A COMPANY ESTABLISHED
Now the wheels were set in motion and Marconi began by transmitting signals from a room in the London General Post Office, first to a neighboring roof, then to Salisbury Plain. His next place for experiment was Bristol Channel. By July 1897, a company was formed, which was later on known as Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Co. Ltd. The company helped to install wireless on lightships and lighthouses along the coast. The company acquired patent in every country except Italy and her dependencies, as Italy was the birthplace of Marconi. This showed Marconi’s love towards his motherland.

DREAM REALIZED
Now, Marconi concentrated on sending signals across the Atlantic. This required better and efficient apparatus especially for aerial matter. Initially, balloons were sent up but thereafter, Marconi thought of 10-foot balloons covered with tinfoil to make a good antenna. In the next experiments, tinfoil was affixed to long-tailed kites. With this the range was now of eight to nine miles during the day but Marconi was not aware about the fact that this distance doubled or trebled during night. Later, the aerials were modified to get better results.

Lloyds of London, installed Marconi instruments in all their lighthouse posts, and Marconi stations were erected at several locations. Marconi envisioned a world of safe navigation by sea and by air through things like wireless lighthouse, the radio direction finder, and the radio beacon. The shipping companies started using wireless. In 1900, the British Admiralty used the Marconi’s set up in its fleet of 26 warships.

BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC

PATENT NO. 7777
In 1904, wireless was successfully demonstrated at St Louis World’s Fair, where amateurs and engineers all, tested this new sensational invention. As the value of the invention was perceived, dubious attempts by others, were made to get awards for its discovery and the invention of the necessary apparatus. Even an attempt was made to discredit the Marconi Company, but Marconi won the dispute in court. Judge Van Vechten Veeder stated that all patents filed in the US by Marconi were valid. He even cited the evidence that Marconi was undoubtedly, "the first to discover and use any practical means for effective telegraphic transmission and intelligible reception of signals produced by artificially formed Hertz oscillations". The famous Patent No. 7777 was now secure.

Edison had also recognized the talent of Marconi and always stood behind in his entire research to one of the patents, for which Edison had applied in 1885, showing high pole aerials. Edison allowed the Marconi Company to use it.

SAVING LIVES
The life-saving possibilities of wireless were realized in 1899 when a wireless message was received from the East Goodwin lightship equipped with Marconi wireless apparatus. It had rammed in a steamship R F Matthews passing through a dense fog. An emergency request was made for a lifeboat.

In January 1909, over 1,700 people were rescued at sea when the S S Republic collided with an Italian steamer, the Florida in thick fog, off the eastern coast of US. For two days on a trot, Jack Binns, the Marconi radio operator aboard the Republic, sent out a total of two hundred messages to help guide rescuing ships to his stricken vessel’s position. Thanks to his messages, all the passengers who survived the initial impact were rescued. Binns received a special medal for his services and Marconi himself presented him with a gold watch.

In 1912, the Titanic, with 2,000 people on board was heading towards New York. The wireless apparatus though of latest design, was not powerful enough to remain in communication with the shore directly and only other ships in near vicinity could relay its messages to shore. The weather was clear, but the icebergs were reported near the shipping lane that it was following. The captain despite prior information, the ship was  allowed to forge ahead at the speed of nearly 25 miles an hour. The night was quiet and cold. Suddenly, at half past eleven the crow’s nest signaled that a large iceberg was looming ahead. "Hail starboard, full speed astern !" shouted the officer, but the speed was uncontrollable. In a few seconds, the ship struck the iceberg. Like a million panes of splitting glass, the iceberg tore the ship apart.

In next three hours, the game was supposed to be over. The ship was 600 miles away from Cape Race. The ship began to tilt forward. The red light flares by rockets to catch attention of passing vessels were fired, but unfortunately no ship was nearby. The frantic men and sobbing women tried to seek the board deck. The senior wireless operator, John G Phillips, gripped his key, "Come at once," the message was sent, "We’ve struck a berg ! Sinking fast," he inserted CQD SOS with the latitude and longitude of the Titanic.

The wireless had gone weak. The flooded engine rooms made the ship tremble even more. Carpathia, the nearest ship was far enough to reach Titanic, not before next morning. Now the decks were steep in water. The Captain told the wireless operators, "Men, you have your full duty. You can do no more. Now its every man for himself." Phillips did not stop. The instrument kept up its "SOS CQD SOS – Titanic Sinking …." At last there were many left to die when the great ‘Titanic’ took its last plunge, but many others were saved because of wireless. Many ships steamed to Titanic’s rescue, of which ‘Carpathia’ was the first to arrive. When the Titanic sank on April 14, 1912, the loss of life was truly terrible, but those who survived owed their lives to the distress calls from the Marconi wireless equipment on board. As Lord Samuel, Postmaster General at the time, stated : 'Those who have been saved have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi and ...his wonderful invention.'