History of Radio Timeline of the First Thirty Years of Radio 1895 – 1925

A dramatic demonstration of the value of wireless telegraphy in police work – the capture of Dr. Crippen and Miss Le Neve off Father Point, Quebec, Canada.  Crippen has gone down in history as the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless communication.

Institute of Journalists in London: Cable Rates are Intolerable. Wireless alternative delayed by landline telegraph companies. A resolution "that the time has arrived for binding the Empire together with an electrical girdle of cheap cables"  was voted by acclamation.

There was, of course, the speaker added, the alternative of wireless communication.  They all recognized the genius with which Mr. Marconi had extended the sphere of wireless telegraphy.  At the same time, while it was possible to use it for press purposes under certain conditions, it did not fulfill all requirements.  One of the great New York newspapers, he believed, was at this moment using the press telegraphic service, and one of the great London papers, The Times, had used it also; but at present, owing to the difficulties that Marconi had had with the land lines, and owing also to the fact that, up to the present, the service had not been sufficiently regular and certain for press purposes, they were still dependent upon cable communication.  So far as regarded the Cable Committee of the Empire Press Union, of which he was Chairman, he would say that they would most willingly cooperate with the Institute of Journalists in making a further representation to His Majesty's Government and doing all they could to bring down the cost of cable communication...

Mr. Henniker Heaton delivered an address in support of the resolution in which he urged that the cables of the world be bought out at the market price of the day by the Governments of the civilized world.  The British and Colonial Governments, he said, now paid nearly $1,250,000 every year for official cable messages.  This sum would go far toward the purchasing of the cables from the companies.  It was advisable, at all costs, to put an immediate end to all cable monopolies.  The first step was to call a conference of the Postmasters General of the world and establish a penny-a-word telegraph rate throughout Europe.  The next step was to hold a conference with the postal authorities of America.  The present high rate of one shilling a word yielded $5,000,000 per year.  The carrying capacity of the cables to America was twelve times greater than their present work.  They would hardly believe that while the carrying capacity of the cables to America and Canada was 300,000,000 words per annum, we sent only 21,000,000 words.  There were about sixteen lines to America – thirteen from this country, and he had, without contradiction, published tho fact that ten of these lines were kept idle by the "ring".  Every effort had been to reduce the cable rate to America, with determined opposition by the cable monopolies.  He was bound to say that, if he were in tho position of tho cable companies, he would offer the same opposition, but it was intolerable that 120,000,000 persons should be reduced to this small volume of communication as the result of such cable charges.

The movement for a reduction in cable rates is steadily growing in England.  Papers which only a few months ago considered the question outside the rango of practical politics now discuss it as a matter must be dealt with.  The Globe for instance, has an editorial article, in which it says: ...Whether we buy the cables outright or not, it is politically expedient for the State to establish a maximum rate, just as it established the maximum third-class railway fare... A bill actually passed the Canadian Parliament authorizing such action, but the cable companies secured the insertion of a clause providing that Canada should only interfere on condition that the British Government would take corresponding measures.  That was reasonable enough, but why does the British Government take no notice?  It is stated that their hands are tied by a convention with one of the companies.  But that may be denounced at any time.  In any case it does not last forever.  Surely the Post Office should give some official explanation of its attitude and policy.  The control of the is cables is as much a matter of State in the modern world as the conrol of roads, and if the Post Office has good reason for neglecting what is really a part of its duty, those reasons be stated without delay.

Marconi to-day personally directed an exchange of communications between the wireless station at Coltano (near Pisa, in Italy) and the stations at Clifden, Ireland, and Glace Bay. Nova Scotia, thus inaugurating a new service by which it is expected that the rates of wireless dispatches to America will be greatly reduced...— The New York Times, 14 November 1910

New Station at Coltano, the Most Powerful in the World. Marconi Sends Greetings to The Times Across 4,000 Miles of Space a new distance record for wireless telegraph transmission covering a tenth of the Earth. The English Marconi Company has recently taken over the Russian operations and is contemplating a number of large wireless stations in the interior of the empire which would be in touch with Coltano and Clifden...

Electric wave telegraphy has revolutionized our means of communication from place to place on the surface of the earth, making it possible to communicate instantly and certainly between places separated by several thousand miles, whilst at the same time it has taken a position of the greatest importance in connection with naval strategy and communication between ships and ships and the shore in time of peace.  It is now generally recognized that Hertzian wave telegraphy, or radio-telegraphy, as it is sometimes called, has a special field of operations of its own, and that the anticipations which were at one time excited by uninformed persons that it would speedily annihilate all telegraphy conducted with wires have been dispersed by experience.  Nevertheless, transoceanic wireless telegraphy over long distances, such as those across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, is a matter to be reckoned with in the future... Encyclopedia Britannica 1911

In April 1911 the Marconi Company published the first issue of the journal The Marconigraph.  It was the first journal written especially for wireless communication and circulated largely among engineers and operators.  In 1913 the Marconi Company wanted a broader audience, so in April 1913 the name was changed to Wireless World.

The Marconi long distance wireless telegraph station at Aranjuez, twenty-five miles from Madrid, was formally opened yesterday by the King of Spain. — The New York Times, 29 January 1912

British Government agrees to Marconi Company's terms for inter-imperial communication

LONDON, March 7:— After many delays the British Postmaster General, acting on behalf of his Majesty's Government and the Governments of the dominions and colonies, today formally notified the Marconi Company of the acceptance of the terms submitted by that company for the construction of all the long-distance wireless stations which are required for the imperial wireless scheme... — The New York Times, 8 March 1912

1912 March 16: The Marconi Banquet at New York

New speed records for transmission of transatlantic messages

Ten minutes from London to New York by Marconi wireless telegraph

...The enemies of Sir Rufus Isaacs (the British Attorney General) and of the Asquith Ministry, for it is manifest that the investigation has been turned into an attack on the government, have had a great deal to say about the wireless dispatches sent to The New York Times by the British Attorney General and others upon the occasion of the banquet given to Mr. Marconi and Godfrey Isaacs, General Manager of the Marconi Company, in the tower of The Times Building on the evening of March 16, 1912.  The ignoble pettiness of the attack and the disposition to convert wholly baseless suspicion into the substance of scandal are clearly revealed in the use made of these dispatches.  The managers of what we may call the prosecution in the Committee of Inquiry would have the public believe that these wireless dispatches were a aprt of a stock market intrigue to "boom!" the Marconi shares.  Inasmuch as these gentlemen have sought to bring The Times into the affair, this newspaper will take the stand as a volunteer witness for a statement of facts.

During the three months preceeding the evening of the banquet on March 16, The Times had been receiving nearly all its daily foreign service by wireless telegraphy.  It tendered its hospitality and its greeting to Mr. Marconi in recognition of his priceless service to the commerce of the world and to humanity by his invention.  Up to that time the best time of transmission of dispatches from London to The Times office in New York was 55 minutes.  On that evening The Times made a special effort to improve on this record.  To that end it appealed to the British Postmaster General for more rapid transmission over the land lines from London to Clifden.  The result was that a remarkable series of new records was established, two of the messages of congratulation to Mr. Marconi being transmitted from London to The Times office in 10 minutes, while our regular news dispatches came through that night in from 20 to 27 minutes each...

