Poldhuis a small area in southCornwall,England,UK,situated on theLizard Peninsula;it comprises Poldhu Point and Poldhu Cove. Poldhu means "black pool" inCornish.Poldhu lies on the coast ofMount's Bayand is in the northern part of the parish ofMullion;thechurchtownis 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the south-east. On the north side of Poldhu Cove is the parish ofGunwalloeand the village ofPorthlevenis a further 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) to the north.[1]
Poldhu
| |
|---|---|
  Poldhu Location withinCornwall | |
| OS grid reference | SW663197 |
| Civil parish | |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HELSTON |
| Postcode district | TR12 |
| Dialling code | 01326 |
| Police | Devon and Cornwall |
| Fire | Cornwall |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
Poldhu Point became the site of one of the main technological advances of the early twentieth century when, on 12 December 1901, awireless signalwas sent by Thomas Barron in Poldhu toSt. John's,Newfoundland,and received byGuglielmo Marconi.The technology was a precursor toradio,television,satellitesand theinternet,with theearth stationatGoonhilly Downsa nearby example.[2]
The beach at Poldhu was heavilyminedduring World War II to prevent any prospect of a German force landing there. As an unfortunate result, on 24 April 1943,Royal Air Force Volunteer Reservemembers Mair Myfannwy Richards and Reginald Thomas Smith both died instantly when Mair trod on an unmarked mine.[3]
In January 2016, Poldhu Cove was inundated with thousands of pink plastic bottles, brought onto the beach with successive tides. TheNational Trust,which organised the clean-up, thought they had likely come from a container ship, and had been washed overboard in recent storms.[4]
Marconi's Poldhu Wireless Station
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The site is famous as the location of Poldhu Wireless Station,Guglielmo Marconi's transmitter for the first transatlanticradiomessage on 12 December 1901. Marconi received the transmission onSignal Hill,St. John's, Newfoundland.The station was built partly on cliff top pastures that had been enclosed in 1871 and partly on medieval fields belonging to a nearby settlement, Angrouse.[2]The fifty acre (200,000 m2) plot was bought in 1900 and building work ran from October 1900 to January 1901.[5]During the work twoBronze Agebarrowswere flattened and abronzedaggerandurnwere recovered.[2]
To design the spark transmitter, the first high power radio transmitter in the world, Marconi hired Prof.John Ambrose Fleming,University College, London.[6]The original twenty mast circular aerial was destroyed in a storm on 17 September 1901.[6][7][8]Marconi hastily built a temporary aerial of 50 wires suspended in a fan shape from a cable between two 200 foot (61 m) masts.[9]Fleming estimated the transmitter's radiated power was around 10–12 kW.[10]The frequency used is not known precisely, as Marconi did not measure wavelength or frequency, but it was between 166 and 984 kHz, probably around 500 kHz.[6]After the experiment the original mast layout was not rebuilt, it was replaced with a four mast design, 215 feet (66 m) high and forming a 200-foot (61 m) square.
Marconi later used the site for hisshortwaveexperiments, with transmissions byCharles Samuel Franklinto Marconi on the yacht"Elettra".in theCape Verde Islandsin 1923 and inBeirutin 1924. The groundbreaking results of these experiments took the world by surprise and quickly resulted in his development of theBeam Wireless Servicefor the British General Post Office. The service opened from the Bodmin Beam Station to Canada on 25 October 1926, from the"Tetney Beam Station".to Australia on 8 April 1927, from the"Bodmin Beam Station".to South Africa on 5 July 1927, to India on 6 September 1927 and shortly afterwards to Argentina, Brazil and the United States.
The station closed in 1934 and was demolished in 1937.[2]Six acres (24,000 m2) were given to theNational Trustin 1937 with the rest of the site added in 1960. The site has a stone monument pillar, erected in November 1937 by theMarconi Company,and a number of concrete foundations and earth structures also remain.[2]In 2001 theMarconi Centre,a new museum / meeting building, was opened close to the site by the efforts of the Poldhu Amateur Radio Club, the National Trust, andMarconi plc.
The substantial building near the site, originally the Poldhu Hotel, built in 1899, is currently acare home.The visitors' book shows that Marconi stayed there in May and August 1901.[2]
Marconi also built an earlier, smaller, experimental wireless station nearby at Housel Bay –The Lizard Wireless Station.
In popular culture
editSherlock HolmesandDr. Watsonare staying "together in a small cottage near Poldhu Bay" in "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot",a 1910 short story byArthur Conan Doyle.[11]
In the first episode of the 2018 female-led adaptationMiss Sherlock,"Poldhu" is the name of a brand of wirelessmedical telemetrydevices in the form of a capsule that is swallowed by the user, which the murderer exploits as triggers for liquid bombs that destroy the abdominal cavities of her victims.[citation needed]
References
edit- ^The Lizard Explorer Map 103.Southampton: Ordnance Survey. 2010.ISBN9-7803-19-241172.
- ^abcdefJohns, Charles; Herring, Peter (2006). Kirkham, Graham; Herring, Peter (eds.). "Poldhu Wireless Station".Cornish Archaeology: Hendhyscans Kernow.41–42 (2002–3). Cornwall Archaeological Society:185–6.ISSN0070-024X.
- ^"Defence of Britain Archive".
- ^"Thousands of pink bottles wash up on Cornwall's beaches".BBC News.5 January 2016.
- ^"Construction of Poldhu Station begins".Marconi Collection.Retrieved10 December2014.
- ^abc Sarkar, T. K.;Mailloux, Robert;Oliner, Arthur A.(2006).History of Wireless.John Wiley and Sons. pp.387–392.ISBN0471783013.
- ^"Aerial before storm, Poldhu".Marconi Collection.Retrieved10 December2014.
- ^"Poldhu after the storm".Marconi Collection.Retrieved10 December2014.
- ^"Marconi section".Broadcast Archive.Retrieved4 April2010.
- ^ Fleming, John Archibald (1906).The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy.London: Longmans Green and Co. pp.449–454.
- ^Doyle, Arthur Conan (1968).The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume II.London: John Murray. p. 508.
