The Minneapolis journal., 1902-03-21
MARCONI'S OCEAN MESSAGE
Graphic Details of the Great Inven-
tors Moment of Stress.
Raw Stannard Raker in McClura,


Ray Stannard Baker in McClure's
At noon on Thursday, Dec. II, 1901, Mar
conf sat waiting, telephone receiver at
his ear, in the old barracks on Signal Hill.
To him it must have been a moment OF
painful stress Arranged on the table be-
fore him, all Its parts within easy reach,
was the delicate receiving instrument,
the supreme product of years of the in
ventor's life, now to be submitted to a
decisive test wire ran out through the
window, thence to pole, thence upward
to the kite which could be seen sWaying
high overhead. 1t was bluff, raw day;
at the, base of the cliff, 300 feet below,
thundered cold sea; oceanward, through
the mist, rose dimly the outlines of Cape
Spear, the easternmost reach OF the North
American continent. Beyond that rolled
the unbroken ocean, nearly 1000 miles to
the coast of the British isles. Across the
harbor the city of st: Johns lay on it's
hillside, wrapped in fog; no one had taken
enough interest in the experiments to
come up here through the snow to Sig
nal Hill. Even the ubiquitous reporter
was absent, but the faith Of the inventor
in his creation was unshaken.
II believed from the first" he told me,
"that would be successful in getting
signals across the Atlantic"
r Only two persons were in the room,-
Mr.. Marconi and Mr.. Kemp. Everything
had been done that could be done. The
receiving apparatus WAS of unusual SEN
sitiveness. so that 1t could catch even
the faintest evidence Of the signals. A
telephone receiver, which is no part Of
the ordinary instrument, had been sup
piled, so that the slightest clicking Of
the dots might be conveyed to the in
ventor's ear. For nearly half an hour
not a sound broke the silence OF the
room: then quite suddenly Mr.. Kemp
heard the sharp click of the Taper as 1t
struck against the coherer-this, Of
course, was not the signal, yet it was an
indication that something was coming:
The inventors face showed no evidence
of excitement. Presently he said:
'See II you can hear anything, Mr..
Kemp"
Mr.. Kemp took the receiver, and mo-
ment later, family, and yet distinctly
and Enthusiastically, came the three little
clicks-the dots Of the letter s, tapped out
an instant before in England. At 10 min
utes after / more signals came, and both
Mr.. Marconi and Mr.. Kemp assured them
selves again and again that there could
be no mistake. During this time the
kite gyrated so wildly in the air that the
receiving wire was not maintained at the
same height, as it should have been; but
again at 20 minutes after 2, other repeti-
tions of the signal were received.
mus tue pfoDleu WAS so1Veo. oue VI
the great wonders of science had been
wrought. On the following afternoon,
Friday, he succeeded in getting other
repetitions Of the signal from England;
but on Saturday, though he made an ef-
fort, he was unable to hear anything.
The signals were, Of course, sent con-
tinuously, but the inventor was unable to
obtain continuous results, owing, as he
explains, to the fluctuations Of the
height of the kite as it was blown about
by the wind and to the extreme delicacy
of his instruments, which required con-
stant adjustment during the experiments.