Sir Rufus Isaacs has testified that he knew nothing of the banquet, of Mr. Marconi's presence in New York, or of the presence here of his brother Geoffrey Isaacs, until The Times correspondent in London by telephone asked him to send a message of congratulation to Mr. Marconi...

The tone of these messages, the words in which some of the chief men of England congratulated Mr. Marconi upon his great invention, ought to satisfy even the meanest mind that the banquet tendered to Mr. Marconi and the messages transmitted by his system of telegraphy from London to New York, so far from being affected with any commercial interest or purpose, were intended as a tribute of appreciation to a man who had earned the gratitude of the world and made his own name imperishable by a discovery that enlists the forces of nature in the useful service of humanity.  The Times has never made any concealment of its deep interest in the advance of an art which reduced the cost of transmitting its foreign news dispatches by one-half.  Nor does it think that motives of private interest alone can be imputed to whatever recognition and encouragement it has given to Mr. Marconi, since as a direct result of the introduction of wireless telegraphy ocean cable rates to Europe have been reduced 50 per cent.  Not only The Times and all American newspapers, but all the American people share in that benefit.

So far as we have observed, nobody has been at pains to point out to the Committee of Inquiry that the position of the American Marconi Company was bettered, not by anything the British Attorney General did or could do, but largely by two facts, the absorption of the United Wireless Company and the agreement of the Western Union Company to open all its offices and land lines for the reception and delivery of wireless messages...

London to New York in 22 minutes

LONDON, March 17:— Lord Avebury expressed great appreciation when The New York Times correspondent informed him to-day that the wireless message he sent from here reached New York on Saturday night (March 16th) in twenty-two minutes. For a moment he appeared almost unable to speak, merely saying, "Great! Great!"
— The New York Times, 18 March 1912

1912 April 14-15: Sinking of Titanic

The story of the the crucial role of the Marconi wireless telegraph, and its two operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, during the sinking of White Star liner Titanic, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, has been told many times.  It is not necessary to repeat it here.  For those who want to refresh their memories, any Internet search service will find many sources.

• Article 11 requires some ships to have emergency radiotelegraph installations.

Beginning in 1912, ten years before officially-licensed radio broadcasting began in the United States, Charles David Herrold transmitted weekly entertainment radio programs from his Herrold College of Wireless and Engineering in San Jose, California, to a small but loyal audience fron San Jose to San Francisco.  This was before vacuum tubes, and his broadcasts were received by homemade crystal sets.  He continued his weekly broadcasts until 1917 – when the United States entered World War One, the government shut down all private radio stations.

Note, by Mike Adams: – In our research, my co-author Gordon Greb and I traveled to the Clark Papers Collection at the Smithsonian to determine if there were any other individuals in the world who had a radio station on the air as early as Charles Herrold did in 1909.  We found a few one-time experimenters, but none who, as Herrold did:
(1) were broadcasting entertainment programming,
(2) on a regular basis,
(3) pre-announced,
(4) to a known audience...

Charles "Doc" Herrold by Russell Naughton

1912: Wireless Telegraphy Much Cheaper Than Cable

It is interesting to view some of the financial projections from 1912.  The cost of an underwater cable to cover a distance of 3,000 miles [5,000 km] is anywhere from $7,000,000 to $10,000,000, while the total cost of a pair of wireless stations to do the same work is but $600,000.  The cable must handle $500,000 worth of business in order to earn enough to keep it in repair while two percent of this amount would take care of the same item for the wireless.  Two million words at 25 cents a word will earn only a sufficient sum to cover depreciation of the cable, while the same number of words at half rate by wireless will produce enough to pay depreciation charge and 35% on the investment besides.
Source:— Marconigraph, 1912 by Frederick Minturn Sammis

1912 September: Around-the-World Wireless

To the layman, a wireless station consists of a small and insignificant hut containing the wireless equipment and one or two masts or towers supporting the aerial wires, but it is probable that comparatively few readers have seen any of the really large Marconi transatlantic stations.  These monuments of the inventive mind and untiring zeal of Guglielmo Marconi covers tracts of land over a mile in length upon which are erected a large number of huge steel masts which, in some instances, are 400 feet [120m] high.  The masts support a network of copper wires...
Source:— Popular Mechanics, September 1912 by Frederick Minturn Sammis, Chief Engineer, Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America

1913 January 14: A chain of Imperial Wireless stations Urgently Needed

Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company Limited agreement

Special Report from the House of Commons Select Committee

British House of Commons Select Committee on Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company Limited Agreement
      Chairman: Sir Albert Spicer
      Report total pages: xxxviii, 977
Purpose:— "To investigate the circumstances connected with the negotiation and completion of the Agreement between Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited, and the Postmaster-General of Great Britain, with regard to the establishment of a chain of Imperial (Britsih Empire) wireless stations, and to report thereupon.

Special Report, 14th January 1913. It is a matter of urgency that a chain of Imperial Wireless stations should be established, and that whatever system was finally adopted and whether or not the Agreement was modified or confirmed, the first six stations should be in the places named in the second article of the Agreement.

The Government of Great Britain should be free to accept or reject any system of wireless telegraphy from time to time; it should appoint a highly qualified scientific Committee to report on existing systems of wireless telegraphy, within three months...
Special Report from the Select Committee on Marconi's Wireless Telegraphy Company Limited agreement
by BOPCRIS, British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service
Post Office, Telecommunication – Cables, Telephones, Wireless Telegraphy: 1900-1916

1913:More than 1500 ships are equipped with Marconi wireless telegraph

A special section of Lloyd's Register is devoted to ships fitted with wireless apparatus, and rates of insurance on such ships are considerably lower than on vessels not so equipped... The advance of maritime wireless telegraphy to the indispensable part it now plays in the daily round of a ship at sea has been extraordinarily rapid.  At the beginning of 1909, after eight years of development work, there were 125 ships of the mercantile marine fitted with Marconi apparatus.  By the end of that year the number had risen to nearly 300; today the total is well over 1500.  On the North Atlantic route – where, owing largely to the establishment by the Marconi Companies of shore stations in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States, wireless telegraphy has seen its greatest development – 182 vessels, comprising the principal vessels on all the leading lines, are equipped, and many others are in course of being fitted.  On the South Atlantic route the figures are also remarkable, and the number of ships fitted during the past two years has increased almost threefold.  On South African routes similar rates of increase are to be noted...
Wireless Telegraphy and the Mercantile Marine
The Yearbook of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony, 1913

1913 March: Testing of Marconi Transatlantic Service

Report on the March 1913 test, by the Advisory Committee on Wireless Telegraphy, of the Marconi trans-Atlantic service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Clifden, Ireland

The Advisory Committee on Wireless Telegraphy was appointed in January 1913, by the Postmaster General of Great Britain, on the recommendation of the Select Committee on the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company Agreement.  Its report was delivered in April 1913.  Purpose:— "To consider and report on the merits of the existing systems of long distance wireless telegraphy and in particular as to their capacity for continuous communication over the distances required by the Imperial chain."

There were five systems then in existence – the Marconi, Telefunken, Poulsen, Goldsmidt and Galletti.

