Wireless Could Have Saved Lives on the Titanic

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"Come at once. We have struck a berg." The Titanic's radio engineers sent this emergency message and many like it in Morse code wirelessly to anyone listening.

Two employees of Marconi, the company that made the system, operated the radio. It was the most powerful system of its kind, and the clear night helped the signal go far.

Many ships did receive the call. So did land-based stations in the United States and Greenland. Radio operators at the time were also skilled at transmitting messages quickly in code -- 80 to 100 words per minute. With such capabilities, what went wrong?

For starters, Titanic's communications system had its limits....

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