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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.12.16 14:46l 55 Lines 2642 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 15666_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Dec 12
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N0KFQ
Sent: 161212/1341Z 15666@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1901
Marconi sends first Atlantic wireless transmission
Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in
sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean,
disproving detractors who told him that the curvature of the
earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less. The
message-simply the Morse-code signal for the letter "s"-traveled
more than 2,000 miles from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to
Newfoundland, Canada.
Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1874 to an Italian father and an Irish
mother, Marconi studied physics and became interested in the
transmission of radio waves after learning of the experiments of
the German physicist Heinrich Hertz. He began his own experiments
in Bologna beginning in 1894 and soon succeeded in sending a
radio signal over a distance of 1.5 miles. Receiving little
encouragement for his experiments in Italy, he went to England in
1896. He formed a wireless telegraph company and soon was sending
transmissions from distances farther than 10 miles. In 1899, he
succeeded in sending a transmission across the English Channel.
That year, he also equipped two U.S. ships to report to New York
newspapers on the progress of the America's Cup yacht race. That
successful endeavor aroused widespread interest in Marconi and
his wireless company.
Marconi's greatest achievement came on December 12, 1901, when he
received a message sent from England at St. John's, Newfoundland.
The transatlantic transmission won him worldwide fame.
Ironically, detractors of the project were correct when they
declared that radio waves would not follow the curvature of the
earth, as Marconi believed. In fact, Marconi's transatlantic
radio signal had been headed into space when it was reflected off
the ionosphere and bounced back down toward Canada. Much remained
to be learned about the laws of the radio wave and the role of
the atmosphere in radio transmissions, and Marconi would continue
to play a leading role in radio discoveries and innovations
during the next three decades.
In 1909, he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in physics with
the German radio innovator Ferdinand Braun. After successfully
sending radio transmissions from points as far away as England
and Australia, Marconi turned his energy to experimenting with
shorter, more powerful radio waves. He died in 1937, and on the
day of his funeral all British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
stations were silent for two minutes in tribute to his
contributions to the development of radio.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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