The Wizard of Wireless

 In 2017, we went walking along some of the Cornish coastal path. In a quiet spot called Poldhu, we passed a remarkable installation. It was here that Guglielmo Marconi sent out the first transatlantic wireless signal through the air, changing telecommunications for all time.

Italian-born Guglielmo Marconi

And where was that message sent to and received?

Well, would it surprise you to hear that it was Newfoundland?

In 1901 Marconi received the first message at Signal Hill, St. John’s, and twenty years later the first transatlantic telephone messages were made from here as well.

He had established the Marconi Wireless Company in 1897, but faced doubts as to range of wireless communications. In 1900 he decided to send messages across the Atlantic to prove his theories and methods.

Poldhu, Cornwall was the first station built, powerful enough to send the message. The receiving station was originally meant to be in Cape Cod, USA, but a horrific storm took out the American station. He then chose a station location slightly closer to the UK. 

At first he used balloons to keep the antenna aloft, but that proved impossible in Newfoundland winds, so then he used kites. Even then he could only use them a short period each day. But on December 12 he heard three pips, indicating a series of 3 "S"s, sent from more than 2,100 km away.

Ground waves had the problem of earth's curve to deal with, but his theory that sky waves could be used was radical, and correct. These waves bounced off the ionosphere and returned back to earth.

“…I knew then that I had been absolutely right in my calculations. The electric waves which were being sent from Poldhu had traversed the Atlantic, serenely ignoring the curvature of the earth which so many doubters considered would be a fatal obstacle, and they were now affecting my receiver in Newfoundland.”

Marconi, the “Wizard of Wireless”  became a star, confounding all scientific opinion as to what was possible, to the point where scientific knowledge had to be revised.

The first message was sent from an abandoned quarantine hospital at the top of Signal Hill in St. John's, now long since gone. The current Cabot tower was erected (1898-1900) to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and the 500th anniversary of John Cabot's landing in Bonavista, and it was from this tower, in 1933, that a message was sent to Marconi to officially open the Marconi Wireless station. That station, on the second flower of the Tower, is now a bit of a museum to all things Marconi. And it's a stunning view.

Cabot Tower atop Signal Hill