From its enquiries and experiments the Committee concluded that the Marconi system was the only one capable of fulfilling the requirements for the Imperial chain, but this did not imply that the Company should be employed as contractors for all the work required.  It might be better for the Government themselves to undertake the work, with the scientific advice, using contractors, though the Marconi Company alone had practical experience of putting down stations and organizing traffic, etc.  In view of the rapid developments taking place the Post Office should not pledge itself to the continued use of any apparatus or be subject to any penalty for the disuse of apparatus installed.  Two stations should be used also for experimental work.  As existing patents might hinder development by preventing the combination of the best devices, the Committee laid stress on the fact that the Government was not fettered by considerations arising out of patent rights, but could use any patent on fair terms under section 29 of the Patents and Designs Act, 1907.  The Post Office should have a special staff to test new invention.

1913: Germany's World-Wide Wireless Communications System

1913 June 12: Marconi speeds up wireless messages

Inventor says new station at Belmar will handle sixty words a minute

NEW YORK, June 12:— Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, arrived here yesterday on the White Star liner Olympic to inspect the new transatlantic wireless station being constructed at Belmar, New Jersey, and also to give evidence in the suit of the Marconi Company against the National Electric Signaling Company for infringing upon its patents.

1913 October 9-10: The Volturno Disaster

Fire at sea, extraordinary marine tragedy

135 lost in fire on liner on mid ocean

On October 9, 1913 in the early morning, a fire broke out on the Volturno, en route from Rotterdam to New York, then in the mid Atlantic in a heavy storm and high seas.  There were 654 persons aboard, 561 passengers and 93 crew, the passengers mainly being emigrants from European countries, heading to the New World.  Volturno's cargo included quantities of oil, rags, burlap and chemicals, all highly inflammable.  The fire spread through the ship.  Four crewmen died in the flames.  Three great explosions occurred.  A distress call was sent out by the then relatively new wireless.  Lifeboats were lowered into the high seas and capsized or were crushed.  Eleven ships responded and raced to the scene, the first to arrive being the Carmania.  Rescue was attempted but boats sent out at great risk were unable to pick up passengers due to the rough sea.  The ship continued to burn and, as night fell, the desperate passengers assembled at the stern of the vessel, as far from the fire as they could get.  Next morning, the gale had subsided and the sea was calmer, calmed no doubt in part by heavy oil spread on the sea by the tanker Narragansett.  The rescue fleet took off a total of 520 survivors, with the Grosser Kurfürst taking 106, the most survivors rescued by a single ship.  Captain Inch was the last person to leave the stricken vessel with the ship's papers in hand and with his dog in his arms.  134 people died.  The incident was witnessed by all of that assembled fleet of eleven ships, unable to help for many many hours until the weather and sea conditions improved...

The one supreme fact and lesson in this lurid catastrophe is that the great majority were saved because an Italian student thousands of miles away had discovered how to send messages for aid anywhere thru air and ether, and had fitted seagoing vessels with his wireless apparatus.  The operator on the Carmania, two hundred miles away, caught the signal cry of danger, "S.O.S.," and he swept the seas to send the warning wherever it might find a vessel... The La Touraine caught it, the Kroonland heard it; the Seydlitz found it, it reached the oil ship Narragansett; in a few hours the doomed ship was surrounded with a fleet of vessels... But for him (the Italian student) the fate of the Volturno would have been one of the mysteries of the sea – sailed, never heard from – all buried in flame and wave, out of all knowledge and memory, except in the tears of those who vainly waited for their unreturning kin.  We crowd our crypts and valhallas with effigies of men who have won renown in deadly war; one of these days we will give place in parks or capitols to those who have saved life and made life worth the saving...

1914 July 28 – August 4

World War One Begins

• 28 July 1914: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

Electronic Warfare in WW1: The Telegraph War  1914-1918

On August 4, 1914 Britain opened the telegraph war by cutting the German submarine (underwater) cable that ran from Borkum in the North Sea to the Spanish island of Tenerife in the South Atlantic.  There was a substantial German research station on the coast of Tenerife and there were fears... that this was being used as a cover for espionage and potentially for U-boat support.  As Tenerife lay close to the sea routes that British ships would take to Britain's West African colonies and South Africa, Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) ordered the cutting of the communications link.

The next step was the remaining German cables running through the English Channel.  Many of these were simply grappled, raised and cut but some (linking to neutral countries) were patched into the British cable network this providing the Allies with additional capacity (and in the short term probably intercepting incoming messages for Germany from the remote terminus of the cable).  Much of Germany's telegraph connection to the world beyond the Central Powers was destroyed.

Germany struck back, on 7th September 1914 the German cruiser SMS Nurnberg, accompanied by SMS Leipzig under cover of the French flag approached the tiny Pacific territory of Fanning Island.  Fanning Island's only importance was that a submarine (underwater) cable from Canada came ashore to a cable station providing the switching equipment to route messages to and from two connecting cables, one to Australia and the other to New Zealand.  A landing party from the Nurnberg wrecked the station and cut the cables...

In November 1914 the crew of the German commerce raider Emden were ordered to destroy the cable station on Direction Island in the Coccos.  This station provided a link between Australia and South Africa.  On the morning of the 9th the cable station staff saw a warship approaching.  Having been warned about SMS Emden the station's wireless operator sent out a message.  "Strange warship approaching" and shortly afterwards "SOS! Emden here" before a German landing party took the station.  These radio messages were picked up by a passing troop convoy and one of the cruisers escorting it peeled off making full speed towards Direction.  The cruiser was the HMAS Sidney; within an hour and a half of battle being joined the burning Emden was beached on the nearby North Keeling Island.  The landing party managed to cut one cable and wreck some instrumentation before fleeing (they made it back to Germany after 7 months via the Dutch East Indies and Turkey)...

—  Source: The Telegraph War PatriotFiles.com

—  Also see: Capture of SMS Emden, 9 Nov 1914 Timelines.com

—  Also see: SMS Emden (launched 1908) Wikipedia

—  Also see: Karl von Müller: Defeat and captivity Wikipedia

—  Also see: Battle of Cocos Wikipedia

—  Also see: HMAS Sydney (launched 1912) Wikipedia

Electronic Warfare in WW1

Wireless Replaces Cut Telegraph Cables

Many Important Radio Developments

The introduction of vacuum-tube equipment promised to revolutionize radio.  However, all amateur and commercial use of radio in the United States came to an abrupt halt on April 7, 1917 when, with the entrance of the United States into World War One, most private U.S. radio stations were ordered by the President to either shut down or be taken over by the government, and for the duration of the war it became illegal for private U.S. citizens to even possess an operational radio transmitter or receiver.  Radio in the U.S. had become a government monopoly, reserved for the war effort...

