Difference between revisions of "British Adoption of Radio Communication"

Revision as of 14:31, 9 April 2012

The Royal Navy first mentioned "promising" experiments in "Electric Signalling" in Defiance with the cooperation of Marconi in its Annual Report of the Torpedo School in 1896, mentioning the promise that "torpedo boats might indicate their approach or proximity to friendly ships."^[1] The details of these "Experiments with Wireless Telegraphy" were amplified in a four page appendix to the Annual Report of the Torpedo School in 1897, a feature that repeated and grew to six and then nine pages in length until the 1900 edition, where the topic merited its own section where coverage exploded to 42 pages. The era of communication beyond visual ranges was blossoming.

By the time of the Great War, the Royal Navy had a patchy global network of shore stations able to offer a modicum of command and control with its ships. The ships carried radios and aerials whose range and power varied with their size and the era.

Early Experiments

In 1896, Defiance was able to transmit Morse code over short distances at a slow rate and then worked with Signor Guglielmo Marconi who had more fully developed and sensitive gear answering to the same principle. The transmitter created sparks and thus radio energy between two large balls ¹⁄₂₅ inch apart in a bag of oil. More code rates of eight words were reached, and Marconi suggested that a radius of ten miles was feasible with a little work.

In 1897, the experiments by H. B. Jackson of telegraphy "without connecting wires" were more extensively outlined in the Annual Report.^[2] A single Royal Navy-built transmitter with an antenna of Pattern 60 wire and matching receiver equipment reliably carried Morse signals at 10 words per minute between Defiance and gunboat Scourge at distances of 5800 yards. At the same time, Marconi had maintained his edge, showing 12 miles a workable distance in Italian tests. A notable aspect of the description is that though Marconi's equipment excels in its detailed differences from the Royal Navy's simultaneous efforts, Marconi's divergent points are not secret — they are fully spelled out and diagrammed, bespeaking an unusually collegial effort rather than a strictly competitive one.

The promise of radio communication as then envisaged was that fog and intervening land would not inhibit scouts from keeping their battle fleet informed of their encounters, though a naive edge is anticipated that the enemy will supposedly remain unaware that this communication is taking place. Similarly, the need for telegraph lines to be laid in harbour would be avoided and the use of then-common Morse inkers rather than sounders seemed to offer an automatic record of communications. It further seems that the service is still trying to understand the theory that has delivered them this new form of communication, yet they understand the practical limitation of a single transmitter having exclusive use of the air at a time.^[3]

In 1898, tests conducted at Dover with William Henry Preece, Chief Electrical Engineer of the British Post Office, using a transmitter at Fort Burgoyne sought to unravel the theoretical mysteries behind the marvel.^[4] Such work demonstrated the welcome advantage of light aerials over heavier wires and the benefits of having the aerials of transmitter and receiver arranged parallel to each other. On 7 May 1898, Commander Hornby observed Marconi successfully signal over at 10 words per minute 14.5 miles from Bournemouth to Alum Bay. Hornby observed that antennae at 30 feet height provided communication over a mile, and that range was proportional to the square of antenna height and that Marconi had conceived of the idea of different tunings to alleviate issues of a channel being monopolized by single sender.^[5]

Lieutenant Salwey reporting on tests between Europa, Alexandra and Juno during the "Peace Manœuvres" of 1899 in which Marconi personally adjusted the equipment and great results were obtained. The small factors that allowed for such improvements were continually revealing themselves through the person of Marconi, such as the advantage of keeping aerials as well clear as possible from ferrous structures. The process of "tuning" sets to different "notes" is also discussed.

Practical Use and Deployment

By 1900, the Royal Navy had found that the latest tweaks of doubled antenna wires were allowing Canopus, Hector and Jaseur to reliably converse across 12 miles. Wireless telegraphy now had a proper section of considerable length within the Annual Report.^[6]

H.M.S. Jupiter and Hannibal were also used as test platforms, achieving 20 miles reliably but with many variables affecting the peak ranges achieved which ranged to 30 miles often not symmetrically between ships.^[7] Three sets were sent to China, where the forts at Taku enjoyed reliable communication over 13 miles to Barfleur.^[8] The Naval Manoeuvres of 1900 made the first use of wireless, each fleet getting three sets. Fleet "A" made good use of their wireless, but Fleet "B" failed entirely due to a haphazard antenna installation in Alexandra.

In July 1900, the Royal Navy agreed to purchase 32 sets of the Marconi gear from the company with the criteria for accepting each set that it be able to communicate to a standard set in Portland with aerials 162 feet above the test ship's netting from Portsmouth, and that a second ship 30 miles away also be able to converse with its aerials at 100 feet height. All 32 sets passed with ease, and were doled out to a number of ships and short facilities. As this was happening, the original Jackson gear was improved at Vernon until it seemed to gain parity to the Marconi system. These new sets from 1901 were known as "Service Gear Mark II", or more colloquially by their registration numbers as "1 to 52" sets.^[9]

Additionally, in 1900 five sets of Marconi gear were placed at Portsmouth Dockyard awaiting completion of stations and four spares of Jackson's gear were allocated singly to China, Mediterranean, Vernon and Defiance.^[10] In 1900, China also had two more Jackson sets and three Marconi whose disposition wasn't then known.

These kits were furnished prior to the practical existence of different tunings, requiring special attention be paid to avoid multiple transmitters working at once.^[11] All the shore stations listed in the 1900 column above were up and running by July 1901 except for Malta and Gibraltar.^[12] Also in 1901, the Queensland government was to have two Service Mark II kits.

See Also

Footnotes

Bibliography