Thunderstruck (54 page)

“there appeared to emanate”
: Ibid., 301.

“I saw this protuberance”
: Ibid., 301.

“On me touche”
: Ibid., 301.

“As far as the physics”
: Ibid., 302.

ectoplasm: Ibid., 301.

“The ectoplasmic formation”
: Ibid., 302.

“Let it be noted”
: Ibid., 305.

“Any person”
: Ibid., 306.

“Whether there is any”
: Ibid., 60.

GUNFIRE

“Every time”
: Marconi,
My Father,
27.

“That was when”
: Marconi,
My Father,
28.

It was a “practician’s” discovery
: Aitken,
Syntony,
195, 286.

“But,” Marconi said
: Ibid., 29.

EASING THE SORE PARTS

“Does your head”
:
The Weekly Courier,
Coldwater, Mich., April 6, 1895.

“I will guarantee”
:
The News and Courier,
Charleston, S.C., July 6, 1898.

“For Piles”
: Goodman,
Crippen,
13.

“Heed the Sign”
: Cullen,
Crippen,
37.

Later, during the Spanish-American
: See photographs at homeoint.org/ photo/m2/munyonjm.htm.

He called Crippen
: Cullen,
Crippen,
38.

“as docile as a kitten”
: See “Crippen Family Research Records” at familytrail.com/crippen/DrCrippen2.htm

“a giddy woman”
: Cullen,
Crippen,
39.

“She liked men”
: Ibid., 39.

TWO FOR LONDON

“No matter how much”
: Paresce, “Personal Reflections,” Part II, 1.

London was still
: Details in this paragraph come mainly from Baedeker,
London,
3, 93, 96, 97; and Massie,
Dreadnought,
xx.

The new Locomotives
: Browne,
Rise,
236.

Queen Victoria herself
: Cullen,
When London Walked,
137.

“the contact of a dog’s tongue”
: Ellis,
Psychology of Sex,
21.

The Duke and Duchess
: Maurois,
Edwardian Era,
278.

“probably including”
: Priestley,
Edwardians,
66.

Barbara Tuchman
: Tuchman,
Proud Tower,
68–69.

With this new awareness
: Details in this paragraph come from Tuchman,
Proud Tower,
92–106; Browne,
Rise,
232–35, 279; and Deghy and Waterhouse,
Café Royal,
50–57. Malato’s guidebook is excerpted on p. 57, and also in David,
Fitzrovians,
96–97.

The new location
: Cullen,
When London Walked,
101–2.

When the police moved
: Jeffers,
Bloody Business,
93.

No one called him
: Massie,
Dreadnought,
15.

Before breakfast
: Magnus,
King Edward,
333.

The prince hated
: Massie,
Dreadnought,
15.

By the late 1890s
: Rose,
Edwardian Temperament,
165.

The number of variety theaters
: Read,
Urban Democracy,
42; Priestley,
Edwardians,
172. Baedeker,
London,
on p. 64, puts the number of music halls in London alone at 500.

She kept a cast
: Massie,
Dreadnought,
13.

PART II: BETRAYAL

THE SECRET BOX

“Maxwellians”
: For a detailed examination of Hertz’s work and the respect, if not adulation, afforded him by Oliver Lodge and his camp, see O’Hara and Pricha,
Hertz.
See also Hong,
Wireless,
44.

Soon afterward
: The postal details in this paragraph come from Baedeker,
London,
80, 122, 181.

“It has gone twelve now”
: Mullis’s account is quoted at length in Baker,
Preece,
266–67.

Preece and Marconi were kindred
: Hong,
Wireless,
37–38.

Preece recognized
: Aitken,
Syntony,
210–14, 288.

Later Preece would state
: Aitken,
Syntony,
288.

In a letter to his father
: Marconi to Giuseppe Marconi, April 1, 1896. “Letters,” 96–97.

“He promised me”
: Ibid., 97.

“La calma della mia”: Marconi,
My Father,
46.

“an Italian had come up”
: Hong,
Wireless,
38.

“On the last day”
: Ibid., 38.

