Nicholas Callan (Irish Physicist) of Maynooth University invented the original Induction Coil in 1836 as a way of generating stronger electricity. Michael Farraday and James Clerk-Maxwell (Physicists) @ The Royal Society, London continued this experimenting in electricity and the possibility of the existence of radio waves.
By 1887 Heinrich Hertz (German Physicist) built the first experimental Spark Gap Transmitter. It was an early radio transmitter which generated radio waves by means of an electric spark and were used up to the end of WW1. Hertz sent out radio waves. received radio waves & measured them. In his honour they became Hertzian Waves unril later they were renamed Radio Waves.
In 1874 Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi GCVO FRSA was born to a wealthy Italian merchant father, Giuseppe Marconi and an Irish Mother Annie Jameson (of the Whiskey Family). His mother trained as an Opera Singer in Milan where she met later married his father. Early on, Annie realised Marconi's interest in Physics, and paired young Guglielmo with the Professor of Physics in Bologna University, who was their next door neighbour. Many of his early radio experiments were completed in the Professor's Attic. Marconi could see the future and wasn't afraid to delve into and use all the previous radio experimentation to guide his work.
When Guglielmo (William) Marconi was invited by the Gill Family (Dublin Newspaper Barons who owned the Dublin Dail Express and The Evening Mail) to report on The Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) Regatta in July of 1898, Marconi had to borrow a Spark Gap Transmitter from a Prof. Fitzgerald in Trinity College. This one is in Maynooth University Museum.
The idea was that with wireless telegraphy Marconi and his assistant George Kemp would Morse Code the results from the finishing line 2.5 miles off Howth on the Flying Huntress boat, which was rented by the Gill Family (Dublin Newspaper Family) for Marconi, on which he erected a 30 ft aerial (Ship to Shore).
When fog descended after the races began there was no way of viewing the races from shore. Marconi had set up a temporary station in the Harbourmasters Office in Kingstown and when transmission of the results came through, it was simple to telephone the results into the newspaper offices in the city.
Before the boats returned, the newspaper printed the results in a special evening edition and sold out. The Gill family wanted to prove that printed news was still relevant in 1898, and able to use new technology, which they did. Subsequently, Marconi was invited to regattas all over the world and The Kingstown Regatta really kick started his career. Marconi knew that it wasn't just regattas that Wireless Telegraphy and eventually Radio could be used for.
The Kingstown Regatta of 1898 was the first Journalistic/Sporting use of wireless telegraphy anywhere on the planet and later became known as “The Birth of Radio” for the whole world, not just Ireland!
By 1901, and aged only 27 years, Marconi conquered the Atlantic Ocean when he supervised a successful wireless telegraphy transmission from Newfoundland to Cornwall. This would mean Marconi became one of the first 20th Century superstars known the world over.
In 1905 while on honeymoon with his new bride, Rt. Hon. Beatrice O'Brien (daughter of the Earl of InchQuin), the Marconi Co. setup a wireless telegraphy station based at our Martello Tower. A as workaholic, it's fairly safe to say that he visited Howth sometime in 1905!
By 1907 he had built a permanent wireless telegraphy radio station in Clifden, Co. Galway. In 1909 he was awarded The Nobel Prize for Physics, jointly with Karl Braun, for their contribution to Wireless Telegraphy.
For the rest of his Marconi devoted himself to improving and perfect all his technologies. He travelled the world on his yacht, Elettra, visiting his stations around the world. He died in 1937 and is credited with inventing Radio and the Telecommunications we still use today.
