<P> Telegraphic communication using earth conductivity was eventually found to be limited to impractically short distances, as was communication conducted through water, or between trenches during World War I . </P> <P> Both electrostatic and electromagnetic induction were used to develop wireless telegraph systems that saw limited commercial application . In the United States, Thomas Edison, in the mid-1880s, patented an electromagnetic induction system he called "grasshopper telegraphy", which allowed telegraphic signals to jump the short distance between a running train and telegraph wires running parallel to the tracks . This system was successful technically but not economically, as there turned out to be little interest by train travelers in the use of an on - board telegraph service . During the Great Blizzard of 1888, this system was used to send and receive wireless messages from trains buried in snowdrifts . The disabled trains were able to maintain communications via their Edison induction wireless telegraph systems, perhaps the first successful use of wireless telegraphy to send distress calls . Edison would also help to patent a ship - to - shore communication system based on electrostatic induction . </P> <P> The most successful creator of an electromagnetic induction telegraph system was William Preece in the United Kingdom . Beginning with tests across the Bristol Channel in 1892, Preece was able to telegraph across gaps of about 5 kilometres (3.1 miles). However, his induction system required extensive lengths of antenna wires, many kilometers long, at both the sending and receiving ends . The length of those sending and receiving wires needed to be about the same length as the width of the water or land to be spanned . For example, for Preece's station to span the English Channel from Dover, England, to the coast of France would require sending and receiving wires of about 30 miles (48 kilometres) along the two coasts . These facts made the system impractical on ships, boats, and ordinary islands, which are much smaller than Great Britain or Greenland . In addition, the relatively short distances that a practical Preece system could span meant that it had few advantages over underwater telegraph cables . </P> <P> Over several years starting in 1894, the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi worked on adapting the newly discovered phenomenon of radio waves to communication, turning what was essentially a laboratory experiment up to that point into a useful communication system, building the first wireless telegraphy system using them . After Marconi sent wireless telegraphic signals across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901, the system began being used for regular communication including ship - to - shore and ship - to - ship comuntication </P>

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