— Also see: HMAS Sydney (launched 1912) Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Sydney_%281912%29
Electronic Warfare in WW1
Wireless Replaces Cut Telegraph Cables
Many Important Radio Developments
...In the United States, civilian radio activities were suspended during the war, as the radio industry was taken over
by the government. Numerous military applications were developed, including direct communication with
airplanes. The war also exposed thousands of service personnel to the on-going advances in radio technology, and
even saw a few experiments with broadcasting entertainment to the troops...
The introduction of vacuum-tube equipment promised to revolutionize radio. However, all amateur and commercial
use of radio in the United States came to an abrupt halt on April 7, 1917 when, with the entrance of the United
States into World War One, most private U.S. radio stations were ordered by the President to either shut down or be
taken over by the government, and for the duration of the war it became illegal for private U.S. citizens to even
possess an operational radio transmitter or receiver. Radio in the U.S. had become a government monopoly,
reserved for the war effort...
With the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, the United States had initially declared its neutrality in the
conflict. In order to enforce this neutrality, on August 5, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issued an Executive Order
instructing the Navy Department to censor international telegraph messages sent and received by radio firms, as
reported in Wilson's Proclamation, from the September 1914 The Wireless Age. The Marconi Wireless Company of
America – the dominant radio company in the U.S. at this time – immediately and vigorously challenged the legality
of this order, with their arguments spelled out in The Censorship of Messages, from the September 1914 issue of The
Wireless Age. (Although American Marconi was a U.S. corporation, its parent company had very close ties to two of
the countries, Great Britain and Italy, allied against Germany). A short time later, the U.S. government complained
that the American Marconi station at Siasconsett, Massachusetts had handled an unneutral message from the British
cruiser Suffolk, but the Marconi company once again disputed the right of the U.S. Navy to monitor its operations, as
detailed in The Censorship Situation, which appeared in the October 1914 The Wireless Age. Dissatisfied by
American Marconi's response to the Suffolk incident, the Navy shut down the Siasconsett operations for three and a
half months, while the Marconi company unsuccessfully contested the action in the courts. The station reopened in
January 1915, with American Marconi now agreeing to follow the Navy regulations. On January 20, 1916, the U.S.
Secretary of State sent a letter to Congress explaining the current censorship policy toward U.S. radio
communications, and how it differed from cable restrictions. A New York Times article including the text of the
letter was reprinted in Wireless Censorship, from the February 1917 issue of QST. The Navy's expanding roles during
this period are reviewed in the Operations and Organization of United States Naval Radio Service During Neutrality
Period chapter of Linwood S. Howeth's 1963 History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy...
The military importance of radio was immediately apparent. In August 1914, the Belgians had to completely destroy
a major international communications station located near Brussels, in order to keep it from falling into the hands of
the advancing German army, as reported in Destruction of the Brussels Radio Station, by Henry M. De Gallaix, from
the November 1919 Radio Amateur News. Directing the War by Wireless, written by George F. Worts and appearing
in the May 1915 Popular Mechanics, reviewed the multiple applications of radio in both short and ling distance
wartime communication. A British overview of various uses by Great Britain and its primary foe, Germany, Wireless
Waves in the World's War by H.J.B. Ward, appeared in the 1916 edition of the annual The Yearbook of Wireless
Telegraphy and Telephony. In the May 1917 Popular Science Monthly, Capt. A.P. Corcoran's Wireless in the
Trenches reviewed radiotelegraph operations at the British front lines, where operators with portable transmitters
proved invaluable, for "If a gas attack is coming, it is he who sends the warning to the men behind to put their gas
helmets on." During the war, the Germans used radio transmissions to help airships navigate to their bombing run
targets, reviewed by How the Zeppelin Raiders Are Guided by Radio Signals, which appeared in the April 1918
Popular Science Monthly. However, the French would employ counter measures, as an article in the November 1919
Electrical Experimenter reported how a special station had been used to confuse a group of enemy airships by
transmitting phony signals, which put "another dent in Fritz's wild war dream" when Seven Zeppelins Were Lured to
Death by Radio.
In the July 15, 1917 issue of Journal of Electricity, Wireless Telephone Will be Used by The Navy in War outlined
research efforts by AT&T, including one key development, two-way voice communication with airplanes, which
would be quickly achieved, meaning that "squadron formations of all sorts could be maintained in the air as easily as
infantry units on the ground", according to American-Developed Radio Telephone Success in Airplanes, from the
November 23, 1918 Telephony. The September 1918 issue of Popular Mechanics reported on a nightly news
summary transmission, broadcast from the Navy's station NAA near Washington, DC, to ships in the Atlantic Ocean
in Jackies Get News Daily by Wireless. Although before the war ocean-going radio had generally been limited to
passenger vessels, submarine warfare spurred merchant ships to add radio operators. In 1919, David W. Bone
reviewed British World War One maritime activities in his book Merchantmen-at-Arms, and noted in the On Signals
and Wireless chapter that "If to one man we seaman owe a debt unpayable, Marconi holds the bond"...
