R. A. Fessenden, Marker B-26
Posted by: 
drmellow
N 35° 55.682 W 075° 43.151
18S E 435122 N 3976205
Inventor, Pioneer in radio communication, conducted wireless experiments, 1901-02, from a station, 600 yds. S.W.
Waymark Code: WMXZC
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 11/07/2006
Views: 55
Text on marker:
R. A. Fessenden
Inventor, Pioneer in radio communication, conducted wireless experiments, 1901-02, from a station, 600 yds. S.W.
This historical marker is located at the US 64/264 rest area southeast of Manteo. It was erected in 1949.
Wikipedia has an article on R. A. Fessenden, from which the following information is excerpted:
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (October 6, 1866 – July 22, 1932) was a Canadian-born inventor, best known for his work in early radio. Three of his most notable achievements include: the first audio transmission by radio (1900), the first two-way transatlantic radio transmission (1906), and the first radio broadcast of entertainment and music (1906).
In the late 1890s, reports began to appear about the success Guglielmo Marconi was having in developing a practical radio transmitting and receiving system. Fessenden began limited radio experimentation, and soon came to the conclusion that he could develop a far more efficient system than the spark-gap transmitter and coherer-receiver combination which had been championed by Oliver Lodge and Marconi.
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The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources also has an essay on this marker, from which the following information is excerpted:
Scholarly studies by Hugh G. J. Aitken and Susan Douglas are useful in judging Reginald A. Fessenden’s place in the history of broadcasting and the significance on his experiments on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Both are based in part on the Fessenden papers donated to the North Carolina State Archives by his son in 1940. What is clear from the books is that no one individual was responsible for the invention of radio. Fessenden’s primary contribution was his scrapping of Marconi’s operating principles and his advocacy of the “continuous wave” theory of broadcasting. It was this theory that the former Edison assistant demonstrated successfully at Cobb Island, Maryland (first transmission of intelligible speech, 1900); on the Outer Banks (first transmission of varying musical notes, 1902); and at Brant Rock, Massachusetts (first actual broadcast of a radio program, 1906). The 1902 North Carolina transmissions were “very loud and plain, i.e., as loud as in an ordinary telephone.” Relayed from Buxton, the broadcasts were received forty-eight miles north on Roanoke Island.
R. A. Fessenden’s work on the Outer Banks was contemporaneous with the first flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. Although not nearly so well-known, his radio experiments have drawn attention from time to time. In 1940 his widow Helen published a biography defending her husband’s accomplishments against those she believed would rob him of the credit. A United States Navy destroyer in World War II was named in his honor. In the mid-1940s and again in the late 1970s there were attempts to create a “Fessenden Memorial Park” on Roanoke Island. The experiment station at Buxton no longer stands but the foundations for a tower used by Fessenden do remain. The station appears on period U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey maps and has been confirmed by David Stick and residents with knowledge of the area.
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