With the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, the United States had initially declared its neutrality in the conflict.  In order to enforce this neutrality, on August 5, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issued an Executive Order instructing the Navy Department to censor international telegraph messages sent and received by radio firms, as reported in Wilson's Proclamation, from the September 1914 The Wireless Age.  The Marconi Wireless Company of America – the dominant radio company in the U.S. at this time – immediately and vigorously challenged the legality of this order, with their arguments spelled out in The Censorship of Messages, from the September 1914 issue of The Wireless Age.  (Although American Marconi was a U.S. corporation, its parent company had very close ties to two of the countries, Great Britain and Italy, allied against Germany).  A short time later, the U.S. government complained that the American Marconi station at Siasconsett, Massachusetts had handled an unneutral message from the British cruiser Suffolk, but the Marconi company once again disputed the right of the U.S. Navy to monitor its operations, as detailed in The Censorship Situation, which appeared in the October 1914 The Wireless Age.  Dissatisfied by American Marconi's response to the Suffolk incident, the Navy shut down the Siasconsett operations for three and a half months, while the Marconi company unsuccessfully contested the action in the courts.  The station reopened in January 1915, with American Marconi now agreeing to follow the Navy regulations.  On January 20, 1916, the U.S. Secretary of State sent a letter to Congress explaining the current censorship policy toward U.S. radio communications, and how it differed from cable restrictions.  A New York Times article including the text of the letter was reprinted in Wireless Censorship, from the February 1917 issue of QST.  The Navy's expanding roles during this period are reviewed in the Operations and Organization of United States Naval Radio Service During Neutrality Period chapter of Linwood S. Howeth's 1963 History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy...

The military importance of radio was immediately apparent.  In August 1914, the Belgians had to completely destroy a major international communications station located near Brussels, in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the advancing German army, as reported in Destruction of the Brussels Radio Station, by Henry M. De Gallaix, from the November 1919 Radio Amateur News.  Directing the War by Wireless, written by George F. Worts and appearing in the May 1915 Popular Mechanics, reviewed the multiple applications of radio in both short and ling distance wartime communication.  A British overview of various uses by Great Britain and its primary foe, Germany, Wireless Waves in the World's War by H.J.B. Ward, appeared in the 1916 edition of the annual The Yearbook of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony.  In the May 1917 Popular Science Monthly, Capt. A.P. Corcoran's Wireless in the Trenches reviewed radiotelegraph operations at the British front lines, where operators with portable transmitters proved invaluable, for "If a gas attack is coming, it is he who sends the warning to the men behind to put their gas helmets on."  During the war, the Germans used radio transmissions to help airships navigate to their bombing run targets, reviewed by How the Zeppelin Raiders Are Guided by Radio Signals, which appeared in the April 1918 Popular Science Monthly.  However, the French would employ counter measures, as an article in the November 1919 Electrical Experimenter reported how a special station had been used to confuse a group of enemy airships by transmitting phony signals, which put "another dent in Fritz's wild war dream" when Seven Zeppelins Were Lured to Death by Radio.

In the July 15, 1917 issue of Journal of Electricity, Wireless Telephone Will be Used by The Navy in War outlined research efforts by AT&T, including one key development, two-way voice communication with airplanes, which would be quickly achieved, meaning that "squadron formations of all sorts could be maintained in the air as easily as infantry units on the ground", according to American-Developed Radio Telephone Success in Airplanes, from the November 23, 1918 Telephony.  The September 1918 issue of Popular Mechanics reported on a nightly news summary transmission, broadcast from the Navy's station NAA near Washington, DC, to ships in the Atlantic Ocean in Jackies Get News Daily by Wireless.  Although before the war ocean-going radio had generally been limited to passenger vessels, submarine warfare spurred merchant ships to add radio operators.  In 1919, David W. Bone reviewed British World War One maritime activities in his book Merchantmen-at-Arms, and noted in the On Signals and Wireless chapter that "If to one man we seaman owe a debt unpayable, Marconi holds the bond"...

—  Source: Radio During World War One (1914-1919) Thomas H. White

—  Also see: Wireless Waves in the World's War: A General Survey of War-Happenings affecting Radiotelegraphy

—  Also see: Wireless in the Trenches

1914 August 5: German Cables Cut at the Azores

Severed by the British to isolate Germany

Since 1:30 o'clock yesterday morning (1:30am Aug. 5th) the German Empire has been isolated, so far as communication with America is concerned. At that hour the telegraph cables leading from the United States to Emden, Germany, were cut and since then no messages have been received here (in the United States) from that country unless they have come through German wireless (radio) stations in this country. But officials of these plants asserted yesterday that while it had been possible to exchange signals with stations in Germany, anything like a regular wireless message service between this country (the United States) and Germany was out of the question.

Early yesterday morning, the German Atlantic Telegraph Company announced that no messages would be accepted for for delivery to points in the German Empire until further notice, and all other cable companies declined messages for that country.

The cable lines between England and Germany may still be intact, but they are in the control of the British Government, which is not permitting their use for either public or private purposes.  Messages filed here with the English lines to persons in Germany were returned to the senders, whose money was refunded, with the information that the British censors refused to pass the communications.

The German Atlantic Cable Company, which is represented in America by the Commercial Cable Company, controls two cables to Europe, terminating at Emden, Germany.  Officials of the company in this country say that the British cut the cables at the Azores.  "The United States, so far as communication with Germany is concerned," sid an official of a cable company last night, "is isolated absolutely.  From this on until direct cable service is restored, all word of happenings in Germany must pass through hostile countries – Russia on the east, France on the west, and England on the north."

It was suggested that it might be possible to reach Germany through the Mediterranean and thence through Austria-Hungary, but the Eastern Telegraph Company, a British concern, owns the cable system traversing the Mediterranean.

The last message to The Associated Press to arrive here from Berlin was received between 12 and one o'clock yesterday morning.  It was the official account of the British Ambassador's formal announcement to the German Foreign Office of the declaration of war and the Ambassador's request for his passports.  Up to that time, direct communication over the lines that were severed yesterday had been maintained, although messages were delayed as the result of the strict censorship in Germany.

Charles C. Adams, Second Vice President of the Commercial Cable Company, said there was no trouble with the Commercial Cable Company's telegraph lines which run from New York to Nova Scotia and thence to points on the coast of England.  Mr. Adams said that he did not expect that the cables of his company would be cut on this side.

"But I understand," he said, "that there are a couple of German cruisers off the American coast, and if they decide to grapple for cables and cut them we can't stop them.  I suppose that England will see to it that the cables leading to the British Isles are not tampered with over there."

Dr. Charles Winter, Acting Consul General of Austria-Hungary in this city (New York) inquired anxiously yesterday afternoon if the report that the German cable had been cut was true. When told that it was, he said: "I cannot tell you how much I regret the cutting of the cable. It is with great apprehension that I look forward to the next two or three weeks. Besides the human aspect of the thing – I have two brothers on the other side – the cutting of that cable may do us great injury. If only one side of the case is given, as may happen if only the English cable is left, prejudice against us will be created here."

The French Cable Company said that its lines were working satisfactorily.

Among the submarine (underwater) transatlantic cable systems, one of the largest owned by a corporation is that of the Western Union Telegraph Company, which has twenty-seven cables with an aggregate length of 23,508 nautical miles [43,560 km].  These are operated from Penzance, England, to Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, and Canso, Nova Scotia, thence to Coney Island, New York.  A subsidiary of Western Union, the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, has a cable from Valentia, Ireland, to Heart's Content, Newfoundland.  Another subsidiary, the Direct United States Cable Company, operates a cable from Ballinskellig's bay, Ireland, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, thence to Rye Beach, New York. The Compagnie Francaise des Cables Telegraphiques has twenty-four cables with a total length of 11,430 nautical miles [21,180 km] operating between Brest, France, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to New York, and from Brest, to St. Pierre island (south of Newfoundland) to Cape Cod.