“There is nothing new”
: Lodge to Preece, October 16, 1896. IEE, SC Mss. 22/213.

“I think it desirable”
: Marconi to Preece, December 5, 1896. IEE, NA 13/2/02.

The Strand Magazine: Weightman,
Signor Marconi’s,
9; Isted, I, 53.

the ambassador “even apologized”
: Marconi to Giuseppe Marconi, January 9, 1897. “Letters,” 100.

“the public has been educated”
: Hong,
Wireless,
39.

ANARCHISTS AND SEMEN

“I may say”
:
Trial,
36.

Just east lay Bloomsbury
: For more detail about the neighborhood and the Bloomsbury and Fitzroy Street groups, see Stansky,
December
, and David,
Fitzrovians
, respectively.

“The door opened”
: Stansky,
December 1910,
10.

For years the basement
: David,
Fitzrovians,
95.

Nearby at No. 30
: David,
Fitzrovians,
95; Deghy and Waterhouse,
Café Royal,
54.

Harrison recalled
: Cullen,
Crippen,
42.

A photograph from about this time
: Goodman,
Crippen File,
16.

“a few feeble lines”
: Cullen,
Crippen,
42.

A program from this period
: Goodman,
Crippen File,
25.

“the Brooklyn Matzos Ball”
: Cullen,
Crippen,
44.

“smoking concerts”
:
Trial,
36.

“She was always finding fault”
: Ibid., 88.

“that this man visited her”
: Ibid., 36.

THE GERMAN SPY

He long had resented
: André Maurois wrote of Wilhelm: “He was sensitive and ardent, and for artists might have turned out to be a desirable friend. But at the head of an Empire he was terrifying. His speeches, even his telegrams, were tirades of melodrama; his mother wished she could put a padlock on his mouth whenever he spoke in public.” (Maurois,
Edwardian Era,
83)

Kapp described him
: Kapp to Preece, March 19, 1897. IEE, SC Mss. 022. Folder 100-276.

“As far as the Government”
: Marconi to Giuseppe Marconi, January 20, 1897. “Letters,” 101–2.

Two Americans
: Ibid., 102.

In April, however
: Marconi to Preece, April 10, 1897. IEE, NA 13/2/08. Also, see Aitken,
Syntony,
218, 222–23.

On April 9, 1897
: Graham to Preece, April 9, 1897. IEE, NA 13/2/07.

“I am in difficulty”
: Marconi to Preece, April 10, 1897. IEE, NA 13/2/08.

Afterward he wrote
: Marconi to Giuseppe Marconi, August 8, 1897. “Letters,” 102.

“Marconi at the end of 1897”
: Preece’s Recollections, July 26, 1937, 5. IEE, NA 13/2/24.

On Friday, May 7
: Kemp Diary, May 7, 1897.

“So be it”
: Kemp Diary, May 13, 1897.

“I can’t love him”
: Slaby to Preece, June 23, 1898. IEE, SC Mss. 22/180.

“It is cold here”
: Kemp Diary, May 18, 1897.

“I had not been able”
: Hancock,
Wireless,
4.

“I came as a stranger”
: Slaby to Preece, May 15, 1897. IEE, SC Mss. 22/180.

In Berlin, Slaby immediately
: See Slaby to Preece, June 27, 1897. IEE, SC Mss. 22/179.

He had to withdraw
: Hong,
Wireless,
13.

“The papers seem”
: Lodge to Preece, May 29, 1897. IEE, SC Mss. 22/210.

“It appears that”
: Weightman,
Signor Marconi’s,
31–32.

“It would be important”
: Fitzgerald to Lodge, June 21, 1897. UCL, Lodge Collection, MS Add 89/35 iii.

“I have distinctly told him”
: Preece to Secretary, G.P.O., July 15, 1897. IEE, Post Office Records, English Minute No. 336170/98.

“I have now constructed”
: Slaby to Preece, June 27, 1897. IEE, SC Mss. 22/179.

“We are happy men”
: Slaby to Preece, June 23, 1898. IEE, SC Mss. 22/180.

BRUCE MILLER

“I merely shook hands”
:
Trial,
22.

