Radio Boys Loyalty; Or, Bill Brown Listens In

by Wayne Whipple; S. F. Aaron

“In these first experiments of the young inventor he used practically the same methods that he employs to-day. The transmitting apparatus consisted of electric batteries, an induction coil by which the force of the current is increased, a telegrapher’s key to make and break the circuit. Batteries were connected with the induction coil and the telegrapher’s key was placed between the battery and the coil.

“One spark made a single dot, a stream of sparks the dash of the Morse telegraphic code, and with this crude apparatus, sometimes failing to record the signals, Marconi labored with growing faith. He knew he was on the right track and persevered. When he had succeeded in sending a message two miles through the air, Guglielmo determined that it could be two hundred, or two thousand miles, but he chose a shorter distance to prove his theory. He went to the English Channel and before long the world was astounded to learn that this young stranger and experimenter had sent a wireless message over thirty miles. A little later dispatches were sent through the air across the English Channel and received from the Isle of Wight to Land’s End, more than one hundred and eighty miles distant.

“This youth, twenty-one years old, had succeeded in accomplishing a feat the possibilities of which can hardly yet be conceived. Then Marconi came to London to upbuild and link nation to nation more closely. He was well received in England and began his further work with all the encouragement possible. A series of tests followed that were astounding. Messages were sent through walls, houses, through hill and dale, proving beyond a doubt that the electric waves penetrate everything.

“A few years later, when Marconi was twenty-four, he made wireless reports of the Kingston regatta for evening papers in Dublin, Ireland. This attracted Queen Victoria’s attention at her summer residence at Osborne House, also on the Isle of Wight. At this time the Prince of Wales, who afterward became King Edward the Seventh, was ill on his yacht. This was soon connected with the Queen’s summer castle and one hundred and fifty messages passed between the suffering prince and his royal mother.

“All these wireless marvels—they seemed miracles then—made William Marconi world-famous before he finished his twenty-fifth year.

“But Guglielmo—I like the Italian pronunciation of his name better,” continued Tony, “for I am afraid, if I did geeve the English form, I should turn it into Beel.” He smiled at our hero who had come down from the platform to a front seat and sat listening intently, and Bill Brown shook his head deprecatingly.

“Guglielmo did not cease with these triumphs. No, not he. He saw success only in greater distances and he went at this problem with his usual quiet determination. He made no announcements, but sailed for the Island of Newfoundland and there he set up his instruments in an old barracks at the mouth of the harbor near St. Johns. In a few days his preparations were made, quite secretly. His plans were communicated to no one, except his assistants, for he knew there would be the general skepticism concerning his effort to send wireless messages across the Atlantic Ocean, but he felt assured of success. A transmitting station had been established near Poldhu, Cornwall, the southwestern point of England. The aërial wires were on masts two hundred and ten feet high.

“As an aërial Guglielmo sent up a large kite made of bamboo and silk, flown on a wire, of course; the wind increased, snapping the wire and blowing the kite into the ocean. Thereupon Guglielmo used a balloon filled with hydrogen gas and sent it up when the weather was clear, but the balloon broke away and disappeared.

“It was on December 12, 1901 that he sent up another kite. This held at an elevation of nearly four hundred feet, and then, after having cabled his assistants to begin sending certain signals previously agreed upon, at a certain hour in the afternoon and continuing until night, Guglielmo made allowance for the difference in time and sat with the telephone receiver at his ear, listening, wondering, hopeful. It must have been a moment of almost painful expectation. He looked out from his position high on the cliff and could see the dim, rocky outlines of Cape Spear, the most eastern point of the North American continent. Beyond this rolled the blue Atlantic, two thousand miles across which was the coast of the British Isles. Only two persons were present in the old barrack-room besides the inventor. There were no reporters—no one had been apprised of the attempt. Marconi’s faith in the success of his experiment was unshaken. He believed from the first that he would get signals across the great stretch of ocean.

“Suddenly there was the sharp click of the instrument that could only come from some electric disturbance; but it was not the signal. Marconi, without excitement, asked Mr. Kemp, the assistant, to take the telephone receiver connected with the instrument and listen for a time. A moment later, faintly, yet distinctly and unmistakably, came the three clicks indicating the dots of the letter S, according to the Morse code, the signal that had been agreed upon with the assistants on the English coast. A few minutes later more signals came and the inventor and his assistant assured themselves again and again that there could be no mistake. Thus was tested successfully one of the great scientific discoveries.