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| Guglielmo Marconi (left) and Edwin Armstrong (right) with the old Babylon Station wireless transmission station (a/k/a the "Marconi Shack") at RCA, Rocky Point, circa 1930. |
Local History vs. Local Lore
Remember that childhood game of “telephone” … Information passed from one person to the next can be altered in a short amount of time. It happens in local history. Not just in the Town of Babylon and on Long Island … it happens everywhere.
Recently, a debate was started about a new historical marker in the Village of Babylon. For many years, at Fire Island Avenue and Virginia Road, there was a sign which read:
“This is the Site of The Birth of the American Wireless. A Pioneer Station Here In 1901 First Talked With Ships at Sea. – Guglielmo Marconi”
There were
a few factual issues with this old sign and the way it was perceived:
·
The
hyphenation and Mr. Marconi’s name at the bottom of the sign led some people to
believe that the statement was a quote from Mr. Marconi. It was not.
·
“Site
of the Birth of the American Wireless.” No, it was not. As detailed below,
there were at least three regional stations that preceded the one in Babylon:
o 1899/1900 – Sandy Hook, New Jersey
o 1900/1901 – Nantucket (or Siasconset),
Massachusetts
o 1902, July – Sagaponack (Bridgehampton),
New York
o 1902, September – Babylon, New York
·
The
phrase “Pioneer Station” was misleading. The word “pioneer” can mean a person
or group that are the first – or among the first – to do something. However,
many people took the word pioneer to mean The First. It was not the
first.
·
The Babylon
Station was established in 1902, not 1901.
It is
wonderful that the site has been commemorated in Babylon Village for decades.
But, the old sign was perpetuating a misconception, rather than local
history.
Marconi Brings Wireless to
North America
Here is a
quick look at when and where Guglielmo Marconi brought his wireless technology
to northeastern North America, at the beginning of the 20th century.
- 1899/1900 – Navesink Lighthouse (now Twin Lights State Historic Site), Sandy Hook, New Jersey. About 7 miles southwest from Breezy Point, Brooklyn, NY. Marconi gave demonstrations of wireless telegraph to the U.S. Navy, at the end of 1899. A wireless telegraph station was reportedly established in 1900.
 |
| New York Times, October 24, 1899 |
- 1901 – Nantucket or Siasconset, Massachusetts. Siasconset is a community at the east end of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. It appears that 1901 news reports gave the location as Nantucket and by 1902 the location was specified to Siasconset. This article describes the station receiving messages from ships at sea.
 |
| (excerpt) New York Times, August 18, 1901 |
- 1901, December 12 – Guglielmo Marconi made the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission – from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland, Canada. (Check out this article from the History Channel.)
 |
| (excerpt) Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1901 |
- 1902, July – Sagaponack, New York. This was the first wireless station erected on Long Island.
 |
| (excerpt) Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 29, 1902 |
Wireless Comes to Babylon
A few months after the completion of the Sagaponack Station, news spread of a second Long Island station, in Babylon.
 |
| South Side Signal, August 2, 1902 |
A contract was made between the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company and the Jacobs family, to lease their house and property on Fire Island Avenue for five-years. The house had been occupied by Capt. Andrew Jacobs, a boat captain on the Great South Bay, until his death in 1899.
 |
| The Jacobs House, as published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 31, 1902. |
The
transmission pole, originally planned at 75-feet, was increased to 160-feet and
then 220 feet. The house was an important feature of the site because it was
used as the residence for the Marconi Company workers and their students. The
Babylon Station sets itself apart from other stations by not only being an
early American station, it was the first school to train wireless operators. In
fact, the first transmissions sent from the Babylon Station were not from the
12’x12’ station house – that would be built later. The first transmissions were
sent and received from the second floor of the Jacobs house.
The New York Times reported news of the wireless school: “A NEW PROFESSION – A school of wireless telegraphy is to be opened in a few days at Babylon, L.I., and a course of instruction for applicants has been outlined. Thus a new profession is about to be opened up for aspiring young Americans. The station at Babylon is the first of a long series to be established on the Atlantic Coast … Although a number of applications for positions have already been received, there will be room for many, for the course of instruction is short … At Babylon students are to be required to board themselves [pay for meals] at their own expense, but there will be no charges outside of this, not even for room rent, which will be furnished free in a large, well-kept house on the premises of the wireless station.” New York Times, September 7, 1902.
The station building – known as “The Shack” or the “Marconi Shack” – was built a little while after the station was established.
