Ascension Island - Marconi Transmitters

The Correspondent's Diary in the Economist magazine comes from Ascension Island. Day Two covers the BBC transmitter site which includes two old Marconi transmitters shipped to the island in the mid 1960's:

The article says:

"If H G Wells had been asked to picture the pumping heart of a global information infrastructure, these are the things he would have imagined. Each transmitter is the size of a three horse boxes parked side by side.

"The brushed-metal casings give off a palpable heat as the hundreds of kilowatts flow through. Their inspection windows reveal an orderly, spacious geometry of dials, gauges, relays and cables that looks like a cityscape from Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Glass conduits down which cooling water gushes are its thoroughfares, vast electronic valves its citadels. While most of the valves are ceramic, one is still glass; it glows like an open oven in a temple of Baal.

"The engineers look at them with pride and affection, as zookeepers might a dinosaur, aware that their day is mostly passed."

Read the full article - Day two: Powering soft power:
http://www.economist.com/node/17082686?
story_id=17082686#day_two:_powering_soft_power

Thanks to Mike Barraclough for spotting this item

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