History of radio upon the idea of grounding his transmitter and receiver. With these improvements the system was capable of transmitting signals up to and over hills. Marconi's experimental apparatus proved to be the first engineering-complete, commercially successful radio transmission system. Marconi's apparatus is also credited with saving the 700 people who survived the tragic "Titanic" disaster. In 1896, Marconi was awarded British patent 12039, "Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for", the first patent ever issued for a Hertzian wave (radio wave) base wireless telegraphic system. In 1897, he established a radio station on the Isle of Wight,
Marconi–RCA Wireless Receiving Station somewhat sheltered location. So it was that his Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America built his new receiver station in Chatham and its companion transmitter site forty miles to the west in Marion, Massachusetts through a contract with J.G. White Engineering Corp. In 1920, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America sold the Chatham and Marion stations to the Radio Corporation of America. RCA removed all remaining Marconi equipment at the Chatham receiver station and converted it to a marine radio station for communications with ships at sea. In 1921 it was licensed under the callsign WCC for communications on