“I cannot say”
: Miller Statement, 4. NA-DPP 1/13.

“When I first met her”
: Ibid., 4.

“sometimes in the afternoons”
: Ibid., 5.

“brown eyes”
:
Trial,
20.

Only partly true
: Deghy and Waterhouse,
Café Royal,
22.

“Anything we do”
: Miller Statement, 5. NA-DPP 1/13.

“often enough to be sociable”
:
Trial,
20.

“with his Kodak”
: Miller Statement, 5. NA-DPP 1/13.

“with love and kisses”
:
Trial,
37.

ENEMIES

“In fact Dr. Lodge”
:
The Electrician
39, no. 21 (September 17, 1897), 686–87.

“What we want to know”
:
The Electrician
39, no. 25 (October 15, 1897), 832.

“I hope this new attitude”
: Marconi to Preece, September 9, 1897. IEE, NA 13/2/13.

“but no practical results”
: Baker,
Preece,
275.

“ignorant excitement”
: Ibid., 279.

“I want to show you”
: Preece to Lodge, November 18, 1899. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/86.

“Preece’s attempt”
: Lodge to Thompson, January 21, 1900. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/104 ii.

the still-pervasive skepticism:
One example: In a letter to Lodge, physicist Oliver Heaviside wrote, “I much question the usefulness of anything of Marconi’s kind in practice, save in exceptional circumstances. The heliograph will carry much farther by day, + a search light by night. No doubt a special field can be found for it. But wires are the thing, in general.” Heaviside to Lodge, June 23, 1897. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/50.

“Wireless is all very well”
: Marconi,
My Father,
45.

“The chief objection”
: Kelvin to Lodge, May 5, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/107.

“I think it would be”
: Kelvin to Lodge, June 11, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/107.

“In accepting”
: Kelvin to Lodge, June 12, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/107.

“Today was only the beginning”
: Muirhead to Lodge, June 4, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/77.

“This struck me”
: Jameson Davis to Lodge, July 29, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/70.

R
OYAL
Y
ACHT
O
SBORNE
:
Marconi to Lodge, August 2, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/70.

Anyone who could read:
Marconi,
My Father,
65–67; Weightman,
Signor Marconi’s,
41–42.

“go back and around”
: Marconi,
My Father,
66; Wander, “Radio’s First Home,” 52.

“Alas, Your Majesty”
: Ibid., 66.

“H. R. H. the Prince”
: Ibid., 67.

“Could you come”
: Weightman,
Signor Marconi’s,
42.

“I am glad to say”
: Marconi to Lodge, August 2, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/70.

“a lady’s house”
: Kemp Diary, August 24, 1898.

“I wired to London”
: Ibid., August 22, 1898.

“I sincerely hope”
: Marconi to Lodge, November 2, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/70.

“I much regret”
: Marconi to Lodge, October 11, 1898. UCL, Lodge Collection, 89/70.

At nine
A
.
M
.
: Kemp’s account of the ordeal appears in his diary entries for December 17, 1898, through January 4, 1899. Kemp Diary.

In April
: Baker,
History,
42; Faulkner,
Watchers,
6–7.

One night, during
: Marconi,
My Father,
71–72; Vyvyan,
Marconi and Wireless,
20.

“WERE YOU HER LOVER, SIR?”

“Were you writing to her”
: This exchange appears in
Trial,
20–21.

FLEMING

“
Glad to send”: Marconi to Fleming, March 28, 1899. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/66.

“the region of uncertain”
: Hong,
Wireless,
56–57.

“My attention has been”
: Lodge to Fleming, April 11, 1899. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/66

an “indictment against”
: Hong,
Wireless,
57.

“I made no attack”
: Fleming to Lodge, April 14, 1899. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/66.

define “my position”
: Fleming to Jameson Davis, May 2, 1899. UCL, Fleming Collection, 122/47.

“I have a strong conviction”
: Ibid.

THE LADIES’ GUILD COMMENCES

“It was always agreed”
:
Trial,
89.

“with a free hand”
: Ibid., 97.

One evening Miller
: Miller Statement, 2. NA-DPP 1/13.