Marconi was not yet in his 30th year. First he had proved wireless
practicable by communicating across the French channel from his
native Bologna in 1899. Working at Cornwall, he made contact with
Newfoundland. His Cape Cod transmission of President Roosevelt’s
message was the crowning achievement of his career. Thereon the
Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America became absorbed in a
brisk overseas business. The _London Times_ received part of its
American news through this Cape Cod station.
The term Marconigram became familiar to American ears. Marconi’s system
was adopted by the British and Italian navies. He took charge of
wireless operations of the Italian government during the last war. He
was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 1909, and the J. Scott medal
for the invention of wireless telegraphy on June 5, 1931.
The pioneering was done on a high bluff overlooking the endless
sweep of the Atlantic. Work was started in 1901. Twenty immense
spars, 200 feet high, were erected in a circle. The station proper
was a one-story bungalow. Marconi and his crew slept and ate in a
cottage a few paces away. The big poles hadn’t been up long when a
nor’easter howled down on the exposed spot. They were knocked over
like matchsticks. Ice contributed to the damage and the loss ran into
$50,000. Then four towers of steel and wood, rooted with blocks of
cement and cables were erected, and they stayed put.