About the Project
Applications are invited for an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award with the University of Exeter and BT Archives to research and study the origins, development and impact of the Imperial Wireless Chain, the global network of shortwave radio stations that reputedly played a critical role in British colonial integrity from the 1920s to the 1940s.
This project focuses on one of the most extraordinary milestones in the history of global telecommunications and represents an exciting opportunity for students with backgrounds in the history of science, technology, and modern British and imperial history. First conceived by Guglielmo Marconi in 1906 to use long-wave transmitters, the Imperial Wireless Chain (IWC) was postponed following a political scandal and the outbreak of the First World War. In the early 1920s, and at some financial risk, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company developed its innovative ‘beam’ short-wave system and this was eventually adopted by the British government for the IWC. The first pair of ‘beam’ stations opened in Britain and Canada in 1927 and within a few years similar stations followed in Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa and South America. It soon became one of the most widely used forms of long distance communication in the British empire and posed such a threat to the ageing submarine cable business that had constituted the ‘nervous system’ of the British empire that the British government was eventually forced to amalgamate the newer and older forms of telegraphy into one of the largest telecommunication firms of the 1930s: Cable and Wireless. Despite its importance, the history of the Imperial Wireless Chain has not been the subjects of systematic scholarly study.
The overall aim of the project is to plug this significant gap in the secondary literature, but there is much scope within this project for the post holder to develop their own research questions. Among the areas that might be explored are: the role of the IWC in fostering or obstructing technical developments in wireless and radio, including those not associated with Marconi and his business; how IWC stations around the globe were constructed and operated; the role of the IWC in encouraging the emergence of local cultures of professional and amateur wireless activity; differences in perceptions of the IWC in different British colonies and dominions; the conflicts between and alignments of the diverse interests involved in the scheme, including the commercial, political, legal, scientific and technological; the successes and failures of the IWC as an instrument of British imperial and colonial integrity. All these questions will be underpinned by a critical knowledge of historical and sociological interpretations of technology and a critical perspective on the IWC that questions the extent to which the scheme as a whole, and Marconi’s specific proposals for it, were necessarily seen as improvements on existing systems of global communication.
The most important relevant collections of research materials are at BT Archives (London), Porthcurno Telegraph Museum (Cornwall), the Bodleian Library (Oxford), the British Library (London) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (London).
The project offers exciting opportunities for students considering careers in the archives and museums sectors. The successful applicant will be spending a considerable amount of time in BT Archives where they will be studying some of the collection’s underexplored and uncatalogued materials and gaining experience of professional archive management and public engagement activities associated with BT Archives and the Science Museum. They will also be expected to present aspects of their research in workshops, seminars and conferences organised by the University of Exeter, BT Archives and the Science Museum. Since much of the research for this project will take place in London it is not necessary for the post holder to live in or near Exeter.
The thesis supervisors are Dr Richard Noakes and Professor Richard Toye (University of Exeter) and Mr. David Hay (BT Archives, London). The successful applicant will also receive support from Ms. Bergit Arends and Dr. Alison Hess at the Science Museum.
Read more at http://www.exeter.ac.uk/postgraduate/money/fundingsearch/awarddetails/?id=2583
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