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Introduction - Titanic’s
wireless equipment was among the most powerful in the world at the time, capable of
communicating with stations several hundred or even a thousand miles away. Wireless
communication was still relatively new in 1912, the first transatlantic signal having been
sent only ten-and-a-half years earlier between Cornwall, Great Britain, and St.
John’s, Newfoundland, on the North American coast. However, by the time Titanic was
launched all the major Atlantic liners were equipped with wireless apparatus. All this was
the brainchild of Guglielmo Marconi, whose pioneering experiments made possible the
sending of wireless messages aboard ship as easy and convenient as sending a telegram on
land.
Passengers on Titanic wishing to send a telegram would proceed to
the ship’s Enquiry Office, located on the starboard side of C Deck by the 1st Class
grand staircase. Messages were hand-written and paid for at a cost of 12s 6d for the first
ten words, and 9d for each additional word (travelling westbound). The address and
signature was free of charge. The message would be sent from the Enquiry Office via
pneumatic tube to the Marconi Operating Room on the Boat Deck . . . (continued) |
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Images above, Telephones - Although labeled “head phone
receiver” here, these were properly called “telephones.”
(lower) Tuning Lamp. Both
Author’s collection |
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Wireless accommodations - Olympic’s
wireless accommodations were originally located along the port side of the Officers’
Quarters deckhouse. On Titanic, however, the wireless accommodations took up the
mid-section of the deckhouse, just forward of the Elevator Machinery Room. This change in
location was part of a redesign of the Officers’ Quarters deckhouse, which was
extended forward approximately 9 feet to provide space for a number of 1st Class
staterooms within the after end of the deckhouse. During Olympic’s December
1912 refit, the Officers’ Quarters deckhouse and Marconi accommodations were modified
to match those of her younger sister.
With Titanic’s Marconi suite located centrally, there was more
room available for the three interconnected compartments. On the starboard side was the
cabin for the two Marconi operators, with mahogany bunks and cabinetry . . . (continued) |
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Aerial
wires - Titanic’s aerial wires consisted of four wires of 7/19
silicon-bronze supported between two 20-foot ash spreaders. Each of the four horizontal
wires was the same length. The spreaders consisted of a pole, thicker in the center than
at the ends, fitted at the corresponding spacing of the aerial wires with light
malleable-iron double-lugged bands. A bridle of four 2½"-circumference
(13/16"-diameter) steel wires attached to each spreader, with one wire attached to
each of the bands, all four wires joining together into a single bight and thimble. The
length of the individual bridle wires was such that the distance between the bight and the
spreader was not more than 6 feet or less than 3 feet. The thimble on the forward bridle
was secured directly to the foremast; the thimble on the after bridle was rigged to a
galvanized steel wire rope which ran through an iron block on the mainmast and then down
to the deck; by this arrangement the after end of the array could be lowered to the deck
for periodic inspection and maintenance . . . (continued) |
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| Other topics in this chapter: |
Continental Morse code and station
identification - The lead-in insulator - Gugllielmo Marconi - plus full technical
information on the wireless installation and components, including: The rotary spark - the
5-kW transmitting apparatus - The closed oscillatory circuit - The open oscillatory or
“radiating” circuit - the emergency transmitting apparatus - tuning of the
transmitting circuits |
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