According to the latest report relating to the ownership of telegraph cables by nations, Norway has the greater number, being possessed of 770 lines covering 1,400 miles [2,600 km], while the French republic has the greatest length, its cables having an aggregate length of 11,343 nautical miles [21,019 km].  Great Britain and Ireland have a combined 2,721 miles [5,042 km] in 223 cables, while Germany has 100 cables of 2,827 miles [5,238 km].  Russia has 32 cables over 739 miles [1,370 km]; Spain maintains 24 cables having a length of 2,128 miles [3,943 km]; Italy has 50 cables; Austria has 50, and Turkey 25.
— The New York Times, 6 August 1914

1914 August 6: German Government Turns to Wireless

German telegraph cables cut, wireless alternative activated

German Government believed to be using

While Gernmany and Austria, through their military organizations, had surrounded themselves with a wall through which no dispatches were allowed to pass unless the Governments wanted them to, these countries were keeping in touch with the outside world, it was learned yesterday, independent of the telegraph cable lines, by using wireless (radio).

According to information which came to The New York Times last night, the German Government has worked out a plan of radio communication more extensive than any ever used in a commercial way. The big German Navy has been pressed into service with its wireless apparatus, and if the Kaiser wishes to communicate with a German Government agency in the Far East, for instance, he can do so by using his warships. While his enemies are trying to shut him out by obstructing and cutting cables he can send his code messages wherever he pleases over the very heads of his enemies.

Sends Message to Hong Kong

It was said that the German Government had sent an inportant message from Berlin to Hong Kong late yesterday afternoon.  The message was relayed from Buenos Aires.  How it passed from Germany to Argentina puzzled cable officials who were interviewed here last night.  There are several cable lines from France and Spain to South America, but they all belong to companies hostile to Germany.  The only guess that the cable company officials made was that the Kaiser's message had been relayed from the coast of Germany to Buenos Aires, more than 8,000 miles [13,000 km], through the wireless apparatus on German warships.  This means that German warships are scattered from the North Sea and Mediterranean through he North Atlantic and South Atlantic Oceans.

The close censorship maintained by the German and Austrian Governments excluded all personal messages to friends in Germany and Austria yesterday.  At the Western Union office in this city (New York) messages to these countries were refused.  All messages touching London and addressed to countries at war with England, it was explained, would be turned back by English censors.  On the other hand, all messages from Germany and Austria were likewise rejected by the German and Austrian censors.

Except for official German code messages that floated out over the Atlantic through the German warships' wireless apparatuses, only a few other messages left Berlin.  These came to London and were addressed to the Associated Press.  They contained news which the German Government was anxious to have printed.  Telegraph officials here said last night that the ban on these dispatches was lifted by the German censors, and that without this privilege thay could never have found their way to New York or London.

Germany Isolated by War

Many inquiries were made at the cable companies' offices yesterday as to whether messages could not be sent out of Germany by indirect routes.  All inquirers were told that while in ordinary times it would be possible to send messages indirectly, that possibility had been eliminated by the war.

The stranded Americans in Berlin desiring to communicate with friends here might in normal times select one of two routes to the north of Berlin, one route to the east, one to the south, all in addition to the regular service maintained by The German Government.  The German Government's cable was cut on Tuesday, supposedly at or near the Azores.  Advices received yesterday indicatec that no attempt had been made to repair the cable.

One of the two northern cable routes out of Berlin is by way of the Great Northern Telegraph Company, which maintains a line directly from Berlin to London.  This company is allied with the Eastern Telegraph Company, an English concern, and transmission by this route, of course, is out of the question now.  The second route, very indirect, is by way of the GreatNorthern to St. Petersburg, thence over the Trans-Siberian Railroad telegraph lines to Vladivostock, and then by way of the Commercial Pacific Cable Company to San Francisco, and thence to New York overland.  This route, like the former, is impossible because of Russian interference.

An eastern route out of Berlin in normal times would be by way of Constantinople, but there also the Eastern Telegraph Company is subject to censorship now.

The southern route from Berlin to naples and thence to Gibraltar and Havre is also impossible because it is controlled by the French Government.  There is also a Spanish company operating to southern ports, but this connects with the German Government cable lines at the Azores and cannot be used westward because of the cut cable.

German Cable Cut Near Fayal

There was much speculation here yesterday as to just where the German Government cable was cut.  It was considered most likely that it was cut west of Fayal, the cable terminal in the Azores, for that would cut Germany off from Communication to all points west.  One cable company official, however, expressed the view that the British men-of-war had cut the cable on both sides, so as to cut off communication also from the Azores to the Continent.

"There are three direct lines leading eastward and northward from Fayal," he said.  "One goes to Valentia in Ireland, another to Emden, the line which is now cut, and a third directly to Lisbon.  So if the cable is cut between Fayal and Emden, and also west of Fayal, Germany will be unable to communicate with the world.  I think that is what the Englishmen wanted to accomplish when they set out to cripple Germany."

When asked about the independent system of wireless communication which the German Government had set up to offset the damage done by the English, the same official said that such a coup might be expected of the Germans.  It showed, he said, the vast resources of the German military system.  He expressed the belief that the cutting of the cable would not harass officail Germany in the least.

The French Telegraph Cable Company issued this notice yesterday:

The French Telegraph Cable Company has received the following from the French Givernment.  Private messages from and to France or those passing through France, its colonies, or French Protectorares must be written in plain French or English and bear a signature.  These telegrams are only accepted st sender's risk and no complaints can be entertained.

The French Company issued another notice to the effect that deferred or half-rate messages would not be accepted.  The Commercial Cable Company issued this notice yesterday:

The Eastern and Western Telegraph Companies have suspended deferred and weekend telegram services until further notice.  This affects all of Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America, via the Atlantic cables.

Later the Commercial issued this notice:

British administration confirms that telegrams and radiograms should be written in English or French and under the condition that they be accepted at risk of the sender and subject to censorship by the British authorities, to wit, that they may be stopped, delayed, or treated in any manner or shape at the will of those authorities and without advice to the senders.  No reclamation concerning the reimbursement of the money paid for the transmission or other service will be considered by the British Government in any case.  Furthermore, it is very important that these telegrams and radiograms bear the name of the sender at the end of the text, otherwsie they will be stopped until the name be advised by paid service message.

Deliveries in Europe are not guaranteed by any of the companies, and all messages are accepted subject to delay.

1914-1918: War Stimulates Innovation in Wireless Technology

Long telegraph cables notoriously vulnerable to hostile attack

War provided increased focus and direction for innovation.  In the British Empire, because there was a highly developed cable communications network which was not considered vulnerable due to the strength of the Royal Navy, little effort was expended on radio.  German cables, on the other hand, were constantly cut, so great strides were made there in transmitter and receiver design to improve long distance wireless communications.  War also encouraged long uniform production runs and standardisation.  To this end there was exchange of know-how between manufacturers and suspension of patent monopolies...

Every time a telegraph cable is cut (either on purpose or accidentally) attention is drawn to the relative security of wireless (radio) in not having thousands of km of cable just lying there and impossible to guard.

1914 September 7: Germany cuts the British Empire's Pacific Telegraph Cable

On 7 September 1914, barely five weeks after the outbreak of World War One, German admiral Graf von Spee, while leading a small squadron of four cruisers across the Pacific towards South America, stopped at Fanning Island.  Fanning Island's only importance was that a submarine (underwater) cable from Canada – an important link in the All Red Line – came ashore to a cable station that contained switching equipment to route telegraph messages to and from two connecting cables, one to Australia and the other to New Zealand.  A landing party from the German cruiser SMS Nurnberg wrecked the station's equipment and cut the cables.

