essages in any practical
way. Then, as progress was made and Marconi began to prove his system,
the inevitable jealousies arose. Experimenters who might have invented
the wireless telegraph, but who did not, came forward to contest
Marconi's claims and to seek to snatch his laurels from him.

The young inventor forged steadily ahead, studying and experimenting,
devising improved apparatus, meeting the difficulties one by one
as they arose. In most of his early experiments he had used a
modification of the little tin boxes which had been set up in his
father's garden as his original aerials. Having discovered that the
height of the aerials increased the range of the stations, he covered
a large kite with tin-foil and, sending it up with a wire, used this
as an aerial. Balloons were similarly employed. He soon recognized,
however, that a practical commercial system, which should be capable
of sending and receiving messages day and night, regardless of the
weather, could not be operated with kites or balloons. The height of
masts was limited, so he sought to increase the range by increasing
the electrical power of the current sending forth the sparks from the
sending station. Here he was on the right path, and another long step
forward had been taken.

In the fall of 1897 he set up a mast on the Isle of Wight, one hundred
and twenty feet high. From the top of this was strung a single wire
and a new series of experiments was begun. Marconi had spent the
summer in Italy demonstrating his apparatus, and had established
communication between a station on the shore and a war-ship of the
Italian Navy equipped with his apparatus. He now secured a small
steamer for his experiments from his station on the Isle of Wight and
equipped it with a sixty-foot mast. Communication was maintained with
the boat day after day, regardless of weather conditions. The distance
at which communication could be maintained was steadily increased
until communication was established with the mainland.

In July of 1898 the wireless demonstrated its utility as a conveyer of
news. An enterprising Dublin newspaper desired to cover the Kingstown
regatta with the aid of the wireless. In order to do this a land
station was erected at Kingstown, and another on board a steamer which
followed the yachts. A telephone wire connected the Kingstown station
with the newspaper office, and as the messages came by wireless from
the ship they were telephoned to Dublin