Historical interest
Bronze Age Cairns - OS Grid NR646207 & NR628208
Two Bronze Age cairns can be seen at Machrihanish one is to the east of the village at Cnocan Sithein. It is 78ft (24 m) in diameter and 11ft (3.5m) in height. It was explored in the 1820s and found only an incomplete adult skeleton in a stone cist. The other Bronze Age cairn is on the east side of Uisaed promontory there is a round cairn which is grass covered.
Fessenden Wireless Mast - OS Grid NR628209
A few crumbling fragments of concrete at Losset Low Park, Uisaed Point are all the evidence that remains of one of the earliest experiments in transatlantic wireless telegraphy.
The experiment was put together by Professor Reginald A. Fessenden of the National Signalling Company of Washington in the early 1900s, who foresaw the possibility of developing a smooth continuous flow of high frequency sound, at that time impossible with techniques then in use. Fessenden dreamed of superimposing the human voice on this continuous flow in much the same way as Bell had made ordinary electric currents carry it in the telephone circuit.
Two wireless stations were built at Brant Rock, Massachusetts, with 400-foot antenna towers and the latest equipment installed. As a result of their excellent performance, three more stations were built in New York, Philadelphia and Washington. These Fessenden installations were the first to send wireless dot and dash messages overland, establishing a record 6,000 miles.
To carry out transatlantic transmission experiments the Company built a station at Machrihanish, Scotland, installing equipment the duplicate of that at Brant Rock. On 1st January 1906, Brant Rock, Massachusetts made its first exchange of wireless messages with Machrihanish. In spite of all effort at Brant Rock it became evident that no signals were coming through from Machrihanish. It appears that the signal was due to freak weather conditions and that the signal being transmitted was too weak in normal conditions. On the 5th December 1906, disaster struck. A severe gale blew up causing the tower to give way. The tower snapped and crashed to the ground.
Among Fessenden’s inventions was the fathometer, a device used to measure the depth of water by means of reflected sound waves. The fathometer, later known as the echosounder, is today used by fishermen to detect shoals of fish beneath their vessels.