1914 September 5: U.S. Takes Over High-Power Radio Station

Taking Over High-Power Radio Station for Use of the Government.

Transatlantic High-Power Station

Following the outbreak of World War One in Europe in August 1914, the United States President, by Executive order (above), directed the Secretary of the Navy to take over "one or more high-powered radio stations within the jurisdiction of the United States and capable of transatlantic communication."  In compliance with this order, the high-powered station at Tuckerton, New Jersey, was taken over on 9 September 1914.  This station, completed just prior to the beginning of the war, was constructed by the German firm Hochfrequenz-Machinen Aktiengesellschaft fur Drahtlose Telegraphie, commonly known as the Homag Company, for the Compagnie Universelle de Telegraphie et Telephonie of France.  The Homag Company, on one pretext or another, had withheld the station from the French.  (Germany and France were on opposite sides in World War One.)  The American subsidiaries of both companies had applied for licenses to operate, but, with ownership in dispute, these applications had been denied.  The station was equipped with a Goldschmidt 100 kW, high-frequency, reflection-type alternator and utilized an umbrella antenna.  Shortly after the Navy assumed control some of the armature coils burned out.  A court of inquiry was convened which held the accident not due to the fault of negligence of any person in the naval service.  The Navy Department took immediate steps to install a 30 kW Federal (Poulsen) arc transmitter.  This installation was completed by 27 October and, by crowding, it could, under normal conditions, be heard by the German station at Eilvese, distance 3,382 nautical miles [6476km].  This transmitter was replaced shortly thereafter by a 60 kW arc, powered by a General Electric Co. 500-volt, direct-current, railroad-type (heavy duty) generator.  Its transmissions were received by Eilvese continuously except during the heavy static season.  In the meantime the Homag Company procured another Goldschmidt alternator from Germany which was placed in service early in 1915.  After the installation of this second alternator it was used in rotation with the arc. Confirmation of messages indicated the arc to be slightly more reliable...
— Source Chapter 18
History of Communications Electronics in the United States Navy
by Captain Linwood S. Howeth, United States Navy (Retired)
Before World War One, Germany, using the Telefunken Company's wireless technology, had build up a world-wide radio communication network.&160; The centre of this system was the Nauen transmitting station, at the time one of the most powerful transmitting sites in the world.
— Reference Großstation Nauen by Gorm Helt-Hansen

1915 September 16: British Admiralty's Mount Pearl Wireless Station

30 kW Poulsen Arc Continuous Wave Transmitter

Major British Navy Station during World War One

The wireless telegraphy station at Mount Pearl in Newfoundland (a suburb of St. John's), was first proposed by the British Admiralty on 27 June 1914, just six weeks before the outbreak of World War One (1914-1918).  It became fully operational on 16 September 1915.  This facility was one of thirteen wireless stations erected at the same time by the Marconi Company for the British Navy to improve its war time intelligence gathering and weather reporting capabilities.  With its need to control intelligence information in the North Atlantic, the Admiralty designated H.M. Wireless Station at Mount Pearl as its North Atlantic Intelligence Centre.  The crew at Mount Pearl consisted of 22 men; 11 of which were wireless operators recruited into the British Navy from the Marconi Company.  The telegraphy equipment used in this station was the most up-to-date at its time.  Its 30 kilowatt Poulsen Arc Continuous Wave transmitter succeeded the older spark technology originally invented by Marconi.  This new technology required a lot of electric power, which was supplied by two large six cylinder Gardiner engines coupled to generators and supplemented by an emergency battery backup system.  In comparison with other Newfoundland stations, such as the 5 kilowatt rebuilt station at Cape Race, the Mount Pearl station was extremely powerful.  Radio signals generated or received at the station were transmitted by an antenna supported by three 305 foot towers and had a range of over 1000 miles...
— Source H.M. Wireless Station, A Chronological History
Admiralty House Museum, Mount Pearl, Newfoundland

On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany.

1917 April 6: United States Takes Over or Closes All Radio Stations

Taking over necessary and closing unnecessary radio stations

1917 April 28: U.S. Censorship of Cables, Telegraph and Telephone Lines

Censorship of submarine (underwater) cables, telegraph and telephone lines.
...it is ordered that all companies or other persons, owning, controlling or operating telegraph and telephone lines or submarine (underwater) cables, are hereby prohibited from transmitting messages to points without the United States, and from delivering messages received from such points, except those permitted under rules and regulations to be established by the Secretary of War for telegraph and telephone lines, and by the Secretary of the Navy for submarine (underwater) cables.  To these Departments, respectively, is delegated the duty of preparing and enforcing rules and regulations under this order to accomplish the purpose mentioned...
Executive Order No. 2604 28 April 1917

1917 June 15

United States Patent System Suspended

The patent system of the United States was suspended when the Americans entered World War One.  It remained suspended until the war ended in November 1918. The Trading with the Enemy Act, 6 October 1917, allowed American firms to produce products that were patent protected by enemy companies.  For example, all patents owned by German wireless companies immediately became available to American firms, which could then manufacture any previously-protected equipment they wanted to, in any quantity they chose, for use or sale as they saw fit.  They could also use the German patents as a base, to develop technological improvements that could then be patented by the American firm.  This had the effect of transferring the latest German technology to any American firm that was interested, for a very low price.  Under the terms of the bill any citizen or corporation of the United States could obtain a license to exercise the rights covered by any patent owned by an enemy.  For the use of the patent the licensee was to pay to the Alien Property Custodian five per cent of the gross sales or five per cent of the value of the use of such invention to the licensee, as determined by the Federal Trade Commission.  Under one of the terms of this legislation, President Wilson created a Censorship Board with full powers to censor cable, telegraph, radio and mail communications of every sort passing between the United States and any foreign nation.  Another feature of this legislation was used to set up the War Trade Board to supervise exports and imports and with the power to approve or refuse licenses to trade with enemy firms, a provision that had wide-ranging effects – for example, making it possible to stop exports of American coal sold as fuel to South American electric utilities owned by German companies.

1917 August 5: England Suspends All Transatlantic Wireless

military necessity

LONDON, Aug. 4:— The Marconi Company announces that from midnight tonight its transatlantic service, both eastbound and westbound, will be discontinued, this action being taken upon instructions from the Government...

1917 August 28: Otter Cliffs Radio Station begins operation

The Otter Cliffs Naval Radio Station, located on Mount Desert Island, Maine, was commissioned on 28 August 1917, under the command of then-Ensign Alessandro Fabbri.  Fabbri, in patriotic fervor after the declaration of war against Germany, cleared the land, and built and equipped the station.  He then offered it to the government as a Navy radio station to support the war effort, in exchange for a commission in the Naval Reserve and assignment as officer in charge.

Fabbri sought to make Otter Cliffs the best radio station on the east coast of the United States.  Eventually, his efforts were recognized in promotions to lieutenant junior grade in 1918, and lieutenant the following year.  Fabbri, who was released from active duty in 1919, was eventually awarded the Navy Cross for developing the "most important and most efficient station in the world," according to U.S. Navy documents that detailed Fabbri's contributions.

