Editing Telegraphy (section)

=== Wireless telegraphy ===

[[File:Marconi at newfoundland.jpg|thumb|Marconi watching associates raising the kite (a "Levitor" by B.F.S. Baden-Powell<ref>[http://aerohistory.org/Wireless/marconi-transatlantique.html "First Atlantic Ocean crossing by a wireless signal"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220326060429/http://aerohistory.org/Wireless/marconi-transatlantique.html |date=26 March 2022 }}. ''aerohistory.org''. {{Retrieved|access-date=12 July 2012}}</ref>) used to lift the antenna at [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's, Newfoundland]], December 1901]]
{{Main|Wireless telegraphy}}
[[File:Post Office Engineers.jpg|thumb|left|Post Office Engineers inspect the [[Marconi Company]]'s equipment at [[Flat Holm]], May 1897.]]

The late 1880s through to the 1890s saw the discovery and then development of a newly understood phenomenon into a form of [[wireless telegraphy]], called ''Hertzian wave'' wireless telegraphy, radiotelegraphy, or (later) simply "[[radio]]". Between 1886 and 1888, [[Heinrich Rudolf Hertz]] published the results of his experiments where he was able to transmit [[electromagnetic waves]] (radio waves) through the air, proving [[James Clerk Maxwell]]'s 1873 theory of [[electromagnetic radiation]]. Many scientists and inventors experimented with this new phenomenon but the consensus was that these new waves (similar to light) would be just as short range as light, and, therefore, useless for long range communication.<ref>view was held by [[Nikola Tesla]], [[Oliver Lodge]], [[Alexander Stepanovich Popov]], amongst others (also Brian Regal, ''Radio: The Life Story of a Technology'', page 22)</ref>

At the end of 1894, the young Italian inventor [[Guglielmo Marconi]] began working on the idea of building a commercial wireless telegraphy system based on the use of Hertzian waves (radio waves), a line of inquiry that he noted other inventors did not seem to be pursuing.<ref>{{cite book |author=John W. Klooster |title=Icons of Invention: The Makers of the Modern World from Gutenberg to Gates |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKuG-VIwID8C&pg=PA161 |year=2009 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-34743-6 |page=161}}</ref> Building on the ideas of previous scientists and inventors Marconi re-engineered their apparatus by trial and error attempting to build a radio-based wireless telegraphic system that would function the same as wired telegraphy. He would work on the system through 1895 in his lab and then in field tests making improvements to extend its range. After many breakthroughs, including applying the wired telegraphy concept of grounding the transmitter and receiver, Marconi was able, by early 1896, to transmit radio far beyond the short ranges that had been predicted.<ref>Sungook Hong. ''Wireless: From Marconi's Black-box to the Audion''. MIT Press - 2001, page 21.</ref> Having failed to interest the Italian government, the 22-year-old inventor brought his telegraphy system to Britain in 1896 and met [[William Preece]], a Welshman, who was a major figure in the field and Chief Engineer of the [[General Post Office]]. A series of demonstrations for the British government followed—by March 1897, Marconi had transmitted Morse code signals over a distance of about {{convert|6|km|mi|frac=2|abbr=on}} across [[Salisbury Plain]].

On 13 May 1897, Marconi, assisted by George Kemp, a [[Cardiff]] Post Office engineer, transmitted the first wireless signals over water to [[Lavernock]] (near Penarth in Wales) from [[Flat Holm]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/flatholm/pages/marconi.shtml |title=Marconi: Radio Pioneer |access-date=12 April 2008 |work=BBC South East Wales}}</ref> His star rising, he was soon sending signals across the [[English Channel]] (1899), from shore to ship (1899) and finally across the Atlantic (1901).<ref>{{cite journal |title=Letters to the Editor: Marconi and the History of Radio |journal=IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine |year=2004 |volume=46 |issue=2 |page=130 |doi=10.1109/MAP.2004.1305565}}</ref> A study of these demonstrations of radio, with scientists trying to work out how a phenomenon predicted to have a short range could transmit "over the horizon", led to the discovery of a radio reflecting layer in the Earth's atmosphere in 1902, later called the [[ionosphere]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Victor L. Granatstein |title=Physical Principles of Wireless Communications, Second Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YClQiddGGfkC&pg=PA8 |year=2012 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-4398-7897-2 |page=8}}</ref>

