Marconi receives radio signal over Atlantic 1901

In the 19th century the telegraph was the quickest way to transmit messages across great distances, using Morse code. Guglielmo Marconi began experimenting with electromagnetic waves. Marconi managed to send signals over several miles with no wires. In 1898 he sent a message 18 miles, and in 1900 he secured a patent for his invention.

On December 12, 1901, Marconi attempted to send the first radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean, despite predictions that the radio waves would be lost as the earth curved over the long distance. He set up a specially engineered wireless receiver in Newfoundland. The signals were sent in Morse code from Poldhu, Cornwall, in England. Marconi later wrote about the experience:

"Shortly before midday I placed the single earphone to my ear and started listening. The receiver on the table before me was very crude -- a few coils and condensers and a coherer -- no valves, no amplifiers, not even a crystal. But I was at last on the point of putting the correctness of all my beliefs to test. The answer came at 12: 30 when I heard, faintly but distinctly, pip-pip-pip. I handed the phone to Kemp: ‘Can you hear anything?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The letter S.’ He could hear it. I knew then that all my anticipations had been justified. The electric waves sent out into space from Poldhu had traversed the Atlantic -- the distance, enormous as it seemed then, of 1,700 miles -- unimpeded by the curvature of the earth. The result meant much more to me than the mere successful realization of an experiment. As Sir Oliver Lodge has stated, it was an epoch in history. I now felt for the first time absolutely certain that the day would come when mankind would be able to send messages without wires not only across the Atlantic but between the farthermost ends of the earth."