Marconi, Fessenden and the first transatlantic wireless links

Faraday’s ideas, the theoretical work of James Clerk Maxwell and the pioneering experiments of Hertz and Lodge laid the groundwork for Marconi to develop wireless telegraphy and Fessenden to develop radio telephony and sound broadcasting. Wireless telegraphy commenced with spark transmission and was a major competitor to submarine cables on the transatlantic route. Although radio telephony using CW opened the world of transatlantic voice communication the variable quality due to atmospheric distortion was a limiting factor. The arrival of voice communication and TV via satellites in the 1960’s would once again place radio techniques in a competitive position with submarine cables. In the meantime transatlantic submarine telephone cables with submerged active repeaters arrived on the scene in the mid 1950s.