Science & Tech
5
On September 30, 1899, Guglielmo Marconi sent messages from this site in the first practical demonstration of wireless telegraph in America. Invited by Gordon Bennett Jr., owner of the New York Herald newspaper, to report on the America’s Cup sailboat race with his wireless telegraph, Marconi erected an antenna mast on top of the north Twin Lights tower. The race was preempted by a naval review organized by President Theodore Roosevelt to celebrate Commodore George Dewey’s victory at the Battle of Manila Bay, so Marconi’s first wireless transmissions in America reported on the progress of Dewey’s fleet. On October 3, the same wireless apparatus received reports on the America’s Cup race between Shamrock and Columbia in the ocean just off Sandy Hook. Marconi kept a wireless station at Twin Lights only briefly before deciding that other locations along the United States coastline offered better reception for his equipment.
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