Wireless virtually sold itself. The spectacular and astonishing feats of radio - from saving lives on sinking liners to tracking down criminals at sea - made the marketing of wireless functional - if you needed it, you bought it.
The way radio broadcasting was 'sold' was rather different. Nobody actually needed to listen to the radio - but people soon found they wanted to, as the quality of programmes improved. Once again, wireless sold itself - this time on the strength of its content.
On June 30, 1910, Scotland Yard detectives were told of the mysterious disappearance of Cora, the wife of 'Doctor' Hawley Harvey Crippen, a homeopathist of North London. Crippen's typist, Miss Ethel Le Neve, had since been seen wearing one of Cora's brooches. Crippen told police that Cora had run off with another man. But the next day he and Le Neve disappeared. Police searched his Camden Town house and found Cora's remains buried under the floor.
The runaway lovers had boarded the liner SS Montrose bound for New York. But the captain saw a newspaper report about them and became suspicious of the 'father and son' seen holding hands on deck. The captain used his Marconi telegraph on July 22 to alert the ship's owners, who sent his reports to the police - and to the press. The public avidly followed the chase via newspaper headlines as Chief Inspector Walter Drew crossed the Atlantic on a faster ship, the SS Laurentic, arresting Crippen off Montreal.
Crippen was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey and hanged at Pentonville prison on November 28, 1910.
