DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 197, 21 July 1937, Page 9

DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS

MARCONI’S GREAT ACHIEVEMENT. EARLY DAYS RECALLED. With the passing of the Marchese Guglielmo Marconi the world has lost one of its greatest benefactors. He was born at Bologna, Italy, oil April 25, 1874, his father being an Italian. His mother was the daughter of Mr Andrew Jameson, of Wexford, Ireland. Early in his boyhood he became interested in physics and electrical science, and having had the opportunity of following up the. work of Hertz, Lodge, Righi, and others in their investigations on electro-magnetic waves, he thought out a means by which these waves could be applied for the purpose of providing practical wireless telegraphic communications. In 1895 he had progressed far enough with his elementary apparatus to establish communication over distances in excess of a mile. It was then that he made the important discovery that, by making use of an earth, lie could obtain far greater range for a given power. He also found out that the elevation of the aerials resulted in an increase in distance.

In 1896 he went to England, and continued his experiments with the assistance of the British Post Office, with the result that later that year he succeeded in establishing communication over distances of as much as nine miles. The following year he returned to Italy, and gave more successful demonstrations. The new science had progressed so far that in that year a company was fprmed in England for carrying out further experiments, and permanent stations were erected at various points. Its first commercial use was in 1898, when races at the Kingstown (Ireland) regatta were reported for a Dublin newspaper by Marconi by means of apparatus fitted to a tug. A little later an installation was made in the East Goodwin lightship. This installation was soon instrumental in enabling lifeboats to be sent to a steamer which had collided with the lightship. All the time the apparatus was being improved, and the distances were being increased, with the result that the British Navy became interested, while the Army made use of this new form of communication during the South African Mar. In 1900 a step of considerable importance was taken when Marconi incorporated tuned circuits in bis transmitting and receiving apparatus. Ihe patent which was granted for his invention in England was numbered 7777, and this “four sevens” patent, as it was known, became of great importance and successfully withstood attacks on its validity. It was about this time that Marconi commenced his attack on the Atlantic, and ultimately he was able to • demonstrate wliat many had queried, that the waves could be used for establishing communication between any two points in spite of the curvature of the earth between them. There were many practical and scientific difficulties to be overcome, as well as the adverse criticism of those who doubted the success of wireless for long-distance communication, but Marconi and his associates overcame everything successfully, and were ultimately able to show that long distances could be covered There is little doubt that the establishment of communication across the Atlantic placed the crown- on his pioneering work, and although there remained -much to be done . to bring wireless communication to its present state of efficiency and reliability, the major difficulties bad been disposed that dav till lie died, Marconi had continued wit/ his experiments, and one of his greatest achievements was the result of work which he carried out during the War with shortwaves, the result of which was to show the way to the establishment of directive ’ systems, or, as they are known to-day, beam wireless systems It was this work which displaced the long-wave, liigh-power arid brought into being the multiplicity of relatively low-power sliort-wave systems, which have thrown a network across th© world to-dav. , i i Th© Marchese Marconi a *oik had been recognised by Governments, universities, b and technical societies throughout the world, and honours and titles had been showered upon him. Among these were the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909, the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, and many other similar awards. In 1914 he was made a member of the Italian Senate by the King of Italy, and in he was created a Marquis.