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De Magnete
By 1600 William Gilbert described properties of magnetic forces in a series of books, De Magnete. -
The Flow of Electrical Charge
The eighteenth century saw various experiments on electrical forces including studies of electrical current – the flow of electrical charge -- by Benjamin Franklin. -
The Invention and Improvement of the Voltaic Cell (the Battery)
The invention and improvement of the voltaic cell (the battery) by Alessandro Volta in 1800. In particular, the voltaic cell made it possible to produce large enough currents to observe that electrical currents produce magnetic effects. -
Invention of an Electromagnet
the discovery in 1820 by Hans Christian Oersted that compass needles were deflected by nearby electric currents and, soon after, William Sturgeon found that he could make a strong magnet, now called an electromagnet, by winding wire around a piece of non-magnetized iron and connecting the wire across a battery. -
Telegraphy
Oersted’s discovery and Sturgeon’s electromagnet led the way for long distance communication, the telegraphy. Almost immediately, scientists saw the possibility of using a long wire to send a current that would end in an electromagnet that could interact with something containing iron. The most successful of these devices was the telegraph devised by Samuel Morse, a professor of arts and design at New York University. -
Creation of the Electricmagnetic Induction
In 1831 Michael Faraday in England and, independently, Joseph Henry in the United States demonstrated they could create a current in wires without batteries as long as the wires were in the vicinity of a changing magnetic field. This was called electromagnetic induction. -
First Long Distance Message
In 1844 the first long distance message was sent from Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD. -
Creation of the Electromagnetic Waves
In 1864 James Clerk Maxwell combined the mathematical connections among charges, currents and electric and magnetic fields into four equations and he realized that the solution to those equations is an electromagnetic wave that travels at the speed of light -
First Transatlantic Cable
By 1866 the first transatlantic cable connected the United States and Europe. -
Creation of the Radio Waves
In 1888, Heinrich Hertz experimentally verified the existence of these waves when he demonstrated that they could be produced by a spark and received by a distant coil of wire. These were originally called Hertzian waves but are now known as radio waves, part of the electromagnetic spectrum. -
Wireless Telegraphy
The name most associated with wireless telegraphy is Guglielmo Marconi whose skill rested in making important improvements to what had come before. These improvements, beginning in 1895, greatly increased the distance with which signals could be sent, with ship-to-shore transmission demonstrated in 1899. -
70 Ships Equipped With Wireless Telegraphs
By 1902 seventy ships were equipped with ‘wireless” provided by the Marconi International Marine Company. Finally, there was a means of ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communication that operated over long distance and in all types of weather -
RMS Titanic Set to Sea
When the RMS Titanic set to sea on April 10, 1912 it was equipped with the most up-to-date technical means of ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship communication – the wireless-- housed in what was called the Marconi Room. Jack Phillips, age 25, and Harold Bride, age 22, were the operators. They were employees of the Marconi International Marine Company and were not considered part of the ship’s crew. -
Icebergs Sightings
Records show that on April 13th and 14th several ships reported sighting icebergs and these reports were sent to Titanic Captain Edward John Smith, including one at about 5p.m. on the 14th from the California. But at 11:15 that evening, Phillips was deeply involved with relaying a large number of passenger messages to Cape Race, Newfoundland and when the California sent the message “We are stopped and surrounded by ice,” Phillips replied “Shut up. I’m busy. I am working on Cape Race.”
Accord
