Memorials & Monuments
on the Isle of Wight
- Alum Bay -
- Marconi Memorial -

THIS STONE
MARKS THE SITE OF THE
NEEDLES WIRELESS TELEGRAPH STATION
WHERE
GUGLIELMO MARCONI
AND HIS BRITISH COLLABORATORS
CARRIED OUT FROM
6TH DECEMBER 1897
TO 26TH MAY 1900
A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTS
WHICH CONSTITUTED SOME OF
THE MORE IMPORTANT PHASES
OF THEIR EARLIER PIONEER
WORK IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
OF ALL KINDS

THE
NEEDLES
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY STATION
EXCHANGED RADIO MESSAGES
FIRST WITH A TUG IN ALUM BAY
THEN WITH BOURNEMOUTH 14
MILES DISTANT, NEXT WITH POOLE
18 MILES AWAY, LATER WITH SHIPS
40 MILES SEAWARDS.
THESE WONDERS ATTRACTED WORLD
WIDE ATTENTION AND FAMOUS
SCIENTISTS FROM MANY COUNTRIES
CAME (1898 - 1900) TO SEE THE
NEW WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IN
EXPERIMENTAL OPERATION

ON 15TH NOVEMBER 1899
INFORMATION FOR THE FIRST
NEWSPAPER EVER PRODUCED AT
SEA - THE TRANSATLANTIC TIMES -
WAS TRANSMITTED FROM THIS
STATION BY WIRELESS
TELEGRAPHY AND PRINTED ON
THE U.S. LINER "ST. PAUL" WHEN
36 MILES DISTANT

ON 3RD JUNE 1898
LORD KELVIN SENT FROM THE
NEEDLES
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY STATION
THE FIRST RADIO TELEGRAM
FOR WHICH PAYMENT WAS MADE

MARCONI DESCRIBED THE NEEDLES
STATION AS THE WORLD'S
"FIRST PERMANENT WIRELESS STATION"
IT WAS ERECTED UNDER HIS PERSONAL
SUPERVISION BY HIS ASSISTANT
GEORGE KEMP FOR MARCONI'S
WIRELESS TELEGRAPH CO LTD
AS WAS COMPLETED ON
5TH DECEMBER 1897.
OTHERRADIO TECHNICISTS OF THIS
COMPANY WHO PIONEERED HERE WERE
W. PAGET - A. GRAY - C.E. RICKARD
W. DENSHAM - F.S. STACEY - P.J. WOODWARD
C.H. TAYLOR
THE STATION WAS DISMANTLED IN
JUNE 1900