Wireless Communication in the United States

The Early Development of American Radio Operating Companies
by Thorn L. Mayes

Thorn L. Mayes was an electrical engineer who grew up in the time he wrote about. He knew wireless and many of the people who developed it. The book is a factual account alternators, arcs and sparcs, and coherers, barretters and tikkers! It tells of great engineering achievements. It describes unscrupulous stock promotions that by chance yielded some technical break-throughs.

 This book covers the glory days of high powered wireless, three hundred thousand watt spark transmitters, one million watt arc transmitters, and the mighty Alexanderson alternators with antennas as long as nine miles; systems that gave dependable world wide radio communication over seventy years ago as well as the business history of early radio.

The appendix includes fresh opinions from excerpts of unpublished letters of pioneers, and early drawings of well designed, quenched gap spark transmitters which are far more than the blunderbuss static generators that they have been taken for.
 

The book is available from the museum for $49.95 plus $3.00 for shipping and handling.
Please send a check to:
The New England Wireless and Steam Museum, Inc.
697 Tillinghast Road
East Greenwich, RI 02818
 

The museum has several designs of t-shirts with images of steam engines in the collection, coffee mugs, engineer caps for sale.

The museum has a silent auction at the Tune-Up and Steam-Up events to raise funds.

We are compiling a list of duplicate items in our Engine and Wireless collection. A list of these items and an asking price will be posted soon.