Marconi in East Kent

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Initially intended as an exploration of Marconi’s connection to Fort Burgoyne,Dover, this project quickly grew thanks to the support and interest of many.Marconi is ‘claimed’ by many in the UK and it seemed to me that our particularcorner of East Kent has as much claim as any; more to the point, thoseconnections should be celebrated, not least given my own ongoingassociations with radio.The following are, in essence, my notes for a talk I was invited to give duringthe early days of October 2023 and may not read too coherently as a text,however, that talk not only confirmed my suspicions of the generalenthusiasm, locally at least, for the topic but also, as is so often the case, alsoadded to my own knowledge and understanding of the subject.Much more information has come my way since delivering that talk along withseveral invitations to explore and expland on these notes further, but, as thesaying goes, we have to start somewhere.Thanks especially to Chris Valdus, Jonathan Groves, Emily Groves, Alan Rouseand Stefan Setchell who designed the ‘front cover’.There’s more, much more, to follow in 2024.Barry
On October 29, 1831, English physicist Michael Faraday discovered the curiousphenomenon that electricity could be transmitted despite the absence ofelectric wires.This was almost 50 years before Edison patented the electric light bulb in1879.In 1864 Scottish mathematical physicist James Clerk Maxwell proposed acomprehensive theory of electromagnetism, which predicted that coupledelectric and magnetic fields could travel through space as an electromagneticwaveIn 1879 German phycisist Heinrich Hertz successfully proved Maxwell's theorywith a series of experiments which produced and received what are nowcalled radio in the Very High Frequency range.William Preece consulting engineer for the General Post Office, later Engineerin-Chiefof the GPO in 1892 carried out a series of experiments in the LakeDistrict during which he succeeded in transmitting and receiving Morse radiosignals over a distance of about 1mile (1.6km) across Coniston Water the fifthlargest lake in the District by area.Born in Caernarfon, Wales, in February 1834, William Preece was educated atKings College School, a public school in Wimbledon, South West London andlater at Kings College London, one of the two founding colleges of theUniversity of London, before going on to study at the Royal Institution inLondon under Michael Faraday himself.It was in 1896 however that Preece was introduced to a young Italian, newlyarrived in London together with his Mother, Anna ‘Annie ‘Jameson, GuglielmoMarconi.The Granddaughter of John Jameson, founder of the renowned Irish WhiskeyDistillers bearing his name, Annie Fenwick Jameson was born “about 1840” inCounty Wexford, Ireland, the daughter of Andrew Jameson and Margaret[Miller].Whilst attending classes at the Conservatoire in Bologna where she wasstaying with family friends and business associates of the Jameson’s Annaformed a relationship with Giuseppe Marconi an Italian aristocrat banker andlandowner some 15 years her elder.
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Page 5 and 6: By the winter of 1894, aged only 20
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Page 9 and 10: Morse code - ordinary dots and dash
Page 11: had had fifty such copies made but
Page 16 and 17: station receives a message from a s
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Marconi in East Kent

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