ABSTRACT
A violent North Atlantic storm buffetted the old Newfoundland barracks huts. Inside a young scientist with a telephone headpiece clamped to his ears sat amongst a variety of strange looking instruments. Several men stood watching in tense, silent anticipation. For a time nothing happened. Then, suddenly, the scientist raised his hand, listened for a moment and then handed the headphones to his assistants for them also to hear the clicks of the Morse letter S. The date was 12 December 1901; the scientist, Guglielmo Marconi. A telegraphic signal originating from Poldhu on the Cornish coast had been received more than 3000 kilometres away across the Atlantic Ocean using 120 metres of wire as a receiving antenna, kept aloft by a high flying kite. Long-distance ‘wireless’ communications had been established.