— Source: Radio During World War One (1914-1919) Thomas H. White
http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec013.htm
— Also see: Wireless Waves in the World's War: A General Survey of War-Happenings affecting Radiotelegraphy
http://earlyradiohistory.us/1916war.htm
— Also see: Wireless in the Trenches
http://earlyradiohistory.us/1917trn.htm
1914 August 5: German Cables Cut at the Azores
Severed by the British to isolate Germany
Since 1:30 o'clock yesterday morning (1:30am Aug. 5th) the German Empire has been isolated, so far as
communication with America is concerned. At that hour the telegraph cables leading from the United States to
Emden, Germany, were cut and since then no messages have been received here (in the United States) from that
country unless they have come through German wireless (radio) stations in this country. But officials of these plants
asserted yesterday that while it had been possible to exchange signals with stations in Germany, anything like a
regular wireless message service between this country (the United States) and Germany was out of the question.
Early yesterday morning, the German Atlantic Telegraph Company announced that no messages would be accepted
for for delivery to points in the German Empire until further notice, and all other cable companies declined messages
for that country.
The cable lines between England and Germany may still be intact, but they are in the control of the British
Government, which is not permitting their use for either public or private purposes. Messages filed here with the
English lines to persons in Germany were returned to the senders, whose money was refunded, with the information
that the British censors refused to pass the communications.
The German Atlantic Cable Company, which is represented in America by the Commercial Cable Company, controls
two cables to Europe, terminating at Emden, Germany. Officials of the company in this country say that the British
cut the cables at the Azores. "The United States, so far as communication with Germany is concerned," sid an official
of a cable company last night, "is isolated absolutely. From this on until direct cable service is restored, all word of
happenings in Germany must pass through hostile countries – Russia on the east, France on the west, and England
on the north."
It was suggested that it might be possible to reach Germany through the Mediterranean and thence through AustriaHungary, but the Eastern Telegraph Company, a British concern, owns the cable system traversing the
Mediterranean.
The last message to The Associated Press to arrive here from Berlin was received between 12 and one o'clock
yesterday morning. It was the official account of the British Ambassador's formal announcement to the German
Foreign Office of the declaration of war and the Ambassador's request for his passports. Up to that time, direct
communication over the lines that were severed yesterday had been maintained, although messages were delayed
as the result of the strict censorship in Germany.
Charles C. Adams, Second Vice President of the Commercial Cable Company, said there was no trouble with the
Commercial Cable Company's telegraph lines which run from New York to Nova Scotia and thence to points on the
coast of England. Mr. Adams said that he did not expect that the cables of his company would be cut on this side.
"But I understand," he said, "that there are a couple of German cruisers off the American coast, and if they decide to
grapple for cables and cut them we can't stop them. I suppose that England will see to it that the cables leading to
the British Isles are not tampered with over there."
Dr. Charles Winter, Acting Consul General of Austria-Hungary in this city (New York) inquired anxiously yesterday
afternoon if the report that the German cable had been cut was true. When told that it was, he said: "I cannot tell
you how much I regret the cutting of the cable. It is with great apprehension that I look forward to the next two or
three weeks. Besides the human aspect of the thing – I have two brothers on the other side – the cutting of that
cable may do us great injury. If only one side of the case is given, as may happen if only the English cable is left,
prejudice against us will be created here."
The French Cable Company said that its lines were working satisfactorily.
Among the submarine (underwater) transatlantic cable systems, one of the largest owned by a corporation is that of
the Western Union Telegraph Company, which has twenty-seven cables with an aggregate length of 23,508 nautical
miles [43,560 km]. These are operated from Penzance, England, to Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, and Canso,
Nova Scotia, thence to Coney Island, New York. A subsidiary of Western Union, the Anglo-American Telegraph
Company, has a cable from Valentia, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Newfoundland. Another subsidiary, the Direct
United States Cable Company, operates a cable from Ballinskellig's bay, Ireland, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, thence to
Rye Beach, New York. The Compagnie Francaise des Cables Telegraphiques has twenty-four cables with a total
length of 11,430 nautical miles [21,180 km] operating between Brest, France, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to
New York, and from Brest, to St. Pierre island (south of Newfoundland) to Cape Cod.
According to the latest report relating to the ownership of telegraph cables by nations, Norway has the greater
number, being possessed of 770 lines covering 1,400 miles [2,600 km], while the French republic has the greatest
length, its cables having an aggregate length of 11,343 nautical miles [21,019 km]. Great Britain and Ireland have a
combined 2,721 miles [5,042 km] in 223 cables, while Germany has 100 cables of 2,827 miles [5,238 km]. Russia has
32 cables over 739 miles [1,370 km]; Spain maintains 24 cables having a length of 2,128 miles [3,943 km]; Italy has
50 cables; Austria has 50, and Turkey 25.
— The New York Times, 6 August 1914
1914 August 6: German Government Turns to Wireless
German telegraph cables cut, wireless alternative activated
German Government believed to be using
warships to keep up communication
While Gernmany and Austria, through their military organizations, had surrounded themselves with a wall through
which no dispatches were allowed to pass unless the Governments wanted them to, these countries were keeping in
touch with the outside world, it was learned yesterday, independent of the telegraph cable lines, by using wireless
(radio).
