A new exhibition at Oxford University is rewriting the history of radio by insisting that Guglielmo Marconi was not the first to make wireless transmissions.

The display will be on permanent display from today, at the University's Museum of Natural History in Parks Road.

It commemorates a public experiment in Oxford in which Morse code messages were transmitted and received by two academics, at least a year before Marconi's own wireless demonstrations.

The exhibition, in the buildings where the groundbreaking experiment took place in 1894, consists of original apparatus designed by the inventors Sir Oliver Lodge and Dr Alexander Muirhead.

Members of both families were at the museum yesterday to see the exhibit unveiled. Patrick Muirhead, 31, the great-great nephew of Alexander Muirhead, said: "My family has long believed that Uncle Alexander played a huge part in developing radio and now the academic world agrees.

"Two brilliant men whose work transformed society have finally achieved the recognition they deserve."

Museum administrator Wendy Shepherd added: "We think this will create a lot of interest. It's rewriting the history of science."

Sir Oliver Lodge was an eminent physicist, while Dr Muirhead was a respected electrical engineer whose cable telegraph systems linked the world's continents.

Combining their expertise, they produced the world's first wireless telegraph apparatus, which was demonstrated on August 14, 1894.

A transmitter was set up on the original Clarendon physics building and a receiver in the museum's lecture room - 100m away. A message was passed, although no-one knows what was said. A year later, Marconi stole a march on Lodge and Muirhead when he borrowed some of their ideas and patented his own device.

Story date: Monday 20 March

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