Seventy Years Before The Masts

A Backroom Activity Within BBC ResearchA fascinating and personal account of the role of the backroom engineers at the BBC within the context of scientific discoveries and the development of the whole concept of public communications, and in one of the most amazing and significant developments of the 20th century.Seventy Years Before the Masts: A Backroom Activity Within BBC Research by Ron SandellEarly in the 20th century a worldwide revolution began. The ability to communicate over great distances using a wireless system meant that within a few years one man or woman could speak to millions. Broadcasting was to open ears, eyes and minds, but it had a slow start. It emerged from the work of many scientists and engineers, some of whom had devoted their lives to transforming ideas into reality.Marconi had arrived in Britain in 1896 to stimulate the growth of wireless systems, but it was not until 1922 that arrangements for a national broadcasting service were agreed. The British Broadcasting Company was formed, and within two years twenty transmitting stations were providing a service to 70% of the population. The company, soon to become a corporation, was employing just over a hundred engineers, of whom fewer than half a dozen or so were concerned with planning the coverage - the areas served by the transmitters.Eventually, a section within the BBC research department was set up for that purpose. At any one time it contained between four and fifty staff, the total being dependent upon the workload. Over a period of seventy years, about a hundred people were to spend some part of their BBC careers within this team.Ron Sandell joined them in 1954, and he found the work so compulsive and varied that he remained for the next thirty-seven years.The text of this book is based upon Ron's personal archives, diaries, etc, garnered by two previous leaders of the section, Robert Arthur Rowden and himself. Occasionally, the story dips into the scientific and engineering aspects, because some explanation is needed to follow the plot. Mostly, it is a fascinating account of scientific discoveries, the development of the whole concept of public communications and the role of the backroom engineers in one of the most amazing and significant developments of the 20th century.