Signor Marconi's Magic Box (43 page)

In 1895 Professor Bose, of the Presidency College, Calcutta, had succeeded in ringing a bell and exploding a mine with electro-magnetic waves while working along the same lines as Marconi.

Marconi’s name was added to the company name in February 1900. Very rapidly other Marconi companies were formed, including the Marconi International Marine Company and the American Marconi Company, both also in 1900.

There is an error in the original: this should read ‘640 miles’.

It is striking how many of those who were prominent in the field of early electronic sound were afflicted with poor hearing. Thomas Edison was partially deaf from boyhood, as was Oliver Heaviside, who had suffered from a bout of scarlet fever as a child. Alexander Graham Bell became interested in electronics through his work with the deaf and dumb, and a fascination with the changing pitch of speech. His wife had been totally deaf since the age of five, when she too had had scarlet fever.

Built in 1812 to display arts and curiosities from around the world, the Egyptian Hall later became a place of entertainment. The American showman Phineas T. Barnum exhibited the dwarf Tom Thumb there in 1844, and Nevil Maskelyne performed his magic acts in the years before it was demolished in 1905.

Dromoland Castle survives as an expensive American-owned hotel.

The same Guantanamo to which the United States took Afghan prisoners of war in 2001-02.

The wireless telegraph messages sent and received by the operators of Marconi’s companies.

The Carlton Hotel, in the Haymarket, was opened in 1899. It was run initially by César Ritz, with the celebrated Escoffier as the chef. Ritz reputedly suffered a nervous breakdown when Edward VII’s coronation was postponed, as he had prepared all the food for the banquets. The Carlton was demolished in 1957 - 58.

Devised by the Russian Alexander Popov (also spelled Popoff) and the French inventor Eugène Ducretet.

De Forest added a third electrode, or grid, to Fleming’s simple valve. This had the effect of making it possible to amplify high-frequency signals, and led to the development of radio.

The first training school was opened at Frinton in Essex in 1901, later moving to Chelmsford. A second school opened in Liverpool, also in 1901, and another at Marconi House in London in 1912. There were also schools in New York and Madrid. The course took six weeks.

On the
Titanic
in 1912 the cost was twelve shillings and sixpence for the first ten words, then nine pence per word after that (at today’s prices, £30 for the first ten words and nearly £2 a word thereafter).

There is no agreed figure for the survivors of the
Titanic
, as the exact number of people aboard has never been established. Estimates range from 701 to 713. One recent estimate is as follows: total passengers 1316, of whom 498 survived. Total crew 913, of whom 215 survived. This gives the figure of 713 survivors.

It was found that ultra-short waves were reflected by a different layer of the atmosphere than long waves.

Roughly £150 million at current values.