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,
History of the Tesla coil frequency, which lighted a Geissler tube. This system, patented by Tesla on September 2, 1897, was the first use of the "four-circuit" concept later claimed by Guglielmo Marconi. However, Tesla was mainly interested in wireless power and never developed a practical radio "communication" system. He never believed that radio waves could be used for practical communication, instead clinging to an erroneous theory that radio communication was due to currents in the Earth. Practical radiotelegraphy communication systems were developed by Marconi beginning in 1895. By 1897 the advantages of narrow-bandwidth (lightly damped) systems noted by Crookes were recognized, and resonant circuits,