Artie Moore
Encyclopedia
Arthur Moore was a Welsh
wireless operator who heard a distress signal from before news of the disaster arrived in the UK.
In the early hours of 15 April 1912, in the loft of the 17th century Gelligroes Mill, near Blackwood, Monmouthshire, Moore using crude radio apparatus received a faint signal in Morse Code
:
"CQD CQD SOS de MGY Position 41.44N 50.24W. Require immediate assistance. Come at once. We have struck an iceberg. Sinking….We are putting the women off in the boats….."
Moore continued to copy out the Morse signals he was receiving: "We are putting the passengers off in small boats” “Women and children in boats, cannot last much longer….."
Then came the final signal: "Come as quickly as possible old man; our engine-room is filling up to the boilers."
Moore relayed the news to the locals and to the local constabulary, who did not believe him. Two days later, the locals received confirmation through the local and national press that it was true. The newspapers also confirmed – as Moore had claimed—that the new "SOS" distress signal had been used by the Titanics radio operators along with the usual "CQD" signal, thus proving that Moore had indeed received the signals from the doomed liner.
At the time—in 1912—it was understood that the range of Titanics wireless was 400 miles in daylight, and possibly up to 2000 miles in darkness. It now became clear that Moore had received radio waves from 3000 miles using nothing more than his own crude home-made equipment.
, the eldest son of local miller, William Moore. At a young age Moore was involved in an accident at the mill, which resulted in the loss of the lower part of one of his legs, and for the rest of his life, he wore a wooden leg.
By the age of ten, Moore had developed an interest in amateur engineering and he adapted a bicycle to cater for his wooden leg, and locals recall him rattling around the village on it. As he grew, he became what is known as a "character" in the locality.
At some point prior to 1909, most likely in his early teenage years, Moore, a keen amateur engineer, using a hand made lathe driven by the water-wheel at the mill, built a working model of a horizontal steam engine. He entered the model in a competition in The Model Engineer magazine. He received as his prize a book by Sir Oliver Lodge entitled Modern Views Of Magnetism And Electricity, which awakened his interest in wireless
.
near Blackwood
, he soon began erecting wire aerials and building his rudimentary radio station, consisting of a coherer-based receiver and a spark-gap transmitter. It was his engineering talent that enabled him to store electricity in his batteries via a generator coupled to the mill wheel itself. The same generator was also used to charge batteries for the local farms that were at that time not connected to the mains supply.
Moore was almost continually experimenting with wireless by this time, often defying his father and staying up into the early hours, sitting at his station listening to the signals emanating from ships, both naval and merchant, travelling the coastal waters around Wales
, the south-west of England, as well as stations on the Continent.
Sometimes, in an attempt to improve reception he would relocate his station and set it up at a farm high up on Mynyddislwyn
.
Using the contemporary although basic spark-gap transmitter technology of the time, Moore together with his friend Richard Jenkins, an electrical engineer at the local coal mine, made what was probably the first use in Wales of amateur wireless for business purposes. Having set up a second transmitting and receiving station at Ty Llwyd farm, owned by Jenkins's father which was located approximately three and a half miles south of Gelligroes at Ynysddu
in the direction of Newport
, Moore received an order over the air for grain to be delivered from the mill to the farm.
on Libya
in 1911.
In 1912, Moore was 26 years old and his wireless construction knowledge and skills had improved to such an extent that he was able to build more sensitive receiving equipment and he therefore began to receive transmissions on a regular basis, often relaying the information to the locals sometimes many days before it appeared in the national press.
But it was his reception of the s distress call which propelled Moore into a career that was to take him from that little mill in Wales and on to greater things within the realms of early wireless development.
In the summer of 1912, Moore's activities and the publicity surrounding him following the Titanic disaster soon led to him coming to the attention of the then Monmouthshire Education Committee, who offered him a scholarship to the British School of Telegraphy in Clapham
, London
, so he left to embark on his studies in the world of science and wireless communication.
It was at this time that Moore's activities, not least his reception of the Titanics distress calls, came to the attention of Guglielmo Marconi
, the "father of wireless" himself. One local resident wrote to Marconi
to inform him of Moore's achievement.
Marconi then came to Gelligroes to meet Moore and to discuss his work and his experiments, and he invited Moore to join the Marconi Company as a draughtsman.
By 1914, Moore was transferred to the Ship Equipment Department of the Marconi Company, and on the outbreak of the First World War he was engaged as a technician in "special Admiralty fittings" – working on the armed merchant ships which operated clandestinely on the open seas and were known as Q-ship
s.
