Marconi in East Kent

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One fanciful tale has it that on their entry into England, at Dover, a Customsofficer opened Marconi’s case only to find various experimental apparatus of apreviously unknown type. Said customs officer apparently immediatelycontacted The Admiralty in London which duly gained Marconi the interest andsupport of The GPO, The General Post Office.Although somewhat more prosaic the reality is more likely that Guglielmo’scousin, Henry Jameson-Davis, had a far greater influence in helping Marconirealise his ambitions than any Dover Custom’s Officer.An established engineer specialising in the planning and construction ofcereal mills Jameson Davis had an established office in London from which hewould assist Marconi in obtaining the patent for his invention having firstinstalled his Aunt and his cousin, in rented accommodation near KensingtonGardens, West London.Jameson Davis also organized Marconi's first private demonstrations inEngland, managing to raise financial backing in the process so much so thatJameson Davis, who also came to realise the potential of his cousin's invention,would propose they would found a company together.Initially reluctant and not a little cautious Marconi finally agreed to theproposal and on 20 July 1897 the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company wasfounded by which time British Patent number 12039 titled "Improvements inTransmitting Electrical impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus therefor", thefirst patent for a radio wave based communication system, had been appliedfor and granted to Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi.In the interim via a well-known electrical engineer, Mr A A Cambell Swinton,Guglielmo was introduced to William Preece Chief Engineer at the GPO whoseinterest in Marconi’s proposals was immediate, so much so that an earlydemonstration transmission was arranged over a distance of approximatelyhalf a mile.Unlike his Italian Military counterparts Preece recognised the potential ofWireless Telegraphy in communicating over water, with ships and lighthousesin particular, and was confident enough in what he had witnessed to engagewith other Government Departments, not least as a potential source of futurefunding for further experiments and demonstrations.
A further series of tests was soon scheduled to take place on Salisbury Plain,observed by Captain Jackson on behalf of the Navy and Major Carr of the Armyas well as by Post Office representatives.These tests proved so successful, reaching distances of up to 4 ½ miles, thatPreece’s next move was to relocate further west, to the Bristol Channel, wheresuccessful transmissions reached over a distance of almost 9 miles [14 kms].News of Marconi’s successes were soon widely reported, not least in his nativeItaly where, both unfortunately and inconveniently National Service was arequirement.A solution to this predicament was reached whereby Marconi would beenrolled into the Regia Marina, Italian Navy, but seconded to the ItalianEmbassy in London as a Naval Attache; nevertheless this didn’t remove anymoral obligations to his country of birth such that when Marconi was recalledto Rome to demonstrate his experiments he was in no position to decline.The Italian Ministry of Post and Telegraph were roundly criticised for nothaving recognised the potential inherent in Marconi’s experiments whilePreece was criticised for investing time and money in an Italian whilstseemingly being ignorant of similar advances and experiments taking place inBritain.Marconi returned to London, together with his Mother, in August 1897 to takehis place as majority shareholder on the board of the Wireless Telegraph andSignal Company with his cousin Henry Jameson-Davis his Managing Director.Although this move offered commercial credibility it would soon sourGuglielmo’s relationship with Preece who, on receipt, of Marconi’s writtenadvice that his patents had been assigned exclusively to the new companywrote “I regret to say that I must stop all experiments and all action until Ilearn the conditions that are to determine relations between your companyand the Government Departments who have encouraged and helped you somuch.”The depth of Preece’s emotions was further demonstrated by his decision toundertake experiments at Fort Burgoyne, from which Marconi was to beexcluded.
Page 1 and 2: MARCONI IN EAST KENT
Page 3 and 4: On October 29, 1831, English physic
Page 5: By the winter of 1894, aged only 20
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
Page 18 and 19: The British Association tended to f

Marconi in East Kent

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