Reginald Fessenden, Pioneer Of Wireless Radio On The Outer Banks of North Carolina ~ by Thomas Yocum: Ecology and History of the NC Outer Banks and the Mainland

Nearly a hundred years ago, a group of workers struggled to raise a 50-foot pole above the hot sands of Hatteras Island. On top of the pole was electronic equipment pointed north toward Roanoke Island. At the pole's base was a small field laboratory barely large enough for equipment and a technician. It was a very unlikely place for an event that would change the world.

The remote little outpost was part of a project conducted by Reginald Fessenden, one of the pioneers of wireless radio. Fessenden was an inventor and entrepreneur whose contributions included the radio direction finder (a type of compass), the submarine fathometer (an echo depth finder), and a turboelectric drive for battleships.

He was a leader in the race to perfect wireless communication -- the forerunner of today's AM radio -- at the turn of the century. If perfected, his experiments for the Weather Bureau on the Outer Banks would yield an invaluable way to warn ships away from approaching weather. Military, maritime and merchant interests were poised to gain the advantage of trans-oceanic capabilities.

Three towers were erected -- in Buxton, Manteo, and Cape Henry, Virginia -- so work on a system to fine-tune radio signals could continue. Fessenden, under contract with the Weather Bureau, established his base in Manteo. He brought along his wife and son and spent more than a year and a half on the Outer Banks at the turn of the century.

His wife, Helen, remembered her time on the islands in a 1940 memoir: ''Regular transportation on the island in those days was by rail from Norfolk or Elizabeth City, by boat from there to the landing on the west side of Roanoke Island and a tedious drive from there along roads of deep shifting sands to Manteo, a town of two hotels and several stores.''

Fessenden, his family, and a small staff, settled into their new surroundings and started work. In a disciplined manner that had curried the favor of his former boss, Thomas Edison -- Edison called him ''Fezzy'' and made him his head chemist -- Fessenden set a grueling schedule.

''Directly after breakfast the men would start off in a rickety conveyance for the wireless station on the west side of the island,'' Helen remembered. ''They took sandwiches with them and brewed coffee at lunch time. Home again about six, and after supper, two or three hours of office work, correspondence, patent applications, official Weather Bureau returns and accounts.

''Sometimes in the afternoons after lessons and housework, Ken [their son] and I would walk the four miles to the station to drive home with the men. In spite of the ticks which brushed from the undergrowth onto our clothes and which had to be shaken off very carefully, these walks were beautiful; sandy, shifting soil and low underbrush, but overhead stately live oaks, long strewed pines, holly and mistletoe.

''Near the station a strip of marsh stretched between the beach and the interior and this had to be crossed. We negotiated it by taking off our shoes and stockings and wading happily through the amber water. When we learned that [water] moccasins were apt to lurk there, the edge was taken off our excitement.

''Mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggoes [sic] were the pests of the island and the smell of decaying fish used as fertilizer was another unpleasant feature. Mosquitoes were the worst since they could invade our territory whereas the other two were met only when we invaded theirs. Against mosquitoes the men wore voluminous veils of white mosquito netting tied around their hats and coming down well over the chest and tied with another drawstring. When the pests were very bad, sheets of newspaper were wound cuff-like around ankles and wrists.''

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	Reginald Fessenden, Pioneer Of Wireless Radio by Thomas Yocum CAROVA BEACH COROLLA DUCK KITTY HAWK KILL DEVIL HILLS NAGS HEAD ROANOKE ISLAND MANTEO OREGON INLET HATTERAS OCRACOKE Nearly a hundred years ago, a group of workers struggled to raise a 50-foot pole above the hot sands of Hatteras Island. On top of the pole was electronic equipment pointed north toward Roanoke Island. At the pole's base was a small field laboratory barely large enough for equipment and a technician. It was a very unlikely place for an event that would change the world. The remote little outpost was part of a project conducted by Reginald Fessenden, one of the pioneers of wireless radio. Fessenden was an inventor and entrepreneur whose contributions included the radio direction finder (a type of compass), the submarine fathometer (an echo depth finder), and a turboelectric drive for battleships. He was a leader in the race to perfect wireless communication -- the forerunner of today's AM radio -- at the turn of the century. If perfected, his experiments for the Weather Bureau on the Outer Banks would yield an invaluable way to warn ships away from approaching weather. Military, maritime and merchant interests were poised to gain the advantage of trans-oceanic capabilities. Three towers were erected -- in Buxton, Manteo, and Cape Henry, Virginia -- so work on a system to fine-tune radio signals could continue. Fessenden, under contract with the Weather Bureau, established his base in Manteo. He brought along his wife and son and spent more than a year and a half on the Outer Banks at the turn of the century. His wife, Helen, remembered her time on the islands in a 1940 memoir: ''Regular transportation on the island in those days was by rail from Norfolk or Elizabeth City, by boat from there to the landing on the west side of Roanoke Island and a tedious drive from there along roads of deep shifting sands to Manteo, a town of two hotels and several stores.'' Fessenden, his family, and a small staff, settled into their new surroundings and started work. In a disciplined manner that had curried the favor of his former boss, Thomas Edison -- Edison called him ''Fezzy'' and made him his head chemist -- Fessenden set a grueling schedule. ''Directly after breakfast the men would start off in a rickety conveyance for the wireless station on the west side of the island,'' Helen remembered. ''They took sandwiches with them and brewed coffee at lunch time. Home again about six, and after supper, two or three hours of office work, correspondence, patent applications, official Weather Bureau returns and accounts. ''Sometimes in the afternoons after lessons and housework, Ken [their son] and I would walk the four miles to the station to drive home with the men. In spite of the ticks which brushed from the undergrowth onto our clothes and which had to be shaken off very carefully, these walks were beautiful; sandy, shifting soil and low underbrush, but overhead stately live oaks, long strewed pines, holly and mistletoe. ''Near the station a strip of marsh stretched between the beach and the interior and this had to be crossed. We negotiated it by taking off our shoes and stockings and wading happily through the amber water. When we learned that [water] moccasins were apt to lurk there, the edge was taken off our excitement. ''Mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggoes [sic] were the pests of the island and the smell of decaying fish used as fertilizer was another unpleasant feature. Mosquitoes were the worst since they could invade our territory whereas the other two were met only when we invaded theirs. Against mosquitoes the men wore voluminous veils of white mosquito netting tied around their hats and coming down well over the chest and tied with another drawstring. When the pests were very bad, sheets of newspaper were wound cuff-like around ankles and wrists.'' Next > > More Coastal Articles by Yocum More articles, ghost stories, and tales in CoastalGuide's HELMSMAN CAROVA BEACH COROLLA DUCK KITTY HAWK KILL DEVIL HILLS NAGS HEAD ROANOKE ISLAND MANTEO OREGON INLET HATTERAS OCRACOKE
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