He also supervised the installation of wireless equipment on the Dreadnought
-class battleship
s HMS Invincible
and HMS Inflexible
which steamed the 8,000 miles south to the Falkland Islands
in 1914, to face down a German naval threat to the south Atlantic islands.
Connected with the Admiralty through the Marconi Company, Moore later became assistant to Captain H.J. Round (who was himself Chief Assistant to Guglielmo Marconi
), and he worked with Captain Round on the further development of the thermionic radio valve without which advancements in radio could not have taken place.
in 1918, Moore was appointed to the Marconi Company's Liverpool establishment. There he took charge of the newly formed Ship Equipment Department, where the latest and most up-to-date transmitters were being fitted.
In 1922 he supervised and oversaw the fitting of the first trawler to be equipped with wireless telegraphy equipment.
A year later he was transferred from the Marconi Company to the Marconi International Marine Communication Company and their establishment at Avonmouth
, where he was appointed Manager.
"His Alvis car was fitted with an apparatus which would record on a dial the efficiency of petrol at varying speeds with various loads through all gears"
Again one can't help but wonder what Moore would have made of today's computer controlled vehicles with their digital petrol consumption indicators – no dials pointers or analogue scales.
Moore remained at Marconi's Avonmouth establishment until his retirement in 1947, but by 1948, with his health failing he moved to Jamaica
to recuperate. He was 62, and would never return to Wales
, his homeland.
After only six months in Jamaica he left for England
, and on Thursday 20 January 1949 he died in a Bristol
convalescent home.
In 1949 Monmouthshire Councillor Richard Vine's public appreciation of Moore concluded with the words: "Gelligroes has invariably been coupled with Islwyn
the poet
and philosopher, and now it also has associations with the world of science."
However, the inspiration he gave to budding wireless enthusiasts in his local area led to the creation in 1927 of the Blackwood Transmitters Club, which later became the Blackwood Amateur Radio Society, which still exists to this day.
Today, Moore's mill at Gelligroes stands silent and idle, and is now used as a store for materials for the candlemakers workshop nearby.
A group of local amateur radio enthusiasts are creating an "Artie Moore archive" and continue to search out information regarding this sadly unsung, but remarkable and extraordinary Welshman, in order to tell the full story of Moore, of his connection with the historic Titanic disaster and of his exploits in early wireless communication.
They have also periodically set up an amateur radio station at the Gelligroes Mill, transmitting with the callsign MW0MNX (Moore's own station's original callsign had been "MNX"), and Moore's mill has, for the first time in nearly one hundred years, once again reverberated to the magical sound of Morse Code.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
wireless operator who heard a distress signal from before news of the disaster arrived in the UK.
In the early hours of 15 April 1912, in the loft of the 17th century Gelligroes Mill, near Blackwood, Monmouthshire, Moore using crude radio apparatus received a faint signal in Morse Code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
:
"CQD CQD SOS de MGY Position 41.44N 50.24W. Require immediate assistance. Come at once. We have struck an iceberg. Sinking….We are putting the women off in the boats….."
Moore continued to copy out the Morse signals he was receiving: "We are putting the passengers off in small boats” “Women and children in boats, cannot last much longer….."
Then came the final signal: "Come as quickly as possible old man; our engine-room is filling up to the boilers."
Moore relayed the news to the locals and to the local constabulary, who did not believe him. Two days later, the locals received confirmation through the local and national press that it was true. The newspapers also confirmed – as Moore had claimed—that the new "SOS" distress signal had been used by the Titanics radio operators along with the usual "CQD" signal, thus proving that Moore had indeed received the signals from the doomed liner.
At the time—in 1912—it was understood that the range of Titanics wireless was 400 miles in daylight, and possibly up to 2000 miles in darkness. It now became clear that Moore had received radio waves from 3000 miles using nothing more than his own crude home-made equipment.
Early life
Moore was born in PontllanfraithPontllanfraith
Pontllanfraith is a large village located in the Sirhowy Valley in Caerphilly county borough, south Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is situated adjacent to the town of Blackwood, with the Sirhowy River passing through both locations...
, the eldest son of local miller, William Moore. At a young age Moore was involved in an accident at the mill, which resulted in the loss of the lower part of one of his legs, and for the rest of his life, he wore a wooden leg.
