perfection where he could transmit
messages to a distance of several miles. This Irish-Italian youth
of twenty-two had mastered the problem which had baffled veteran
scientists and was ready to place a new wonder at the service of the
world.

The devices which Marconi thus assembled and put to practical use had
been, in the hands of others, little more than scientific toys.
Others had studied the Hertzian waves and the methods of sending and
detecting them from a purely scientific viewpoint. Marconi had the
vision to realize the practical possibilities, and, though little
more than a boy, had assembled the whole into a workable system of
communication. He richly deserves the laurels and the rewards as the
inventor of the wireless telegraph.

XVII

WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY ESTABLISHED

Marconi Goes to England--he Confounds the Skeptics--A Message to
France Without Wires--The Attempt to Span the Ocean--Marconi in
America Receives the First Message from Europe--Fame and Recognition
Achieved.

The time had now come for Marconi to introduce himself and his
discoveries to the attention of the world. He went to England, and
on June 2, 1896, applied for a patent on his system of wireless
telegraphy. Soon afterward his plans were submitted to the
postal-telegraph authorities. Fortunately for Marconi and for the
world, W.H. Preece was then in authority in this department. He
himself had experimented with some little success with wireless
messages. He was able enough to see the merit in Marconi's
discoveries and generous enough to give him full recognition and every
encouragement.

The apparatus was first set up in the General Post-office in London,
another station being located on the roof but a hundred yards away.
Though several walls intervened, the Hertzian waves traversed them
without difficulty, and messages were sent and received. Stations
were then set up on Salisbury Plain, some two miles apart, and
communication was established between them.

Though the postal-telegraph authorities received Marconi's statements
of his discoveries with open mind and put his apparatus to fair tests,
the public at large was much less tolerant. The skepticism which met
Morse and Bell faced Marconi. Men of science doubted his statements
and scoffed at his claims. The Hertzian waves might be all right to
operate scientific playthings, they thought, but they were far too
uncertain to furnish a medium for carrying m