Science at Britain's most southerly point
Lizard point
The most southerly tip of England is extraordinary for its geology, wildlife and the part it played in the history of wireless telegraphy.
Serpentine rocks
The Lizard is famous for it serpentine rock which polishes to give patterns of red and green with swirls of other colours. These rocks formed at a very great depths many millions of years ago. This is the nearest we get to seeing the rocks of the Earth's mantle.
Lizard lighthouse
The lighthouse, with its twin towers, stands on the most southerly point of the mainland of Britain. Resident lighthouse keepers left this site for the last time in April 1998. This was when the project to automate the light and the foghorn was complete. The old fog signal ran on compressed air. The new one operates with an electric signal.
Marconi at the Lizard
Marconi carried out some of his early work to develop wireless signalling in the huts between the lighthouse and the Lloyds signal station. Signalling to local ships began here in 1900.
An important event in wireless technology happened in January 1901 when the Lizard station received messages from a transmitter over 180 miles away on the Isle of Wight. This showed, for the first time, that signals could be transmitted and received 'over the horizon' despite the curvature of the Earth. Marconi realised that this meant that his dream of sending signals to America across the Atlantic could indeed be possible.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 02 July 2003
