MARCONI  at  BREAN DOWN (Near Bristol)

In May 1897, when Marconi was 23 years old he wished to develop his experiments and see if he could transmit greater distances, he hoped that transmission over water would possibly help this. The large expanse of water in the Bristol Channel offered the advantage of providing “steps” for progressively increasing the distances to be transmitted. These ““steps” were in the convenient form of the Islands Flat Holm and Steep Holm, roughly positioned between The English and Welsh sides of the channel.

Sir William Preece, who was the Chief Engineer of the British Post Office Telegrams was at that time experimenting with his own “induction” system in the Bristol Channel area. It may have been William Preece (later Sir William), that suggested the Bristol Channel area to Marconi for his experiments and to compare both their respective systems. (Both were later able to demonstrate communication across the channel).

 Marconi and his team set up a link between Lavernock, near Penarth in South Wales and Flat Holm Island in the Bristol Cannel. The diary of George Kemp, Marconi’s senior assistant, stated that after preliminary tests and adjustments at the Welsh site, messages were passed between Lavernock Point and Flat Holm Island on Thursday 13^th May. It was intended to increase this distance on Monday 17^th May by transmitting to Brean Down (near to Weston-Super-Mare), however heavy seas made it impossible for the persons in charge of the station to land at the Brean Down site. Messages were however successfully passed the following day, Tuesday 18^th May demonstrating the practicality of Marconi’s equipment. These test transmissions of 14 Kms were the longest distances covered by wireless communication at that time.

 The special event station GB6MD, is located within 1 km of Marconi’s original Brean Down experimental site.