According to information which came to The New York Times last night, the German Government has worked out a
plan of radio communication more extensive than any ever used in a commercial way. The big German Navy has
been pressed into service with its wireless apparatus, and if the Kaiser wishes to communicate with a German
Government agency in the Far East, for instance, he can do so by using his warships. While his enemies are trying to
shut him out by obstructing and cutting cables he can send his code messages wherever he pleases over the very
heads of his enemies.
Sends Message to Hong Kong
It was said that the German Government had sent an inportant message from Berlin to Hong Kong late yesterday
afternoon. The message was relayed from Buenos Aires. How it passed from Germany to Argentina puzzled cable
officials who were interviewed here last night. There are several cable lines from France and Spain to South
America, but they all belong to companies hostile to Germany. The only guess that the cable company officials made
was that the Kaiser's message had been relayed from the coast of Germany to Buenos Aires, more than 8,000 miles
[13,000 km], through the wireless apparatus on German warships. This means that German warships are scattered
from the North Sea and Mediterranean through he North Atlantic and South Atlantic Oceans.
The close censorship maintained by the German and Austrian Governments excluded all personal messages to
friends in Germany and Austria yesterday. At the Western Union office in this city (New York) messages to these
countries were refused. All messages touching London and addressed to countries at war with England, it was
explained, would be turned back by English censors. On the other hand, all messages from Germany and Austria
were likewise rejected by the German and Austrian censors.
Except for official German code messages that floated out over the Atlantic through the German warships' wireless
apparatuses, only a few other messages left Berlin. These came to London and were addressed to the Associated
Press. They contained news which the German Government was anxious to have printed. Telegraph officials here
said last night that the ban on these dispatches was lifted by the German censors, and that without this privilege
thay could never have found their way to New York or London.
Germany Isolated by War
Many inquiries were made at the cable companies' offices yesterday as to whether messages could not be sent out
of Germany by indirect routes. All inquirers were told that while in ordinary times it would be possible to send
messages indirectly, that possibility had been eliminated by the war.
The stranded Americans in Berlin desiring to communicate with friends here might in normal times select one of two
routes to the north of Berlin, one route to the east, one to the south, all in addition to the regular service maintained
by The German Government. The German Government's cable was cut on Tuesday, supposedly at or near the
Azores. Advices received yesterday indicatec that no attempt had been made to repair the cable.
One of the two northern cable routes out of Berlin is by way of the Great Northern Telegraph Company, which
maintains a line directly from Berlin to London. This company is allied with the Eastern Telegraph Company, an
English concern, and transmission by this route, of course, is out of the question now. The second route, very
indirect, is by way of the GreatNorthern to St. Petersburg, thence over the Trans-Siberian Railroad telegraph lines to
Vladivostock, and then by way of the Commercial Pacific Cable Company to San Francisco, and thence to New York
overland. This route, like the former, is impossible because of Russian interference.
An eastern route out of Berlin in normal times would be by way of Constantinople, but there also the Eastern
Telegraph Company is subject to censorship now.
The southern route from Berlin to naples and thence to Gibraltar and Havre is also impossible because it is
controlled by the French Government. There is also a Spanish company operating to southern ports, but this
connects with the German Government cable lines at the Azores and cannot be used westward because of the cut
cable.
German Cable Cut Near Fayal
There was much speculation here yesterday as to just where the German Government cable was cut. It was
considered most likely that it was cut west of Fayal, the cable terminal in the Azores, for that would cut Germany off
from Communication to all points west. One cable company official, however, expressed the view that the British
men-of-war had cut the cable on both sides, so as to cut off communication also from the Azores to the Continent.
"There are three direct lines leading eastward and northward from Fayal," he said. "One goes to Valentia in Ireland,
another to Emden, the line which is now cut, and a third directly to Lisbon. So if the cable is cut between Fayal and
Emden, and also west of Fayal, Germany will be unable to communicate with the world. I think that is what the
Englishmen wanted to accomplish when they set out to cripple Germany."
When asked about the independent system of wireless communication which the German Government had set up to
offset the damage done by the English, the same official said that such a coup might be expected of the Germans. It
showed, he said, the vast resources of the German military system. He expressed the belief that the cutting of the
cable would not harass officail Germany in the least.
The French Telegraph Cable Company issued this notice yesterday:
The French Telegraph Cable Company has received the following from the French Givernment. Private messages
from and to France or those passing through France, its colonies, or French Protectorares must be written in plain
French or English and bear a signature. These telegrams are only accepted st sender's risk and no complaints can be
entertained.
The French Company issued another notice to the effect that deferred or half-rate messages would not be
accepted. The Commercial Cable Company issued this notice yesterday:
The Eastern and Western Telegraph Companies have suspended deferred and weekend telegram services until
further notice. This affects all of Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America, via the Atlantic cables.
Later the Commercial issued this notice:
British administration confirms that telegrams and radiograms should be written in English or French and under the
condition that they be accepted at risk of the sender and subject to censorship by the British authorities, to wit, that
they may be stopped, delayed, or treated in any manner or shape at the will of those authorities and without advice
to the senders. No reclamation concerning the reimbursement of the money paid for the transmission or other
service will be considered by the British Government in any case. Furthermore, it is very important that these
telegrams and radiograms bear the name of the sender at the end of the text, otherwsie they will be stopped until
the name be advised by paid service message.