Radiotelegraphy proved effective for rescue work in sea [[disaster]]s by enabling effective communication between ships and from ship to shore. In 1904, Marconi began the first commercial service to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which could incorporate them into their on-board newspapers. A regular transatlantic radio-telegraph service was finally begun on 17 October 1907.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Clifden Station of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph System|journal=Scientific American|date=23 November 1907}}</ref><ref>[http://marconi100.ca/clip/marconi-sydpost19071024.html Second Test of the Marconi Over-Ocean Wireless System Proved Entirely Successful] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019025942/http://marconi100.ca/clip/marconi-sydpost19071024.html |date=19 October 2013 }}. Sydney Daily Post. 24 October 1907.</ref> Notably, Marconi's apparatus was used to help rescue efforts after the sinking of {{RMS|Titanic}}. Britain's postmaster-general summed up, referring to the ''Titanic'' disaster, "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi...and his marvellous invention."

==== Non-radio wireless telegraphy ====
The successful development of radiotelegraphy was preceded by a 50-year history of ingenious but ultimately unsuccessful experiments by inventors to achieve wireless telegraphy by other means.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

=====Ground, water, and air conduction=====
Several wireless electrical signaling schemes based on the (sometimes erroneous) idea that electric currents could be conducted long-range through water, ground, and air were investigated for telegraphy before practical radio systems became available.

The original telegraph lines used two wires between the two stations to form a complete [[Electrical network|electrical circuit]] or "loop". In 1837, however, [[Carl August von Steinheil]] of [[Munich]], [[Germany]], found that by connecting one leg of the apparatus at each station to metal plates buried in the ground, he could eliminate one wire and use a single wire for telegraphic communication. This led to speculation that it might be possible to eliminate both wires and therefore transmit telegraph signals through the ground without any wires connecting the stations. Other attempts were made to send the electric current through bodies of water, to span rivers, for example. Prominent experimenters along these lines included [[Samuel F. B. Morse]] in the United States and [[James Bowman Lindsay]] in Great Britain, who in August 1854, was able to demonstrate transmission across a mill dam at a distance of {{convert|500|yd|m|0|abbr=off}}.<ref>Fahie, J. J., ''A History of Wireless Telegraphy, 1838–1899'', 1899, p. 29.</ref>

[[File: Wireless Energy Principle.jpg|thumb|Tesla's explanation in the 1919 issue of "Electrical Experimenter" on how he thought his wireless system would work]]

US inventors [[William Henry Ward]] (1871) and [[Mahlon Loomis]] (1872) developed electrical conduction systems based on the erroneous belief that there was an electrified atmospheric stratum accessible at low altitude.<ref>Christopher Cooper, ''The Truth About Tesla: The Myth of the Lone Genius in the History of Innovation'', Race Point Publishing, 2015, pp. 154, 165</ref><ref>Theodore S. Rappaport, Brian D. Woerner, Jeffrey H. Reed, ''Wireless Personal Communications: Trends and Challenges'', Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, pp. 211–215</ref> They thought atmosphere current, connected with a return path using "Earth currents" would allow for wireless telegraphy as well as supply power for the telegraph, doing away with artificial batteries.<ref>Christopher Cooper, ''The Truth About Tesla: The Myth of the Lone Genius in the History of Innovation'', Race Point Publishing, 2015, p. 154</ref><ref>[https://earlyradiohistory.us/sec021.htm Thomas H. White, section  21, MAHLON  LOOMIS]</ref> A more practical demonstration of wireless transmission via conduction came in [[Amos Dolbear]]'s 1879 magneto electric telephone that used ground conduction to transmit over a distance of a quarter of a mile.<ref name="Christopher Cooper 2015, p. 165">Christopher Cooper, ''The Truth About Tesla: The Myth of the Lone Genius in the History of Innovation'', Race Point Publishing, 2015, p. 165 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

