"On This Day" In Engineering History

Hello Moose,

Thank you for the article.

It is a historical fact, not generally realised, that Marconi was not the first to do that.

A careful study of Nikola Tesla's writings and correspondence, established he was first by some years.

As in today's "Market Share by Branding", Marconi was the one who loudly announced what he had done, and the history books accepted Marconi's claim, and of course "the printed word cannot lie", can it.

It was a similar case with the first powered flight, done about 60 miles away from my location, by Richard Pearse, but in those early days, because the Wright Brothers had the fortune to be close to Major Newspapers and their accomplishment was widely accepted, Richard Pearse is not really mentioned in the History books.

There are other instances of the so-called "History Books" being incorrect....

Glad you enjoyed the article, Sparkstation. And thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. I'll have to research the career of Richard Pearse so that a future blog entry can give him his day in the sun.

The history books are indeed filled with inaccuracies, and the belief that "the printed word cannot lie" remains. At the same time, we now live in a "Wiki World" where discerning readers understand that on-line resources are sometimes (some would say often) inaccurate. That skepticism is a healthy thing in itself, and especially good for forum such as CR4, where informed people can engage in intelligent discussion about the "truth".

Best Regards,

Moose

I don't know if the infos are still available today, but years ago in the cold war and before, Russian schoolbooks taught that almost every invention was made by some Russian (communist) person, BEFORE the western inventor ever had!!! It intimated that Westerners had basically STOLEN everything from Mother Russia!!! And made money on it now owed to Russia!!!

Everything from telephones to flying!!!!

I expect that today the books are generally better in Russia and closer to the real truth than they were then!! But I have not checked that personally.....maybe someone else can throw a better light on this subject for us..?

Hi Andy,

I've asked a CR4er who was born in the USSR and spent some of his early life there to shed some light on this subject for us. He may comment on this matter via this thread, or send you a message.

Moose

OK. sounds good.

I visited Russia in 1961 and this was at the height of "Russians invented everything there is" time....

It was a strange place, I spent several days in what was then Leningrad....

Good morning, Andy. I just received an email message from the colleague I mentioned in a previous reply. His father grew up in the Soviet Union, and reports that Russians were taught that radio communications were invented by a man named Popov in 1905. I didn't get a first name for this inventor, but my guess is that it's Alexander Stepanovich Popov.

In the 1960's, there were many Russian "inventors" for almost everything, does he have any old school books to look at from then, maybe we can pick out some more for CR4?

I find it impossible to know what is truth and what is not in this area.....but it makes fun reading either way, thanks.

I don't know if he has any old schoolbooks, but will do my best to find out. Do you speak or read Russian? I'm limited to English and a bit of Spanish myself.

I like your idea of a "counter-history" that we can examine on CR4. One other tidbit that my friend's father mentioned was that a Russian named Tsiolkovsky "invented" the notion of cosmic flights. That sounds like another good subject for debate.

Sadly I am limited to English German and rusty french and very rusty Portuguese for reading only for the last two and I am not very confident with the Portuguese at all as it i nearly 40 years ago when I last used it......sad.......!!!

There are one or two places near my location where Marconi set up wireless stations, we also have a hydro station that was built I am told to supply Marconi with power to run his stations, this is called "Cwm Dyli" located in the mountains, a short distance from Snowdon, but located in a valley, it draws it water from a lake near to the miners path leading to Snowdon, one of the original turbine wheels can be seen mounted outside the "Electric Mountain" centre in the village of Llanberis, which is also the home of the biggest Pumped Storage Power Station in Europe, namely "Dinorwig" with it's 6 x 300 MW generators.

Good to hear from you, Bangorjohn. And thanks for that information. Do you have any digital pictures of these Marconi sites? If so, would you be willing to share them with CR4?

Regards,

Moose

Thanks for your reply Moose, I will endeavour to get some photographs, don't quite know when it will be, but I will try!

Hi Moose, further to my reply to you ref. getting pictures of the Marconi sites in Waenfawr, near Caernarfon, I went along today, but was unable to track a site in either Waenfawr, or Penisarwaen which is not far away, however I have managed to find more information on the web, the addresses are as follows;

1. www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/history/pages/marconi.shtml

2.http://www.gb4imd.org.uk/waenfawr.htm

I understand the Waenfawr site has now been turned into a outdoor pursuits type of establishment, with a climbing wall etc; I shall visit sometime next week, and report back with any photos. There is loads of info. on the above sites, with very interesting information centred around this area, enjoy!

Thanks, Bangorjohn! These are great web sites. I especially enjoyed reading some of the comments at the bottom of the BBC piece. It's interesting to read the words of people whose ancestors worked with Marconi - especially because these stories remain largely untold! I forward to hearing about your own trip to Waenfawr.

Best,

Moose

Thanks Moose for your last message, I now have some pictures of Marconi's radio station in a place called Waenfawr, near Caernarfon.

My predicament now is how to get them on CR4, the only option is for me to email direct to you as far as I can see?

The building is now used as a climbing wall with huge walls created for this purpose, I was allowed to go in and take photographs as I wished, they also told me that the Dragon Radio Club go there every year, set up their aerials, and broadcast to the States, and other places I would imagine!

Can you advise me what to do next?

Hello BangorJohn,

"My predicament now is how to get them on CR4, the only option is for me to email direct to you as far as I can see?"

If you have those photos in digital form the job is easy:

Start a Private Message (PM) to a Member, or open a reply or message box Text Editor, same as usual.

Ensure you have each photo preferably in .JPG or .GIF format.

1. For each picture ensure your Mouse Pointer is Left Clicked FIRST, at the place where you want the picture to show in your Post or PM, before you start the operation below:

2. Left Click the small button in the Menu bar in the Text Editor - (Marked to show you) with black pointer in screengrab picture here:

A small Window pops up:

3. Left Click on the Browse button, which will then enable you to locate that graphic file in your Computer.

4. Left Click on that file, and the path in your Computer will arrive in the "Image Path" slot.

5. Left Click on the "Submit" Button.

Voila, your Graphic file is uploaded to CR4 Forum or Private Message Text Editor box.

If the picture is a fixed (non-animated) picture, it may be easily resized by Left clicking on it, and dragging to size, as required.

Repeat the above, for each picture, until all desired are uploaded to CR4.

The job is done.

Any adjustments are done to the picture in the Text Editor box by RIGHT Click, and follow the Menu Instructions....

If your photos are NOT Digital, (Film camera) scan them with a scanner to your computer - If you don't have a scanner, then get help from a friend with one, or your nearest photo processor shop will surely do the job for you.

If you want to send very high quality photos, best way is to email them direct.

The CR4 Forum does not presently appear to have the "File Attachment in .ZIP or .RAR format available. (If this format was available - you could just Left Click to "Add Attachment" and the file would just be uploaded to CR4 via PM or Forum as a full-sized attachment which the reader or recipient could download to their computer, then open it)

If you are needing further advice, .......