By the age of ten, Moore had developed an interest in amateur engineering and he adapted a bicycle to cater for his wooden leg, and locals recall him rattling around the village on it. As he grew, he became what is known as a "character" in the locality.
At some point prior to 1909, most likely in his early teenage years, Moore, a keen amateur engineer, using a hand made lathe driven by the water-wheel at the mill, built a working model of a horizontal steam engine. He entered the model in a competition in The Model Engineer magazine. He received as his prize a book by Sir Oliver Lodge entitled Modern Views Of Magnetism And Electricity, which awakened his interest in wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
.
Home-made wireless station
Working at Gelligroes Mill in PontllanfraithPontllanfraith
Pontllanfraith is a large village located in the Sirhowy Valley in Caerphilly county borough, south Wales, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is situated adjacent to the town of Blackwood, with the Sirhowy River passing through both locations...
near Blackwood
Blackwood
-Botany:* African Blackwood , decorative timber tree native to seasonally dry regions of Africa* Australian Blackwood, Acacia melanoxylon, native to eastern Australia...
, he soon began erecting wire aerials and building his rudimentary radio station, consisting of a coherer-based receiver and a spark-gap transmitter. It was his engineering talent that enabled him to store electricity in his batteries via a generator coupled to the mill wheel itself. The same generator was also used to charge batteries for the local farms that were at that time not connected to the mains supply.
Moore was almost continually experimenting with wireless by this time, often defying his father and staying up into the early hours, sitting at his station listening to the signals emanating from ships, both naval and merchant, travelling the coastal waters around Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, the south-west of England, as well as stations on the Continent.
Sometimes, in an attempt to improve reception he would relocate his station and set it up at a farm high up on Mynyddislwyn
Mynyddislwyn
Mynyddislwyn was a civil parish and urban district in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It was abolished in local government reorganisation in 1974.The ancient parish of Mynyddislwyn covered a large part of the lower Ebbw and Sirhowy Valleys...
.
Using the contemporary although basic spark-gap transmitter technology of the time, Moore together with his friend Richard Jenkins, an electrical engineer at the local coal mine, made what was probably the first use in Wales of amateur wireless for business purposes. Having set up a second transmitting and receiving station at Ty Llwyd farm, owned by Jenkins's father which was located approximately three and a half miles south of Gelligroes at Ynysddu
Ynysddu
Ynysddu is a small village in the Sirhowy valley of south-east Wales. It is part of the district of Caerphilly within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is next to Cwmfelinfach, 4.3 miles north of the town of Risca and 4 miles south of the market town of Blackwood, about 10 minutes by...
in the direction of Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
, Moore received an order over the air for grain to be delivered from the mill to the farm.
Front-page news in 1911
A further exciting development took place when Moore made the front page of the London newspaper The Daily Sketch after he intercepted the Italian government's declaration of warDeclaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
on Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
in 1911.
In 1912, Moore was 26 years old and his wireless construction knowledge and skills had improved to such an extent that he was able to build more sensitive receiving equipment and he therefore began to receive transmissions on a regular basis, often relaying the information to the locals sometimes many days before it appeared in the national press.
But it was his reception of the s distress call which propelled Moore into a career that was to take him from that little mill in Wales and on to greater things within the realms of early wireless development.
In the summer of 1912, Moore's activities and the publicity surrounding him following the Titanic disaster soon led to him coming to the attention of the then Monmouthshire Education Committee, who offered him a scholarship to the British School of Telegraphy in Clapham
Clapham
Clapham is a district in south London, England, within the London Borough of Lambeth.Clapham covers the postcodes of SW4 and parts of SW9, SW8 and SW12. Clapham Common is shared with the London Borough of Wandsworth, although Lambeth has responsibility for running the common as a whole. According...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, so he left to embark on his studies in the world of science and wireless communication.
Enter Marconi
After studying for just three months, Moore was advised by the Principal there to enter for a Government examination in Wireless Telegraphy and Morse Code, in which he was successful.It was at this time that Moore's activities, not least his reception of the Titanics distress calls, came to the attention of Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
, the "father of wireless" himself. One local resident wrote to Marconi
Marconi Company
The Marconi Company Ltd. was founded by Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 as The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company...
to inform him of Moore's achievement.
Marconi then came to Gelligroes to meet Moore and to discuss his work and his experiments, and he invited Moore to join the Marconi Company as a draughtsman.