Otter Cliffs Radio Station continued to function long after Fabbri left.  Because of the lack of man-made electromagnetic interference within many miles, and the unobstructed span of ocean water between there and Europe, Otter Cliffs was among the best radio sites along the east coast of the United States, and could receive signals from Europe when no other station in the United States could.  It had been valuable in World War One, when radio receivers were rather primitive.

By 1930, the station was handling weather reports from Iceland and Newfoundland, and emergency traffic from Europe, when atmospheric conditions were so bad that Portsmouth, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and Washington D.C., could not copy the overseas transmissions.

On 28 February 1935, the U.S. Navy Radio and Direction Finding Station Winter Harbor was officially commissioned, as a replacement for Otter Cliffs.  The new radio receiving station was located on Big Moose Island, Maine, at the tip of Schoodic Peninsula about five miles across the mouth of Frenchman Bay from Otter Cliffs.  This station continued to operate until June 2002.
End of an Era: NSGA Winter Harbor to Close Its Doors
      NSGA: Naval Security Group Activity
Chapter XXV: Operation of the World's Largest Radio System
History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy
Captain Linwood S. Howeth, USN (Retired), 1963

1918: Heavy Wartime Telegraph Traffic

During the later stages of World War One, the Pacific cable was ten days behind with its messages, and at least one of the Atlantic cables was eight days behind.
5. Second case study - the birth of electronics
by H.M. Treasury, London, England

1919: Radio Corporation of America

• Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was incorporated to control US communications patents of General Electric, AT&T, Westinghouse, and United Fruit Companies.
• RCA acquires the assets of wireless radio company American Marconi from British Marconi.
• David Sarnoff becomes General Manager of RCA.

1919 January 3: Daily broadcasts of Wisconsin weather forecasts

Earle Melvin Terry helped found 9XM Madison, Wisconsin, now WHA, still calling itself "the nation's oldest broadcast station."  Earle Terry, a professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin, inspired C.J. Jansky Jr., a student, to design and construct three-element power vacuum tubes to be used in an already established experimental radio-telegraph station (started in 1914 with 2000 watts of power on 475 metres), in operation in Wisconsin's old Science Hall and licensed under the call letters 9XM.  The station achieved its first transmissions of voice and music in 1917 under the direction of Professor Terry and with the devoted efforts of such university students as Mr. Jansky, Malcolm Hanson and Grover Greenslade.  On January 3, 1919, daily radio-telephone broadcasts of weather reports were started.  C.M. Jansky Jr., the son of a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, went on to become an international authority on radio engineering and still is associated with Jansky and Bailey Inc., Washington, consulting engineers.  Malcolm Hanson, another of Professor Terry's precocious students, was later chief radio operator on Admiral Richard E. Byrd's first expedition of Antarctica. Professor Terry died May 1, 1929, less than four months beyond his 50th birthday.
— Source: History of Wisconsin AM stations

1920 June 5   7:10pm: Dame Nellie Melba broadcasts live from Marconi's London studio

This was the first ever advertised public broadcast program.  A song recital by famous soprano Dame Nellie Melba was broadcast live, using a Marconi 15 kW telephone transmitter, from the Marconi works in Chelmsford, England.

1922: Formation of the BBC

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is formed by Marconi and five other companies.

1922 May 11: First radio broadcast from Marconi station 2LO in London, England

1922 August 28: The first radio commercial

The first commercial message on radio in the United States was broadcast on this day, by station WEAF in New York.

1922 November 14: The BBC opens its first broadcasting station

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) officially began daily domestic radio service broadcasting with the 6:00pm news read by Arthur Burrows from 2LO, Marconi House, London, England.  Manchester and Birmingham stations began operation the next day.

1926 October: The Imperial Wireless Chain Begins Regular Operation

Another revolution in world-wide communication

Formidable competition for the Cable Telegraph companies

As early as 1906, the British Government began serious consideration of a change – from cable to the new wireless – in the technology used to communicate with the various parts of the British Empire around the world.  By 1911, it had been decided to use very high powered long-wave (low frequency) stations situated in England and the other countries to communicate directly, without intermediate repeater stations.

In March 1912, the British Postmaster General formally notified the Marconi Company of the acceptance of the terms submitted by that company for the construction of all of the long-distance wireless stations which were required for the Imperial wireless scheme.

In January 1913, the Advisory Committee on Wireless Telegraphy was appointed by the Postmaster General of Great Britain.  Its report was delivered in April 1913.  Purpose: "To consider and report on the merits of the existing systems of long distance wireless telegraphy and in particular as to their capacity for continuous communication over the distances required by the Imperial chain."

In 1913, a contract was signed with Marconi to design, manufacture and install this system.  By the summer of 1914, three of the system's stations were being constructed, but this work was stopped by the outbreak in August 1914 of what we now call World War One. 

A New Start

After WW1 ended in November 1918, the British Government decided to go ahead with an Imperial Wireless system, but the intervening war years had seen great advances in wireless communications technology, and the existing plan had to be discarded.  A new plan was developed, based on wireless transmission of messages to a maximum distance of about 2000 miles, the greatest distance that could then be reached with reasonable reliability.  This plan included repeater stations at intervals of about 2000 miles to reach places, such as Australia and India, that were located more than 2000 miles from England.  Contracts were signed, for construction of several of these stations, but in 1923, Marconi discovered to his great surprise that short-wave (higher frequency) radio waves, of relatively low power, could be beamed in a particular direction and reach out to very great distances.  Experiments confirmed that a short-wave beam wireless service was possible between Britain and Australia, at greatly reduced cost compared to the proposed long-wave service.  The great advantages of the short-wave beam system were that smaller aerials and reflectors could be used and much less power was needed to achieve the same results.  The capital cost of beam stations was a tenth of that of cable and the operating costs were lower too.  Agreement by the governments of Canada, South Africa, Australia and India to adopt the system put considerable pressure on the British government, who then agreed to the adoption of what was known as the Beam System.  The contracts were changed.  This was the beginning of the Imperial Wireless Chain – a revolution in world-wide communication.  The new system's first station was the Canadian Beam which was opened at midnight 5-6 October 1926.  The other stations followed quickly.  Marconi Wireless Beam communication with Australia began at 6am on 8 April 1927 and with India at midnight 5-6 September of 1927.

Australian Beam Wireless - 75th Anniversary Historical Site Visit

1926 December 31: British Broadcasting Corporation is incorporated

The British Government decides to control all broadcasting.

1928 January: Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference, 1928

Marconi Wireless pushing Cable Companies into bankruptcy

The new Marconi beam services, built in 1925 and 1926 and put into regular operation in 1927, were successful immediately.  Traffic speeds of up to 160 words per minute were possible, and even with rates well below that charged by the cable telegraph companies, the new beam wireless services were highly profitable.  In a few months, so much business was taken from the underwater cables that the cable companies' income was markedly reduced, and there was a serious risk that some of the largest cable companies could be driven into liquidation, or could be taken over by foreign companies.  For example, within six months the Beam service had taken 65% of Eastern Telegraph Company traffic and more than 50% of Pacific Cable Company traffic.

