The Marconi wireless tower stands as a reminder of the progression communication has made over the past 100 plus years. It was back when we relied upon the railroad to move our products transcontinentally, and as Roger Luther wrote of this marvelous event in his column on NYSLandmarks. com, “when Morse code was our text messages.” In 1913, Guglielmo Marconi invented the wireless telegraphy which had been used successfully to transmit a message from the sinking Titanic about its impending peril and need for assistance! This transmission created hope that this newly discovered technology could also be applied to communication between high speed trains with the same level of success. This idea brought Marconi to Binghamton, and founded the construction of a 97-foot tower east of the Lackawanna Station (still in existence), and one west of the Chenango Viaduct. Receiving equipment was placed in the second floor of the railroad station. A second wireless was constructed in Scranton, PA, 60 miles away and a third was installed on a Lackawanna Engine. The point was to have a train always in contact with the stations. The concept was exciting, but today we know from our own experiences with interrupted cellular technology, mountains are often a deterrent to good reception without the proper tower range. This proved to be a major complication for Marconi’s system. The trains moving at such rapid speeds were also unable to pick up the signals and the tower arrangements were inadequate. Therefore, technology moved on…soon massive towers were erected which brought the first telephone service online, soon rendering Marconi’s wireless second rate. While the November 2013 100th anniversary of the first communication between Marconi’s tower and a moving vehicle may seem uneventful to many, it WAS clearly significant in many other ways. One has but to think about the level of innovation and technological genius that was behind this idea for that time period, and how far that concept has come in 100 plus years! It is phenomenal! And to think it began here in Binghamton by an Italian inventor who became recognized throughout the world for his inventions and engineering success.2 This day and age we have a tendency to ignore technological changes like a rainy day in Binghamton, because they are so frequent...in1913 those experiences were worthy of a Nobel Prize! 1 https://www.nyslandmarks.com/textingthroughtheether 2 http://www.en.m.wikipedia.org/GuglielmoMarconi