By 1914, Moore was transferred to the Ship Equipment Department of the Marconi Company, and on the outbreak of the First World War he was engaged as a technician in "special Admiralty fittings" – working on the armed merchant ships which operated clandestinely on the open seas and were known as Q-ship
Q-ship
Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, Decoy Vessels, Special Service Ships, or Mystery Ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them...
s.
He also supervised the installation of wireless equipment on the Dreadnought
Dreadnought
The dreadnought was the predominant type of 20th-century battleship. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's had such an impact when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts...
-class battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
s HMS Invincible
HMS Invincible (1907)
HMS Invincible was a battlecruiser of the British Royal Navy, the lead ship of her class of three, and the first battlecruiser to be built by any country in the world. She participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight in a minor role as she was the oldest and slowest of the British battlecruisers...
and HMS Inflexible
HMS Inflexible (1907)
HMS Inflexible was an of the British Royal Navy. She was built before World War I and had an active career during the war. She tried to hunt down the German battlecruiser and the light cruiser in the Mediterranean Sea when war broke out and she and her sister ship sank the German armoured...
which steamed the 8,000 miles south to the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
in 1914, to face down a German naval threat to the south Atlantic islands.
Connected with the Admiralty through the Marconi Company, Moore later became assistant to Captain H.J. Round (who was himself Chief Assistant to Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
), and he worked with Captain Round on the further development of the thermionic radio valve without which advancements in radio could not have taken place.
Peacetime activities
Following the cessation of hostilities and the end of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1918, Moore was appointed to the Marconi Company's Liverpool establishment. There he took charge of the newly formed Ship Equipment Department, where the latest and most up-to-date transmitters were being fitted.
In 1922 he supervised and oversaw the fitting of the first trawler to be equipped with wireless telegraphy equipment.
A year later he was transferred from the Marconi Company to the Marconi International Marine Communication Company and their establishment at Avonmouth
Avonmouth
Avonmouth is a port and suburb of Bristol, England, located on the Severn Estuary, at the mouth of the River Avon.The council ward of Avonmouth also includes Shirehampton and the western end of Lawrence Weston.- Geography :...
, where he was appointed Manager.
Echometer
Not content simply to "manage", Moore's innovative and inventive spirit led him to patent a very early form of Sonar (called the "Echometer") in 1932, and, as is quoted in the following excerpt from his obituary written by Councillor Richard Vines, Headmaster of Pontllanfraith Technical School: "his inventive mind gave to science many devices by which he will be remembered as one who succeeded through industry.""His Alvis car was fitted with an apparatus which would record on a dial the efficiency of petrol at varying speeds with various loads through all gears"
Again one can't help but wonder what Moore would have made of today's computer controlled vehicles with their digital petrol consumption indicators – no dials pointers or analogue scales.
Moore remained at Marconi's Avonmouth establishment until his retirement in 1947, but by 1948, with his health failing he moved to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
to recuperate. He was 62, and would never return to Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, his homeland.
After only six months in Jamaica he left for England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and on Thursday 20 January 1949 he died in a Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
convalescent home.
In 1949 Monmouthshire Councillor Richard Vine's public appreciation of Moore concluded with the words: "Gelligroes has invariably been coupled with Islwyn
Islwyn
The Borough of Islwyn was one of five local government districts of Gwent from 1983 to 2011.The district was formed under the Local Government Act 1972 from part of the administrative county of Monmouthshire, namely the urban districts of Abercarn, Mynyddislwyn and Risca, and the Bedwellty urban...
the poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and philosopher, and now it also has associations with the world of science."
Modern times
But despite contributing greatly to the advancement of radio in those early days, Moore's pioneering efforts in wireless communications remain relatively little known, even within his own locality.However, the inspiration he gave to budding wireless enthusiasts in his local area led to the creation in 1927 of the Blackwood Transmitters Club, which later became the Blackwood Amateur Radio Society, which still exists to this day.
Today, Moore's mill at Gelligroes stands silent and idle, and is now used as a store for materials for the candlemakers workshop nearby.
A group of local amateur radio enthusiasts are creating an "Artie Moore archive" and continue to search out information regarding this sadly unsung, but remarkable and extraordinary Welshman, in order to tell the full story of Moore, of his connection with the historic Titanic disaster and of his exploits in early wireless communication.
They have also periodically set up an amateur radio station at the Gelligroes Mill, transmitting with the callsign MW0MNX (Moore's own station's original callsign had been "MNX"), and Moore's mill has, for the first time in nearly one hundred years, once again reverberated to the magical sound of Morse Code.