Slashdot Mirror
100 Years Since The First Transatlantic Broadcast
Diarmaid O'Loughlin writes "It's the 100th year since the first comunications over the pond
The Marconi Radio Club and The Falmouth Amateur Radio Association Amateur Radio operators are making plans to celebrate a Marconi world historical event. December 12, 2001 will mark the 100th anniversary of the first Trans-Atlantic radio transmission." The BBC is also carrying the story as well. Embedded Geek adds a link to
coverage on stardate.com, pointing out that "there will be events in the ham community to commemorate it, including a reenactment broadcast (look here under 'Marconi's Celebrations' for others)." This would be a nice day to swing by the Cape Cod station, too.
Then it goes on to say: "the Marconi operation at this location was initiated by the young inventor in 1901. However, in December of that year, due to a number of setbacks, he had to use temporary facilities on St. John's, Newfoundland to prove his theory--wireless could cross the Atlantic!"
Doesn't that present a complete turn around from their previous statement?
In any event, the reenactment link has it correct with: "December 12, 2001 will mark the 100th anniversary of the first Trans-Atlantic radio transmission. That signal was transmitted across the Atlantic from Poldhu, Cornwall England to St John's, Newfoundland."
That would be St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
Unfortunatly this cable failed after only 3 weeks. A cable laid in 1866 by the Great Eastern remained in operation until 1872, but since there were other cables in operation by then, there has been continous transatlantic communication since 1866.
I totally disagree with your comments. Amateur radio still provides a usefull service in more ways than one.
First of all, the amateur radio operators compose a network of communications that the most completely decentralized form of communication available. While cell phones, satalites, and internet connections are all very hi-tech, they all have central points for failure. It is virtually impossible to knock out amateur communications without killing almost every operator! One or two switching stations or a satallite and cell phones are dead.
Secondly, many of the 'ham-nerds' you speak of are some of the most brilliant electircal engineering type people I have ever met. Many technologies that we use today can be attributed to amateur radio, including the roots for wireless connectivity such as 802.11 (ever heard of packet radio?). You can also find the roots of cell phones in amateur radio.
Thirdly, amateur radio operators provide many valuable services to the community including community service, education, and Disaster Relief (WTC).
The provincial government has an official site for the 100th celebrations. The local section of the IEEE is also involved in organizing the celebrations.
Here are some more websites relating to the celebrations:
Dr. Zedel taught me Ocean Acoustics last semester...
By the way, despite being way out in the Atlantic ocean, Newfoundland is a beautiful province and a wonderful place to get away if you like the outdoors, hiking, game hunting, sport fishing, whale-watching, and lots of other things.
Mozilla
Here's an article about the first transatlantic radio transmission from a member of a Newfoundland amateur radio club.
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Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
You are exactly right. Here is an article which explains the case in detail.
One of the links in the Slashdot article has this quote:
As you can see in the Tesla link I provided above, this statement is patently false. Marconi used the patents, research, and technical drawings of Tesla and faithfully duplicated Tesla's ideas. About the only thing Marconi stumbled into was the radio-reflecting layer in the atmosphere. This was not something he had planned, but instead discovered quite by accident. Marconi should not be credited at all in connection with radio, other than the fact that he managed to popularize it through his sensationalism.
This is similar to the case of the Wright Brothers. Their "first flight ever" was completed several years after another inventor, Gustav Whitehead, flew in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1901. There is a web page here with information on Whitehead and his flights. Basically, the Wright brothers managed to get better press and grabbed the title of first to fly from Gustav Whitehead, even though Whitehead was documented by several sources as having done it first.
Sapere aude!
Tesla is credited for inventing radio by the USPTO, because his 1881 Tesla coil was able to transmit power over large distances, using high frequency electromagnetic waves (radio). His original device was not used for voice communication, but power transmission. A true pioneer, he was working on the last mile power delivery problem before we even had a power grid in the US.
In truth, Marconi received the patent originally, but the USPTO overturned Marconi's patent in 1943, three months after Tesla's death. This patent dispute lasted for nearly half a decade! Marconi was lauded, while Tesla died pennyless.
Tesla was the prototypical geek, the antithesis of Edison and Marconi. Both were showmen, not scientific inventors, which greatly irritated Tesla. Also, because English was not his native language (Serbo-Croat), he avoided any public speaking, as such "demonstrations" by slavic immigrants at the time warranted visits from the KKK. Tesla was poorly treated in a time when no equal opportunity existed for eastern european immigrants.
-- Len
I'm not old...and I know about Linux. But you do have a good point about the lack of young people in the hobby. However, think of the older guys as mentors...the know A LOT. Join a club, if your not already in one, pick out an older person that knows about the hobby, and get every last tidbit of information out of them...that's why they are there. KB3GBA/AE
With stuff that wouldn't be recognised today, and was poorly understood then. Signals were unamplified (therefore no vacum tube required) and relied on huge antennae towers for signal strength. Luckily, not much signal is required (as is clear from the fact that your computer is a huge Radio Frequency (RF) generator). ..."
An excerpt from an early description:
"... The responder is an extremely sensitive instrument with a closed circuit. That is, when there are no wireless impulses, the local current is passing through a conducting solution between two electrodes. But with a wireless impulse there is at once a greater resistance in the solution. The reason for the increased resistance is not yet known. This effect of the wireless impulse causes a clicking sound in the telephone receiver. Hence one believes that one hears the very sparks of the far-away sender.
From:
The Advance of "Wireless"
World's Work
February 1905, pages 5843-5848
The overturning of Marconi's patent was due to the fact that Marconi's company had sued the US Government for patent infringement during World War I. The quickest way of solving the problem was overturning the patent, and so they did.