Deliveries in Europe are not guaranteed by any of the companies, and all messages are accepted subject to delay.
— The New York Times, 7 August 1914
1914-1918: War Stimulates Innovation in Wireless Technology
Long telegraph cables notoriously vulnerable to hostile attack
War provided increased focus and direction for innovation. In the British Empire, because there was a highly
developed cable communications network which was not considered vulnerable due to the strength of the Royal
Navy, little effort was expended on radio. German cables, on the other hand, were constantly cut, so great strides
were made there in transmitter and receiver design to improve long distance wireless communications. War also
encouraged long uniform production runs and standardisation. To this end there was exchange of know-how
between manufacturers and suspension of patent monopolies...
Roger Cullis 6 October 2006
Every time a telegraph cable is cut (either on purpose or accidentally) attention is drawn to the relative security of
wireless (radio) in not having thousands of km of cable just lying there and impossible to guard.
1914 September 7: Germany cuts the British Empire's Pacific Telegraph Cable
On 7 September 1914, barely five weeks after the outbreak of World War One, German admiral Graf von Spee, while
leading a small squadron of four cruisers across the Pacific towards South America, stopped at Fanning
Island. Fanning Island's only importance was that a submarine (underwater) cable from Canada – an important link
in the All Red Line – came ashore to a cable station that contained switching equipment to route telegraph messages
to and from two connecting cables, one to Australia and the other to New Zealand. A landing party from the
German cruiser SMS Nurnberg wrecked the station's equipment and cut the cables.
1914 September 5: U.S. Takes Over High-Power Radio Station
Taking Over High-Power Radio Station for Use of the Government.
...it is ordered that one or more of the high powered radio stations within the jurisdiction of the United States and
capable of trans-Atlantic communication shall be taken over by the Government of the United States and used or
controlled by it to the exclusion of any other control or use for the purpose of carrying on communication with land
stations in Europe, including code and cipher messages. The enforcement of this order and the preparation of
regulations therefor is hereby delegated to the Secretary of the Navy, who is authorized and directed to take such
action in the premises as to him may appear necessary....
Executive Order No. 2042 5 September 1914
Transatlantic High-Power Station
Following the outbreak of World War One in Europe in August 1914, the United States President, by Executive order
(above), directed the Secretary of the Navy to take over "one or more high-powered radio stations within the
jurisdiction of the United States and capable of transatlantic communication." In compliance with this order, the
high-powered station at Tuckerton, New Jersey, was taken over on 9 September 1914. This station, completed just
prior to the beginning of the war, was constructed by the German firm Hochfrequenz-Machinen Aktiengesellschaft
fur Drahtlose Telegraphie, commonly known as the Homag Company, for the Compagnie Universelle de Telegraphie
et Telephonie of France. The Homag Company, on one pretext or another, had withheld the station from the
French. (Germany and France were on opposite sides in World War One.) The American subsidiaries of both
companies had applied for licenses to operate, but, with ownership in dispute, these applications had been
denied. The station was equipped with a Goldschmidt 100 kW, high-frequency, reflection-type alternator and
utilized an umbrella antenna. Shortly after the Navy assumed control some of the armature coils burned out. A
court of inquiry was convened which held the accident not due to the fault of negligence of any person in the naval
service. The Navy Department took immediate steps to install a 30 kW Federal (Poulsen) arc transmitter. This
installation was completed by 27 October and, by crowding, it could, under normal conditions, be heard by the
German station at Eilvese, distance 3,382 nautical miles [6476km]. This transmitter was replaced shortly thereafter
by a 60 kW arc, powered by a General Electric Co. 500-volt, direct-current, railroad-type (heavy duty) generator. Its
transmissions were received by Eilvese continuously except during the heavy static season. In the meantime the
Homag Company procured another Goldschmidt alternator from Germany which was placed in service early
in 1915. After the installation of this second alternator it was used in rotation with the arc. Confirmation of
messages indicated the arc to be slightly more reliable...
— Source Chapter 18
History of Communications Electronics in the United States Navy
by Captain Linwood S. Howeth, United States Navy (Retired)
Before World War One, Germany, using the Telefunken Company's wireless technology, had build up a world-wide
radio communication network.&160; The centre of this system was the Nauen transmitting station, at the time one
of the most powerful transmitting sites in the world.
— Reference Großstation Nauen by Gorm Helt-Hansen
1915 September 16: British Admiralty's Mount Pearl Wireless Station
30 kW Poulsen Arc Continuous Wave Transmitter
Major British Navy Station during World War One
The wireless telegraphy station at Mount Pearl in Newfoundland (a suburb of St. John's), was first proposed by the
British Admiralty on 27 June 1914, just six weeks before the outbreak of World War One (1914-1918). It became
fully operational on 16 September 1915. This facility was one of thirteen wireless stations erected at the same time
by the Marconi Company for the British Navy to improve its war time intelligence gathering and weather reporting
capabilities. With its need to control intelligence information in the North Atlantic, the Admiralty designated
H.M. Wireless Station at Mount Pearl as its North Atlantic Intelligence Centre. The crew at Mount Pearl consisted of
22 men; 11 of which were wireless operators recruited into the British Navy from the Marconi Company. The
telegraphy equipment used in this station was the most up-to-date at its time. Its 30 kilowatt Poulsen Arc
Continuous Wave transmitter succeeded the older spark technology originally invented by Marconi. This new
technology required a lot of electric power, which was supplied by two large six cylinder Gardiner engines coupled to
generators and supplemented by an emergency battery backup system. In comparison with other Newfoundland
stations, such as the 5 kilowatt rebuilt station at Cape Race, the Mount Pearl station was extremely powerful. Radio
signals generated or received at the station were transmitted by an antenna supported by three 305 foot towers and
had a range of over 1000 miles...
