When Marconi established wireless telegraphic communication across the Atlantic at the beginning of the 20th century, it was said that 'he turned the world into a village'. This did not mean, as even a present-day villager will testify, that a state of perfect universal intercommunication was about to exist. Nevertheless it was a major technological advance, to be supplemented later by voice and television links forming a worldwide network of receiving and transmitting stations in every country, together with countless mobile versions throughout land, air, sea and space.