Thomas Raddall Selected Correspondence: An Electronic Edition


About the electronic version

Copyright 2000. Dalhousie University.

PRINT SOURCE: Thomas Raddall Fonds, Correspondence. From Thomas Raddall to Mr. B. G. Ballard, 13 December 1951. MS-2-202 45.66.

Subject Headings

Summary

In response to queries about his Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio broadcasts on early radio from the Director of the National Research Council Canada, B. G. Ballard, T. H. Raddall provides information on where to get copies of his scripts and describes three photographs in his possession that illustrate how his Marconi coherer was used on the cableship "Mackay-Bennett" in the coverage of the 1899 America Cup yacht race.

December 13th, 1951



Dear Mr. Ballard,
     It was very good of you to write, and

I'm glad you found my talks1 of such interest. Eventually

I plan to publish my various broadcasts in book form.

In the meantime you can obtain copies of the "Canadian

Sparks" series by writing to the CBC, Toronto.

     With regard to the Marconi coherer in

my possession.2 This was part of the original apparatus

used by Marconi aboard the cableship "Mackay-Bennett"

(of Halifax, N.S.) when reporting the international

yacht race off New York in 1899.3 I also have three

photographs; one showing the original Marconi gear set

up in the ship's chartroom, one showing the "Mackay-

Bennett" alongside the Sandy Hook lightship, on which

the other outfit was installed, (the M-B laid a submarine

cable from the lightship to the shore for communication

with the New York Herald office), and the third showing

"Shamrock" and "Columbia" sweeping past M/B on the outer

leg of the race. I wish to retain these for the present,

but eventually I should like to have them adequately

preserved in Canada, and I shall keep the National Research

Council in mind.
Sincerely,











Annotations

1. THR is probably referring to his series of radio broadcasts on wireless transmission, "Canadian Sparks", CBC Trans-Canada Network (Talk No. 1, 2, and 3), 2, 9, & 16 Dec. 1951. 2. The coherer was a signal-detecting device used in wireless telegraphy. THR acquired it while assigned to the Mackay-Bennett; the equipment had been on board since the 1899 yacht races, but had been replaced with newer equipment by the time THR worked on the Mackay-Bennett. See his memoir In My Time 81-82.

3. THR is referring to the America's Cup Races held off the east coast of the U.S.A. in the summer and fall of 1899. The chief contenders were Columbia, the American defender, and Shamrock I, British challenger; Columbia retained the Cup.