— Source H.M. Wireless Station, A Chronological History
Admiralty House Museum, Mount Pearl, Newfoundland
On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany.
1917 April 6: United States Takes Over or Closes All Radio Stations
Taking over necessary and closing unnecessary radio stations
...such radio stations within the jurisdiction of the United States as are required for naval communications shall be
taken over by the Government of the United States and used and controlled by it, to the exclusion of any other
control or use; and furthermore that all radio stations not necessary to the Government of the United States for
naval communications, may be closed for radio communication. The enforcement of this order is hereby delegated
to the Secretary of the Navy, who is authorized and directed to take such action in the premises as to him may
appear necessary...
Executive Order No. 2585 6 April 1917
1917 April 28: U.S. Censorship of Cables, Telegraph and Telephone Lines
Censorship of submarine (underwater) cables, telegraph and telephone lines.
...it is ordered that all companies or other persons, owning, controlling or operating telegraph and telephone lines or
submarine (underwater) cables, are hereby prohibited from transmitting messages to points without the United
States, and from delivering messages received from such points, except those permitted under rules and regulations
to be established by the Secretary of War for telegraph and telephone lines, and by the Secretary of the Navy for
submarine (underwater) cables. To these Departments, respectively, is delegated the duty of preparing and
enforcing rules and regulations under this order to accomplish the purpose mentioned...
Executive Order No. 2604 28 April 1917
1917 June 15
United States Patent System Suspended
The patent system of the United States was suspended when the Americans entered World War One. It remained
suspended until the war ended in November 1918. The Trading with the Enemy Act, 6 October 1917, allowed
American firms to produce products that were patent protected by enemy companies. For example, all patents
owned by German wireless companies immediately became available to American firms, which could then
manufacture any previously-protected equipment they wanted to, in any quantity they chose, for use or sale as they
saw fit. They could also use the German patents as a base, to develop technological improvements that could then
be patented by the American firm. This had the effect of transferring the latest German technology to any American
firm that was interested, for a very low price. Under the terms of the bill any citizen or corporation of the United
States could obtain a license to exercise the rights covered by any patent owned by an enemy. For the use of the
patent the licensee was to pay to the Alien Property Custodian five per cent of the gross sales or five per cent of the
value of the use of such invention to the licensee, as determined by the Federal Trade Commission. Under one of
the terms of this legislation, President Wilson created a Censorship Board with full powers to censor cable,
telegraph, radio and mail communications of every sort passing between the United States and any foreign
nation. Another feature of this legislation was used to set up the War Trade Board to supervise exports and imports
and with the power to approve or refuse licenses to trade with enemy firms, a provision that had wide-ranging
effects – for example, making it possible to stop exports of American coal sold as fuel to South American electric
utilities owned by German companies.
Executive Order No. 2729A 15 June 1917
1917 August 5: England Suspends All Transatlantic Wireless
military necessity
LONDON, Aug. 4:— The Marconi Company announces that from midnight tonight its transatlantic service, both
eastbound and westbound, will be discontinued, this action being taken upon instructions from the Government...
— The New York Times, 5 August 1917
1917 August 28: Otter Cliffs Radio Station begins operation
The Otter Cliffs Naval Radio Station, located on Mount Desert Island, Maine, was commissioned on 28 August 1917,
under the command of then-Ensign Alessandro Fabbri. Fabbri, in patriotic fervor after the declaration of war against
Germany, cleared the land, and built and equipped the station. He then offered it to the government as a Navy radio
station to support the war effort, in exchange for a commission in the Naval Reserve and assignment as officer in
charge.
Fabbri sought to make Otter Cliffs the best radio station on the east coast of the United States. Eventually, his
efforts were recognized in promotions to lieutenant junior grade in 1918, and lieutenant the following year. Fabbri,
who was released from active duty in 1919, was eventually awarded the Navy Cross for developing the "most
important and most efficient station in the world," according to U.S. Navy documents that detailed Fabbri's
contributions.
Otter Cliffs Radio Station continued to function long after Fabbri left. Because of the lack of man-made
electromagnetic interference within many miles, and the unobstructed span of ocean water between there and
Europe, Otter Cliffs was among the best radio sites along the east coast of the United States, and could receive
signals from Europe when no other station in the United States could. It had been valuable in World War One, when
radio receivers were rather primitive.
By 1930, the station was handling weather reports from Iceland and Newfoundland, and emergency traffic from
Europe, when atmospheric conditions were so bad that Portsmouth, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and
Washington D.C., could not copy the overseas transmissions.
