Late in 1901 Marconi crossed to America to superintend the preparations there, and that he himself might be ready to receive the first message, should it prove possible to span the ocean.  Signal Hill, near St. John’s, Newfoundland was selected as the place for the American station.  The expense of building a great aerial for the test was too great, and so dependence was had upon kites to send the wires aloft.  For many days Marconi’s assistants struggled with the great kites in an effort to get them aloft.  At last they flew, carrying the wire to a great height.  The wire was carried into a small Government building near by in which Marconi stationed himself.  At his ear was a telephone receiver, this having been substituted for the relay and the Morse instrument because of its far greater sensitiveness.

Marconi had instructed his operator at Poldhu to send simply the letter “s” at an hour corresponding to 12.30 A.M. in Newfoundland.  Great was the excitement and suspense in Cornwall when the hour for the test arrived.  Forgetting that they were sleepy, the staff crowded about the sending key, and the little building at the foot of the ring of great masts supporting the aerial shook with the crash of the blinding sparks as the three, dots which form the letter “s” were sent forth.  Even greater was the tension on the Newfoundland coast, where Marconi sat eagerly waiting for the signal.  Finally it came, three faint ticks in the telephone receiver.  The wireless had crossed the Atlantic.  Marconi had no sending apparatus, so that it was not until the cable had carried the news that those in England knew that the message had been received.

Because Marconi had never made a statement or a claim he had not been able to prove, he had attained a reputation for veracity which made his statement that he had received a signal across the Atlantic carry weight with the scientists.  Many, of course, were skeptical, and insisted that the simple signal had come by chance from some ship not far away.  But the inventor pushed quietly and steadily ahead, making arrangements to perfect the system and establish it so that it would be of commercial use.

Marconi returned to England, but two months later set out for America again on the liner Philadelphia with improved apparatus.  He kept in constant communication with his station at Poldhu until the ship was a hundred and fifty miles from shore.  Beyond that point he could not send messages, as the sending apparatus on the ship lacked sufficient power.  Messages were received, however, until the sending station was over two thousand miles away.  This seemed miraculous to those on shipboard, but Marconi accepted it as a matter of course.  He had equipped the Poldhu station to send twenty-one hundred miles, and he knew that it should accomplish the feat.

A large station was set up at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and regular communication was established between there and Poldhu.  With the establishment of regular transatlantic communication the utility of Marconi’s invention, even for work at great distances, was no longer open to question.  By quiet, unassuming, conscientious work he had put another great carrier of messages at the service of the world, and he now reaped the fame and fortune which he so richly deserved.