Il Piccolo
- The events of the transpolar flight
- A new invention by Marconi
- The reception in England
Il Piccolo's front page of 21 October 1926 led with General Umberto Nobile's lecture of more than two hours in Rome on the Norge transpolar flight. In it he recalled foreign skepticism, his fear of being remembered as a madman if the flight failed, and the trust of the King and Mussolini, who kissed him at Ciampino on the eve of departure. From London the paper reported Marconi's new directional wireless system, which promised 250 words a minute to Canada and lifted Marconi shares. It also covered the divided British press reaction to an international bankers' manifesto for free trade, which the Conservative Morning Post judged ill-timed because it came out on the day the Imperial Conference met.
Translation
The events of the transpolar flight
The events of the transpolar flight recounted by Nobile in the lecture held in Rome
ROME, 20 — This evening General Nobile gave the announced lecture on the polar flight at the Press Association, before an audience made up of the most eminent personalities of the capital. General Nobile, who was greeted on his entrance by an enthusiastic ovation, spoke for more than two hours. He began as follows:
Foreign skepticism about the undertaking
About a year ago, in the great hall of the University of Rome, when the preparation of the transpolar flight under my direction had only just begun, I concluded my lecture, in the august presence of the King, with these words: "We hope and trust in success, and we are working passionately on the preparations. Nothing is being neglected; everything that can be foreseen is being considered. Our workers, aware of the greatness of the undertaking…
The kiss and the command of the Duce
But far more fearsome than the ship was the danger of being handed down to posterity as madmen or imbeciles, should the hostile forces of the unknown and of nature, despite everything, have prevailed over our will and our lives. Against this danger, which scattered anguished doubts over the last days of preparation and over the whole journey from Rome to Spitsbergen, I was sustained by the awareness that I enjoyed the trust of the King and of the Duce. When an undertaking is born and accomplished under the auspices of the King of Italy, and when the Prime Minister of Italy stands guarantor for the person chosen to lead it, the undertaking must succeed at any cost. The impression of the words that the Duce spoke as he kissed me on the field at Ciampino on the eve of the departure, his face bandaged after the ignoble attempt on his life from which God… is still deep and alive in my soul today.
A new invention by Marconi
A new invention by Marconi
250 words a minute from England to Canada
LONDON, 20 — Guglielmo Marconi has announced a new invention in wireless telegraphy. From next Sunday England will be able to communicate with Canada by radiotelegraph at a speed of 250 words a minute. The news, communicated to the press today, has made a great impression. Shares of the Marconi Company rose from 14 to 16 shillings, and the Company's Canadian shares from 3 to 4 shillings. Senator Marconi spoke at length about his invention. The waves are carried in a narrow-angled beam toward the desired direction, and are no longer projected in every direction as happened until now. To achieve this, greater energy is developed at the receiving station, and the result is that very few rays escape, thus making it almost impossible for other stations to be able to understand for…
The reception in England
The reception in England
Liberal support and Conservative reservations
LONDON, 20 — The bankers' manifesto, published only this morning by the English press, is commented upon by the most authoritative newspapers. It is natural that such a document should receive the most enthusiastic welcome from the Liberal press and be received instead with reserve by the Conservative press. Among the latter we shall cite the Morning Post, to which the moment chosen for so sensational a demonstration seems most inopportune. The manifesto was made public on the very day the Imperial Conference was meeting. The newspaper sees a contrast between the aspirations of free trade understood in the broadest sense, as the manifesto desires, and the aims of the Imperial Conference. The latter in fact intends to deal…
Context
Who led the Norge flight Nobile was describing
The flight Nobile recounted in Rome was the Norge expedition of spring 1926, which the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology presents as a joint enterprise. Roald Amundsen took the initiative, the American Lincoln Ellsworth provided funding, and Nobile was the airship's designer and captain. Mussolini, together with King Victor Emanuel III, handed the airship over to its new owners at Ciampino Airport on 29 March 1926, and the expedition officially began when the airship left Rome on 10 April 1926. The farewell at Ciampino that Nobile describes as taking place on the eve of departure belongs to this period before the Rome departure. The airship went on to cross the Arctic and land near the village of Teller in Alaska on 14 May, after 72 hours in the air. The journey from Rome to Spitsbergen, which Nobile says was full of anguished doubts, was therefore only the approach to the much longer transpolar flight.
How the Fascist state claimed the Norge and fed the dispute over credit
In the passages printed here, Nobile credits his resolve to the trust of the King and the Duce. He presents the Prime Minister as guarantor of the man chosen to lead, and says the undertaking therefore had to succeed at any cost. This framing matched the regime's own purpose. According to the Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology, Mussolini saw the expedition as an opportunity to showcase the fascist state as a technologically leading aviation nation. Norwegians saw the matter differently. They mainly regarded the flight over the Arctic Ocean as a Norwegian achievement, and Amundsen himself saw it that way. Later accounts say the Fascist government made the quarrel between Nobile and Amundsen over credit worse by trumpeting the genius of Italian engineering and exploration. They also say Nobile was ordered to make a speaking tour of the United States, which further alienated Amundsen and the Norwegians. The Rome lecture of 20 October was the same kind of national celebration. It placed the King and the Duce at the centre and drew an ovation from the capital's elite, and the only patrons named in the selected passages are Italian ones.