When the Marconi Beam radio links were established, they had a drastic effect on the revenue of the cable companies.  For example, the net sales of the Eastern Telegraph Company, which were £1,321,126 in 1925, had fallen to £947,926 in 1927 due to the opening of the Marconi Imperial beam services.  The cable companies had built up large financial reserves and could have survived a cost-cutting war for several years, but the low costs of beam transmission meant that radio would have been the ultimate victor.  Additionally, governments within the Empire had a financial interest in two transatlantic cables, and in the Pacific cable.  For strategic reasons, they did not want the cable companies to be ruined, giving rise to the possibility that the world-wide network of British-owned cables would pass to foreign companies such as the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (of the United States) which was reported to be interested in acquiring them...
5. Second case study - the birth of electronics
by H.M. Treasury, London, England

As a direct result of the increasing effect of radio competition on the cable services, in January 1928 the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference was convened in London to:

"examine the situation which has arisen as a result of the competition of the Beam Wireless with the cable services, to report thereon, and to make recommendations with a view to a common policy being adopted by the various governments concerned".

After many meetings a final report was produced, recommending the formation of a single communications company to take over and operate all the communications systems of all wireless and cable companies throughout the Commonwealth and Empire, including the British Post Office and the Pacific Cable Board.  This proposal was approved by the British Government, and was carried out by forming a new company, Imperial and International Communications Limited, which became the owner of the numerous companies that had previously been owners and operators of the competing cable and wireless communications systems.  Henceforth, British Commonwealth cable and wireless communications systems would be controlled and developed by a single management.  The 1928 conference also led to the creation of the Imperial Communications Advisory Committee, which the new company was required to consult on any questions of policy, including alterations in rates.  Australia, Britain, Canada, India, the Irish Free State, New Zealand and South Africa were represented on this committee.  British committee members were usually drawn from British Dominion Office personnel and Dominion officials came from the respective high commissions in London.  A Colonial Office official represented the British Colonies and Protectorates.  In making these arrangements the 1928 Conference was particularly concerned to ensure that the competing technologies of wireless and cable transmission was integrated and harmonised to maximise the benefits to the Commonwealth as a whole.

In 1934, the company name, Imperial and International Communications Limited, was changed to Cable & Wireless Limited.

1928 July: Report of the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference, 1928

Amalgamation of Marconi Wireless with Cable Companies

"To examine the situation which has arisen as a result of the competition of the Beam Wireless with the Cable Services, to report thereon and to make recommendations with a view to a common policy being adopted by the various Governments concerned."

As a result of competition by the Government-owned Beam Wireless system, there has been a fall in the traffic and receipts of the cable companies.  The companies could not continue, some might go into voluntary liquidation and be bought up by foreign interests, and beam wireless was not yet secret enough to supersede cables for strategic purposes.  The Committee rejected the courses of non-intervention, subsidy, minimum revenue guarantee and pooling, in favour of a fusion of all cable and wireless interests communicating within the British Empire.  A merger company should acquire the assets of the companies, a separate Communications Company being formed with a capital not exceeding £30 million.  The Government's cable assets should be transferred to the new company and the beam services leased to it for 25 years at a rental.  One-half of any excess over the standard net revenue of £1,865,000 should go to the Company, and one-half to the reduction of rates.  All increases of rates should require the approval of an Advisory Committee or representatives of the Governments participating in the conference.  British control of all companies must be guaranteed, two directors being approved by H.M. Government.  The Fighting Services may maintain wireless stations for their own purposes, and the Post Office reserved the right to conduct the external telephone system of Great Britain.
Report of the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference, 1928
http://atojs.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/atojs?a=d&d=AJHR1928-I.2.2.5.6
(Note: You can access this online article by using your browser's Copy and Paste feature to paste this URL into your browser's URL window.)
by BOPCRIS, British Official Publications Collaborative Reader Information Service
Post Office, Telecommunications, Broadcasting, Telephones, Telegraphy: 1917-1939

1937 July 20: Death of Guglielmo Marconi

1946: Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company taken over by English Electric Company

1998: Wireless Telegraphy Act 1998

Wireless Telegraphy Act 1998 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
An Act to make provision about the grant of, and sums payable in respect of, licences under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949 other than television licences, and about the promotion of the efficient use and management of the electro-magnetic spectrum for wireless telegraphy; and for connected purposes. [18th March 1998]

2006: Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006

Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
(4)(a)...the demands for use of the electromagnetic spectrum for wireless telegraphy in the United Kingdom;   (b) the effects, in the United Kingdom, of any such use of the spectrum;   (c) likely future developments in relation to those matters...  (5)(a)...the efficient use in the United Kingdom of the electromagnetic spectrum for wireless telegraphy; or (b) the efficient management of that use... [8th November 2006]

2007 October 17 Celebration of 100th Anniversary, Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph service, Marconi Towers, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

Marconi Milestone Marked Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, 17 October 2007
Marconi 100th anniversary celebration, report by Cape Breton Post, 18 Oct 2007

The Marconi station on Glace Bay by Gorm Helt-Hansen

Marconi Centenary
by the General Electric Company PLC (England), 1997

Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events

Marconi Centenary: 1896-1897

Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events

Marconi Centenary: 1894-1895

1897 The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited

Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events

Marconi Centenary: 1896-1897

Marconi Centenary: Chain of Events

Marconi Centenary: 1894-1895

1897 The Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited

Wireless communication, as the term implies, enables information to be exchanged between two devices without the use of wire or cable. In most such cases, information is being transmitted and received using electromagnetic energy, also known as electromagnetic radiation.

In this timeline (above), the words "wireless" and "radio" are used interchangeably, to mean communication without wires by means of radio waves.  This was the common usage before the 1960s, when ultrasonic technology appeared in mass-market wireless devices, followed by infrared in the 1980s.

Infrared waves and radio waves both are electromagnetic radiation, but infrared's frequency range is far higher than that at which radio operates. Beginning in the 1960s, the term "wireless" has expanded to include infrared, radio, and ultrasound technology, all of which operate without a connection by wire (hence "wireless").  Most wireless devices use electromagnetic waves, but there is an exception – some monitoring devices, such as "silent" intrusion alarms, employ acoustic waves at frequencies above the range of human hearing; these are genuine wireless devices although acoustic waves are not electromagnetic.

Through much of the twentieth century, "wireless" meant "radio" – electromagnetic radiation generally in the frequency range then produced by radio transmitters or detected by radio receivers, roughly between 100kHz and 50-500MHz, more or less.

The upper frequency limit has always been uncertain to some degree – and has always been fluid, continually being pushed as technology develops.

Today, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the frequency
range included in the term "wireless" has extended upward to
perhaps 50-100GHz for radio.  Also, wireless devices using infrared
radiation have become common in remote-control units for television
sets, CD and DVD players, garage doors, etc.  There are infrared
wireless keyboards and wireless mouses (mice?) for computers.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The printing press was the big innovation in communications until the electric telegraph was developed.  Printing remained the key format for mass messages for many years afterward, but the telegraph allowed instant communication over vast distances for the first time in human history.  Telegraph usage faded as radio became easy to use and popularized; as radio was being developed, the telephone quickly became the fastest way to communicate person-to-person; after television was perfected and content for it was well developed, it became the dominant form of communication technology; the internet came next, and newspapers, radio, telephones and television are being rolled into this far-reaching information medium...

History and forecast of mass communication Future survey

Timeline of radio Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_radio