Marconi’s next effort was to connect France with England.  He went to France to demonstrate his apparatus to the French Government and set up a station near Boulogne.  The aerial was raised to a height of one hundred and fifty feet.  Another station was erected near Folkestone on the English coast, across the Channel.  A group of French officials gathered in the little station near Folkestone for the test, which was made on the 27th of March, 1899.  Marconi sent the messages, which were received by the station on the French shore without difficulty.  Other messages were received from France, and wireless communication between the nations was an accomplished fact.

The use of the wireless for ships and lighthouses sprang into favor, and wireless stations were established all around the British coasts so that ships equipped with wireless might keep in communication with the land.  The British Admiralty quickly recognized the value of wireless telegraphy to war vessels.  While field telegraphs and telephones had served the armies, the navies were still dependent upon primitive signals, since a wire cannot be strung from ship to ship nor from ship to shore.  So the British battle-ships were equipped with wireless apparatus and a thorough test was made.  A sham battle was held in which all of the orders were sent by wireless, and communication was constantly maintained both between the flag-ships and the vessels of their fleets and between the flag-ships and the shore.  Marconi’s invention had again proved itself.

The wireless early demonstrated its great value as a means of saving life at sea.  Lightships off the English coast were equipped with the wireless and were thus enabled to warn ships of impending storms, and on several occasions the wireless was used to summon aid from the shore when ships were sinking because of accidents near the lightship.

Following the establishment of communication with France, Marconi increased the range of his apparatus until he was able to cover most of eastern Europe.  In one of his demonstrations he sent messages to Italy.  His ambition, however, was to send messages across the Atlantic, and he now attacked this stupendous task.  On the coast of Cornwall, England, he began the construction of a station which should have sufficient power to send a message to America.  Instead of using a single wire for his aerial, he erected many tall poles and strung a number of wires from pole to pole.  The comparatively feeble batteries which had furnished the currents used in the earlier efforts were replaced with great power-driven dynamos, and converters were used instead of the induction coil.  Thus was the great Poldhu station established.