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Notre Dame was the location of the first radio transmission in North America.
In the fall of 1894 Notre Dame was fortunate to hire a new Professor of
Electrical Engineering named Jerome Green. Father Morrissey and Father Corby
were responsible for hiring Green after consulting with the City Electrician of
the city of Chicago. Green actually arrived on campus in 1895.
All of the devices Green used in his experiments and demonstrations were built
in the machine shops at Notre Dame, in large part by Notre Dame students.
Father Morrissey was the individual who authorized the purchase of a large
induction coil which became the centerpiece of much of the equipment designed
and built by Green.
Green first began sending messages from one end of a room to the other end of
the same room. A landline telegraph key was used to produce intelligent
messages. The early experiments, modeled after those done by Marconi, were
successful. Finally, a message was sent from the Science Hall to the Chemistry
Building; and then another from the Science Hall to the flag-pole.
The Chicago newspapers got wind of the experiments and Green asked the
reporters to be patient while he continued his experiments. One test was made
between the physics laboratory and the tower of Sacred Heart Church (now the
Basilica of the Sacred Heart). The antenna for the experiment can be seen
clearly in a picture from the Notre Dame Archives.
Visit the ND1U Jerome Green Memorial Radio Station website:
http://nd1u.nd.edu
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