WHERE DID IT ALL START?
A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF RADIO
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Page 7
of 7 -
Australian Radio Pioneer - Sir Ernest T. Fisk |
1886
E.T.
FISK Australian Radio Pioneer. Ernest Fisk was born at
Sunbury-on-Thames, England, on 8th August 1886. At age 16 he attended
the Marconi Company's wireless training school at Liverpool, England.
Both there and at the Marconi Works and Laboratories at Chelmsford he
gained his early training
In 1904 the Marconi Company erected a wireless station at Queenscliff, on the Victorian southern coast, along with a complimentary station at Devonport on Tasmania's northern coast. The purpose of these two stations was to demonstrate to the Australian government and it's people the practicability of wireless communication across Bass Strait between Australia's two land masses. However it was not until 1910 that this new science of wireless, as a communication medium, began to be taken seriously by Australia. In that same year Ernest Fisk arrived in Australia as an employee of the Marconi Company.
Marconi was at this time in negotiations with
the Orient Steam Navigation Company with the ultimate aim of fitting all
their
During this early period in Australia, one of Ernest Fisk's roles for Marconi had been to equip various Australian shipping companies with Marconi wireless equipment and also, where possible, act as ship's wireless operator. At this time Australia had no established wireless coastal stations for communicating with ships at sea. In order to meet this need Fisk arranged a roster system, having ships in port communicate with other incoming and outgoing wireless equipped ships at sea. Under the roster, in-port ship's wireless operators were encouraged to keep wireless watch, communicate messages to other ships both at sea and in port, and deliver any messages to the Post Office for further transmission and delivery if necessary. These in-port ships thereby acted as temporary coast stations. It was a mammoth task, however the difficulties faced by Fisk in achieving these goals merely served to whet his appetite for the future work which lay ahead of him in guiding Australia into the wireless age. Fisk's original Marconi appointment in Australia was for a six month period only, however he so enjoyed the challenges presented by his job that he requested Marconi Company to allow him to stay on permanently.
In 1913, as a result of Australian Government
pressure, the Australian Wireless Company, which
represented Telefunken interests, was merged with the Australian branch of the Marconi Company to
become
The photo at left shows AWA's York Street, Sydney, headquarters.
In 1916 E. T. Fisk took a visit to England on
behalf of Amalgamated Wireless Australia in order to discuss with his colleagues at
the Marconi Company a matter that was of great interest to both parties. The Australian
coastal stations had been picking up signals from Germany's major wireless
transmitter at Nauen. There had been no previous experience of wireless
reception over such a great distance. Fisk believed that direct wireless
communication between Britain and Australia was possible. He arranged for
test transmissions to begin soon after his visit, using the Marconi high power
longwave station at Carnarvon, Wales. These efforts were rewarded when, on 22nd
September 1918, he received the first wireless message from Carnarvon at his
own experimental amateur station in his home at Wahroonga, NSW, a photo of
which is shown below. This success led him to advocate a direct wireless
service between Britain and Australia, the Marconi Company also backing him in
this proposal. Marconi claimed that they could carry all classes of messages
at a price 33.3% below normal cable costs. The Australian Government liked
the proposal, however the Post Offices of both England and Australia
unfortunately opposed it. This initial opposition ultimately led to the
formulation of a scheme called
In 1923 an Australian Parliamentary Select Committee was convened, resulting in the adoption of an agreement proposed by Fisk, which would see the implementation of a direct shortwave wireless service from Australia to England. Rates for this service would be 33.3% below existing cable charges. The agreement also saw AWA's capital increased to one million pounds and the Australian Government become it's major shareholder. Simultaneously the Australian Government took over AWA's coastal wireless stations, which, up until then, had been running at a considerable loss. This agreement was signed and adopted in March, 1922.
Later that year E. T. Fisk visited South Africa and persuaded the Prime Minister of that country to also adopt a direct shortwave Beam Wireless service to England. Fisk traveled on from there to Great Britain, successfully advocating a change in the British Government's policy which subsequently permitted Australian and British wireless companies to establish direct shortwave beam wireless services to England.
In 1924 Ernest Fisk conducted wireless
experiments from Vaucluse, NSW, in conjunction with Marconi's Poldhu,
Cornwall, shortwave transmitter. These experiments demonstrated the
feasibility of direct shortwave wireless communication between Great Britain
and Australia using relatively low power shortwave equipment. Wireless t
The photo at left shows E. T. Fisk with the then Australian Prime Minister, W. A. (Billy) Hughes.
Fisk continued to organize experiments in long distance voice (telephonic) wireless transmissions, including the first inter-Empire broadcast from Sydney to London in September 1927. In April 1930 Ernest Fisk instigated the Australian end of the first inter-Empire direct wireless telephone service. He also pioneered the first world-wide shortwave broadcasting service from Australia, the for runner for what is now Radio Australia.
Questioned in 1927 as to what he felt lay ahead
for the science of wireless,
During the 1920's and 1930's Fisk continued building up AWA's engineering, manufacturing plant and organization in Australia. This included construction of a modern factory in Sydney, set in large gardens and ultimately employing more than 1,500 people to produce all types of wireless and allied equipment. Manufactured by AWA were receiving and transmitting valves, broadcast receivers, high and low power mediumwave and shortwave broadcast transmitters, military transmitters and receivers as well as audio and test equipment. Through Fisk's leadership, AWA beamed the first black and white wireless picture from England to Australia in 1934 and the first colour picture in 1946. Shown above is a Fisk Radiola broadcast receiver, manufactured by AWA in the early 1930's.
An
In 1944 Sir Ernest Fisk resigned his position as Chairman of AWA, leaving AWA's management reins in the capable hands of his long-time deputy, Lionel Hooke. He had accepted the position of Managing Director of Britain's Electrical and Musical Industries (EMI) and, as a result, re-located back to England. Upon his retirement from EMI, at age 65, Sir Ernest Fisk returned to Australia to live, where he remained until his death at age 78, in 1965.
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
Other
Web Articles by the same author EARLY
YAESU MUSEN EQUIPMENT IN AUSTRALIA |
History Of Radio HOME PAGE |
Links to other pages in this article | |
Page 1 | In The Beginning - Static Electricity - 600 BC |
Page 2 | The Leyden Jar to Magnetism |
Page 3 | Samuel Morse To Heinrich Hertz |
Page 4 | Edourad Branly To Lee De Forest |
Page 5 | SS Republic to ARRL - PDF Article "Greatest Of All Amateurs - Marconi" by Hiram P Maxim - ARRL from Sept. 1922 QST article |
Page 6 | Alexanderson, RCA and Paul Godley - PDF Article "Story Of Godley's Achievements" from Feb 1922 1922 QST article |
Page 7 | Australian Radio Pioneer - Ernest Fisk |
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