254 Signor G. Marconi [Feb. 2, 



would have had to have been over 1000 feet high. I give these 

 results to show what satisfactory progress is being made with this 

 system. 



In America, wireless telegraphy was used to report from the 

 high seas the progress of the yachts in the International Yacht 

 Race, and I think that occasion holds the record for work done in 

 a given time, over four thousand words being transmitted in the 

 space of less than five hours on several different days. 



Some tests were carried out for the United States Navy ; but, 

 owing to insufficient apparatus, and to the fact that all the latest 

 improvements had not been protected in the United States at that 

 time, it was impossible to give the authorities there such a complete 

 demonstration as was given to the British authorities during the 

 naval manoeuvres. Messages were transmitted between the battle- 

 ship Massachusetts and the cruiser New York up to a distance of 36 

 miles. 



A few days previous to my departure from America the war in 

 South Africa broke out. Some of the officials of the American line 

 suggested that, as a permanent installation existed at the Needles, 

 Isle of Wight, it would be a great thing, if possible, to obtain the 

 latest war news before our arrival on the St. Paul at Southampton. 

 I readily consented to fit up my instruments on the St. Paul, and 

 succeeded in calling up the Needles station at a distance of 66 nautical 

 miles. By means of wireless telegraphy, all the important news was 

 transmitted to the St. Paul while she was under way, steaming 

 twenty knots, and messages were despatched to several places by 

 passengers on board. News was collected and printed in a small 

 paper called the ' Transatlantic Times ' several hours before our arrival 

 at Southampton. 



This was, I believe, the first instance of the passengers of a 

 steamer receiving news while several miles from land, and seems to 

 point to a not far distant prospect of passengers maintaining direct 

 and regular communication with the land they are leaving and with 

 the land they are approaching, by means of wireless telegraphy. 



At the tardy request of the War Office, we sent out Mr. Bullocke 

 and five of our assistants to South Africa. It was the intention of 

 the War Office that the wireless telegraph should only be used at 

 the base and on the railways, but the officers on the spot realised 

 that it could only be of any practical use at the front. They there- 

 fore asked Mr. Bullocke whether he was willing to go to the front. 

 As the whole of the assistants volunteered to go anywhere with 

 Mr. Bullocke, their services were accepted, and on December 1 1 they 

 moved up to the camp at De Aar. Bat when they arrived at De Aar, 

 they found that no arrangements had been made to supply poles, kites 

 or balloons, which, as you all know, are an essential part of the 

 apparatus, and none could be obtained on the spot. To get over the 

 difficulty, they manufactured some kites, and in this they had the 

 hearty assistance of two officers, viz. Major Baden-Powell and Captain 



