Marconi 153 



It is interesting to know that the first person to send a 

 paid commercial message by wireless was that great 

 scientist the late Lord Kelvin. 



By this time the commercial world was beginning 

 to take notice of this new method of communication. 

 Marconi having proved that he could send messages 

 across the sea from Wimereux to Dover, a distance of 

 thirty- two miles, the British Admiralty took up his sys- 

 tem and was shown that the range could be extended to 

 one hundred miles. Marconi himself boldly stated that 

 he would soon be able to send his signals across the 

 Atlantic Ocean, and in 1900 a site was chosen at Poldhu, 

 in Cornwall, tall wireless masts were erected, and with 

 the help of Professor J. A. Fleming a great wireless 

 installation was built. 



Before we describe Marconi's first efforts to bridge the 

 Atlantic we must mention the first big advertisement 

 which wireless communication obtained. In 1900 a few 

 of the steamship companies were already beginning to 

 instal wireless in their vessels, and one ship so equipped 

 was the Royal Belgian steamer Princess Clementine. On 

 January 1st, 1901, this steamship saw the barque Medora, 

 of Stockholm, hard and fast on the Ratel Bank, and being 

 herself unable to help sent a wireless message to La Panne, 

 on the Belgian coast. La Panne communicated with 

 Ostend, and within an hour a tug was on its way ; it suc- 

 ceeded in saving the Medora from her perilous position. 

 A very few hours' delay, and the Medora would have been 

 a hopeless wreck. 



The new Poldhu station was fitted with twenty masts, 

 each two hundred and ten feet high, and the current of 

 electricity was powerful enough to operate three hundred 

 incandescent lamps. The wave thus generated had a 

 length of about a fifth of a mile, and the rate of vibra- 

 tion was roughly eight hundred thousand to the second. 

 Marconi believed that with this power he could bridge 



