talian Ministry of Posts with his ideas for wire-less communications, but his proposal was turned down. It was this rejection which caused Marconi to come to England in 1896. On his arrival he soon set to work and filed a patent for a system of wireless telegraphy using Hertzian waves which was granted on 2 June 1896. In England there was considerably more interest for Marconi's work. Soon he was introduced to a man named William Preece who was the chief engineer of the Post Office. Marconi gave some preliminary demonstrations of his equipment in the laboratory and then he set up a transmitter and receiver on the roofs of some buildings in London a few hundred yards apart. The success of this demonstration promoted a further demonstration on Salisbury Plain in September 1896 when representatives of the Post Office together with others from the War Office and the Navy were present. An introduction to radio 7 The Navy saw the possibilities of using wireless equipment for communication at sea and they showed considerable interest. However, Marconi also started to sell his equipment to other maritime users. Initially the take-up was slow, but soon other organizations like Lloyd's endorsed its use as a method of sending distress signals and very quickly more vessels were fitted with Marconi's equipment. Not satisfied with supplying equipment for maritime use, Marconi also started to investigate its use for providing a long-distance communica- tions link. Initial experiments sending a message across the English Channel proved the possibilities and gave valuable propaganda. But the main goal was to be able to send a message across the Atlantic. This was not an easy task. Many difficulties needed to be overcome, but with the help of his team consisting of Vyvyan, Professor Fleming of University College London, Paget, and Kemp, stations at Poldhu in Cornwall and Cape Cod were soon established. Unfortunately the aerials were destroyed in storms and it was decided that their design should be changed. At the same time the si