Marconi's Historical Message
December 12, 1901, the first of Marconi’s dreams came true, when his historic message – the letter “S” was sent in Morse from Poldhu, in Cornwall, England, over a trans-Atlantic path of about 3000 km to St John's, Newfoundland, using a spark transmitter.

This prearranged transmission was received by Marconi with a receiver connected to a 100 metre long antenna trailed from a kite.

Perhaps we could have a closer look at what Marconi was trying to achieve in those opening days of the 20th century, and we examine in some detail how he came to make that historic message.

Marconi believed that his first endeavours to prove that wireless signals could be transmitted, and received, over long distances, should relate to the trans-Atlantic path, and for that purpose a transmitting station, at the time the most powerful ever built, was constructed at Poldhu, Cornwall, England.

The antenna system consisted of a ring of 20 masts, each about 70 metres high. Another similar station was erected in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. However, at the end of August 1901, when the antenna construction at Poldhu was nearly complete, a storm there virtually destroyed what had already been accomplished, and the entire facility was wrecked.

Nevertheless, Marconi organized a substitute emergency antenna, a simpler device consisting of 60 vertical wires, 60 metres high, connected to a stay stretched between t two masts 60 metres high.

In November 1901, he sailed from Liverpool, accompanied by his assistants, and reached St. Johns on December 6.

Bad weather hampered Marconi’s experiments in attempting to set up a suitable receiving system, but he did manage to put up a kite carrying an antenna wire of about 100 metres long. Suddenly, at about 12.30 pm, he heard a succession of three faint clicks on his telephone receiver, corresponding to the three Morse dots of the letter S. This occurred several times, removing all possibility of doubt that trans-Atlantic transmission had been achieved. He repeated the experiment on the following day – successfully.

We should note that Marconi's equipment was extremely crude compared with present day standards – tubes and transistors had not been invented – amplifiers did not exist – no facilities existed for generating continuous waves. All that was available was equipment for transmitting damped waves by means of irregular spark discharges.

In 1901, Marconi started to set up a network of permanent wireless stations, specifically for maritime communications, following the establishment of the Marconi International Marine Company in 1900.

His company built stations on the British and Irish coasts, in Belgium, Germany and in the USA.

By the end of 1901, the British and Italian Navies had adopted Marconi's invention, and radio telegraphy facilities had been installed in British and foreign merchant ships, and the Cunard liners Luciana and Compania.

In 1903, about 12 months after Marconi's historic message, two-way contact was established across the Atlantic.