On 28 February 1935, the U.S. Navy Radio and Direction Finding Station Winter Harbor was officially commissioned,
as a replacement for Otter Cliffs. The new radio receiving station was located on Big Moose Island, Maine, at the tip
of Schoodic Peninsula about five miles across the mouth of Frenchman Bay from Otter Cliffs. This station continued
to operate until June 2002.
End of an Era: NSGA Winter Harbor to Close Its Doors
NSGA: Naval Security Group Activity
Chapter XXV: Operation of the World's Largest Radio System
History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy
Captain Linwood S. Howeth, USN (Retired), 1963
1918: Heavy Wartime Telegraph Traffic
During the later stages of World War One, the Pacific cable was ten days behind with its messages, and at least one
of the Atlantic cables was eight days behind.
5. Second case study - the birth of electronics
by H.M. Treasury, London, England
1919: Radio Corporation of America
• Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was incorporated to control US communications patents of General Electric,
AT&T, Westinghouse, and United Fruit Companies.
• RCA acquires the assets of wireless radio company American Marconi from British Marconi.
• David Sarnoff becomes General Manager of RCA.
1919 January 3: Daily broadcasts of Wisconsin weather forecasts
Earle Melvin Terry helped found 9XM Madison, Wisconsin, now WHA, still calling itself "the nation's oldest broadcast
station." Earle Terry, a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin, inspired C.J. Jansky Jr., a student, to
design and construct three-element power vacuum tubes to be used in an already established experimental radiotelegraph station (started in 1914 with 2000 watts of power on 475 metres), in operation in Wisconsin's old Science
Hall and licensed under the call letters 9XM. The station achieved its first transmissions of voice and music in 1917
under the direction of Professor Terry and with the devoted efforts of such university students as Mr. Jansky,
Malcolm Hanson and Grover Greenslade. On January 3, 1919, daily radio-telephone broadcasts of weather reports
were started. C.M. Jansky Jr., the son of a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, went on
to become an international authority on radio engineering and still is associated with Jansky and Bailey Inc.,
Washington, consulting engineers. Malcolm Hanson, another of Professor Terry's precocious students, was later
chief radio operator on Admiral Richard E. Byrd's first expedition of Antarctica. Professor Terry died May 1, 1929, less
than four months beyond his 50th birthday.
— Source: History of Wisconsin AM stations
1920 June 5 7:10pm: Dame Nellie Melba broadcasts live from Marconi's London studio
This was the first ever advertised public broadcast program. A song recital by famous soprano Dame Nellie Melba
was broadcast live, using a Marconi 15 kW telephone transmitter, from the Marconi works in Chelmsford, England.
1922: Formation of the BBC
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is formed by Marconi and five other companies.
1922 May 11: First radio broadcast from Marconi station 2LO in London, England
1922 August 28: The first radio commercial
The first commercial message on radio in the United States was broadcast on this day, by station WEAF in New York.
Source: IEEE History Center
1922 November 14: The BBC opens its first broadcasting station
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) officially began daily domestic radio service broadcasting with the 6:00pm
news read by Arthur Burrows from 2LO, Marconi House, London, England. Manchester and Birmingham stations
began operation the next day.
1926 October: The Imperial Wireless Chain Begins Regular Operation
Another revolution in world-wide communication
Formidable competition for the Cable Telegraph companies
As early as 1906, the British Government began serious consideration of a change – from cable to the new wireless –
in the technology used to communicate with the various parts of the British Empire around the world. By 1911, it
had been decided to use very high powered long-wave (low frequency) stations situated in England and the other
countries to communicate directly, without intermediate repeater stations.
In March 1912, the British Postmaster General formally notified the Marconi Company of the acceptance of the
terms submitted by that company for the construction of all of the long-distance wireless stations which were
required for the Imperial wireless scheme.
In January 1913, the Advisory Committee on Wireless Telegraphy was appointed by the Postmaster General of Great
Britain. Its report was delivered in April 1913. Purpose: "To consider and report on the merits of the existing
systems of long distance wireless telegraphy and in particular as to their capacity for continuous communication
over the distances required by the Imperial chain."
In 1913, a contract was signed with Marconi to design, manufacture and install this system. By the summer of 1914,
three of the system's stations were being constructed, but this work was stopped by the outbreak in August 1914 of
what we now call World War One.
A New Start
After WW1 ended in November 1918, the British Government decided to go ahead with an Imperial Wireless system,
but the intervening war years had seen great advances in wireless communications technology, and the existing plan
had to be discarded. A new plan was developed, based on wireless transmission of messages to a maximum
distance of about 2000 miles, the greatest distance that could then be reached with reasonable reliability. This plan
included repeater stations at intervals of about 2000 miles to reach places, such as Australia and India, that were
located more than 2000 miles from England. Contracts were signed, for construction of several of these stations, but
in 1923, Marconi discovered to his great surprise that short-wave (higher frequency) radio waves, of relatively low
power, could be beamed in a particular direction and reach out to very great distances. Experiments confirmed that
a short-wave beam wireless service was possible between Britain and Australia, at greatly reduced cost compared to
the proposed long-wave service. The great advantages of the short-wave beam system were that smaller aerials and
reflectors could be used and much less power was needed to achieve the same results. The capital cost of beam
stations was a tenth of that of cable and the operating costs were lower too. Agreement by the governments of
Canada, South Africa, Australia and India to adopt the system put considerable pressure on the British government,
who then agreed to the adoption of what was known as the Beam System. The contracts were changed. This was
the beginning of the Imperial Wireless Chain – a revolution in world-wide communication. The new system's first
station was the Canadian Beam which was opened at midnight 5-6 October 1926. The other stations followed
quickly. Marconi Wireless Beam communication with Australia began at 6am on 8 April 1927 and with India at
midnight 5-6 September of 1927.
