Lee de Forest antenna at Howth 1903
The Martello Tower which now houses the Hurdy Gurdy Radio Museum, was the site of the first successful ‘wireless’ transmissions between Howth and Holyhead – which took plance on the 23rd November 1903 and was conducted by Lee de Forest. His demonstrations were observed by the British Post Office – the image on the left is a depiction of the antennae erected by de Forest at Howth. The radio operator at Howth was Harry Mac Horton who sent Morse signals to another station at South Stack Lighthouse, Wales. This is situated sixty miles across the Irish Sea and this test was to illustrate the De Forest System to the General Post Office on this occasion the test was observed by Henry Pomeroy at that time the G.P.O’s senior telegraph engineer.
The image on the right is a photograph of the Marconi station set up in 1905 to enable tests to be conducted via the Marconi wireless telegraphy system and H.M. telegraph ship Monarch as it navigated from Howth to Holyhead.
hurdygurdyradiomuseum 