GB90MZX Dame Nellie Melba Anniversary

June sees the 90th anniversary of the historic broadcast by world renowned opera singer Dame Nellie Melba from the Chelmsford New Street factory and GB90MZX will be on the air on June 12 and 15

The Marconi New Street factory was built in 1912 and used to manufacture high power transmitters. The company had been allocated the call-sign MZX for test transmissions that comprised of someone reading on air anything which came to hand. This included articles from newspapers and the railway timetable from Chelmsford to London and back.

There were many hundreds of people who had purchased wireless sets left over from WWI and amateurs who had constructed crystal sets. Besides being very much “in the vogue to own a wireless receiver”, they were also very vocal in their letter writing to newspapers, which included the Daily Mail, to say they wished to hear something more stimulating from “MZX in New Street, Chelmsford” than railway timetables.

Marconi always had the ability to employ very talented personnel at all levels. Some of his Staff agreed with the correspondence received at New Street and quietly discussed doing something to “liven it up a bit”. A number of the Engineers associated with the transmitters took it in turns to sing and recite items more interesting than Railway Timetables during dinner times and early evening – latent theatrical ambitions, maybe.

This fuelled the letter writing even more but the license conditions imposed a maximum of half an hour per day to “testing on-air” – a severe limitation to the amateur broadcasters.

On the 15 th January 1920, Mr W T Ditcham and Captain H J Round transmitted a programme of speech and gramophone music using a 6KWatt transmitter on a wavelength of 2,750 Metres. Again more letters were received which showed they could be heard up to 1,500 miles away. The next transmitter to test was 15KWatts on the 23 rd February and the recitals continued until 6 th March on the same transmitter and wavelength.

Dame Nellie Melba was approached as the leading opera singer of her time and agreed for a large sum of money, paid by the Daily Mail. A figure of £1,000 has been quoted – a lot of money in those days bearing in mind you could purchase a London detached house for £500.

Dame Nellie Melba at the Marconi New Street factory

On the 15 th June 1920, she travelled by rail to Chelmsford First Class and met with a White Rolls Royce (her request) and driven a long way round to the New Street factory.
A meal was provided, again at her request which included “partially cooked chicken”.

Unfortunately the transmitter was not tuning up as required so it was suggested that the Dame should take a short walk around the site. Pointing up to the wires suspended from the top of the two 450ft masts it was explained to her that from the top of the mast her voice would be heard throughout the world. History records she said “Young man, if you think I am going to climb up there you are very much mistaken. I am Dame Melba”.

She sang for some 15 minutes or so and the transmitter had to be adjusted again so a break was suggested after which she did another series of songs. The effect was electric, reports were sent in from miles around – the furthest is thought to have been Iran (Persia).

As this event was advertised in advance it is duly referred to as the “First live public entertainment broadcast in the world by a celebrity”.

Broadcasting had started in earnest. For the next 2 or so months other distinguished singers were invited to broadcast from the same temporary studio.

The Postmaster General thought this entertainment was very trivial and when interference to a Post Office service at Croydon Airfield was reported, Marconi had its MZX Licence withdrawn and was never used again. What happened for the next 14 months before Writtle (2MT) opened up is open to conjecture – transmitters must have still required to be tested – maybe using Morse only with another call-sign.

The Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS) will be commemorating this event to remind the public just how broadcasting started in Chelmsford 90 years ago by using the Special Event Call-sign “GB90MZX”.

CARS will be transmitting from the Education Room in the new £5 million Oaklands Museum on Saturday, 12 th June from 10am to 5pm. They will be supported by the Marconi Veterans Association and Chelmsford Borough Council. Members of the public are invited to make and receive greetings messages from other radio amateurs around the world. There will be hosts in attendance to assist the public and to answer their questions and provide information.

On Tuesday, 15 th June from 10am to 5pm they will be operating in central Chelmsford, just a short distance from where the original transmission took place 90 years ago.

Written by John Bowen with acknowledgement to
Peter Turrall, MBE.
Tim Wander, G6GUX.
Oxford University – Marconi Collection.
Dr G Bowles, Keeper of Sandford Mill Science & Industry Museum.
Geoff Watts, G0EVW, Dorset.

2MT and New Street Page
http://www.g0mwt.org.uk/new-street/index.htm

Marconi Calling
http://www.marconicalling.com/

Tim Wander, G6GUX has just written a new book about this time called “2MT; The Birth of British Broadcasting”
http://www.2mtwrittle.com

Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS)
http://www.g0mwt.org.uk/