Marconi and the birth of Radio News in the UK and USA

Heinrich Hertz was a leading pioneer in the invention of Radio. Hertz had laid the foundations for the groundbreaking work which Marconi would go on to do. Unfortunately, Hertz died 1894 before he could finish his work resulting in his research being published. Marconi was driven by this and so was given permission to study the works of Marconi. Marconi, still only nineteen, began his research and made great progress where others had failed. Many had tried to create a radio telegraph system before Marconi but with these past efforts, he was able to combine them and in 1896 he had a working model. However this was still not a viable commercially as Marconi had not yet given it a long enough range. Marconi however slowly increased the range of his apparatus and in 1899 he sent a transmission 75.9514 miles from a ship, the SS St Paul, to the English coast. This then further increased to 2200 miles as Marconi transmitted a message from Wexford to Canada. Marconi immediately set about establishing a commercial radio telegraph system. In 1904 a system was then set up to send news to ships. This was done at night as Marconi discovered that radio waves travelled further at night. Although Marconi had previously reported on other subject, this was the first official commercial news broadcast. Even this broadcast had its problems however due to variance in signal strength.  The most memorable moment Marconi’s radio has seen is probably his participation in the Titanic disaster. Marconi had set up a communication radio on most ships and so when the Titanic crashed, the crew were able to put out an emergency broadcast. The Titanic crashed into an iceberg and so sent out a distress call on one of Marconi’s systems. The Carpathia received this via a weaker Marconi system. Marconi states in his testimony that the Carpathia radio system was able to transmit “200 miles but on very rare occasions” and the Titanic could transmit “Almost every night 1000 miles”.  The fact is this; without Marconi’s devices there would have been more deaths and more injuries. Marconi’s device helped get an immediate response for the distress call issued by the Titanic, saving many lives. Moving back to the news side of this blog, the first USA news broadcast was transmitted on the 31^st August 1920. This was done from Detroit Michigan by a station named 8MK. To clarify what I mean by news broadcast, I mean a program devoted totally to news. In 1922 news programs had spread and had become a regular fixture on public radio. Many of the public had access to these programs due to the wide spread availability of crystal sets. These were the most common set and the easiest to get. Some people even constructed their own. This was encourages by the USA government. As such news was available regularly on a new media without daily cost. Newspapers were still crucial to the communication of news but radio had created a new revolutionary way to communicate it.

All Marconi quotes from his testimony taken from : http://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq01Marconi02.php

Machiavelli : Corrupt or Realist

In our latest HCJ lecture we examined Machiavelli and further to that, we discussed him in our seminar this past week. He was a Florentine polotician. MAchiavelli enters the forentine political system shortly after the Medici family had been exiled in 1494. However in August 1512, the Medici along with Pope Julius II ended the Republican goverment and took charge of Florence again. This assault on the political system by the Medici resulted in Machiavelli being relieved of all his positions. Machiavelli was also blamed for a conspiracy to remove the Medici and was jailed until release after the amnesty of the Medici. This was to recognise the promotion of Cardinal Giovanni de Medici to the seat of St Peter.

The main subject matter I will focus on is why did Machiavelli write The Prince. It is my belief that he wrote it not for flattery of a corrupt goverment but as a CV. In the new goverment, Niccolo could only get a job by pointing out his knowledge of past and future politics. He states in a letter to Francesco Vettori on the 10th December 1513 that he simply wishes 'that these Medici princes should begin to engage my services'. This would imply his book is made simply for monetary return and not for the false appreciation of a tyrant.

Machiavelli is often misconceived as being corrupt. His blunt form of political philosophy can often be interpreted as a form of instruction booklet. He claims in The Prince that 'it is better to be feared than loved for love is fickle and fear is eternal'. This mentality has led many to believe Niccolo to have traded his moras for a right hand job with the Medicis.

His book states somewhat vulgar instructions to gain power in whatever way nessecary and to maintain power through corruption and injust power. To keep the public in fear, Niccolo suggests the murder of rebe politicians or conquests which are false and so clouded by religious quests and rebellion quelling. He even encourages getting involved in other fights, irrelevant to the realm of the ruler. This is the sort of talk which has turned readers of The Prince to Condemn Machiavelli.

It seems to me that Machiavelli is seen to be a realist. He simply states that which has come before. Machiavelli takes examples from famous tyrants such as Caeser, Nero and even past Medici rulers. Machiavelli is not corrupt in my mind, he is simply factual, as the saying goes 'the truth hurts'! If this book was an article in a paper, Machiavelli would seem to be acting in the public interest and simply uncover scandal. Machaivelli achieves this, he simply litters his writing with sarcastic criticism on the current Medici rule. He wants to get a job for this knowledge but also to get some form of revenge on the Medici family even if unknown to them through hidden satiristic patterns.

To summarise, as I have rambled on for a long time now, Machiavelli is simply a realist. He is a journalist in a way, reporting fact and revealing the inner corruption of the Medici rulers. He is far from corrupt as he is working in public intrest if we examine him in a modern legal light.

My next post will be about the Miscarriage of Justice conference including an interview with Steve Gray, one of UAI's leading pioneers.