Thursday, November 16, 2006

Cornwall and Communication

It's a sad reflection on me I guess, that it takes a television programme to remind me of the great connection this county has with the world of communications.

The beach at [Porthcurno], a little over half an hour from here, was the point at which all the country's telegraph cables came in. 14 cables from places like New Foundland, Gibraltar, India, enabled almost instantaneous communication across the empire where once it would have took as much as weeks or months. I guess it was much like going from sub-light to faster-than-light travel.

[I can't mention Porthcurno without a nod to the Minack, an open air amphitheatre built almost single handedly on the side of a hill by Rowena Cade].

Half an hour in the other direction along the coast, lies Poldhu. It was here that the world's first transatlantic wireless signal was sent, the Morse letter S, by Marconi.

Half an hour inland from here, lies Goonhilly; the site of the world's first earth satellite dish. From this site, a majority of the satellite transmissions from around the world come in and are distributed around the UK from here. The first transmission was as recent as 1962 and look where we're at today.

I am going to make a Christmas pilgrimage this year, and head to Goonhilly for some blogging on the fly. I might even try to head by Porthcurno, opening times permitted and I'll include some pictures then.

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Cornwall, United Kingdom
A married Cornishman who is getting an inkling of what he wants to be when he grows up. I currently work for the NHS. [See bottom of page for Blog Archive and Links.]