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| This postcard image shows (1) the rear of the Jacobs house, (2) the transmission pole, and (3) the radio transmission building, the "Shack." |
Contrary to
popular belief, no evidence has been found that Mr. Marconi visited his
company’s station in Babylon. The station was owned and operated by the Marconi
Wireless Telegraphy Company, his namesake company, but Guglielmo Marconi was
traveling back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, showcasing and testing
wireless technology, during the 1902-1907 lease of the Babylon property. In
1905, he married his first wife, Beatrice O’Brien, so he was occupied with
other things, as his business and family expanded.
Guglielmo
Marconi did visit the Town of Babylon – at least twice. Starting around 1908,
the Sovereign Realty Company, led by Giovanni Campagnoli, started a predominantly
Italian-American residential neighborhood in the northern part of Copiague,
named Marconiville. Mr. Campagnoli and Mr. Marconi had attended school together
and Mr. Campagnoli named the community after his friend, the famed inventor.
Marconi visited Copiague in 1917 and 1927.
Often,
messages transmitted through the Babylon Station were published in regional
newspapers:
 |
| "The first news of the grounding of the big ocean liner Caronia off Sandy Hook was received at the Marconi station here [in Babylon]." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 17, 1905 |
At the end
of their lease in 1907, the Babylon Station closed. Advances in wireless
technology meant that stations could be placed further apart, and the station
in Babylon was no longer needed. The
Jacobs property was sold by the family, along with the 12’x12’ transmission
building.
Edwin Armstrong
Edwin
Armstrong was an electrical engineer who developed FM radio. He was also a fan
of Guglielmo Marconi.
However,
time has a way of distorting information, and when Mr. Armstrong visited
Babylon in the fall of 1930, he sought out the old Marconi transmission
building, under the erroneous presumption that the building was the FIRST
Marconi Station in the United States.
 |
| (excerpt) Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 16, 1930 |
It is
actually a heartwarming story. Mr. Armstrong came to Babylon in search of the
old transmission station which had been moved and used as a tool shed on
another property. He purchased the Marconi Shack as a gift to the Radio
Corporation of America (RCA) to display at their headquarters in Rocky Point.
Unfortunately,
his exuberance in “rescuing” the Shack from obscurity did not come with an accurate
history of the Babylon Station. In 1930, newspapers across the country
published the story of Armstrong’s gift of the old Marconi Shack to RCA, and the
mistaken story that the Babylon Station was “the first.”
It was a well-meaning mistake. If someone in 1930 – or even 1975 – came across these newspaper articles in which the respected inventor Edwin Armstrong described the Babylon Station as the first built in the United States, they are likely to believe it. However, when we are able to review newspapers published from 1899-1907, a more accurate history of the Babylon Station is revealed.
The Old Babylon Marconi
Wireless Station … Today
The Babylon
Station left in 1907, but two important structures related to that station still
remain. As described, the Shack was moved to Rocky Point in 1930. RCA’s Rocky
Point facility closed in 1978. Maintained by the Rocky Point Historical
Society, the Marconi Shack was moved to the Frank J. Carasiti Elementary School,
Rocky Point, in 1969.
 |
| The Marconi Shack pictured at the Rocky Point school, in 2008. At the far left is the late Dr. Fred Zito, of Babylon, a Marconi enthusiast. Dr. Zito built a model of the Marconi Shack, which has been given to the Village of Babylon Historical Society for display. |
The Jacobs
House remains, as well. It original sat at the southeast corner of Fire Island
Avenue and Virginia Road. In the 1920s, the house was move to the north side of
Virginia Road.
For anyone
who was confused by the new historical marker, I hope that this brief look at the
Babylon Station has been helpful.
The new marker was funded through a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation (see below).
William G. Pomeroy Foundation
The Pomeroy
Foundation’s motto is “For History. For Life.” The foundation has two missions:
(1) “helping people celebrate their community’s history” through historical
markers, and (2) “making a difference in the lives of those facing a blood
cancer diagnosis” though donor registry.
The
application process is rigorous. Not only are there deadlines for the grant
application, the applications must include primary and secondary source
documents and information to support the application and the wording on the
proposed historical marker.
For
example, if you apply for a marker stating that President Ulysses S. Grant
visited Babylon in 1875, then you need to provide a newspaper article,
photograph or other proof from 1875. It is not enough to have a newspaper
article from 1915 or book published in 1960 with that information. It needs to
be a reputable source from the date or time in question. It is not always an
easy process, but the W.G. Pomeroy Foundation approves an application, you can
be sure that the information has been verified.
Since 2014, Town of Babylon historical societies and historians have applied for and received 25 historical marker grants from the William G. PomeroyFoundation.