Flip to Interior of the Murgas Wireless Telegraph Sending and Receiving Station, Wilkes-Barre, PA, circa 1905.Close Window
Credit: WVIA-TV Public Television and Radio
In November, 1904, Philadelphia investors in Murgas's new patent formed the Universal Aether Telegraph Company, then financed the construction of two 150-foot high antenna towers of pine and iron on Bowman Hill behind the Sacred Heart Slovak Church in Wilkes-Barre, and similar towers nineteen miles away in Scranton, PA. During a long-range test between the two sites in 1905, Murgas was able to transmit telegraph signals at a rate of fifty words per minute.