More by Paul Hewitt, Tetney County Primary School
Australian Beam Wireless - 75th Anniversary Historical Site Visit
Dorchester Beam Radio Station
1926 December 31: British Broadcasting Corporation is incorporated
The British Government decides to control all broadcasting.
1928 January: Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference, 1928
Marconi Wireless pushing Cable Companies into bankruptcy
The new Marconi beam services, built in 1925 and 1926 and put into regular operation in 1927, were successful
immediately. Traffic speeds of up to 160 words per minute were possible, and even with rates well below that
charged by the cable telegraph companies, the new beam wireless services were highly profitable. In a few months,
so much business was taken from the underwater cables that the cable companies' income was markedly reduced,
and there was a serious risk that some of the largest cable companies could be driven into liquidation, or could be
taken over by foreign companies. For example, within six months the Beam service had taken 65% of Eastern
Telegraph Company traffic and more than 50% of Pacific Cable Company traffic.
When the Marconi Beam radio links were established, they had a drastic effect on the revenue of the cable
companies. For example, the net sales of the Eastern Telegraph Company, which were £1,321,126 in 1925, had
fallen to £947,926 in 1927 due to the opening of the Marconi Imperial beam services. The cable companies had built
up large financial reserves and could have survived a cost-cutting war for several years, but the low costs of beam
transmission meant that radio would have been the ultimate victor. Additionally, governments within the Empire
had a financial interest in two transatlantic cables, and in the Pacific cable. For strategic reasons, they did not want
the cable companies to be ruined, giving rise to the possibility that the world-wide network of British-owned cables
would pass to foreign companies such as the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (of the United
States) which was reported to be interested in acquiring them...
5. Second case study - the birth of electronics
by H.M. Treasury, London, England
As a direct result of the increasing effect of radio competition on the cable services, in January 1928 the Imperial
Wireless and Cable Conference was convened in London to:
"examine the situation which has arisen as a result of the competition of the Beam Wireless with the cable services,
to report thereon, and to make recommendations with a view to a common policy being adopted by the various
governments concerned".
After many meetings a final report was produced, recommending the formation of a single communications
company to take over and operate all the communications systems of all wireless and cable companies throughout
the Commonwealth and Empire, including the British Post Office and the Pacific Cable Board. This proposal was
approved by the British Government, and was carried out by forming a new company, Imperial and International
Communications Limited, which became the owner of the numerous companies that had previously been owners
and operators of the competing cable and wireless communications systems. Henceforth, British Commonwealth
cable and wireless communications systems would be controlled and developed by a single management. The 1928
conference also led to the creation of the Imperial Communications Advisory Committee, which the new company
was required to consult on any questions of policy, including alterations in rates. Australia, Britain, Canada, India,
the Irish Free State, New Zealand and South Africa were represented on this committee. British committee
members were usually drawn from British Dominion Office personnel and Dominion officials came from the
respective high commissions in London. A Colonial Office official represented the British Colonies and
Protectorates. In making these arrangements the 1928 Conference was particularly concerned to ensure that the
competing technologies of wireless and cable transmission was integrated and harmonised to maximise the benefits
to the Commonwealth as a whole.
In 1934, the company name, Imperial and International Communications Limited, was changed to Cable & Wireless
Limited.
1928 July: Report of the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference, 1928
Amalgamation of Marconi Wireless with Cable Companies
"To examine the situation which has arisen as a result of the competition of the Beam Wireless with the Cable
Services, to report thereon and to make recommendations with a view to a common policy being adopted by the
various Governments concerned."
As a result of competition by the Government-owned Beam Wireless system, there has been a fall in the traffic and
receipts of the cable companies. The companies could not continue, some might go into voluntary liquidation and
be bought up by foreign interests, and beam wireless was not yet secret enough to supersede cables for strategic
purposes. The Committee rejected the courses of non-intervention, subsidy, minimum revenue guarantee and
pooling, in favour of a fusion of all cable and wireless interests communicating within the British Empire. A merger
company should acquire the assets of the companies, a separate Communications Company being formed with a
capital not exceeding £30 million. The Government's cable assets should be transferred to the new company and
the beam services leased to it for 25 years at a rental. One-half of any excess over the standard net revenue of
£1,865,000 should go to the Company, and one-half to the reduction of rates. All increases of rates should require
the approval of an Advisory Committee or representatives of the Governments participating in the
conference. British control of all companies must be guaranteed, two directors being approved by
H.M. Government. The Fighting Services may maintain wireless stations for their own purposes, and the Post Office
reserved the right to conduct the external telephone system of Great Britain.
