Titanic: Morse and Marconi

Titanic: Morse and Marconi by ric gustafson


Samuel Morse was born on April 27 1791 in Charlestown Massachusetts. After losing his wife Lucretia he devoted himself to the science of telegraphy. He experimented by sending a message along a wire. He perfected a alphabetical code by using a transmitter and receiver electrical impulses along a wire. Morse's signals were short dots and longer dashes and it became the Morse Code.
Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna Italy on April 25 1874. The young Marconi's interest turned to electricity. He enrolled at the Liverno Technical Institute to study physics and electricity. He learned Morse's Code and through experimentation was able to transmit without wires. In 1897, he succeeded in history's first ship to shore transmission. In 1901, the first Marconi stations were set up in Cape Cod. By 1912, almost every North Atlantic steamer was equipped with wireless and Marconi operators.
On the Titanic, the senior telegrapher was twenty five year old John Phillips. His nickname was Jack and he was a five year Marconi veteran. His partner was twenty two year old Harold Bride from Nunhead. The Marconi on board was state of the art. It ran on a five kilowatt motor generator. The room became known as the silent room and heavily insulated. The room was a typical radio shack with a desk, chairs, wall clock and brass shaded lamps.
If a passenger wanted to send a message, they first had to go to the ship's inquiries desk and fill out a telegraph form with the message. Then an assistant purser would put it into a brass cylinder and then send it into a wire basket in the radio room. Then Phillips or Bride would record the sender's name, cabin number and cable length into his logbook and then dispatch them.
Phillips and Bride were paid mostly by White Star but also by passenger and ship traffic.


research help: ' Titanic Tragedy' by John Maxtone Graham


Peace and God's blessings. Love Ric