First Wireless Message Sent 110 Years Ago Today
by Frank Jovine on 08/23/2009 in History, Tech
On August 23, 1899, the first ship-to-shore wireless message in U.S. history is sent by Lightship No. 70 to a 
coastal receiving station at the Cliff House in San Francisco.
“Sherman is sighted,” the message said, this message was referring to the ship Sherman, which was returning a San Francisco regiment from the battlefields of the Spanish-American War. This marked the first use ever of this technology outside of England.
The invention of wireless telegraphy by Guglielmo Marconi is known today as the radio. Guglielmo Marconi obtained the British patent for wireless in 1896, when Britannia still ruled the waves.
Radio communication at sea quickly evolved into an indispensable safety aid for mariners. By the early 20th century ships were able to communicate with each other as well as with shore-based stations.
The failure of radio communication played a major role in the Titanic disaster in 1912. The radio operator aboard the Californian had turned off his radio set which was a common thing to do aboard ships carrying a single operator and never received the Titanic’s distress signals. If someone was tuned in on the Californian, the closest ship to the stricken liner, many lives could have been saved.
Neva Flores
Aug 24th, 2009
Wow. I had no idea we had been communicating like this for so long. I laughed earlier today after reading the information in a book from the early 80′s. I was looking for a website address.
.-= Neva Flores´s last blog ..After A While – August 24, 2009 =-.
Frank J
Aug 24th, 2009
Neva,
I was amazed when I read this that 110 years ago they had wireless.
Joanie
Aug 24th, 2009
It’s amazing to think how far we’ve come in just a little more than 100 years. If that’s the case, then imaging what things will be like in 100 years from now…
Some of it may sound like science fiction, but computers, cell phones and satellite television would have sounded that way too in 1899.
.-= Joanie´s last blog ..Complaining =-.
Frank J
Aug 24th, 2009
,Joanie,
It seems like yesterday considering how fast technology has come.
A. Zuck
Aug 25th, 2009
This kind of reminds me of the historical tidbit that an early Greek by the name of Heron invented the first steam engine as a toy about two millenia before the industrial revolution. Can you imagine how the world would have been different if he had realized what he had?
.-= A. Zuck´s last blog ..Treehouse =-.
Frank J
Aug 25th, 2009
I didn’t know that. We would have been much further than we are today.