In 1906 the Amalgamated Radio Telegraph Company was founded as a merger between the UK De Forest Wireless Telegraph Syndicate and the fledgling operation run by Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen (1869-1942). Before too long they had successfully established an experimental wireless telegraphy link between Newcastle, England, and Denmark. Unfortunately, the Amalgamated Radio Telegraph Company went bankrupt in 1907 before any commercial operation could be set up.
The historic event had been made possible by Poulsen's invention of the arc transmitter in 1903. Pouslen was an electrical engineer and prolific inventor who, by 1898, had invented the first device to use magnetic sound recording—the "Telegraphone." Poulsen did not stop there. He became interested in the work of British inventor William Duddell who used a carbon arc lamp to make a resonant circuit that could "sing." Duddell's musical arc resonated at audible frequencies and he adapted this into a crude electronic musical instrument in 1899. The problem was that, when he tried to increase the operating frequency, its efficiency plummeted, and it seemed destined to remain as a gimmick.
Poulsen attacked the problem and, by making the arc happen in hydrogen gas, and using a water-cooled copper anode, he was able to make the arc "sing" at radio frequencies. Unlike all previous radio transmitters, Poulsen's arc transmitter generated continuous waves. Despite the failure of Poulsen's Amalgamated Radio Telegraph Company, his invention was taken up by the U.S. Navy for their communications. Poulsen's arc transmitter was the best portable radio system for a decade before the introduction of vacuum tube systems.