Report of the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference, 1928
http://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1928-I.2.2.5.6
(Note: You can access this online article by using your browser's Copy and Paste feature to paste this URL into your
browser's URL window.)
by BOPCRIS, British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service
Post Office, Telecommunications, Broadcasting, Telephones, Telegraphy: 1917-1939
1937 July 20: Death of Guglielmo Marconi
1946: Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company taken over by English Electric Company
1998: Wireless Telegraphy Act 1998
Wireless Telegraphy Act 1998 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
An Act to make provision about the grant of, and sums payable in respect of, licences under the Wireless Telegraphy
Act 1949 other than television licences, and about the promotion of the efficient use and management of the
electro-magnetic spectrum for wireless telegraphy; and for connected purposes. [18th March 1998]
2006: Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006
Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
(4)(a)...the demands for use of the electromagnetic spectrum for wireless telegraphy in the United Kingdom; (b) the
effects, in the United Kingdom, of any such use of the spectrum; (c) likely future developments in relation to those
matters... (5)(a)...the efficient use in the United Kingdom of the electromagnetic spectrum for wireless telegraphy;
or (b) the efficient management of that use... [8th November 2006]
2007 October 17 Celebration of 100th Anniversary, Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph service, Marconi
Towers, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
Marconi Milestone Marked Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, 17 October 2007
Marconi 100th anniversary celebration, report by Cape Breton Post, 18 Oct 2007
The Marconi station on Glace Bay by Gorm Helt-Hansen
Marconi Centenary
by the General Electric Company PLC (England), 1997
Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events
http://web.archive.org/web/19980123021838/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen5.htm
Marconi Centenary: 1896-1897
http://web.archive.org/web/19980123021809/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen2.htm
Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events
http://web.archive.org/web/19980614211910/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen5.htm
Marconi Centenary: 1894-1895
http://web.archive.org/web/19980614211856/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen1.htm
1897 The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited
http://web.archive.org/web/19980614211952/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen3.htm
Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events
http://web.archive.org/web/19990218110406/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen5.htm
Marconi Centenary: 1896-1897
http://web.archive.org/web/19990218052539/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen2.htm
Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events
http://web.archive.org/web/19990421114158/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen5.htm
Marconi Centenary: 1894-1895
http://web.archive.org/web/19990421090252/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen1.htm
1897 The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited
http://web.archive.org/web/19990421104924/http://www.gec.com/marconi/cen3.htm
Wireless — Yesterday and Today
Wireless communication, as the term implies, enables information to be exchanged between two devices without
the use of wire or cable. In most such cases, information is being transmitted and received using electromagnetic
energy, also known as electromagnetic radiation.
In this timeline (above), the words "wireless" and "radio" are used interchangeably, to mean communication without
wires by means of radio waves. This was the common usage before the 1960s, when ultrasonic technology
appeared in mass-market wireless devices, followed by infrared in the 1980s.
Infrared waves and radio waves both are electromagnetic radiation, but infrared's frequency range is far higher than
that at which radio operates. Beginning in the 1960s, the term "wireless" has expanded to include infrared, radio,
and ultrasound technology, all of which operate without a connection by wire (hence "wireless"). Most wireless
devices use electromagnetic waves, but there is an exception – some monitoring devices, such as "silent" intrusion
alarms, employ acoustic waves at frequencies above the range of human hearing; these are genuine wireless devices
although acoustic waves are not electromagnetic.
Through much of the twentieth century, "wireless" meant "radio" – electromagnetic radiation generally in the
frequency range then produced by radio transmitters or detected by radio receivers, roughly between 100kHz and
50-500MHz, more or less.
The upper frequency limit has always been uncertain to some degree – and has always been fluid, continually being
pushed as technology develops.
Today, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the frequency
range included in the term "wireless" has extended upward to
perhaps 50-100GHz for radio. Also, wireless devices using infrared
radiation have become common in remote-control units for television
sets, CD and DVD players, garage doors, etc. There are infrared
wireless keyboards and wireless mouses (mice?) for computers.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Imagining the Internet
A look back over the last 150 years of communications history
The printing press was the big innovation in communications until the electric telegraph was developed. Printing
remained the key format for mass messages for many years afterward, but the telegraph allowed instant
communication over vast distances for the first time in human history. Telegraph usage faded as radio became easy
to use and popularized; as radio was being developed, the telephone quickly became the fastest way to
communicate person-to-person; after television was perfected and content for it was well developed, it became the
dominant form of communication technology; the internet came next, and newspapers, radio, telephones and
television are being rolled into this far-reaching information medium...
History and forecast of mass communication Future survey
Timeline of radio Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_radio
Marconi's Three Transatlantic Radio Stations in Cape Breton: http://ns1763.ca/marconi100/marconi1.html
Marconi Wireless Telegraph in Nova Scotia: http://ns1763.ca/radio30/marconi-novascotia.html
Cape Breton Wireless Heritage Society: http://cbwireless.ednet.ns.ca/index.html
The 1901 Transatlantic Radio Experiment Marconi in Newfoundland:
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/henry.bradford/marconi-newf.html
http://ns1763.ca/radio30/radio-first-30yrs.html