154 Master Minds of Modern Science 



the whole width of the Atlantic Ocean, but many experts 

 said that this was impossible, because his waves would 

 fly out into space. Marconi was untroubled. He sailed 

 for America, and on December 6th, 1901, landed at St 

 John's, Newfoundland, in company with two assistants, 

 Kemp and Paget. It must be remembered that there 

 was no receiving station in Newfoundland. Marconi had 

 to improvise one; he set up his instruments in the old 

 barracks on Signal Hill. 



On December 10th he sent up a box kite, a huge thing 

 nine feet high, which was intended to carry the aerial, but 

 the wind was so strong that it snapped the wire and carried 

 the kite miles away out to sea. Marconi next tried a 

 small balloon filled with hydrogen. Again he had no 

 luck, for, like the kite, this broke away and the wire fell 

 to the ground. Marconi rigged up another kite, and on 

 Thursday, December 12th, this was sent up. The wind was 

 still strong — so strong that it took the combined strength 

 of all three men to moor the kite securely. But at last 

 this was done, and it strained in the gale at a height of 

 about four hundred feet. 



Before leaving England Marconi had arranged with his 

 people at Poldhu for them to send a certain signal at a 

 fixed time each day. This was to be the Morse letter S, 

 represented by three dots. They were to begin at three 

 o'clock English time — that is, about eleven-thirty New- 

 foundland time — and to go on for three hours. At noon 

 on that eventful Thursday Marconi sat in the low-roofed 

 room in the barracks with a telephone receiver on his 

 head. A wire ran out of the window to a pole, thence 

 upward to the kite which was plunging in the cold wind. 

 At the bottom of the cliff, some three hundred feet below, 

 the great Atlantic surges roared. For nearly half an hour 

 nothing happened ; then a slight click reached the ears of 

 Kemp as the tapper struck against the coherer. Kemp 

 stood breathless, but Marconi's face showed no sign of 



