The world's first radio station was set up by Marconi in 1897, during her reign, at the Needles Battery, at the western tip of the island. A high mast was erected near the Royal Needles Hotel, as part of an experiment of communicating with ships at sea. That location is now the site of the Marconi Monument. In 1898 the first paid wireless telegram (called a Marconigram) was sent from this station, and the island was for some time the home of the National Wireless Museum, near Ryde.