Few things have had such a profound effect on human society as modern communications technology - telegraphy, the telephone, radio, and television. Yet these are all fairly recent developments.
The first practical electric telegraph was patented and developed in 1837 by the Englishmen Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875) and William Cooke (1806-1879). Their telegraph worked by using a battery of chemical cells to provide a current, a circuit-breaking key to be used by the sender, a transmission wire, and a receiver that consisted of an electromagnet, energised by the sender's signals, which moved a pointer (Turner 1983,179). London and Paris were linked by 1852, India by 1864, and America by 1866 (after an unsuccessful attempt in 1857-8). Belfast-born William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), played a vital role in the successful completion of the American cable, which stretched from Valentia Island, off the Kerry coast, to Hearts Content in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland (Finn 1973,27).
The telephone as we know it owes its origins largely to the Edinburgh-born Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), who patented his design in 1876 (Turner 1983,140). However, significant earlier work had been done, notably by the German, Johann Philip Reis (1834-1874), who coined the word "telephony" in 1861. The Dublin Instrument maker, Stephen M. Yeates (1832-1901), made early contributions to the technology, and these are detailed under entry 167.
A pioneer in radio communication was the son of a Dublin mother - Annie Jameson, of the well known distilling family - and an Italian father. He was Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), whose first wife was also Irish - Beatrice O'Brien. In 1895 he had been able to achieve "wireless" communication over a distance of more than a mile. In 1896 he took out in the United Kingdom the first patent for wireless telegraphy (Williams 1982,352). In July 1898, the Dublin Daily Express was the first newspaper in the World to publish news received by radio, when Marconi successfully transmitted the results of the Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) Regatta from his yacht (McLaughlin 1965,96). Some of the apparatus connected with this historic event is in the Maynooth collection, presented by the family of Arthur Conway. One of Marconi's Irish cousins, Henry Jameson Davis, helped him prepare his patent applications, and helped form and finance the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited in 1897, which became Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited in 1900 (Gillispie 1988,IX,98). The collection contains some early wireless equipment made by Marconi's company (168).
Scotsman John Logie Baird (1888-1946) was the pioneer of television. Starting his researches on photoelectricity (which converts light to electricity, and vice versa) in the early 1920s, he demonstrated television between London and Glasgow in 1927, and between London and New York in 1928 (Williams 1988,29). As the technology is so recent, there are no instruments relating to television in the Maynooth collection.

148 Alphabetical Telegraph
149 Branly Coherer and Relay
152 Morse Signalling Key & Receiver
153 Morse Writing Apparatus
156 Relay
161 Single Needle Telegraph with Morse Tapper
162 Single Needle Telegraph with Morse Tapper
164 Spark Gap
167 Early Telephones
168 Wireless Receiving Equipment

Elec./Mag. Page

Vacuum Apparatus