Editing Battle of Tsushima (section)

===Wireless telegraphy===
The [[wireless telegraph]] (radio) had been invented during the last half of the 1890s, and by the turn of the century, nearly all major navies were adopting this improved communications technology. Tsushima was "the first major sea battle in which wireless played any role whatsoever".{{sfn|Busch|1969|pages=137–138}}{{sfn|Evans|Peattie|1997|p=84}}

Lieutenant [[Akiyama Saneyuki]] (who was the key staff to Admiral Tōgō in formulating plans and directives before and during the battle as a Commander, who also went aboard ''Nikolai I'' to accompany Admiral Nebogatov to ''Mikasa'' for a formal meeting with Tōgō) had been sent to the United States as a [[naval attaché]] in 1897. He witnessed the capabilities of wireless telegraphy firsthand during the [[Spanish–American War]], and sent several memos to the [[Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff|Navy General Staff]] urging that they push ahead as rapidly as possible to acquire the new technology.{{sfn|Evans|Peattie|1997|p=84}} The IJN command became heavily interested in the technology; however, it found the [[Marconi wireless]] system, which was then operating with the Royal Navy, to be exceedingly expensive.
[[File:Imperial Japanese Navy Radio Telegraph Research Committee.png|thumb|right|[[:ja:木村駿吉|Kimura Shunkichi]] (in plain clothes on the front row) and the members of Imperial Japanese Navy Wireless Telegraph Research Committee in 1900.]]
The Japanese therefore decided to create their own radio sets by setting up a wireless research committee under Professor [[Kimura Shunkichi]],{{efn|(1866–1938) Graduated from [[Tokyo University]], Physics Dept.; studied at [[Lawrence Scientific School]] (Harvard) and [[Sheffield Scientific School]] (Yale) from 1893 to 1896. [[:ja:木村駿吉]]}} which eventually produced an acceptable system. In 1901, having attained radio transmissions of up to {{convert|60|mi}} with the Type 34 (34th year of Meiji = 1901) set, the Navy formally adopted wireless telegraphy. Two years later, a laboratory, a factory, and the wireless telegraphy curriculum were set up at [[:ja:海軍水雷術練習所|Imperial Japanese Navy Mines Training School]] in Yokosuka to produce the Type 36 (1903) wireless sets,{{efn|See a picture of faithful replica set onboard battleship ''Mikasa'' in [[Yokosuka]]. {{cite web|author=Mikasa Preservation Committee|title=Type 36 wireless set registered as Essential Historical Material for Science and Technology in 2008|url=https://www.kinenkan-mikasa.or.jp/2017_type36_telegraph.html|language=ja}}}} and these were quickly installed on every major warship in the [[Combined Fleet]] by the time the war started.{{sfn|Evans|Peattie|1997|p=84}}

[[Alexander Stepanovich Popov]] of the Naval Warfare Institute had built and demonstrated a wireless telegraphy set in 1900.  However, technology improvement and production in the Russian empire lagged those of Germany, and "System Slaby-Arco",{{efn|See [[Adolf Slaby]] and [[Georg von Arco]].}}<ref>{{cite web|title=AEG Radio receiver in the style of the Slaby Arco System|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/radio-receiver-in-the-style-of-the-slaby-arco-system-allgemeine-elektricit%C3%A4ts-gesellschaft-aeg-1887-1967/uwFwjRep9295iA?hl=en|access-date=24 April 2022|archive-date=24 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220424142915/https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/radio-receiver-in-the-style-of-the-slaby-arco-system-allgemeine-elektricit%C3%A4ts-gesellschaft-aeg-1887-1967/uwFwjRep9295iA?hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> originally made by [[AEG (German company)|Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft]] (AEG) and then produced in volume by its successor wireless-set maker [[Telefunken]] in Germany (by 1904, this system was in wide use by [[Kaiserliche Marine]]) was adopted by the Imperial Russian Navy. Although both sides had early wireless telegraphy, the Russians were using German sets tuned and maintained by German technicians half-way into the voyage,{{sfn|Novikov-Priboy|1937}} while the Japanese had the advantage of using their own equipment maintained and operated by their own navy specialists trained at the Yokosuka school.{{efn|For background information on the usage of wireless telegraphy at the time, and how tuning and maintenance were essential (just like drivers being required to be mechanics at the outset of automobiles), see: {{cite web|title=The Work of a Wireless Telegraph Man|last=Packard|first=Winthrop|publisher=The World's Work|date=February 1904|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015009214399&seq=439}}}}