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Ballycastle ChronicleLetter to the Editor
I read with amazement your article in lastweek’s edition of the Chronicle as I did in thenational newspapers and on television thatMarconi's cottage was on the market for sale,that this is where experiments took place andthat Marconi may have stayed at this cottage.There is no local evidence to support theseclaims at all and it creates a totally wrongimpression of what actually did happen in thesummer of 1898. I appreciate that none of uswere around at that time. However, I will givea brief account of Marconi's life and his earlyassociation with radio in a attempt to set thematter straight.Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy on April25, 1874, to an Italian father and an Irishmother. His mother was Annie Jameson whosefamily owned the Jameson Whiskey Distilleryin County Wexford.His work on Rathlin Island and in Ballycastlecovered a relatively short period from June 4to September 2, 1898. Marconi himself visitedfor four days during that time. Theexperimental work was carried out by hisassistant George Kemp, who was in turnassisted by Edward Glanville; also employedwas a John Cecil from Rathlin Island.They carried out experimental transmissions between the east lighthouse on Rathlin Islandand the 'White Lodge' house, situated at theharbour in Ballycastle, and in doing so createdthe historical link between the town and the pioneering developments that were taking place in 'wireless telegraphy'.Heinrich Hertz, who died in 1894, haddiscovered that electro-magnetic waves existedin the air and that these could be detected over short distances. Sir William Crookes also predicted that these same electro-magneticwaves could be used for communication.Marconi had studied physics and took inspiration from the work of Hertz. He carriedout a series of practical experiments inwireless telegraphy in Italy and, although Sir Oliver Lodge and Dr Alexander Muirheadclaimed to have sent a ‘wireless’ signal between two Oxford buildings in 1894, it wasMarconi who registered the first patent of thistechnology.Sir Oliver Lodge had developed a moreefficient way of picking up these electo-magnetic signals than Hertz in the 'Branleycoherer' and Marconi developed this ability astep further.In 1985, a Captain H. B. Jackson (Royal Navy) had also succeeded in transmitting a‘wireless’ signal the length of ship which ranga bell and later in 1886, from ship to shipwithin the confines of an harbour, repeatingwhat Marconi had already done in 1894.Jackson later met Marconi during experimentson Salisbury Plain. At the time many scientistswere working in the same field but it wasMarconi who had realized the potential of thediscovery, one which led him to register Patent No. 12039, on June 2,1896, with aspecification for a 'wireless' system using'Hertzian waves'.Some of his landmark achievements are asfollows:1894 - Italy – first demonstrated thetransmission of ‘wireless’ signals to sound a bell across a room;1895 – Italy - successfully demonstrated signaltransmission and reception over a 2kmdistance across fields;1896 - England - came to London andregistered his patent - demonstratedtransmission and reception on Salisbury plainusing an aerial developed by the Russian Prof.Alexander Popoff. Captain H. B. Jackson was present along with the chief engineer of theGeneral Post Office and also representatives of the British Army.1897 - England – He achieved a range of 7kmtransmission and reception on Salisbury Plain -
 
achieved a new record distance of 14km whenhe send a message across the Bristol Channelfrom Flat Holm, Weston-super-Mare, toLavernock Point, Cardiff – set up an aerial inthe grounds of the Royal Needles Hotel, AlumBay, Isle of Wight and communicated with twohired ferries and later with another station setup in the Madeira House, Bournemouth – Italy - communicated from La Spezia, Italywith the armoured cruiser 'San Martino', adistance of 11 miles - England - with hiscousin Jameson Davis he first registered hiscompany as The Wireless Telegraph andSignal Company;1898 - Ireland - transmission and reception between Rathlin Island and Ballycastle under commission by Lloyds of London – sent theworld's first live 'wireless' report of a yachtrace from a ship called 'The Flying Huntress'to a shore station at Kingstown (Dublin). This brought immense publicity and interest for Marconi work and its commercial and military potential;1899 - England - The Goodwin Lightship,which had been installed with a transmitter,was rammed in heavy fog by the S.S. 'R.F.Mathews'. It was able to send the first 'livesaving' signal from sea, for the assistance of two lifeboats;1901 – Send a signal 198 miles between theIsle of Wight and Lizard Point, Cornwall -defying critics and the opinions of thescientific world he sent a signal around thecurvature of the earth, from Poldhu, Cornwallto Signal Hill, St John’s, Newfoundland;1918 – first signal from England to Australia .These are just a few of the scores of eventsand achievements during his lifetime and wehave not touched on the greatest aid that hiswork created for shipping, namely the abilityto sent 'wireless' distress signals which led tothe saving of hundreds of thousands of lives atsea.How or why Marconi came to Ballycastle toundertake the trials for Lloyds is notcompletely clear. It was certainly related tothe fact that 'wireless telegraphy' promised to become the most important development intracking incoming and outgoing vessels. The possibility had come of age when, withMarconi equipped stations all along the coast,all vessels within twenty-five miles of shorecould make their presence known and send or receive communications.So apparent were the advantages of such asystem that Lloyds in May, 1898, entered intonegotiations for the setting up of Marconiinstruments at various Lloyds stations and preliminary trials were commissioned betweenRathlin Island and Ballycastle.Another factor may have been the location, asall transatlantic shipping coming and goingfrom Liverpool passed between Torr Head andthe Mull of Kintyre and, like Malin Head, Torr Head already had a signalling station,bothwhich relied on semaphore communication.Therefore Rathlin to Ballycastle would have been the ideal location.These early contracts from Lloyds along withothers from the Royal Navy, British Army andthree shipping companies gave the newcompany its first income and the foundationsof what today is a multi national company.There are, however, some incorrect factsaround the work that took place in Ballycastle.Firstly, the cottage referred to as 'Marconi'sCottage', situated on the shoreline at the end of the road before Fair Head, was not where thereception of transmissions were received.As James O'Kane, ex-Town Clerk of MoyleDistrict Council pointed out in an article to theIrish News, the former Antrim CountyCouncil, misled by local Post Office officials, put a plaque on the cottage. Not only was it atthe wrong location but the date on the plaqueof 1904 was also wrong.The other point is the fact that thetransmissions and receptions were not, assome accounts claim, the first transmissionsor receptions over water or indeed the first'wireless' transmissions in the world. Theywere a part of the development of 'wireless
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