#761: 2021.06.13 [sebastiane hegarty]

three horizons
Sebastiane Hegarty

In 1901, Marconi sent a wireless signal from Knowles Farm on the Isle of Wight to the newly built Lizard Wireless Telegraphy Station, in Cornwall. Not only was this the furthest a wireless signal had travelled at that time, it was also the first ‘over-the horizon’ transmission. Prior to this, it was believed that ‘the operating range of wireless would be restricted to the [optical] horizon.’ But on the 23rd of January 1901, in what became known as ‘Marconi’s first great miracle’ the arrival of a brief dit-dit-dit at The Lizard Wireless Station, signalled not only the letter ‘s’, but also an escape from the visible and concrete, a flight from the material into the airy immaterial and unknown. […]

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