Marconi 155 



excitement. Presently Marconi took off the receiver and 

 handed it to Kemp. 



" See if you can hear anything," he said. Kemp fitted 

 it over his own ears, and a moment later, faint, yet quite 

 distinct, came three little clicks, the letter S as agreed. 

 A little later they came again, so clearly and continuously 

 that neither Marconi nor Kemp had any doubt that the 

 experiment had succeeded. 



Even then Marconi would not give his news to the 

 world. He waited until he had received fresh signals on 

 the following day ; then on Saturday word was flashed all 

 over the world announcing that for the first time in 

 history messages had been sent by wireless from England 

 to America. 



And was Marconi believed ? Not a bit of it. One Press 

 correspondent received from his principals a cablegram 

 saying, " Your message about Marconi simply incredible. 

 Please be extremely careful what you wire." Columns 

 were written in the newspapers proving to the satisfaction 

 of their writers that Marconi had been deceiving himself 

 — that all he had heard were atmospherics — that it was 

 flatly impossible to wireless over such a distance as two 

 thousand miles. The few who did believe were those 

 who knew Marconi. Of these was Sir William Preece. 

 Marconi was far too big a man to be worried by the 

 nonsense that was written and printed, but he resolved 

 quietly to give these doubters a proof which even their 

 sceptical brains could not withstand. He came back to 

 England, rigged up a receiver aboard the big liner Phila- 

 delphia, and took passage on this ship for America. 



Before sailing from Cherbourg he gave instructions to 

 his engineers at Poldhu to send out signals at certain 

 definite intervals. Their time was kept at Greenwich 

 standard, and on the ship they had watches set to the 

 same standard so that they would know to a second when 

 to expect the signals. 



