The young inventor forged steadily ahead, studying and experimenting, devising improved apparatus, meeting the difficulties one by one as they arose.  In most of his early experiments he had used a modification of the little tin boxes which had been set up in his father’s garden as his original aerials.  Having discovered that the height of the aerials increased the range of the stations, he covered a large kite with tin-foil and, sending it up with a wire, used this as an aerial.  Balloons were similarly employed.  He soon recognized, however, that a practical commercial system, which should be capable of sending and receiving messages day and night, regardless of the weather, could not be operated with kites or balloons.  The height of masts was limited, so he sought to increase the range by increasing the electrical power of the current sending forth the sparks from the sending station.  Here he was on the right path, and another long step forward had been taken.

In the fall of 1897 he set up a mast on the Isle of Wight, one hundred and twenty feet high.  From the top of this was strung a single wire and a new series of experiments was begun.  Marconi had spent the summer in Italy demonstrating his apparatus, and had established communication between a station on the shore and a war-ship of the Italian Navy equipped with his apparatus.  He now secured a small steamer for his experiments from his station on the Isle of Wight and equipped it with a sixty-foot mast.  Communication was maintained with the boat day after day, regardless of weather conditions.  The distance at which communication could be maintained was steadily increased until communication was established with the mainland.

In July of 1898 the wireless demonstrated its utility as a conveyer of news.  An enterprising Dublin newspaper desired to cover the Kingstown regatta with the aid of the wireless.  In order to do this a land station was erected at Kingstown, and another on board a steamer which followed the yachts.  A telephone wire connected the Kingstown station with the newspaper office, and as the messages came by wireless from the ship they were telephoned to Dublin and published in successive editions of the evening papers.

This feat attracted so much attention that Queen Victoria sought the aid of the wireless for her own necessities.  Her son, the Prince of Wales, lay ill on his yacht, and the aged queen desired to keep in constant communication with him.  Marconi accordingly placed one station on the prince’s yacht and another at Osborne House, the queen’s residence.  Communication was readily maintained, and one hundred and fifty messages passed by wireless between the prince and the royal mother.

While the electric waves bearing the messages were found to pass through wood, stone, or earth, it was soon noticed in practical operation that when many buildings, or a hill, or any other solid object of size intervened between the stations the waves were greatly retarded and the messages seriously interfered with.  When the apparatus was placed on board steel vessels it was found that any part of the vessel coming between the stations checked the communication.  Marconi sought to avoid these difficulties by erecting high aerials at every point, so that the waves might pass through the clear air over solid obstructions.