Today in Technology History

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December 12

After his first attempt failed, as described here yesterday, the inventor of radio took another crack at sending a transatlantic wireless message.

Guglielmo Marconi built a transmitting station in Poldhu, Cornwall in the southwest corner of England. He set up a receiving station atop Signal Hill in the town of St. John's, Newfoundland in Canada. Marconi had told reporters that his purpose in Canada was to set up a new station for ship-to-shore messages to prevent future shipwrecks. In reality, he wanted to send a wireless Morse code signal across the ocean.

Marconi and his two assistants in Newfoundland (George S. Kemp and Percy Wright Paget) tried a different approach after their balloon-antenna blew away: they flew a giant kite. The kite's purpose was the same as the balloon's: it would pick up the transatlantic signals, which would travel down the kite's 500 feet of string into Marconi's equipment.

Here's how Marconi described the events of December 12, 1901:

Shortly before midday I placed the single earphone to my ear and started listening. The receiver before me on the table was very crude...

The answer came at 12:30 when I heard, faintly but distinctly, pip-pip-pip.

I handed the phone to Kemp. "Can you hear anything?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, "the letter S."

I knew then that all my anticipations had been justified... I now felt for the first time certain that the day would come when mankind would be able to send messages without wires, not only across the Atlantic but between the farthermost ends of the Earth.

Marconi's stunt put him in the international spotlight again. Skeptics maintain that Marconi and Kemp imagined the weak signal they heard that day. Be that as it may, worldwide wireless communication eventually became a reality -- thanks to pioneers like Marconi.

Related links:

• This Canadian newspaper article describes Marconi's breakthrough in greater detail.

• Here's another description of the historic event.

• This British newspaper article outlines the skeptics' point of view.

• Click here to see the monument at the site of the transmitting station in England.

• This excellent site has pictures, sound clips and other resources related to Marconi and his work.

• Click here for a biography of George Kemp.

 

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