In the 1890s inventor [[Nikola Tesla]] worked on an air and ground conduction [[Wireless power transfer|wireless electric power transmission system]], similar to Loomis',<ref>Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute – Volume 78 – p. 87</ref><ref>W. Bernard Carlson, ''Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age'', Princeton University Press – 2013, p. H-45</ref><ref>Marc J. Seifer, ''Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius'', Citadel Press – 1996, p. 107</ref> which he planned to include wireless telegraphy. Tesla's experiments had led him to incorrectly conclude that he could use the entire globe of the Earth to conduct electrical energy<ref>Carlson, W. Bernard (2013). ''Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age''. Princeton University Press. p. 301. {{ISBN|1400846552}}</ref><ref name="Christopher Cooper 2015, p. 165"/> and his 1901 large scale application of his ideas, a high-voltage wireless power station, now called [[Wardenclyffe Tower]], lost funding and was abandoned after a few years.

Telegraphic communication using earth conductivity was eventually found to be limited to impractically short distances, as was communication conducted through water, or between trenches during World War I.

=====Electrostatic and electromagnetic induction=====
[[File:Pat465971.png|thumb|Thomas Edison's 1891 patent for a ship-to-shore wireless telegraph that used electrostatic induction]]
Both electrostatic and electromagnetic induction were used to develop wireless telegraph systems that saw limited commercial application. In the United States, [[Thomas Edison]], in the mid-1880s, patented an electromagnetic induction system he called "grasshopper telegraphy", which allowed telegraphic signals to jump the short distance between a running train and telegraph wires running parallel to the tracks.<ref>({{US patent|465971}}, ''Means for Transmitting Signals Electrically, US 465971 A'', 1891</ref> This system was successful technically but not economically, as there turned out to be little interest by train travelers in the use of an on-board telegraph service. During the [[Great Blizzard of 1888]], this system was used to send and receive wireless messages from [[railroad|trains]] buried in snowdrifts. The disabled trains were able to maintain communications via their Edison induction wireless telegraph systems,<ref>"Defied the storm's worst-communication always kept up by 'train telegraphy,'" [[New York Times]], March 17, 1888, p. 8. Proquest Historical Newspapers (subscription). Retrieved February 6, 2008.</ref> perhaps the first successful use of wireless telegraphy to send distress calls. Edison would also help to patent a ship-to-shore communication system based on electrostatic induction.<ref>Christopher H. Sterling, ''Encyclopedia of Radio'' 3-Volume Set, Routledge – 2004, p. 833</ref>

The most successful creator of an electromagnetic induction telegraph system was [[William Preece]], chief engineer of Post Office Telegraphs of the [[General Post Office]] (GPO) in the [[United Kingdom]]. Preece first noticed the effect in 1884 when overhead telegraph wires in [[Grays Inn Road]] were accidentally carrying messages sent on buried cables.  Tests in [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]] succeeded in sending a quarter of a mile using parallel rectangles of wire.<ref name=Kieve>{{cite book |last=Kieve |first=Jeffrey L. |title=The Electric Telegraph: A Social and Economic History |publisher=David and Charles |year=1973 |oclc=655205099}}</ref>{{rp|243}} In tests across the [[Bristol Channel]] in 1892, Preece was able to telegraph across gaps of about {{convert|5|km|mi|1|abbr=off}}. However, his induction system required extensive lengths of [[Antenna (radio)|antenna wires]], many kilometers long, at both the sending and receiving ends. The length of those sending and receiving wires needed to be about the same length as the width of the water or land to be spanned. For example, for Preece's station to span the [[English Channel]] from [[Dover, England]], to the coast of [[France]] would require sending and receiving wires of about {{convert|30|mi|km|abbr=off}} along the two coasts. These facts made the system impractical on ships, boats, and ordinary islands, which are much smaller than [[Great Britain]] or [[Greenland]]. Also, the relatively short distances that a practical Preece system could span meant that it had few advantages over [[underwater telegraph cable]]s.