Is this the new home for the Marconi statue?

This article was first published on Friday 23 April 2004 in the Essex Chronicle to whom due acknowledgement and thanks is given.

marconi_highstreetweb1This is how the statue of wireless pioneer Marconi could look when it is moved to a new home in Chelmsford town centre, as suggested by the Essex Chronicle last year. Essex Chronicle picture editor Mike Rose mocked up this computer-generated image to illustrate plans to transfer the statue from its current location at the Essex Records Office to outside Lloyds Bank.

Council chief executive Martin Easteal revealed: “Because the Marconi Centre is clearly not going to materialise at Chelmer Waterside, at least in the time frame previously planned, the future of the Marconi Statue has been reviewed. “A team of council officers from the Architects and Town Planning Services is now looking at a prominent site in the High Street – close to High Chelmer and Lloyds Bank – as its final home”.

Marconi Veterans Association vice chairman Peter Turrall said: “The Essex Chronicle and the Veterans Association have said all along it should go in the High Street. We are delighted with the move.”

Marconi Canadian Stamps

The following stamps were kindly sent to us by the ex secretary to Sir Robert Telford, Pauline Easton, who had received them from a friend in Canada. She wished the stamps to be lodged in a safe and appropriate place.

The envelope shown here, together with a sheet of the unused stamps, will be placed in the care of Chelmsford Museums and held at Sandford Mill.  The Mill also holds many other Marconi related artefacts.

Sandford Mill is not open on a daily basis but holds several open days throughout the year.  For more details phone +44 1245 475498 or view the web site at http://www.chelmsford.gov.uk/museums/engine.htm During these open days the stamps and other items can be viewed on request.

Envelope front
Envelope front
Envelope reverse
Envelope reverse

Larger versions of these images can be viewed at the gallery www.marconi-veterans.org/gallery/

The text of the inscription on the reverse of the envelope is reproduced below

English on the left column

CANADA’S world-renowned expertise in global communications technologies is rooted in a history of impressive breakthroughs. This year marks the centenaries of two milestones in the evolution of overseas telecommunications.

On October 31, 1902, Sir Sandford Fleming sent the first around-the-world telegram from and to Ottawa, via a globe-encircling network of deep-sea telegraph cables constituting the British Empire’s “All-Red Line.” The transmission, which amazingly took just a day, was made possible by the completion of Fleming’s brainchild, the 13,000-kilometre Pacific Cable originating at Bamfield, BC.

The following December 15, the first transatlantic message by wireless – technology dubbed “whisper in the air” by a Cape Breton newspaper – was sent from transmitting towers in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, to Poldhu, England. The Canadian government-funded achievement was the culmination of years of work by the “Wizard of Wireless,” Guglielmo Marconi.

French on the right column

LA RENOMMÉE mondiale du Canada en matière de technologies des communications découle d’une histoire jalonnée d’avancées impressionnantes. Cette année marque le centenaire de deux événements importants qui ont contribue à l’évolution des télécommunications outre-mer.

Le 31 octobre 1902, sir Sandford Fleming a envoyé le premier télégramme a faire le tour du monde. Expédié d’Ottawa, le message n’a mis qu’une journée pour arriver à destination après avoir emprunté un réseau de câbles télégraphiques sous-marins ceinturant la planète, appelé la « All-Red Line » de l’Empire britannique. C’est Fleming qui avait eu I’idée d’installer un câble transpacifique de 13 000 kilomètres de long, dont le point d’origine était situé à Bamfield, en Colombia-Britannique.

Le 15 décembre suivant, la première transmission sans fil – une technologie surnommée « chuchotements dans les airs » par un journal du Cap-Breton – a été envoyée à Poldhu, en Angleterre, à partir de pylônes d’émission situés à Glace Bay, en Nouvelle-Écosse. Financé par le gouvernement canadien, cet exploit constituait I’aboutissement des nombreuses années de travail de Guglielmo Marconi, le « magicien » de la transmission sans fil.

LOWE-MARTIN
DESIGN / CONCEPTION: SUSAN WARR
ILLUSTRATION : BONNIE ROSS
PHOTOS : BRITISH COLUMBIA ARCHIVES. C. BRADBURY / ARCHIVES DE LA COLOMBIE-BRITANNIQUE, C. BRADBURY, BEATON INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF CAPE BRETON / INSTITUT BEATON, COLLEGE UNIVERSITAIRE DU CAP-BRETON