What Marconi's beam system was and when the Canada service opened
The invention reported from London was the short-wave beam system that Marconi's company built for Britain's imperial wireless service. Bodmin Radio Station in Cornwall opened in October 1926 under a July 1924 agreement with Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Limited. It worked with a receiving station near Bridgwater, and the pair was linked with stations at Drummondville and Yamachiche in Canada. A 1927 newspaper account explains that Marconi's plan used reflectors at the transmitting station to concentrate the wireless energy into a narrow beam, whereas Il Piccolo speaks of greater energy developed at the receiving station. The same account reports that a high-speed wireless telegraph service between Great Britain and Canada through these stations would open on 25 October. That date was a Monday, one day after the 'next Sunday' named in Il Piccolo's dispatch of 20 October. The figure of 250 words a minute and the rise in Marconi share prices rest only on the paper's report. A description of the Central Telegraph Office's routine says the beam transmitting machines usually operated at 150 words per minute. The beam stations later changed hands: in September 1929 all Empire telegraph communications were taken over by Cable & Wireless Ltd.
Who signed the bankers' manifesto and where the free-trade argument went next
The manifesto the Morning Post found ill-timed was a round robin entitled 'A Plea for the Removal of Restrictions upon European Trade'. According to Time, more than 100 leading financiers signed it, calling on European nations to remove the tariffs that hindered international trade. The signatories included John Pierpont Morgan and Albert H. Wiggin of the Chase National Bank, Bank of England governor Montagu Norman, Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht and Bank of Italy chairman Nicola Pavoncelli. Among the Italians were Antonio S. Benni, president of the Fascist Confederation of Industries, and G. Agnelli of FIAT. The text argued that politicians must realize that trade is not war but a process of exchange, and that in peacetime neighbours are customers. Time judged that the manifesto seemed destined to produce no real effect, although it caused marked temporary fluctuations on the New York Stock Exchange and the Berlin Bourse. The claim that it appeared on the opening day of the Imperial Conference, and the Morning Post's objection that free trade conflicted with the conference's aims, rest on Il Piccolo's report. The League of Nations, too, was moving toward a broad economic conference. A world economic conference, first suggested in 1925 by Louis Loucheur and the first formally sponsored by the League, met in Geneva from 4 to 23 May 1927 with representatives of 46 member countries.
Original
Le vicende del volo transpolare
Le vicende del volo transpolare narrate da Nobile nella conferenza tenuta a Roma ROMA, 20 Questa sera il generale Nobile ha tenuto all'Associazione della stampa, dinanzi a ur uditorio formato dalle più eminenti personalità della capitale, l'annunciata conferenza sul volo polare. Il gen. Nobile, che è stato accolto al suo ingresso da una entusiastica ovazione, ha parlato per oltre due ore. Egli ha così esordito: Scetticismo straniero sull'impresa Circa un anno fa, nell'aula magna dell'Università degli studi di Roma, quando la preparazione del volo transpolare sotto la mia direzione era appena ai suoi inizi, io concludeva la conferenza alla presenza augusta del Re con queste parole: «Noi speriamo e confidiamo nel successo e lavoriamo appassionatamente ai preparativi. Nulla viene trascurato; tutto ciò che è prevedibile viene considerato. Le nostre maestranze, consapevoli della grandezza dell'impresa danIl bacio e il comandamento del Duce Ma più temibile assai della nave era il pericolo di essere tramandati ai posteri come pazzi od imbecilli, qualora, nonostante tutto, le forze avverse dell'ignoto e della natura avessero avuto ragione della nostra volontà e della nostra vita. Contro questo pericolo che disseminò di dubbi angosciosi i giorni ultimi della preparazione e tutto il cammino da Roma allo Spitzbergen, mi sorresse la consapevolezza di godere la fiducia del Re e del Duce. Quando un'impresa nasce e si compie sotto gli auspici del Re d'Italia e quando della persona prescelta a capitanarla si fa mallevadore il Primo Ministro d'Italia, l'impresa deve riuscire a qualunque costo. E ' ancora oggi profonda e viva nel mio animo l'impressione delle parole che il Duce, baciandomi, pronunciò sul campo di Ciampino la vigilia della partenza, col volto bendato per l'ignobile attentato da cui Iddio lo
Una nuova invenzione di Marconi
Una nuova invenzione di Marconi 250 parole al minu [?] o dall'Ingh [?] lterra al Canadà LONDRA, 20 Guglielmo Marconi ha dato notizia di una nuova invenzione nella telegrafia senza fili. Da domenica prossima l'Inghilterra sarà in grado di comunicare col Canadà radiotelegraficamente con una velocità di 250 parole al minuto. La notizia comunicata oggi alla stampa ha destato una grande impressione. Le azioni della Società Marconi sono salite da 14 a 16 scellini e le azioni canadesi della Società, da 3 a 4 scellini. Il sen. Marconi ha parlato ampiamente della sua invenzione. Le onde vengono portate formando un angolo di piccola apertura verso la direzione voluta e non già proiettate come adesso avveniva in ogni direzione. Per ottenere ciò si sviluppa una maggiore energia alla stazione ricevente e il risultato è che ben pochi raggi sfuggono, rendendo così quasi impossibile alle altre stazioni di poter comprendere per
L'accoglienza in Inghilterra
L'accoglienza in Inghilterra Adesioni liberali e riserve conservatrici LONDRA, 20 Il manifesto dei banchieri pubblicato appena stamani dalla stampa inglese è commentato dai più autorevoli giornali. E ' naturale che un simile documento abbia la più entusiastica accoglienza da parte della stampa liberale e sia accolto invece con riservatezza dalla stampa conservatrice. Tra questa citeremo la Morning Post, a cui pare quanto mai inopportuno il momento scelto per una così clamorosa manifestazione. Il manifesto è stato reso pubblico il giorno stesso in cui si radunava la Conferenza imperiale. Il giornale vede un contrasto tra le aspirazioni del libero scambio inteso nel più ampio senso come il manifesto desidera e gli scopi della conferenza imperiale. Questa infatti intende trattare
Source: Source: Internet Archive