transmission could be increased greatly by replacing one side of the Hertzian dipole antenna in his transmitter and receiver with a connection to Earth and the other side with a long wire antenna suspended high above the ground. These antennas functioned as quarter-wave monopole antennas. The length of the antenna determined the wavelength of the waves produced and thus their frequency. Longer, lower frequency waves have less attenuation with distance. As Marconi tried longer antennas, which radiated lower frequency waves, probably in the MF band around 2 MHz, he found that he could transmit further. Another advantage was that these vertical antennas radiated vertically polarized waves, instead of the horizontally polarized waves produced by Hertz's horizontal antennas. These longer vertically polarized waves could travel beyond the horizon, because they propagated as a ground wave that followed the contour of the Earth. Under certain conditions they could also reach beyond the horizon by reflecting off layers of charged particles (ions) in the upper atmosphere, later called skywave propagation. Marconi did not understand any of this at the time; he simply found empirically that the higher his vertical antenna was suspended, the further it would transmit. After failing to interest the Italian government, in 1896 Marconi moved to England, where William Preece of the British General Post Office funded his experiments. Marconi patented his radio system 2 June 1896, often considered the first wireless patent. In May 1897 he transmitted 14 km (8.7 miles), on 27 March 1899 he transmitted across the English Channel, 46 km (28 miles), in fall 1899 he extended the range to 136 km (85 miles), and by January 1901 he had reached 315 km (196 miles). These demonstrations of wireless Morse code communication at increasingly long distances convinced the world that radio, or "wireless telegraphy" as it was called, was not just a scientific curiosity but a commercially useful communication technology. In 1897 Marconi started a company to produce his radio systems, which became the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. and radio communication began to be used commercially around 1900. His first large contract in 1901 was with the insurance firm Lloyd's of London to equip their ships with wireless stations. Marconi's company dominated marine radio throughout the spark era. Inspired by Marconi, in the late 1890s other researchers also began developing competing spark radio communication systems; Alexander Popov in Russia, Eugène Ducretet in France, Reginald Fessenden and