Cabot Tower On Signal Hill
While in St. John’s we visited Signal Hill National Historic Site. Originally known as the Lookout, this area has long been used for defense, observation and communication since 1704.
A Ship Going Out To The Ocean From St. John’s Bay
St. John’s Bay only has one way in and one way out. That is through this rock infested “narrow” to the port. It is here that signalmen surveyed the ocean for ships headed into St. John’s Harbor. They would raise various flags to communicate to the military bases below. This way, they knew if the ships coming into the harbor were friendly or not.
So Signal Hill played a significant roll in defending the bay and who controlled St. John’s. The museum on Signal Hill has a wonderful video depicting the long history and the battles that were won and lost here. I’m only touching the very surface of what Signal Hill is all about. Please read all about it here.
Brenda On Signal Hill Overlooking St. John’s
As you can see from my picture, it is very windy up on Signal Hill. A great vantage point of the city and the port of St. John’s.
The Plaque Commemorating The First Wireless Signal That Was Received On Signal Hill
The Sign Post At Signal Hill
Signal Hill has this sign post that tells you which way and how far certain cities are from Signal Hill. As you can see, New York is over 1100 miles away. We are certainly a distance from home.
The Plaque Commemorating The First Wireless Signal That Was Received On Signal Hill
We were amazed to find out that Signal Hill, on top of being a military strategic vantage point, was also the place that the first ever Transatlantic wireless signal was received. This was back in 1901!
And you thought wireless communications was something recent.
David Listening To What The Morse Code Wireless Signal Sounded Like Back In 1901.
They had a demonstration of what the Morse code, wireless signal sounded like back then. As you may see from the pictures behind David, Guglielmo Marconi figured out that you could bounce the signal off the atmosphere to make it go further. People back then did not think this was possible. Marconi proved them wrong. And thus our modern day wireless communications can be attributed all the Mr. Marconi.
David Going Down The Narrow Staircase In The Tower.
Cabot Tower had some great views. The stairwell was a little narrow though.
The tower was built in 1897 to honor Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and the 400th anniversary of John Cabot’s “Voyage of Discovery”. John Cabot was the explorer that discovered this area. I’m not sure if I have mentioned that before. So their you go, now you know.
A Ship Going Out Into The Ocean, Into The Fog
A Ship Going Out Into The Ocean, Into The Fog
This ship was pretty going into the fog. The sun was hitting it just right.
On Signal Hill Overlooking St. John’s
Signal Hill was a nice stop in St. John’s.
After his work with Ship to Shore communications, Marconi’s next project was wireless communication with moving trains. Previously, trains had to stop to connect to the telegraph systems using wires. The goal was to allow moving trains to communicate with yard operators and stations using wireless text messages in Morse code.
An experiment was conducted (no pun intended) in Upstate NY and Northern Pennsylvania to see if it could be done. The system worked similarly to modern cellular technology by utilizing multiple towers along the railroad routes.
The system was tested with huge success, but with one major issue: somehow they ended up using a frequency occupied by the US Navy. Unfortunately, before the railroad could get a chance to change over their transmitters to use another frequency (a far more complicated procedure than simply changing the channel), the US entered WWII and all testing came to a halt.
Almost all those Marconi towers are gone with one notable exception: one tower remains in Binghamton, NY at the old Lackawanna station. It has been designated with landmark status in order to preserve it. It’s located here:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Marconi+Tower,+Lewis+St,+Binghamton,+NY+13901/@42.1034275,-75.9076966,235m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89daef7be044f5a3:0x7f398acab84e4813!6m1!1e1
During WWII, actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed a frequency hopping method that was intended to prevent jamming of torpedo tracking frequencies. The system was never used, but later was modified to play a role in cellular telephone technology.
My first cell phone was way back in 1988. It came in a little soft side suitcase with a big rubber ducky antenna and a full size handset (the kind with the buttons on the back). It had a battery about half the size of a carton of cigarettes which would last about 4-6 hours. The local service area was about 75 miles since this was before national or even East coast plans existed. Calls ranged between $.60 and over $1 a minute, depending on time of day and whether you were roaming or not.