All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

i8 All About Inventions through impressed the assembly. The profound silence, broken only by the ticking of the instruments, gave place to animated conversation and hearty con- gratulations. Message after message was thrown into the air to be caught at Dover, and every time, without the slightest mistake or hesitation, came the desired reply. For days the French representatives tested the apparatus and travelled to and fro across the Channel investigating every detail at both stations. The wireless spanning of the Channel may be said to have brought the first and experimental era of telegraphing without wires to a close. Its com- mercial utilisation and success were assured. Signor Marconi had succeeded in sending and receiving signals which were perfectly intelligible to those con- versant with the code from 100 yards to 32 miles, and that within the short span of four years! Six months later, in September, Signor Marconi was honoured by a visit from the British Association, when Professor Fleming, who has always manifested a keen interest in, and admiration for, Marconi’s work in this realm, explained and demonstrated the apparatus to his scientific colleagues. On this occasion messages were exchanged between a small station set up in the lecture hall and the Goodwins Lightship and Wimereux respectively. While the signalling was somewhat slow, owing to the sluggishness of the Morse code, the scientific gathering remarked upon its reliability in the new field of application, and agreed that the arrangements incorporated by the inventor in his system were of remarkable simplicity. Indeed, the year 1899 was one °f considerable historic moment to the Italian inventor. The British