Canada marks Atlantic radio signal centenary

Guglielmo Marconi

ST. JOHN'S, Canada (Reuters) -- One hundred years ago an Italian visionary named Guglielmo Marconi was hounded out of Newfoundland after sending a radio signal across the Atlantic Ocean in a precursor to a wireless, digital age.

But on Wednesday, the Canadian province atones for that inauspicious start, celebrating the anniversary of that trans-Atlantic wireless signal with a fanfare Marconi never experienced, and a live reenactment of his Noble Prize-winning accomplishment.

On Signal Hill, which provides a great vista of the Atlantic and overlooks St. John's, Marconi received a faint signal from some 2,200 miles (2,200 miles) away in England, helping to usher in a revolution that brought the world everything from the radio to the cell phone.

The centennial celebrations start there on Wednesday and will last for a week, with guests including Canada's Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.

It was not the first international wireless signal -- Marconi and others had tinkered with the technology before, even sending a signal across the English Channel -- but it was a landmark of its kind, quashing doubts that a radio signal could ride the curvature of the Earth across an ocean.

At that time intercontinental messages were sent via cables sunk on the ocean floor, and one of these cables arrived in Newfoundland almost 50 years before Marconi did.

Not everyone thrilled

Marconi's success was hailed in newspapers around the world. But it caused consternation in St. John's.

The Anglo-American Telegraph company threatened Marconi with a lawsuit if he persisted with his work, which threatened their monopoly on trans-Atlantic messages. Marconi returned to England, and soon after reached a deal with the Canadian government to continue his work in Nova Scotia, still on the Atlantic, but somewhat further from Europe.

The celebrations scheduled for St. John's this week have also not gone as planned. A live radio program to connect South Africa, Finland and Australia with St. John's was canceled because of a strike at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The celebrations have also sparked controversy and some critics call Marconi's legacy hyperbole.

They are particularly offended by references to Marconi as "the father of radio," noting that a Serbian-born American inventor, Nicholas Tesla, first patented technology that was fundamental to radio communication in 1897.

Tesla sued Marconi over the matter. In 1943, after Tesla's death, Marconi's patent was overturned by U.S. courts.

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