Wireless
Signals travel without a wire, and ships at sea stop being unreachable.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 19 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Marconi transmits across the Atlantic in 1901, building on Hertz's demonstration of Maxwell's predicted waves. Its first decisive use is maritime: wireless brings rescuers to the Titanic in 1912 and the disaster prompts laws requiring continuous watch. Broadcasting to general audiences begins in 1920, and within a decade radio is in most homes in industrialised countries and is being used deliberately by governments to address populations directly.